Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/173

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154 richi as I belieye, in metals. For I cannot readily believe, what is asserted by some writers, that their soil is impregnated with gold and silver. At a dis- tance of twenty miles from these lies C r o c a 1 a,* from which, at a distance of twelve miles, is Bibaga, which abounds with oysters and other shell-fish.f Next comes Toralliba,J nine miles distant from the last-named island, beside many others unworthy of note. Fbagm. LVI. B. Solin. 52. 6-17. Catalogus of Indicm Baces, The greatest rivers of India are the Ganges and Indus, and of these some assert that the Ganges rises from uncertain sources and inundates the country in the manner of the Nile, while others incline to think that it rises in the Scythian moun- tains . [The Hypanisis also there, a very noble river, which formed the limit of Alexander's march, as the altars erected on its hanks prove. §]

  • In the bay of Kar&cbi, identical with the Kolaka of

Ptolemy. The district in which Karfichi is sitnated is called Karkalla to this day. t This is called Bibakta by Arrian, InMlta, cap. zxi. t V. 1. Coralliba. § See Arrian's Atujh, Y. 29, where we read that Alexander having arranged his troops in separate divisions ordered them to bnild on the banks of the H3rpha8is twelve altars to be of equal height with the loftiest towers, while exceed- ing them in breadth. From Gurtins we learn that they were formed of sqnare blocks of stone. There has been much controversy regarding their site, but it mnst have been near the capital of Sopith^s, whose name ) identified witxi the Sanskrit AivapaU, * lord of Lassen has i Digitizeckby Google