C22 The Battle Field of Alexander and Porus. [Dec. 



very large island. Around this, they could not have towed the boats 

 in time to escape opposition. 



The channel intervening between them and the shore is that marked 

 Alexander's channel. It is the only channel of the Jelum fordable dur- 

 ing the rains. The map will assure any one familiar with the phenomena 

 of rivers that its depth is lessening every year. And accordingly, it is now 

 only knee- deep during the monsoon. But as the Jelum is more effected 

 by the melted snow of the mountains than by the rain, it is at the mo- 

 ment of writing this* about a foot deeper than during the monsoon. 



Now it is a fact with which every military man should acquaint him- 

 self, that barring accidental holes, the outermost curvatures in the 

 sinuosities of a river are deepest, the innermost, the point of least depth. 

 And it follows, that between any two windings there exists a ridge or 

 shallow, diagonally connecting the two inner curves. It is therefore 

 probable that the ford was opposite Sirwali. 



But be this as it may, there can be no question, that this is the chan- 

 nel across which the Macedonian army wacled, breast-deep, on that 

 eventful morning. In the course then of 217 b years, the western chan- 

 nels of the Hydaspes have been enlarged just sufficiently to drain off 

 one half of the water flowing by the easternmost channel. This appears 

 to me an important fact, as offering a standard so much needed by 

 the Antiquary and Geologist for decyphering the handwriting of time. 



Allowing, then, that Alexander effected his landing somewhere near 

 Sirwali, the camp of Porus, which must have been opposite Jelum, was 

 distant from the landing-place about 1 9 miles ; a considerable detour 

 being necessary to avoid the quicksands of the Sookaytur. The bed 

 of the Sookaytur, a level plain of sand a mile in width, and dry except- 

 ing during the monsoon, interposed at the distance of 9 miles from the 

 camp of Porus, and at the same distance from the landing-place. But 

 this level plain, which might otherwise answer the description of the 

 battle-field, is a torrent after heavy rain, and is so full of quicksands as 

 to be unsuited to military operations. As therefore, Alexander could 

 scarcely have completed his landing before noon, and, as by that time 

 Porus must have been six hours advertized of the movement ; allowing 

 for the unreadiness to stir of an Indian army, it is probable that they 

 met in the latitude of the village Pubral ; a plain of firm sand stiffened 



* April 1818. 





