1852.] On the Sites of Nikaia and Boukephalon. 225 



With regard to the resemblance which Burnes supposed between 

 the Hydaspes at Julalpoor and Curtius's description, it seems to have 

 arisen from Burnes trusting too much to memory. Curtius no where 

 says that the Hydaspes opposite Alexander's camp showed " project- 

 ing banks and waters dilated." On the contrary he says, " Nee 

 pro spatio aquarum late stagnantium impetum coercebat ; sed quasi 

 in arctum coeuntibus ripis, torrens, et elisus ferebatur." " Nor 

 did it curb its impetus on account of that spread of waters widely 

 overflowing, but as if compressed by the rushing together of the banks, 

 roaring and strangled it was hurried past." As to islands, Curtius 

 says not that there were islands, but that the stream was thick sown 

 with islands ; which is certainly not the case near Darapoor or Julalpoor. 



As for the site below Russool, called Gunja, it does not yield a brick 

 or a building stone or a Greek coin to research. A space about five 

 hundred yards in length by seventy wide is marked with fragments of 

 pottery, and therefore in all probability has been a village site. But 

 it is not in the slightest degree elevated above the soil, like all old sites 

 in India, and the potsherds do not penetrate below a depth of two 

 feet. A mud village may have been here, but could not have existed 

 above one or at most three generations, or the accumulation of soil 

 would be manifest. The Sikh trench of circumvallation made after 

 the battle of Chillianwala has ploughed this site up throughout its 

 length and exhibited its contents. The natives call it Gunja, or, the 

 market : they have no tradition regarding it. 



Why then, is this Nikaia? the city that was built to mark the 

 greatest and most memorable of Alexander's exploits. Was Alexander, 

 — the shrewdest king that ever played the paltry game of conquest, — 

 was he the man to found a city which was to bear the memory of his 

 greatest victory to remote ages, upon an obscure site, off the road of 

 commerce, and not even opposite to a ford or ferry ? in the certainty 

 that it could never be more than a village and that neither traveller 

 nor merchant would visit it? If the crossing was at Russool, then 

 Nikaia is Moongh, and Julalpoor is Boukephala. A few words there- 

 fore may be devoted to each. 



Moongh is a large village on the eastern bank of the Hydaspes, and 

 about two miles from the stream. It is sited upon a very high 

 mound, which appears to me partly natural, partly an accumulation of 



