1852.] On the Sites of JMi/eaia and Boukephalon. 223 



swamped in quicksands. But, as already observed, the Kanda land 

 could not have been the battle field ; no charioteer would have ventured 

 upon it. And as for the high plain above the cliffs, the soil being 

 sand, bound together by grass, becomes the firmer for saturation ; so 

 that here again the features disagree. What, then is the evidence 

 that Alexander crossed the Hydaspes at the Russool ferry? Mr. 

 Williams's argument is that Strabo* has said : The Macedonians march- 

 ed to the Hydaspes from the Indus in a southern direction. But from 

 the Indus, there is no carnage road south, nor is Julalpoor south of 

 Atuk, though both Jelum and Julalpoor lie from thence very many 

 degrees south of east. 



Burnes says, " It has been conjectured that Julalpoor is the scene 

 of Alexander's battle with Porus, &c. There is much to favor the 

 opinion ; for, in the words of Curtius, we have islands in the stream, 

 projecting banks and waters dilated, yet the mention of sunken rocks 

 seems to point higher up the river, near the village Jelum. The high 

 roads from the Indus pass this river at two places, at Julalpoor and at 

 Jelum : but the latter is the great road from Tartary, and appears to 

 have been the one followed by Alexander. The rocky nature of its 

 banks and bed here assists us in identifying the localities of the route, 

 since the course of the river is not liable to fluctuation. At Jelum 

 the river is also divided into five or six channels, and fordable at all 

 times excepting in the monsoon. 



* Since writing the above I have received a copy of Strabo. His words are 

 *H fikv ovv (xexpt rod 'TSdawov 65bs rb irXeov ?jv iirl p.sff7iii&plav' rj 5"eV0eV8e irpbs '4(a 

 fiaWou fiexpi rov 'Tirdvios' diracra 8e ttjS virwpelas fiaKAov 7) rwv ireStW exo/^eV/7. 

 Strabo, lib. xv. p. 700, c. This has been somewhat inaccurately quoted by the 

 author of the best popular Life of Alexander, in the Family Library, who says, " We 

 are informed by Strabo that the Macedonians marched in a Southern direction 

 from the bridge across the Indus to the Hydaspes. As there can be no doubt that 

 the bridge was built in the vicinity of Attok, we may be almost certain that the 

 advance of the army was along the main rpad from Attok to Jellickpore [Julalpoor, 

 perhaps he means,] on the Hydaspes." Ch. xiii. par. 6. But Strabo, in this pas- 

 sage, says nothing of a bridge, and he qualifies the word fiea-^fx^piav by the com- 

 parative TrAeW. He adds, they passed rather over the roots of the mountains than 

 through the plains. This is precisely a description of the route from Attok to 

 Jelum. There is no carriage road from Attok, or the Indus near Attok, to the 

 South. Nor is Julalpoor South of Attok, but both Jelum and Julalpoor lie South 

 of East of Attok. 



