COMPARING- GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCES. 
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the children of Israel were taken captive to Babylon the distance in¬ 
volved was approximately one unit. Also that the Anabasis of Xen¬ 
ophon's army from Ephesus, as the crow flies is about two units to 
Cunaxa, where the decisive battle was fought, actually it was con¬ 
siderably more, owiug to the sinuous character of the route. From 
Cunaxa the celebrated retreat of the ten thousand covered, as the 
crow flies, roughly, one unit to Trebizond, but in fact it was rather 
longer than the Anabasis, and was carried out in the middle of winter. 
Alexander the Great moved first of all from Greece across the 
Hellespont into Asia Minor, fought the battle of the Granicus, went 
down to the south of Asia Minor back to Gordium, where the Gordian 
knot was cut, then came round to Tyre, which he besieged, having 
won the battle of the Issus en route ; from Tyre he went into Egypt, 
where he founded the city of Alexandria, wandered about in Libya 
and returned to Tyre—the distance, as the crow flies, would be about 
three units. From Tyre he proceeded eastwards, won the battle of 
Arbela, and thence to Babylon; this distance was approximately 
another unit, that is to say, four units. He then moved down to 
Persepolis, about half a unit, say four and a half units ; from Per- 
sepolis he went via Ecbatana to the south of the Caspian, which you 
see is another unit, making five and a half units. From south of the 
Caspian he went on to Kandahar or probably Quetta, where a Greek 
statue was discovered in 1887 (I happened to be quartered there at 
the time), another unit, making six and a half units. From Kandahar 
he moved northward to about Tashkend, another unit, making seven 
and a half. From Tashkend, he invaded India, another unit, eight and 
a half. From the north of India from Attock, he moved by the Sutlej to 
Karachi, another unit, making nine and a half units. From Karachi 
he went back to Babylon, two units, giving a total of eleven and a 
half units, as the crow flies. At Babylon he died. The total time 
taken in these movements was about eleven years. 
Hannibal's principal campaign was from Saguntum to the Alps, as 
the crow flies about 500 miles. Having crossed the Alps he fought 
the battle of the Ticinus and of the Trebbia, in the north of Italy; then he 
moved southwards and fought the battle of Lake Thrasymenus. Then 
the battle of Cannae, and finally he went into the south of Italy to 
Capua, where he went into winter quarters, the total distance involved 
being about two units. This occupied about three years. He snent 
another ten years in Italy before he was recalled to Carthage. 
In comparing these exploits with modern times we find that 
Napoleon's Expedition to Russia in 1812, represented two units : one 
unit in friendly territory across Germany and one unit in Russia, thus 
half was through hostile territory. The difficulties of the winter were 
probably rather greater than those of Xenophon in the Retreat of the 
Ten Thousand, although very deep snow and frost-bites were experienced 
in both cases. 
To continue my distances in the east of Asia. From Hong Kong, 
which practically represents Canton, to the mouth of the Yang-tse-kiang, 
