Geography

​Aristobulus says that only the mountains and their foothills experience rain and snow, whereas the plains are equally free from both rain and snowstorms, and are inundated only by the rise of the rivers. He states that snow falls on the mountains in winter, but at the beginning of spring the rains also begin and continually increase in volume; and during the Etesian winds, the rains pour down incessantly, day and night, and violently, until the rising of Arcturus; and thus, being filled from both the snows and the rains, the rivers water the plains. He says that these things were observed both by himself and by the others when they set out for India from the Paropamisadae after the setting of the Pleiades, and spent the winter in the mountainous country in the land of the Hypasioi and of Assacanus, and at the beginning of spring descended to the plains and to Taxila, a city of great size, and thence to the Hydaspes and the country of Porus. During the winter, therefore, they saw no water but only snow; and it first rained at Taxila. And when, having descended to the Hydaspes and defeated Porus, their route lay towards the east to the Hypanis, and from there back again to the Hydaspes, it rained continuously, especially during the Etesian winds; but when Arcturus rose, there was a cessation. While they tarried for the shipbuilding on the Hydaspes and began their voyage not many days before the setting of the Pleiades, and spent the whole autumn and winter and the following spring and summer on their voyage down, they arrived at Patalene about the rising of the Dog Star. The voyage down took ten months, and they nowhere perceived any rain, not even when the Etesian winds were at their height, though the plains were flooded because the rivers were full; and the sea was unnavigable because the winds blew in the contrary direction, and no land breeze succeeded them.

​This very thing is also said by Nearchus, but concerning the summer rains he does not agree, but says that it rains on the plains in summer, and that they are rainless in winter. Both, however, speak of the rise of the rivers. Nearchus says that when they were encamped near the Acesines, they were forced to change to another higher place because of the rise, and that this happened about the summer solstice. Aristobulus, on his part, sets forth the measure of the rise as forty cubits, of which twenty cubits fill the channel to the brim above its previous depth, while the other twenty are the overflow into the plains. They also agree that the cities, being built on mounds, become islands, just as in Egypt and Ethiopia; and after Arcturus the flood ceases as the water subsides. Furthermore, the land, while still half-dry, is sown after being scratched by any chance digger, and yet produces its crop perfect and beautiful. Aristobulus says that rice stands in closed water, and that the beds containing it are dyked; the height of the plant is four cubits, with many ears and much grain; and it is harvested about the setting of the Pleiades, and is threshed like spelt. It also grows in Bactriana, Babylonia, and Susis; and Lower Syria also produces it. Megillus, however, says that rice is sown before the rains, and needs irrigation and planting, being watered from closed pools. And concerning bosmoron, Onesicritus says that it is a grain smaller than wheat, and is produced in the lands between the rivers, and is parched after it is threshed, those who thresh it taking an oath not to carry it away unparched from the threshing-floor, in order that the seed may not be exported.