Kashmir Part 12

Of this amount, deducting the timber which was floated down the river, there was exported by road--

1,78,355 maunds = 6,370 tons 3,28,027 maunds = 11,715 tons

Cotton piece-goods are the chief imports into Kashmir. Twenty-five to thirty thousand maunds of piece-goods (895 to 1070 tons) are imported annually, to the value of fifteen to nineteen lakhs of rupees (100,000 to 126,000). Some are the coa.r.s.e, but rough and well-wearing products of the Punjab peasants, but most are the products of Manchester, and are worn by the Srinagar and other townspeople.

Salt is the next most important import, and now that the Government of India has decreased the duty on it, the quant.i.ty imported into Kashmir is likely to steadily increase. In the last three years the amounts imported have been 112,710, 119,803, and 201,451 maunds respectively (4025, 4280, 7194 tons), with a value of Rs. 2,81,680, Rs. 4,83,698, and Rs. 5,01,485, or 18,778, 32,246, and 33,432. It is sadly needed by the poorer cla.s.ses, both for themselves and for their animals, and as yet not half enough for their real requirements comes into the country. What is imported comes from the salt districts of the Punjab.

Tea is now being largely imported, which shows that the people are acquiring a larger purchasing power. One and a quarter million pounds of tea, with a value of seven and a half lakhs of rupees, or 50,000, are now imported annually.

Sugar is being imported in increasing quant.i.ties, the amounts for the last three years being 57,931, 62,907, and 75,817 maunds respectively, or 2070, 2246, 2709 tons, with a value of Rs. 4,58,183, Rs. 4,24,495, and Rs. 4,95,895, or 30,545, 28,305, 33,059. The Kashmiris are very fond of sugar, and as their condition improves the demand for sugar and the amount of imports is sure to increase.

Metals are another import of increasing value and importance. 20,000 maunds are annually imported, with a value of three lakhs of rupees, or 20,000. At present the Kashmiris use earthenware cooking pots, but when in time they take to metal the import of copper must increase.

Other imports of minor importance are wearing apparel, twist and yarns (of a value of nearly three lakhs, or 20,000), drugs and medicines (half a lakh of rupees), turmeric, gunny bags, leather, liquors, petroleum, provisions, seeds (half a lakh), manufactured silk, spices (three-quarters of a lakh), stationery, tobacco (three lakhs), and raw wool.

The total weight of imports during the last three years respectively has been--

3,35,889 maunds = 11,996 tons 3,99,892 maunds = 14,281 tons 4,53,202 maunds = 16,185 tons

and their value has been--

Rs. 53,88,315 = 359,221 Rs. 57,99,785 = 386,652 Rs. 66,08,422 = 440,561

CHAPTER XII

THE ELECTRICAL SCHEME

In such a country as Kashmir, with a great river flowing through it, and with numerous mountain torrents and subsidiary streams running into that river, there is obviously an immense amount of water-power at hand. The difficulty is to make it available for practical purposes. But this difficulty is now being overcome by converting the water-power into electric power, which can then be transmitted to considerable distances and applied in a variety of ways. The idea of thus converting this vast amount of water-power in Kashmir into electric power had of recent years, since the development of electrical appliances, naturally occurred to many; but it did not take definite shape till the Maharaja engaged the services of Major Alain de Lotbiniere, R.E., to carry out a scheme of harnessing the waters of the Jhelum River which that officer had formulated, and which has just been completed.

Major de Lotbiniere, a Canadian by birth, and endowed with a full measure of the energy, resource and hopefulness of his countrymen, had already executed a very successful scheme by which the water-power in the Cauvery Falls in Madras had been converted into electric energy, and transmitted to a distance of a hundred miles, to supply the Kolar gold-fields in Mysore with motive power, at a cost 50 per cent lower than that which they were paying for steam-power. He had also inspected many electrical projects on the Continent and in Canada and America. He therefore came to the work in Kashmir in September 1904 fully primed with the knowledge of all the latest developments of electrical science, and at once conceived the idea of harnessing, not any of the minor rivers of Kashmir, but the river Jhelum itself, and selected a spot a few miles above Rampur where he might entrap some of the water, lead it along the mountain-side at practically a uniform level, till he could drop it through pipes on to turbines--very much in the same manner as a mill-stream is led along and then dropped on to a water-wheel--and so by setting in motion various machines generate electrical energy.

The theory of the electric installation is then very simple. The valley falls rapidly. At the part selected it falls about 400 feet in 6 miles. Some of the water is taken out and kept at about the same level so that at the end of the 6 miles it has a fall of 401 feet.

Consequently when it is dropped those 400 feet it falls with immense force and velocity. By most ingenious machinery this force is turned into electrical energy, and then transmitted by wires to wherever wanted--it is hoped even to the plains of the Punjab, to Rawal Pindi at least.

Meanwhile the water, after fulfilling its mission, returns into the river, and might, if need be, be taken out again, led along the mountain-side, and a few miles lower down dropped once more on to another electrical installation, and generate still more electrical energy. The same lot of water might, in fact, go on performing the same duty time after time till the plains of India were reached. Then when it got on to the level, and there was no further fall, it would be impossible to utilise it for generating electrical energy. But it would promptly be seized for another equally important purpose. For it would be caught in the great new ca.n.a.l which is being constructed at the point where the Jhelum River emerges from its mountain barriers and enters the plain; and from that point it would be led over some hundreds of miles to irrigate rich, but as yet uncultivated lands, only needing the touch of life-giving water to burst forth into luxuriant vegetation and attract great populations to them.

The latent capacity for good of these waters of the Jhelum, now tossing heedlessly about as they rush along beside the road into Kashmir, is then for practical purposes almost unlimited. Even the present installation only takes out a small proportion, and that portion is utilised only once. In the driest season the Jhelum River runs with a volume of about 5000 cubic feet per second--what are known for short as "cusecs." But of this amount only 500 cusecs are taken, and these 500 cusecs are utilised only once, and not several times, as they might well be in their fall between the valley of Kashmir and the plains of India.

With these 500 cusecs electrical energy to the extent of 20,000 horse-power will be generated; but Major de Lotbiniere thinks that it would be possible to economically develop an aggregate of at least 250,000 horse-power of electrical energy from the Jhelum River. It is not possible to take out water and conduct it along the mountain-side at any point. It is indeed a matter of some difficulty to choose a site where safe headworks can be constructed to entrap the water of the river, where the water can be taken along the hill-side, and where a forebay or tank can be built from which to lead off the pipes to the generating station below. In many parts the river runs between precipitous banks so that it is impossible to get it out. In others, even when it had been got out, the hill-sides would be found so loose and unsafe it would be impracticable to take a water-course along them. Still, in spite of the many difficulties in the way of making practical use of the water-power in the Jhelum River, Major de Lotbiniere still thinks that, as above mentioned, electrical energy to the extent of a quarter of a million horse-power could be economically developed.

Water for the present project has been taken out a couple of miles above Rampur at a most charming spot, where the river comes foaming down over innumerable boulders, and the banks are overshadowed by the same graceful deodar trees which clothe the mountain-sides. Here very strong and solid masonry headworks and regulating sluices have been built under the lee of some friendly boulders; and elaborate precautions have been taken to protect these headworks from the impact of the thousands of logs which are annually floated down the river by the Forest Department to be caught and sold in the plains below.

From these headworks what is called a flume has been constructed in which the water will run along the mountain-side to the forebay or tank immediately above the generating station. This flume, answering to the channel which conducts the water to a flour-mill, is to the eye absolutely level, but it has in reality the very small drop of 105 feet in 1000 feet--just sufficient to make the water run easily along it. Its length is about 6 miles; and the main difficulty in the whole project was found in constructing it. A road or even a railway when it comes to an obstacle can very likely, by a change in the gradient, rise over it or under it. But this flume had to go straight at any obstacle in its way, for it obviously could not rise, and if it were lowered it could not rise again, and so much horse-power would have been lost at the far end. The flume, in fact, once it was started off had to take things as it found them and make the best of them. The first obstacle was a great spur of boulder conglomerate. This had to be cut down into to a depth of forty feet. An arched masonry pa.s.sage had then to be made, and the whole covered over again. Five torrents were negotiated by pa.s.sing them clean over the flume. Over six other torrents the flume--here made of wood--had to be carried on strong iron bridges. And six tunnels were made through projecting rocky spurs. Only one-third of the 6 miles' length of flume could be built of masonry, and the remainder had necessarily to be built of timber.

This portion had an internal section of 8-1/3 feet by 8 feet, and was constructed of tongued and grooved, machine-planed, deodar planking 2 inches thick, supported on cross frames 3 feet apart.

The chief danger to guard against in constructing this flume for carrying the water to the generating station was the risk of the hill-sides either bodily slipping downward, as they are very apt to do in heavy rain, or falling in heavy ma.s.ses on to the wooden flume and breaking through it, and thus completely breaking off the source of power, and bringing all machinery to a standstill. These risks cannot be entirely counteracted. In heavy rain a portion of the wooden flume may be carried away or broken. An alternative supply of water on occasions of exceptional rain has therefore been tapped close up to the generating station, where a strong dam has been thrown across the bed of a mountain torrent, and its waters impounded to lead through a tunnel in a rocky spur almost immediately on to the forebay. In ordinary weather there is little water in this torrent, but in heavy rain, when the flume is most likely to be damaged, it has ample water.

And although there is this alternative supply, great precautions have, nevertheless, been taken to ensure the flume against damage, and where slips are to be expected immensely solid timber shoots have been erected over it for rocks or snow and mud floods to shoot over.

On emerging from the flume the water enters the brick-lined tank or reservoir called the forebay, where it settles for a moment before descending the great iron pipe which conducts it on to the machinery in the power-house below. In this forebay there are, of course, sluice gates to regulate the flow, and shut it off altogether at one or all the pipes. And there is also a spill channel for the water to flow away to waste when it is not wanted.

Then four hundred feet below we come to the power-house, with all the most modern electrical plant transported from America, and much of it from the farthest western coast of America, across the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, right across India, and then for 150 miles by road over a range 6000 feet high. The water-power made available by the flume is capable of generating 20,000 horse-power; but as that amount of power is not at present required, electrical machinery to develop not more than 5000 h.-p. has as yet been put in, though s.p.a.ce and all arrangements have been provided in the power-house for machinery to develop 15,000 h.-p. more whenever that is required. The machinery is by the General Electric Co. of New York, and the generators supplied are of the three-phase 25-cycle type. The water-wheels upon which the water from the forebay, led down the pipes and contracted through a nozzle, impinges with such tremendous velocity that a hatchet could not cut the spout, are made of specially toughened steel, and are so cunningly designed that the utmost effect is obtained from the fall of the water, and that immediately the water has done its work it is allowed to pa.s.s away at once through a waste channel back again into the river without further impeding the machinery. These wheels were supplied by Abner Doble of San Francisco. They are sent revolving with immense rapidity--five hundred revolutions per minute, or eight every second--and they cause to revolve the electrical generators which are placed on the same axis, and thereby electric energy is generated. By a series of very ingenious machines this electric energy is regulated and conducted to the transmission wires which are at present carried through Baramula to Srinagar, and which will transmit the power at the extremely high voltage of 60,000 volts from the generating station to the spot where the power is required.

The carrying out of such an undertaking in a remote mountainous country, where no railway has yet penetrated and where no great industrial enterprises have yet been established, required no small amount of organising capacity, driving power, and foresight. In the spring the melting snow combined with rain, and in the summer the heavy rain brings down the mountain-sides, impedes construction progress, often filling up what has already been done, and sometimes, alas! burying workmen with it. In winter, snow and frost stopped all work. Labour difficulties were another source of trouble. Enough was not available on the spot, and many hundreds were engaged from distant Baltistan and Ladak, and even Afghanistan. Skilled labour had to be imported from the Punjab. With contractors other difficulties arose. They would not work without an advance of money, and when they got an advance many would decamp. Again cholera created still other difficulties, and drove labour away when it had with much persuasion been collected.

All these are no mean difficulties. They have, however, now been overcome, and this autumn the Maharaja, in the presence of many guests, opened the installation and transmitted the power to Baramula and Srinagar.

The 5000 horse-power at present available will be utilised for carrying out Mr. Field's and Major de Lotbiniere's great scheme for dredging the bed of the Jhelum River and neighbouring marshes, and thus preventing floods, and for reclaiming some 60,000 acres of cultivable land. It will also be used for heating the water basins in the silk factory and turning the reeling machinery, as well as for lighting Srinagar.

When the railway which has so long been contemplated is at last constructed, more electric power will be needed. And if the Durbar in any way encourage outside enterprise, there will be demand for electric power for oil-crus.h.i.+ng, for saw-mills, for wool factories, match factories, and many other purposes. In any European country or American State the whole amount of electric power would have been already sold. Similar rapidity of progress cannot be expected in Kashmir. But still we may hope that now every one can see that the electric power is there, and that it is an eminently useful product, the demand will gradually arise, and the financial success of the project be worthy of the skill and enterprise displayed by the engineers.

CHAPTER XIII

THE PEAKS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES

Not, indeed, from the valley itself, but from the mountains which bound it, can be seen the second highest mountain in the world, and a number of peaks of 25,000 feet and over. Kashmir is cradled amidst the very loftiest mountains, and only Nepal can claim still higher peaks.

By a fortunate coincidence the Government of India have this year published a remarkably interesting scientific treatise on the high peaks and princ.i.p.al mountain ranges of Asia, by Colonel Burrard, R.E., F.R.S., the officiating Surveyor-General of India, and H. H. Hayden, Superintendent in the Geological Survey of India. Both these officers have unique qualifications for the task. Colonel Burrard has for years made a special study of the Himalayas, and Mr. Hayden has for a great part of his service been engaged in investigating the geology of various districts of the Himalayas, and he accompanied me to Tibet.

The highest peak in the world is Mount Everest, which is taken to be 29,002 feet above sea-level, and is situated at the back of Nepal. The _second_ highest is the peak K2 situated on the boundary between the Kashmir State and Turkestan, and on the main watershed dividing the rivers of India from the rivers of Central Asia. It is 28,250 feet above the sea, and is visible from Haramokh on the northern range of Kashmir.

It may be wondered why so high a peak has no name. The reason is that, though high, it is not visible from any inhabited place. It is hidden away in a remote mountain region behind other peaks of almost as great magnitude, which being nearer overshadow it--as Mount Everest itself is overshadowed from Darjiling by the Kinchinjunga range. There is no village within six days' travel of K2 on either side, and, consequently, until it was fixed by observation of the Survey, it was unknown. Colonel Montgomerie, when making the survey of Kashmir, discovered K2. It was among a series of peaks on what is known as the Karakoram range, and each of these he designated by the capital letter K, after Karakoram, and by a number, K1, K2, K3, etc. So it came about that what proved to be the second highest mountain in the world became known, not by any name, but by merely a letter and a number.

In 1887, on my way from Peking to India, I pa.s.sed close under K2 on its northern side, and in a paper read before the Royal Geographical Society in the following year made some reference to it. At the conclusion of my lecture, the late General Walker and Sir Henry Rawlinson proposed the name of G.o.dwin Austin, after the survey officer who made the topographical survey of the southern portion of the Karakoram range. This name was adopted by the Geographical Society, and now appears on many maps. But it has never been accepted by the Government of India, and Colonel Burrard in his above-mentioned treatise now writes:--"Of all the designations suggested for the supreme peak of the Karakoram that of K2 has now the widest vogue, and it will be in the interests of uniformity if this symbol be adopted in future to the exclusion of all others. The permanent adoption of the symbol K2 will serve to record the interesting facts that a mountain exceeding 28,000 feet in height had not been deemed worthy of a name by the people living under its shades, and that its pre-eminent alt.i.tude was unsuspected until it was brought to light by trigonometrical observation."

With these observations I entirely agree.

K2 was, as I have said, discovered by Colonel Montgomerie in 1858. He took the first observation to it from Haramokh, the conspicuous peak on the north side of the valley of Kashmir, at a distance of 137 miles. I saw it first from the north from the Aghil range which I discovered in 1887, and I subsequently pa.s.sed close under it both then and in 1889, and never shall I forget the impression it left on me as I rounded a spur, and looking up a valley saw, quite unexpectedly, this real mountain monarch towering almost immediately above me, very abrupt and upstanding, and with immense ma.s.ses of ice acc.u.mulated at its base. I have also seen Mount Everest from the north, and it is remarkable that both these peaks, which are so inconspicuous from the southern side, should stand out so boldly from the north. K2 is not so ma.s.sive a mountain as Kinchinjunga and Nanga Parbat. It is rather the bold culminating peak of a range.

The height of K2 is put down as 28,250 feet above the sea. How can we be certain that this is right? The reply is that we cannot. The observations have been made from immense distances, and are consequently liable to certain errors which have been discussed by Colonel Burrard.

It was observed from the following stations:--

Station. Height above Sea. Distance.

Shangruti 17,531 789 Biachuthusa 16,746 990 Marshala 16,906 586 Kastor 15,983 660 Thurigo 17,246 618 Haramokh 16,001 1365 Kanuri-Nar 15,437 1143 Barwai 16,304 88 Thalanka 16,830 747

And apart from the errors due to distance there are others which must always be counted on. As he remarks, no telescope is absolutely perfect; no level is entirely trustworthy; no instrumental graduations are strictly exact; and no observer is infallible. Then, again, the peaks themselves do not always have clearly defined summits, though K2 happens in this respect to be a model for observation, and as it has been observed on several occasions from different stations, the errors in the mean value of height due to faults of observation are, probably, in Colonel Burrard's opinion, less than ten feet. Another source of error is the adoption of possibly erroneous alt.i.tudes for the stations of observation. The alt.i.tude of K2 was observed from Haramokh and other stations, but the alt.i.tude of Haramokh itself may be a few feet wrong, and the alt.i.tude of K2 on this account may be thirty feet in error. Another element of uncertainty in determining the height of a peak is caused by the variation in the amount of snow on its summit. There is clearly more snow on the summit of a peak in winter than in summer, and in a hot, dry summer there may be less than in a generally cloudy, snowy summer. A more complicated description of error is introduced by the deviation of gravity from the normal in great mountain ranges. The attraction of the great ma.s.s of the Himalaya mountains and of Tibet pulls all liquids towards itself as the moon attracts the ocean. The liquid in levels on the theodolites with which observations of the peaks are made is similarly affected: the plates to the theodolites in consequence cannot be exactly adjusted, and when apparently truly levelled are in reality tilted upwards towards the mountains. At Kurseong, near Darjiling, they would be as much as 51" out of true level and at Mussouri about 37".

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOUNT HARAMOKH, FROM THE ERIN NULLAH]