*****
"We had a thunderstorm with lightning last night, a grand sight. I was coming back from Ashreth after nightfall, and stopped several times to watch the lightning light the snow peaks—quite beautiful!
On the road to Chitral.
"I had a hard day the day before yesterday. My orderly officer and I had to go from Dir to Janbatai and back, about fifty-six miles over a difficult road; we started at 5 a.m. and did not get back till 1 a.m. yesterday. For we were delayed on the road so long inspecting that night overtook us, and we had to walk along a most impossible track leading our ponies; we literally had to feel our way with our feet. We all got falls over rocks and stones, but beyond breaking our skin and clothes we were none the worse. The river was running under us nearly all the way about 300 ft. straight down, so you may imagine we had to be careful. I lost my helmet, but fortunately it rolled down the track instead of over the khudside."
*****
"Though I get up at daybreak and go to bed at 11 p.m. daily, I assure you that I never have a moment; it seems strange, but if you saw the country you would understand it. I have a long line of troops scattered over some forty miles of country connected by a single road along which only one man and one animal can pass at a time; sixteen bridges which may be washed away at any moment, causing many hours' delay in replacement; a snow pass, in the centre exactly, over which every ounce of food has to come; a terrific road along river-beds at one moment, running nearly up to the sky the next; 4,000 mules and donkeys working in stages from place to place, with supplies, guards, escorts, regiments, all of which have to be carefully watched to see that they have food and that nothing goes wrong. All this takes time, for it is a country one cannot gallop in, hardly go off a walk, but we are improving the roads and cutting new ones."
*****