the guests of Colonel Aslam Khan at a | to see, as we did sometimes, two senpicnic lunch.

tries on a pinnacle of rock five hundred feet above us. I doubt whether such tiny posts have more than a ceremonial value, but their presence on such inaccessible points proves that they are thorough mountain troops, perfect in wind and limb.

We halt for a few minutes at one village—a cluster of forts by the road - while the head man salaams to the political officer and offers us tea and bread by the roadside.

cattle are shut up in the fort, and the men crown the battlements and try to pick off any of the other side who show themselves within range. But when Colonel Warburton is in the pass there is a truce. Both sides are agreed that a little fighting is good, but that regular pay is better, and by a judicious arrangement of times there is nothing to prevent them enjoying the benefit of one and the pleasure of the other.

An hour later we are again on the road, which pierces the defile on the right of the fort. The road has been skilfully engineered, and is here cut into the mountain on the right. But in 1878 this road had not been made, and the troops had to march along the river-bed, which here for half a mile is a veritable gorge, with sides of sheer rock, in some places only about twenty yards apart. Beyond Ali Masjid the road ascends so gently as to seem At the next village the head man's almost level. It winds in a great bend sous come out and salaam, their father round the base of a hill which fits into being away. Colonel Warburton exa bay in the opposite hill, leaving just plains that these two villages are at room for the road and the stream. feud; a few weeks ago there was a This form of winding glen repeats it-"shooting" between them, in which self several times, and then the hills eight men were killed. When there stand further apart, leaving between is a feud the women and children and them a level plain about a mile across and three or four miles long. This wider vale is dotted with villages, or perhaps they should be called forts, of strange and striking build. Four mud walls, fifteen feet high and forty yards long, loopholed near the top, inclose a square space accessible only by a single door. At each of two opposite corners is a round tower about twenty-five feet high, also loopholed, and so built that it projects from the square. The At one village we saw a group of houses, also of mud, are inside the women drawing water from a stone cissquare, which is the family fortress, tern with good European pipes and the towers being placed so that men in taps. This is a much appreciated boon. one of them can fire along the outside The tribes well understand the benefits of two sides of the main wall. We of English interference when it takes see in a general view about twenty the shape of a good road where there of these strongholds. A rocky spur was no road, or of bringing to their comes down from the right towards doors the water which before the the centre of the plain, and its low women had to carry for miles on their extremity is crowned by a solid stone heads. dome crumbling into ruins. Colouel About three o'clock we came to the Warburton tells us that it is a Buddhist end of the plain, which was formed by "tope" of unknown antiquity. At two spurs meeting. A short defile bethe end of the spur, just in front of the tween them led to a second plain, lying tope, was a post of the Khyber Rifles, across instead of along the road, and who presented arms as we passed. sloping up to the hills all round instead Similar posts, of two, four, or more of being flat. In the middle of this men, were perched up at nearly all the hollow is the fort of Landi Kotal, an commanding points on each side of the oblong rectangle three hundred and road from end to end of the pass. fifty yards long by two hundred and They looked pretty in their bright fifty wide, with high solid mud walls khaki dress, and it was a quaint sight and round flanking towers at the cor

ners. Up and down the plateau were villages such as we had seen already, their pale brown towers breaking the monotony of the treeless landscape.

lar pinnacle of rock standing up from the ravine, which it half filled up. On our left was the dreadful gorge of the torrent, and across it the rugged slopes of mountains that rose five thousand feet above its bed. These hill slopes limited the view on one side; and similar slopes shut it in on the other. Deep down at our feet was Landi Khana, the foot of the pass; then, seen across a small patch of the plain, a stormy sea of mountains.

We walked back to the fort and spent the morning exploring the plateau.

The fort contains barracks for several companies, sheds and stabling, a covered reservoir of good water, and officers' quarters, in which our party was soon established. An hour later we strolled over to the serai, an inclosure a quarter of a mile away, smaller than the fort, with a similar mud wall. A caravan from Kabul had just come in, and the great square was crammed full In with a noisy crowd of men, horses, the afternoon we ascended Mount Piscamels, mules, and donkeys, infinitely gah, one of the hills forming its west-. dirty. There was a guard of Khyber ern margin, and overlooking the vale Rifles at the gate, and the crowd in- or plain of Jellallabad. Here we saw side, though noisy, was not disorderly. beneath us the whole valley from The officers of our party talked in Dakka, where the Kabul River enters Persian and Pushtu to some of the the Khyber range, to the hill behind wayfarers, who came from various which lies hidden the town of Jellallabad, fifty miles away. The river could be watched for many a mile, its slender thread of water seeming insig nificant in its broad, stony bed. The plain stretched far into the distance, level like a calm sea, with rocks and hills jutting up through its surface. Beyond them were irregular ranges of hills, backed in turn by mountain ranges one behind another, and on the left, above the last dark mountains, the delicate pearly saw-teeth of a snowy range, faint and spectral in the dim distance. To the right, partly hidden by the rocks beside us, a giant roof of pure white snow stood up into the sky. At its feet was a mountain range seen above nearer lines of hills, so that three great valleys lay between us and the peaks that bore that vast expanse of snow.

parts of central Asia, from Samarkand, Tashkend, Balkh, and Kabul. Mr. Walton was anxious to buy the wooden bowl used to mix his rice by one of the Turkestan men, who had at first refused to sell it, then demanded many rupees, and when at last he had handed over his bowl and received one rupee, threw it into the air with a loud triumphant shout, "Allah Akbar!" We went back at sunset to our quarters in the fort.

Next morning we were up in good time, and set out to walk to the Afghan end of the pass. From the fort the plateau of Landi Kotal seems to be shut in all round by hills, but following the road for a mile or two we found it dropping behind a spur into a huge winding gully, a sort of tunnel or ravine down which in rainy times a torrent pours. The engineers have skilfully traced the road round the sides of this great drop so as to have a uniform and practicable gradient.

Late at night, when all my companions had gone to bed, I went out on to the parapet of the fort. In one of the towers stood, silent and motionless, After walking down for a mile or two the Pathan sentry. The moon had set, we came out on to a spur from which but in the starlight I could see the vale could be seen the end of the pass. The of Landi Kotal, with its lovely rim of ravine was not wide enough even here mountains rising, jagged and broken, to admit of a free view right and left, against the blue sky, and one great but the glance at Afghanistan through peak outside looking down at me over the V-shaped opening was a sight not the rim. In the still sky the innumerto be forgotten. We sat on an irregu-able stars sparkled with unwonted bril

liance, and as I looked up at Jupiter | eighty miles, and from Jellallabad to and Orion I thought that five or six Kabul another ninety miles. Every hours later the turning earth would mile that the railway could be carried show these stars to eyes at home. beyond Peshawar would bring India, How gladly would many an English- in every sense, nearer to Kabul. The man, exiled half across the globe, give goods which, at present, are carried his message to some star which might one hundred and seventy miles by shine it down when passing England camels and mules, would be indefinitely later in the night! The Englishman multiplied when drawn by the locomowho stays at home too easily forgets tive. The claus to whom the British that India is a great way off. Perhaps are strangers would get to know them because it is so far away many have and become friendly. The ameer and forgotten it altogether. his people would have a better chance Next day we returned. Across the of understanding the Indian governplain of Landi Kotal, along the plain ment. These advantages are appreof the Buddhist tope, and through the ciated in India, and the Khyber country winding defiles I drove in the tum- has been reconnoitred for a railway tum; through the gorge of Ali Masjid line. The pass is not a good route, as I walked by the river-bed; and down a descent to Landi Khana is too steep the descent from Ali Masjid to Jam- for any railway. But modern engirood I rode with Colonel Warburton, neers would make a line along the following for part of the way a bridle gorge of the Kabul River, which path, which is shorter than the carriage road. At Jamrood we said good-bye to Aslam Khan, and drove into Pesha

war.

pierces the range, and by following its course an excellent route can be obtained, free from floods, with no gradients above one in two hundred and no extravagant tunnels. The rails once laid to Dakka, could be carried on along the plain without difficulty to Jellallabad.

The Khyber Pass is no longer a hindrance to movement. Thanks to the British engineers, whose road is excellent, having no grade steeper than one in fifty, a lady's brougham can drive The peculiar situation of Jellallabad from Peshawar to Landi Khana. In a must be borne in mind. The stupenmilitary sense the pass is difficult. dous hills which I saw from Mount The gorge at Ali Masjid and the defile Pisgah are the northern wall of the beyond could be held for a long time Jellallabad basin, an irregular wall by a small force against an army. Sir formed by the ends of great ranges Sam Brown, in 1878, failed in his front running down from the north, but yet attack, and the turning movement an effective barrier, which no army, which caused the Afghans to retire Afghan or British, and hardly any would not have succeeded against a traveller has yet crossed. The southvigilant defender. There is a track eru side of the basin is not visible from over the hills to the north, sometimes Pisgah; it is a straight wall of mouncalled the Tartara Pass, but it would tains (the Sufed-Koh) from twelve not serve for a large force, and could thousand to fifteen thousand feet high, easily be defended. To the south of without a break. At its western end the pass the parallel Bazaar valley the valley is crossed by north and offers an alternative route, but it is ac- south ranges twice as high as the Khycessible from the Jellallabad basin only ber range, and the few passes through by crossing a high ridge, and ought not them are incomparably more formidato be available against a wideawake ble than the Khyber. It was in these opponent. A vigorous defence, with terrible defiles that the British army the tribes in its favor, would close the retreating from Kabul was destroyed Kyber range against any advance in in 1842, a disaster that, strangely either direction. enough, is traditionally known as the From Peshawar to Jellallabad is "Khyber Pass massacre."

Some of my friends in India think | be complete which did not take note of that the best plan for the defence of this thorny controversy. the north-west frontier would be to It is hardly conceivable that the railhold a fortified position on these hills, way should not at some time be carried connected by railway from Peshawar. on to Kabul itself. This appears to be Such a position would be the gate of the consummation which the Indian Afghanistan. A British force there government should keep in view. A would be two or three marches from railway to Kabul will, sooner than Kabul, the centre of Afghan life and any other agency, break down the isotrade and the nucleus of all the com-lation of the Afghans and efface the munications in the country. Nothing memory of the unhappy conflicts which could be better, provided the Afghans have estranged them from the British. were agreeable. But they would hardly It would also enable the Indian govaccept quietly such a state of things, ernment to render them effectual help though it might have been forced upon them after a crushing defeat. The Jellallabad valley is peopled by the most turbulent of the Pathian clans. The railway would be almost at their mercy. For this policy, therefore, the first requisite is to secure the allegiance of these clans. A man like Colonel Warburton might accomplish this, if he were given a free hand and supported.

for the defence of their country, in case they should need and desire it. The dislike for the railway is at present cherished partly by the ameer, and still more by the mullahs, who dread European influence as dangerous to their own ascendency. The common people are by no means absolutely biassed against the railway, or even against the British. If the line were carried to a point just outside the ameer's territory at Dakka, and the Khyber tribes employed in its construction and working, and their subsistence provided for, the mere saving of time and trouble to the kafilas, or caravans of traders, would advertise the advantages of the iron road to all the population of the Jellallabad and Kabul regions.

try.

SPENSER WILKINSON.

At present such men are kept in leading-strings, or rather are held on the curb; not by the Indian government, which appreciates them, but by the Punjab government. Incredible as it may seem, the political agent for the Khyber is in no direct relation with the Indian government, but reports to and receives his instructions from the In these countries, too, it should government of the Punjab. This is not be forgotten, the railway of itself a most unfortunate arrangement. A brings most of the benefits and avoids. local government has its attention most of the evils of annexation. It properly concentrated upon the inter- Europeanizes or Anglicizes the counnal affairs of its province, and has neither the money nor the staff available to deal with a frontier policy. When times are quiet the local government can carry on the correspondence, but when an important issue presses the matter must be referred to head- IN these days, when electrical phequarters, and the intermediate authority nomena are commanding universal is a cause of delay. Moreover, no local attention, and when electricity is begovernment can properly be the judge coming, in a thousand ways, the serof questions of external policy. There vant of man, there are no animals more has been much discussion between In- worthy of attention than the electric dian officials concerning the distribu- fishes, a group known to have the tion of authority on the frontier. The power of giving electrical shocks from question cannot be fully examined in specially constructed and living elecrelation to the Khyber district alone, trical batteries. Although some but no account of the Khyber would these fishes have been known from

From The Fortnightly Review. THE ELECTRIC FISHES.

of

early times, even from the days of the Two distinct types of electrical orPharaohs, it is only within the last ten gans exist. One is closely related in or twelve years that the structure of structure to muscle, as found in the the batteries has been carefully exam- torpedo, gymnotus, and skate, while ined with the highest powers of the the other presents more of the charac microscope, and with the best histolog-ters of the structure of a secreting ical methods, and that the phenomena gland, as illustrated by the electric orof the living batteries in action have gan of the thunderer-fish. Both types been studied in the physiological labo-are built up of a vast number of ratory with the most refined methods minute, indeed microscopical, elements, of research. These investigations, car- and each element is supplied with a ried on notably, as regards structure, nerve fibre. These nerve fibres come by Fritsch, of Berlin, and, as regards from large nerves that originate in the mode of action, by E. du Bois-Rey- nerve centres - brain, or spinal cord mond and Sachs in Germany, and by and in these centres we find special Burdon-Sanderson and Gotch in En- large nerve-cells with which the nerve gland, have brought to light many fibres of the electric organ are condetails of one of the most remarkable nected, and from which they spring. organs in the whole realm of nature. We may, therefore, consider the whole Here we find an electric organ, more electric apparatus as consisting of or less powerful, constructed apparently three parts: (1) electric centres in the without insulators, regulated by the brain or spinal cord; (2) electric nerves nervous system, and under the control passing to the electric organ; and (3) of the animal; and, more remarkable the electric organ itself. It must not still, it is found to be an organ not con- be supposed, however, that the elecstructed on a new type for the produc- tricity is generated in the electric cention of electricity, but a modification of tres, and that it is conveyed by the simple elementary tissues, which, in electric nerves to the electric organ. other animals, manifest only feeble On the contrary, it is generated in the electrical properties. electric organ itself, but it is only produced so as to give a "shock" when it is set in action by nervous impulses transmitted to it from the electric centres by the electric nerves.

About fifty species of fishes have been found to possess electrical organs, but their electrical properties have been studied in detail only in five or six. The best known are various spe- Keeping these preliminary notions in cies of Torpedo (belonging to the skate mind, we will now examine more mifamily), found in the Mediterranean nutely the structure of individual elecand Adriatic Seas; the Gymnotus, an|trical organs. Take, first, the muscular eel found in the lagoons in the region type. The organs of the torpedo are two of the Orinocco, in South America; large, kidney-shaped masses placed, one the Malapterurus, the rääsh, or thun- on each side, near the head and gills. derer-fish, of the Arabs, a native of Each organ is composed of about eight the Nile, the Niger, the Senegal, and hundred prismatic columns placed, side other African rivers; and various spe- by side, vertically between the integucies of skates (Raia) found in our own ments covering the back and belly, seas. It is curious that the Nile is and, in a full-sized fish, each prism rich in electrical fishes, several species contains about six hundred plates or of pike-like creatures (Mormyrus and diaphragms placed transversely, and Hyperopisus) possessing electrical or- separated from each other by a jellygans the structure of which has been like albuminous fluid. There are thus quite recently investigated by Fritsch. about five hundred thousand plates in The electrical fishes do not belong to each organ, or about one million in any one class or group, and some are the two. Each plate, which. may be found in fresh water, while others in- called an electric plate, consists of sevhabit the ocean. eral layers, but the most remarkable