The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c14.41

c14.41

¹ During the operations preceding the battle the soldiers of the opposing armies used to swim out to the islands and engage in combat. The river, confined by high banks, rushed in a seething torrent over sunken rocks (Curtius, viii, 13). The army during its progress to the Hyphasis was exposed for seventy days to violent storms of rain (Diodorus, xviii, 94; Strabo, xv, 27 ὕεσθαι συνεχῶς). In July Elphinstone found the river at Jalālpur to be 1 mile, 1 furlong, and 35 perches wide, and from 9 to 14 feet deep (Thornton, *Gazetteer*, s.v. 'Jhelum'). The ferry at Jihlam is only one-third of the width of that at Jalālpur, and there are 'no islands' at the latter place (Abbott, *J.A.S.B.*, 1852, p. 219). Mr. Pearson says that there are still wooded islands above Dārāpur, midway between Jihlam and Jalālpur (*Ind. Ant.*, 1905, p. 260).