774 Some account of I skar do. [Sept. 



the natural verdure of these countries has all flown to Kashmir. 

 Ishardo, resembling Gibraltar more than any place I ever saw, some- 

 what higher, if I remember rightly, with one mural side and the others 

 nearly inaccessible, washed moreover on two sides by the Attok, could 

 not but tempt me to believe it to be the rock of Aornos, particu- 

 larly as the time mentioned for the march thence to Attok (fifteen 

 days) did not tend to weaken my opinion, to which the account of 

 Quintus Curtius is favorable. But Arrian, whom I have since 

 seen, says nothing of its being washed by the Indus, and I give up for 

 the present my idea of its identity. One kind of defence is a large 

 long log, or axle between two wheels, which is rolled down upon the 

 besiegers. 



In the Nddir-ndmeh you will find (I forget the story exactly), that 

 Na'dir's Lieutenant after taking Bajoun (BagiraJ pursued the people of 

 the country, who had all taken refuge in the mountains of Tera so high 

 that " the bird of opinion or idea cannot fly to the top :" he sat below 

 it for several days with 3,000 horse but could not take it. Its river 

 deep and rapid, as I understand, joins the Attok somewhere near Deeo- 

 bund. Tera, or Dyr, or Tyr is eleven days up this river. Thence to Attok 

 two days are quite sufficient. There is " Bissedrdbdd" on the rock and 

 water. Every thing seems to point to this as Aornos. The river by the in- 

 formation which Quintus Curtius received might easily be taken for 

 the real Indus and the only remaining hearsay evidence which I wish 

 for, is the fact of there being sufficient timber on its banks for Alex- 

 ander to construct a raft. Aornos seems to have been the name usually 

 given by the Greeks to any inaccessible rocks. It could hardly, from the 

 spelling, be a corruption from «*p<> Kepawos (?) though from the 

 sound it might well be so. But I shall see my friend Ahmed Sha'h 

 again in a few days I hope, and he will give me every assistance ; not 

 being in the worse spirits for an apprehended invasion on the part of 

 the Sikh Colonel here, and raja Gula'b Singh on the other side having 

 been just checked by the order of the maharaja at the instigation of 

 Captain Wade. He well deserved this interference. I hope also, and 

 in reason, to reach the leftmost source of the Indus. The game of 

 Choughan mentioned by Baber is still played everywhere in Tibet ; 

 jt is nothing but " hockey" on horseback and is excellent fun. The 

 Ydk is not found in the vale of Iskardo, a partridge as large as a hen- 

 turkey, the kubk derri of Persia, I believe, is found in the mountains 

 of Tibet. 



Lohdnis, fyc. mentioned by Baber. 



Those who wish to march through the Sulimdni mountains with the 

 Lohdnis should not be later than the 1 st of May at Derabuna near Vera 



