KELLY'S MARCH. 453 surprise of our arrival was thereforeall the more complete."

Having collectedporters to carry the baggage, and ponies for the mountain guns and a small supply of ammunition, the column advanced towards Mastuj, where it was known that Lieutenant Moberly was blockaded by the Chitralis. His relief would not only be a first success, but would bring a welcome reinforcement to the little expedition. But the enemy stood in the way at the defile of Chokalwat, and here Kelly fought and won his first battle. The position was carefully- reconnoitred on the eveningof the 8th, and in the early morning of the 9th the column adthe ford, which stood on higher ground. The track itself was barred by a large sungar, and asit ran just along the edge of the ravine,and almost precipitous slopes rose above it on the other side, it could be swept by avalanches of stones set in motion by parties of Chitralis posted high on the hills for this purpose.

It was just such another position as had delayed the advance in the Hunza Valley, in 1891, for a whole fortnight. But the Chitral men were not such determined fighters as the mountaineers who held the Nilt forts, and the men posted high up on the hills seem tohave been chiefly anxious about a safe retreat. In the early morning of the vanced to the attack. It may be of interest to note that on this same day General Low's force, havingclearedthe Malakand and forced the passage of the Swat, was marching over the hills intothePanjkoraValley.

The Chokalwat position was singularly strong.TheMastujRiver runs down a narrow ravine, from the upper edge of which the hillslopes rise steeply, leaving a small space of stony ground, now on one bank, now on the other, between the bottom of " the slope and the brink of the preci-Oth, Kelly had sent Lieutenant Beynon and the Hunza levies to climb the rocks above the glacier and turn the enemy out of the high sungars on the left bank. At the same time the Rajah of Punial and his friendlies, all, like the Hunza levies, good mountaineers, were sent up the hills on the other hank, t" get above the men in charge of the stone shoots and turn them out. At 10.30, having given sufficient time for these flank movements to develop, Kelly advanced against ,the ford with his two CAPTAIN BORRODAILE.

Photo:Bourns & Shepherd, Calcutta ) pices that wall-in the river. At Chokalwat the path descends sharply to the stream, goes up the cliff on the opposite side after leading through a ford, then, running dong the brink of the ravine, drops to the water's edge again, and regains the right bank by another ford. At the first ford the Chitralis had lined the crest of the ravine with a line of sungars manned by riflemen. Their right rested on a small glacier that came down to the river, and on the other side of the glacier, high among the rocks of the mountain side, riflemen were posted in a second group of sungars to guard the flank from being turned. It might have been possible to avoid forcing this fortified ford by keeping along the other bank, but here the path was under fire from the sungars above guns, two companies ot the Pioneers and the Sappers. In all, he had about 280 men ; the rest had not yet got clear of the Shandur Pass, and to wait for them would have given the enemy- time to bring up reinforcements and further strengthen his position. Kelly concentrated the fire ofhis guns and volleys from his infantry on the right sungar of the enemy's line. Its garrison was driven out, and the concentrated tire was then turned on the next breastwork in the line. Meanwhile Beynon and his men had climbed above the sungars among the rocks on the mountain slope, and the enemy, who thought they were sate from attack, had bolted, after firingsome harmless shots, to which the attack made what seems to have been anequally harmless reply. Meanwhile the Punial levies scared