CAPTURE OF GUNDAKI 503 animalsby this nightly fusillade, there was the further disadvantage that it deprived the menof proper rest. Those who have experiencedit say that even those who most coolly face an enemy's fire on the battlefield are worried, and made nervous and miserable,by the continualdropping and whistling through the darkness of bullets to which noreply can be made. Later, steps were taken for dealing with this trying method of attack, but at the outset of the campaign it was endured as best might be.

ton Regiment and the 36th Sikhs, was sent to clear thehills on the right. He fairly surprised theenemy. They had not expectedan advance, and apparently were enjoying a late sleep after amusing themselves by "sniping" the camp until the small hours of the morning. They sprang up, fired a few harmless shots and fled, without attempting any resistance. The hills on the left were at the same time occupied by a detachment from Gaselee's brigade,made up of the Yorkshire Regiment and some Sikhs and Goorkhas. With its flanks thus secured, the army moved up to Gundaki. Here there was On the morning of the 2bth the bodies of a British sergeant and six men were found lying DORSF.TS ATTACKING THE SAMPAGHA PASS* dead andhorribly cut up on the road near the camp. They were supposed to be part of the escort of a belated convoy that had wandered from the rest in the dusk and fallen into an Afridi ambuscade. No wonder, after such experiences bynight and day, that the army was rejoiced tohear, on the eveningof October 27th, that orders had been issued for a renewed advance,and that the Sampagha Pass was tobe stormednext day.

a halt for the day, and the army encamped, while Sir William Lockhart and his staff, with a strong escort, pushed on to reconnoitre the Sampagha Pass and settle the details of the next day's attack. A few shots were fired at the party while they were thus engaged, but the only man hit was Colonel Sage, of the 1st Goorkhas, whowas badly- wounded.

The action at the Sampagha Pass, fought next day, October 2qth, proved to be a much less seriousaffair than had been generallyanticipated. The enemy had a splendid position. The mountain road, or rather track, after winding through broken rocky ground,commanded by therugged slopes to the east and west, runs sharply up the hillside, and passes over the dividing range The march began in the grey dawn of the Its first stage was about four miles due north up the valley to the village of Gundaki. Ihe ground was open, with low hills on either side, which were known to be held by the enemy. Colonel Chaytor, with the Northamp-