ON THE MARCH IN AFGHANISTAN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 572, 28 August 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

ON THE MARCH IN AFGHANISTAN.

A sad fea ure all along he line from Peshawar to Cabul is : the number ; of' dead and dying mules, ponies, and camels,' the property of our Government. Thepatient and resigned yet miserable look of a moribund and forsaken camel,-ia a'thing to haunt ono. Too far gone to rise, and with. no one compassionate enough to piit an end to itsexistence, there in cold and hunger the poor brute lies, slowly yielding up ; its'life during, perhaps, several days. At one part of the Lattah-band Pass two of out 4 elephants, wearied at once of their burdens' and lives,had lain down and died-within.a few paces of"' one another, leaving their bulky, remains to puzzle, perhaps, , the Professor Owens of some remote- epoch. Not a fort or. village occurs from one end of the Lattah-Pass to the other. Trains of native camels taking stores to Kabul, under the care of their nomad owners—apostolic figures, such as ono sees on church windows at home - keep the road lively, however—indeed (inly too lively, considering the narrowness of the' path and the rushes made at times bv a Kuchi camel, mounted with battering rSmW' in the form of a brace of rum barrels;, wh.'h' ho thinks he has got separated too far from his companions. The freedom allowed, by, Afghan carriers to their camels; and theirkindness to them generally, were noticed in; a former paper ; and it may be . hoped our own transport department will take a. leaf out of their book in regard to this matterdispensing, for one thing, with the harsh'; wooden nosebit now in use. and leaving th 6 animals at liberty to choose their own path, and select from among themselves their own leader, instead of being dragged ; pitilessly along as now, fastened, in rows to one another, with their delicate nasal' structures suffering ,a constant succession of tugs and jerks. What would be said' by the advanced humanitarians who object to bearing reins on their carriage.. houses,' could they but see the. present mode .. of bittyig and working our Indian camels T As the day wore, and ; the sun J grew,, strong'! the glare from the snow became most'trying' enabling one easily to realise how exposure* to it must eventually tell upon the eyesight Before evening, after a long and devious, descent, the small British post or camp'-of.-Lattal -band appeared in the distance--another picket, as it were, of . native soldiers ; only. The yabus being still in rear, and biting blast astir, shelter was sought in oqe " of a row of enlarged natural caves in,the face of a beetling hill, such for want of better rest houses, ave much used by travellers in this inhospitable country. The one selected' prove,'!, however, to have been only lately vaoatd by a Khan and his followers ridinc express from Oabil to Jelalabad, and the condition in which it had been left was not: such as to invito others to put up in it The rest proved, on inspection, to be pretty* much the same ; so that it was a relief when the stout little packhorses came up nd ths wholesome tent was once more pitchedSel ora have Pengal sepoys—since the 'first Af.han war at least—mounted sentry, amid' surroundings more uncongenial to them than were those of the Lattah-band post' on that 18th of January 1880; a strong icy wind blowing ; the ground deep in snow ; supplies soanty ; firewood hardly procurable; and pickets on difficult and exposed heights having to bo occupied, particularly by. night.: If the Bengal army stand,all this strain, : asthere is every reason to suppose-itwill; and,; above all, if reoruiting .is not materially; interfered with by the tales of hardship now pouring through the post into Indian biizaars and villages—it will be matter of gratulation indeed; so much so, however, that the gratulation should not be indulged in until the subject has been exposed to the-test of. time, and experienced commandants of native regiments (not secretaries' or staff' officers) have been fully'and fairly sounded in regard to it. —' Blackwood's Magazine.'