1854.] Gradus ad Aornon. 343 



attempted to retain possession of it by inserting garrisons or 

 colonies. He probably thought the valley too remote from support, 

 and too much shut in by the mountains. The principal clan at 

 present inhabiting the valley of Boonair are the Eesakhail. Eesa 

 and Asa are names so semblant in sound, that they would probably 

 be written alike by Greek historians. And when Alexander invaded 

 the dominions of Eesa Khaun, they would naturally suppose some 

 connection between him and Asa Khaun. There is however no 

 improbability in the supposition that the brother of Asa Khaun 

 may have fled to Boonair. The people of Sohaut are Tusufzyes as 

 well as the people of Boonair. 



Erom this fruitless pursuit Alexander returned to the Indus, the 

 army making for him the road in advance. This road was probably 

 the path leading amongst precipices above and along the torrent of 

 the Bnrrindoo, a river which after watering the valleys of Boonair 

 and Chumla, flows into the Indus above TJmb. The path even now 

 is very difficult. This would have brought him back to Umb. There 

 he learnt that the elephants had been left to pasture on the banks 

 of the river. Procuring elephant-hunters, he secured all but two, 

 which fell over cliffs. 



This incident is perplexing. It is difficult to understand how the 

 army should have so long occupied the right bank of the Indus, 

 without discovering the presence of the elephants, if those elephants 

 were in any of the islands between Khubl and Atuk, which about 

 fourteen years ago were covered with dense forest,* since utterly 

 destroyed. It seems to me therefore probable that the elephants 

 had been taken up to the Hussunzye valley above the river Bur- 

 rindoo and there secreted. Eor supposing them to have been taken 

 across the river Indusf to Umb. Alexander would scarcely have 

 sent a detachment across that river to capture them, as it would 



* This forest, so far as I can learn, was chiefly of seesoo, mulberry and acacia, 

 and therefore not food for elephants. 



f There is no natural pasture for elephants on the Indus, and although there 

 were formerly forests in all its 300 islands, it is not probable that they were either 

 of burgut or of peepul. Those carried away a few years ago were chiefly seesoo, 

 mulberry and acacia, elephants in the Punjuub are fed upon grain and straw, the 

 latter green, when procurable. 



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