The Holbrook news., 1912-03-08

~ A Indus on. the hapless town o1
 Dera Ghazi Khan, . place oi
 21, 900 inhabitants in the Western
 Punjaub. Pounded 400 years ago by
 great Baluch chief, Ghaxi Khan,
 it has seen dynasty after dynasty o4
 rulers pass away-Baluchis, Kalhoras,
 Duranis and Sikhs-until the district
 mainly in the possession of five
 Baluch tribes, settled down to peace
 under the British flag. Dera Ghazi Khan became the headquarters of the
 civil administration, and under the
 shadow of a strong cantonment the fiourishing trade mart for river-borne traffic prospered exceedingly, and in its buildings and places of religious worship showed the existence of con- siderable wealth.
 But, at last, the Indus, which knows no fixed bounds between the gorge at Kalabagh and the low rocks of Suk- kur in far-off Sind, and wanders about at it's own sweet will, made up it's mind that Ghazi Khan's capital had stood in it's memory too long. Slowly, but persistently, 1t approached. some
 times cutting to the north and some times to the south of the doomed town, but always eating its way near CT and nearer. At last, a violent scoop, bitten out of the valuable culti- vated lands above the cantonment. reused all to a sense of danger. The troops were removed, and the garri- sons in further Baluchistan were strengthened. Then several protec- tive works of different types were de- vised. and bit by bit a very large sum of money was spent. Some years passed, during which the Indus made various and gradually successful at tempts to counteract the power of man, for 1t was not to be denied the path that it had chosen.
 The last phase commenced in the summer of 1908, a year of very high flood. It's power, increased by the pace of the extra volume of waters, outfianked and cut through the stone embankment, which, constructed in 1899, was the sole surviving relic of all the protective works. Once this de- fense was gone. the river moved in- land with great rapidity. The whole embankment, a mile long, was swal- lowed up in 55 days, and the Indus, advancing still further after destroy ing the rich groves and garden lands on the outskirts of the town, fore shadowed it's real intentions by nib bling of one angle and sending flood round the low-lying. poorer quarters at an abnormally late period of the season. This much effected, it sank quickly down into its more sluggish winter channel, and did but little harm until the next flood season of 1909. The Indus, however, does not work it's wicked will by advancing in straight lines, but both in It's larger and in it's smaller movements it travels first by cutting 8 bay inwards, and then by looping off the projection that has been thrown out. Thus in 1909, hay ing brought it's channel directly against the iIl-fated town, 1t remained quiescent there, while de- voraciously all the gardens and hamlets to the south.
 When it had quite finished this in- ward journey below the town, in the | course of which 1t travelled full two miles at one place, 1t again turned its | attention to Dera Ghazi Khan. The houses it destroyed there were among the oldest and most costly, but the greatest width eroded was only 150 yards. Then September came, and with it the winter respite. The south snd, which had suffered the most in he previous year, hardly lost a house h 1910, but the destruction ranged rom a short piece there to a large area in the north The Indus. however, spent most of its time strengthening it's course high above the town, and .hus the catastrophe was not com ,leted that year. Nevertheless, the bit sroded was congested with humanity. as only very old Indian towns can