|
| | or |Mules.|ponies.|Donkeys.|Camels. |
| |Afghan | | | | |
| |ponies.| | | | |
-------------------------------------------------------------
|Number of animals | | | | | |
| that left Kabul | 1,589 | 4,510| 1,244 | 912 | 6[1*]|
|Purchased during | | | | | |
| the march[2*] | 35 | 1| -- | 208 | 171 |
|Number of animals | | | | | |
| that reached | | | | | |
| Kandahar | 1,179 | 4,293| 1,138 | 1,078 | 177 |
|Casualties during | | | | | |
| the march | 445 | 218| 106 | 42 | |
--------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1*: With hospital equipment.

Note 2*: Only twice had animals to be taken against the will of the
owners, and on both occasions the matter was amicably settled in the
end.]

[Footnote 13: Major E. Hastings, Captain West Ridgeway, Major Euan
Smith, C.S.I., and Major M. Prothero.]

[Footnote 14: Major A. Badcock, Captain A. Rind, and Lieutenants
C. Fitzgerald, H. Hawkes, and H. Lyons Montgomery, all of the Bengal
Staff Corps.]

[Footnote 15: Lieutenant-Colonel R. Low, Bengal Staff Corps; Captain
W. Wynter, 33rd Foot; Captains G. H. Eliot and C. R. Macgregor, Bengal
Staff Corps; Lieutenants L. Booth, 33rd Foot, H. Elverson, 2nd Foot,
R. Fisher, 10th Hussars, R. Wilson, 10th Hussars, and C. Robertson,
8th Foot.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER LXI.
1880

The order of marching--Ghazni and Kelat-i-Ghilzai
--Food required daily for the force--A letter from General Phayre
--Kandahar--Reconnoitring the enemy's position--A turning movement

Before daybreak on the 11th August, as I was starting from camp, I
received my last communication from the outside world in the shape
of a telegram from my wife, sent off from a little village in
Somersetshire, congratulating me and the force, and wishing us all
God's speed. She had taken our children to England a few months
before, thinking that the war in Afghanistan was over, and that I
would soon be able to follow.

Four days brought us to the end of the Logar valley, a distance of
forty-six miles. So far the country was easy and sup