THE NILT FORTS. 435 comingexpedition were collected inGilgit, and in the winter Durand advanced against the passes leading into the Hunza Valley, with a force of about too men, Kashmir Imperial troops, stiffened with the Goorkhas, and the mountain guns.

retiredthe second time, woundedin more than one place, the gate was blown in. He dashed into the narrow passage beyond, followedonly by the lieutenant and five Goorkhas, the rest havingmade a wrong turn as they entered the ditch and missed the gate. While Aylmer with these few men held the gateway against the enemy,Boisragon slipped out, and under fire from the wall found and brought up the rest of the storming party, and Nilt was taken after a hard fight in its narrow lanes. The attacking force lost thirty-three killed and wounded, the enemy more than a hundred. Aylmer and Boisragon received the Victoria Cross.

At first sight it would seem that winter was the worst season for a Himalayan campaign. But in this instance it made the work of the column somewhat easier. In summer the melting snows swell the Hunza River till it forms a foaming torrent, filling the gorges from cliff to cliff, and forcing the traveller to make his wayalong the paths and galleries of theprecipices on either side. In winter the shrunken stream leaves a rough boulder-strewn track, now on one side,now on the other of the gorge at the base of the cliffs. The tribes had never expectedto be attackedin the seasonof ice and snow. Alltheir defences wereprepared in vievv ofa summer campaign.

But Nilt was only an outwork of the line of defences that barred the valley, and it was eighteen days before the fortified cliffs of the ravines beyond were passed. After several attempts to find a way to turn the enemy's defences had failed, a Kashmir sepoy named Nagdu, a daring and skilful mountaineer, discovered one night a way by which the cliff on the east side of the Nilt ravine couldbe climbed. It was a difficult piece of rock climbing even in daylight, and with no enemy to bar the way. At various points the cliff face could be brought under fire from the sungars, or swept with avalanchesof stones. And the party could only ascendin single file, often on hands and knees. It was decided to make the desperate attempt, and a picked storming party of 100 Kashmiris, under Lieutenant Manners Smith, went out ifter dark on December 19th and spent the night at the base of the cliff, andbeganto climb it in the grey of the following morning. On the west side of the ravine covering parties of the best marksmen in the column were ; to tire upon anyone who approached the top of the opposite cliff and thus prevent the Hunza Nagar men from discovering the attack till the upper part of the climb was reached. The riflemen were then to shoot down anyone who tried to senel stones over the precipices and to keep down the sire from the sungars. The daring venture was crowned with complete success. Manners-Smith climbed slowly and steadily, followed by his men,but two-thirds ot the way up came to a sheer precipice andhad to turn back andbegin againhigher up the ravine. This time he succeeded. As he neared the top, the tribesmen discovered his approach, and the last part of the climb had to be clone amiel ringing shots and falling stones. But, covered by the rifles of the marksmen on the other side Theinvadingforce assembledonDecemberist at the Kashmir frontier fort of Chalt. Next day Durand marched up the valley to the point where further progress is barred by the fortn s of Nilt, built just where the Maiun and Nilt streamsrun down bv wildravinesinto theHunza River. Beyond the ravines, higher up the valley, are the hillfortresses of Maiun andThol. At Nilt 4,000 of the tribesmen, armed with modern rifles (many of them Russian Berdans), had gathered to oppose the advance. 'I he\ had built sungars, or stone breastworks, along the crestsof the ravines across the valley, right up to the region of perpetual snow and ice on either side, and on the tops of the cliffs they had preparedpiles of stones that could be sent down like avalanches of rock on the pathsbelow.

Nilt was attacked and carriedby storm that afternoon. The guns opened on its outer wall and the mass of stone houses that form the mountain village. The riflemen fired at the loopholes from the level floor of the valley in front and from higher ground on the adjacent slope. Theenemy's return fire waswelldirected, andColonel Durand himself was wounded while laying one of the guns. As the attack closed in, the Goorkhas advanced,led by Captain Aylmer andLieutenant Boisragon,Aylmercarrying with him powder bags to blow in the main gate. Going forward with a small partyhe placed the bags in position,lit the fuse, and slipped bad: into cover. But no explosion followed. Aylmer crept forward again, and under fire from the loopholes readjusted andrelit the fuse, and as he