1848.] Journal of a trip through Kulu and Ldhul, fyc. 203 



any one to pass without seeing them."* It will be sufficient to observe 

 that the Sikunder-ki-dhar is on the high road which leads to the poor 

 country of Ladak, and not any where near the high road which leads to 

 the rich provinces on the Ganges, whither Alexander was directing his 

 steps, when his soldiers refused to proceed farther : on which occasion 

 he erected twelve altars of stone on the eastern bank of the Hyphasis 

 or By as. It is besides particularly recorded that there was a desert to 

 the eastward of the Hyphasis on Alexander's proposed route. I pre- 

 sume that Mr. Vigne will scarcely be so bold as to identify this desert 

 with the luxuriantly rich valley of the Suket river, which lies to the 

 eastward of the Sikunder-ki-dhar. He appears to have been chiefly 

 attracted by the name and by " some ruins surrounded by a trench 

 cut in the solid rock." Moorcroft however, with his usual sound judg- 

 ment, came to a different and more probable conclusion regarding these 

 ruins ; of which he says : — " The whole was evidently the remains of a 

 fortified camp, but I found nothing to indicate a Grecian origin."f I 

 found that the Baori or walled spring of water just below the Pass was 

 also called Sikander-ki- baori, which as well as the ruins was attributed 

 by the people to a Sikander, but not to Sikander Zulkarnein, or Alex- 

 der the Great. If the name has reference to a king, which is perhaps 

 doubtful, I should incline to refer it to Sikander Lodi, the great image- 

 breaking king of Delhi, who delighted in destroying the temples and 

 gods of the infidels. Had he heard of the temples of Mundi, he could 

 only have marched there from Kangra, (which was the Mahomedan 

 head-quarters) over the Sikunder-ki-dhar, and in that case there is 

 nothing more likely than that he should have formed a camp on the 

 hill to command the high road, whilst engaged against the infidels in 

 the valley below. 



Saturday, \5th August, 1846. Crossed the Byas by skins at 5 p. m. 

 The river was running rapidly- — the right bank very much cut up, and 

 huge rocks still falling into the stream. We heard the plunges of many 

 of them while we were at Mundi ; halted for the night at the village of 

 Air. So great a rise in the Byas, has not, it is said, occurred for the 

 last hundred years. 



Sunday, 16th August. Started at half past 5 a. m. ; road for first mile 

 almost obliterated by the Byas ; marks of the high flood were clearly 

 * Vigne's Kashmir, i. 104. t Moorcroft's Travels, i, 69. 



2 D 



