4f2 CHAPTER IV.

COLONEL KELLY'S MARCH THROUGH THE SNOW.

/"ipHE force which Colonel Kelly mustered on the frontier of Gilgit for his march over the snowy passes into Northern Chitral was only 500 strong. It was organised in two small detachments. The first was made up of 200 men of the 32nd Pioneers, under Captain Borrodaile. With him were Lieutenants Bethune and Cobbe, and Surgeon-Captain Browning-Smith. The second detachment was made up of 200 more Pioneers under Lieutenants Peterson and Cooke; two guns of the ist Kashmir mountainbattery under LieutenantStewart,R.A.;fortyKashmirSappers, underLieutenant Oldham, R.E.;and 100 native levies,commanded by the Rajah of Punial and Wazir Humayun ofHunza. Most of these irregulars came from the Hunza-NagarValley, and had fought bravely against us in the campaign of 1891. They were now our trusted allies. ColonelKelly had for his staff officer Lieutenant Beynon,of the IndianPoliticalDepartment, who has since written an excellent account of the adventurousmarch.

hundredweight of unwieldy metal. The passage of the Shandur is probably the finest bit of mountain marching in the records of the British army. The heaviest work was done by Borrodaile's detachment, which conveyed the guns. "Nothing,Ithink, can be said too highlyin praise of this splendid achievement,'' writes Lieutenant Beynon. "Here were some 250 men, Hindus and Mussulmans, who, working shoulderto shoulder,hadbrought twomountain guns, with their carriages and supply of ammunition, across some twenty miles of deep soft snow, across a pass some 12,320 feethigh, at the beginning of April, the worst seasonof the year. It must also be remembered that these men were carrying also their own rifles, greatcoats, andeighty rounds of ammunition,and wearing heavy sheepskin coats; they had slept for two nights in the snow,and struggled from dawntill dark, sinking at every step up to their waists, andsuffering acutely froma blinding glare and a bitter wind. So much for the rank and file; but in their officers they had had splendid examples to follow, especially in Stewart and Gough, ifone may select when alldid so nobly. Both these officers took their turns with the men, Stewart with his gunners andGough with his Goorkhas, in carrying the guns, and both, with utter unselfishness,and with complete disregardfor their own personal comfort,gave their snow-glasses to sepoys who,nothavingany,were sufferingfrom theglare. Theresult wasthat both officers were temporarily blind. Thus was the Shandur Pass first crossed, and a position established from which the force could work down to Mastuj, and thence to Chitral. Imay mention that so little did the Chitralis imagine that we could cross the pass that letters were found in Laspur stating that the British force was lying in Ghizr,the men unable to move from frostbite, and the officers from snow-blindness; also that since then fresh snow had fallen, and no forces would now be able to cross for several weeks. In fact, the Chitralis looked upon the game as entirely in their own hands; the It was a race betweenKelly and Low which should be first to Chitral, andKelly, with more difficult ground to traverse, got a few days' start. OnMarch 21st the Indian Government telegraphed orders to him to advance as soon as he was ready. The first detachment marched on the 23rd, the rest the next day. On April ist the crossing of the Shandur Pass was begun. It is over 12,000 feet above the sea, and the summit level, miles long, was deep in snow. It was foundimpossible to get the mulesacross,but with infinite labour, and at the cost of much suffering, the mengot the guns through. It was not tillthe 5th that the crossing waseffected by the first detachment, in which there were thirty cases of snow-blindness and twenty-six of severe frostbite. The men had behaved splendidly. Once, when the partycarrying one of the guns had fallen exhausted on the snow, a native noncommissioned officer, to encourage them to further efforts, actually grasped the gun in his arms,gotit partly on his shoulder,and struggled forward some distance, carrying this two