JOURNEY FROM HERAT TO pRENBURG. 249 



suffer. I had only a small tent of two cloths, 

 through which I might have taken altitudes of the 

 sun, and at night I never dreamt of pitching this 

 apology for a tent. I am convinced that when 

 marching for months together, and independent of 

 supplies at the places where you halt, the native 

 plan of dividing the distance to be crossed in the 

 twenty-four hours into two stages is a good one ; 

 and should another army of the Indus leave India, 

 I think they would find this plan answer. Your 

 camels and your cattle have the cool of the morning 

 and evening for work, and the middle of the day 

 to feed, and they have a good night's rest, instead 

 of being loaded or harnessed in the middle of the 

 night. The last five or six miles of a sixteen-mile 

 march ruined our gun-cattle on the Afghan cam- 

 paign ; when the same sixteen-mile march, if divided 

 into two portions, morning and evening, would have 

 given no fatigue to the beasts. As for the trouble 

 to the men of pitching their tents, I think the 

 natives seldom pitched theirs, and the Europeans 

 only when the heat was very great. The men have 

 the trouble of twice loading, but they ought not to 

 grudge this, seeing that the baggage-cattle will last 

 them longer. They certainly take as little care of 

 their horses as any people in the Avorld. One groom 

 is considered sufficient for three, and the only grass 

 the animal gets is what he can pick up within the 

 range of his tether : three cosseers (six Ib.) of barley 



