Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/193

 The galleys are said to have been long and sharp, some of them having two banks of oars; others were "half-decked vessels;" while some of them had keels so deep, that they could not be beached without risk of their destruction. "As the tide fell," remarks Dr. Vincent, "the vessels were left on ground; but upon the return of the flood those only that had settled upright in the mud or ooze, escaped unhurt, while all that lay inclined upon the harder ground, were exposed to the most imminent danger, and several were lost." As any vessel, however, that is of sufficient stability to float upright, would, when the tide returned, rise to it, it is very probable that the cause of these occasional accidents was leakage, through straining or from carelessness in beaching them on uneven ground. The greater part, however, of the craft consisted, no doubt, of open boats and barges, and especially that portion of it which had been built on the upper branches of the Indus, and then transported overland to the Hydaspes.

The expedition having been disposed of in various divisions, had orders to observe a due distance from each other in their movements, so that no confusion might arise, its speed being at the same time regulated so as to accommodate itself to the motions of the army on the shore. Three vast armies, moving in separate divisions, encumbered with baggage as well as with munitions of war, with no roads prepared for them, and, for the most part, following the sinuosities of the river, must have had numerous difficulties to surmount. It is, therefore, unlikely that they were