416 CHAPTER XIII THE TWO FIGHTS AT DARGAI.

made it possible to climb the cliffs. At the foot of this slope was an openspace infull view from the summit of the cliffs, and across this space any direct attack on Dargai must come under short-range rifle fire from the crest of the THE Samana Range forms the northern wall of the Miranzai Valley, dividing it from the Khanki Valley, which is in the Orakzai country, the Samana, defended by Forts Lockhart and Gulistan, having been, THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS CHARGING.

till 1898, the British border line. A few miles to the west ot Fort Gulistan rises the bold summit of the Samana Suk, the highest point of the range. Beyond, the ridge drops some 3,000 feet to a pass, the crest of which is known as the Chagru Kotal. Fromthe Kotal a narrow hill-path zigzags downinto the long defile which gives access to the Khanki Valley.

precipice, which the tribesmenhad strengthened with sungars or stone breastworks, in order to improve the abundant natural coversuppliedby the rocks.

On October 18th Sir W. Lockhart directed that the Second Division should clear the Dargai ridge of the enemy and destroy the village, in order to ins're the safety of the coming advance into the Orakzai country by the Chagru defile, which was the door of the Khanki Valley. General Yeatman-Biggs was suffering from severe illness,and the command of the division was temporarily given to General Sir Power Palmer, the officer commanding the line ofcommunications.

From the westward the hilltrack through the Chagru defile is commanded by a bold wall of cliffs, often sheer precipices, on the summit of which stoodthe fortified village of Dargai. The way from the Chagru Kotal ridge to the village was a steep and narrowpath running up at a point where a difficult slope of broken rocks