heavens the
reflected heat from the bare slaty rocks became almost insupportable.
There were no trees to give the men shade, or springs to slake their
thirst. For the first four miles the road continued to ascend the
Lashora ravine between hills on the right hand and rocky, overhanging
spurs a thousand feet high on the left. On issuing thence it dwindled
to a mere goat track which ran uphill and downhill, scaling cliffs and
dropping into gorges, the shaly soil at every step slipping away from
under the feet of men, mules and bullocks, retarding the advance of the
two former and almost bringing the latter to a standstill. It was two
o'clock in the afternoon when the column, having crossed the Sapparia,
or grassy flats, leading up to the watersheds, arrived at Pani Pal at
the foot of the pass connecting the Rhotas Heights with the Tartara
Mountain, the highest peak in this group of hills. Here a wide and
varied view became suddenly visible. Far away to the north the
snowcapped Himalayas gleamed in the sunshine; to the south the broad
Indus washed the base of Fort Attock, and wound through the salt hills
and plains of the Derajat; whilst to the west, almost immediately below
the wilderness of rocks in which the invaders had halted, lay, in deep
shadow, the yawning chasm of the Khyber--a magnificent prospect; but a
spring of cool fresh water which was soon discovered had more
attractions for the hot and thirsty troops, and Tytler's whole
attention was absorbed in scanning the country for a possible enemy and
trying to trace the course of the three paths which branched off from
this commanding point. One of these runs northward by a circuitous and
comparatively easy route, through Mohmand territory to the Khyber. The
second descends abruptly to the same pass through the gorge which
separates the Tartara Mountain from the Rhotas Heights. The third
follows the crest of those heights to their highest point, just over
Ali Masjid. It was by the second of these roads that the column was to
find its way down to Kata Kushtia, and Tytler, though hard pressed for
time, felt so strongly that he must not entangle his troops in such
difficult ground without first ascertaining whether danger would
threaten their left flank and rear, that he decided to halt his force,
whilst Jenkins and a company of the Guides reconnoitred towards the
heights. Scarcely had this party left Pani Pal when a strange
reverberation filled the air, which Jenkins,