228 On the Sites of Nikaia and Boukephalon. [No. 3. 



after rain, where not ploughed ; but obstructing, where ploughed, the 

 motion of the chariots. There, in rear of Porus, are the quicksands 

 in the wide shallow bed of the Sookaytur, in which, according to 

 Curtius, the chariots were swamped : and here is a river of moderate 

 breadth, which Alexander's entire force might have crossed in the course 

 of eight hours : and, in the curvature of the river, there favourable to 

 Alexander but otherwise to Porus, we see how Alexander's fear of 

 finding the phalanx of elephants of Porus arrayed upon the hostile 

 bank to oppose his cavalry, was disappointed. 



But is it objected that the constant wear of a river's banks, must 

 in the course of 2200 years have obliterated all traces of its previous 

 configuration ? I answer, that I have well considered this question : 

 that I have carefully compared my own observation of alterations in 

 the banks with the yearly alterations described by the inhabitants of 

 that portion of the Hydaspes. 



But in order to do justice to this question it is necessary to go back 

 to remote ages, when the Hydaspes or the Kishengunga first escaped 

 from the mountain-walled basin which held its waters as a tranquil 

 lake.* 



Imagine, then, an immense inland sea occupying the entire valley 

 of Cashmere up to the roots of the mountains around. Imagine some 

 unusual planetary conjunction drawing together the clouds in one of 

 those deluges of rain, of which we have an instance in the Flood of 

 Moray. The waters of the sea of Cashmeref are elevated far above 

 their ancient level, until they actually begin to overflow in the lowest 

 of the passes — the Buramoola. The instant the smallest runnel has 

 found an escape, the sea puts forth its whole strength upon that 

 point. Every moment, every hour, the channel is enlarged, the torrent 

 is aggrandized. The mountain is cleft from shoulder to base as by 

 the axe of a Titan, and through the narrow sky-walled rift formed by 

 the meeting of precipitous mountains, there pours a deluge, compared 

 with which Niagara were an infant. This deluge holds on its course 

 till again impeded by a mountain barrier. Behind this, it rapidly 



* All mountain rivers that I have examined afford evidence of having been 

 originally lakes. The Indus which cleaves a snowy barrier, N. East of Chilas — 

 the Jelum — the Ravi — and, probably, the Sutlej. 



f This escape of the sea of Cashmere is recorded by tradition. 



