On the farther side
of the pass the road ascends to the height of the Hazardarakht,
(which is covered with snow in the winter), and then climbs to the
Shuturgurdan Pass (11,375 feet alt.), reaching a plateau on which
the snow lies for six months of the year; thence it descends into
the fertile Logar valley and reaches Akton Khel, which is only
fifty-one miles from Kabul. The total length of this route is about
175 miles.
The third, or Dera-Ismail-Khan-Sargo-Ghazni, route passes through a
region less frequented than those mentioned, and is not thought
sufficiently difficult for detailed description. Passing due west,
through seventy miles of mountain gorges destitute of supplies or
forage, it debouches, through the Gomal Pass, into a more promising
country, in which forage may be obtained. At this point it branches
to Ghazni, Kandahar, and Pishin respectively. A road exists from
Mooltan, crossing the Indus at Dera-Ghazi-Khan, Mithunkot, Rajanpur,
Rojan, Lalgoshi, Dadur to Quetta, and was utilized by General
Biddulph, from whose account of his march from the Indus to the
Helmund, in 1879, is gleaned the following. The main point of
concentration for the British forces, either from India or from
England via Kurrachee is thus minutely described.
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