South of the Hindoo Kush we find
most of the eastern routes to our northwest frontier to converge
in one point, very near to Jelalabad. There are certain routes
existing between the Russian frontier and India which pass
altogether east of this point. There is one which can be
followed from Tashkend to Kashgar, and over the Karakoram range,
and another which runs by the Terek Pass to Sarhadd, and thence
over the Baroghil into Kashmir; but these routes have justly,
and by almost universal consent, been set aside as involving
difficulties of such obvious magnitude that it would be
unreasonable to suppose that any army under competent leadership
could be committed to them. The same might surely be said of the
route by the Nuksan Pass into the valley of Chitral and the
Kunar, which joins the Khyber route not far from Jelalabad. Its
length and intricacy alone, independently of the intractable
nature of the tribes which border it on either side, and of the
fact that the Nuksan Pass is only open for half the year, would
surely place it beyond the consideration of any general who
aspired to invade India after accomplishing the feat of carrying
an army through it.
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