Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

458 A TERRIBLE MARCH.supplies, mainly wheat, but scant at best ; there was nowood for camp-fires. The rocky mountains were coveredsolely with a scrub growth of turpentine bushes. The onlyobtainable food consisted of a few roots, an occasional fish,and the beef cattle of the trains, which latter were eaten rawor seasoned with silphium (asafoetida), growing here in abundance.The farther down the mountain the column got, followingan affluent ofthe Oxus, the worse o& the men were,for they ran into the devastated region, where all the houseshad been burned and the flocks driven away. On the southside, which they had ascended, the snow-line was but ten totwelve miles below the summit ; on the north side the marchwas nearly forty miles through deep and treacherous snowbanks.And we must not imagine that the roads approachedthe magnificence we see in the great military turnpikes of theAlps. Over the snow there were practically no roads.On the fifteenth day, after incredible suffering, the armyreached the first Bactrian town, Drapsaca (modern Inderaub).Here the men were given a rest. We do not learnthe loss in this terrible march. That the horses largely perishedis stated. We are left to conjecture the loss in men.The more awfid march through the Gedrosian desert, whichthe bulk of the army never lived to cross, has no losses given.Only those killed in battle were wont to be honored by mention,few indeed compared to the men who perished in exposuressuch as these. The route from Susia, before Alexanderturned south to Drangiana, would have been in comparisoneasy. And this, as we have seen, was his first-chosen path ;but the dangers from the southerly provinces forestalled hisintention, and having reached the Caucasus at a point so farto the east, he had practically no choice but between passesin this part of the chain, and had selected this one for thereasons given.