340 Journey from Herat to Simla, [No. 149. 



The city of Herat is of an oblong shape, about 1,600 yards in length 

 and 13 or 14,000 yards in breadth. The place is encircled by an artifi- 

 cial mound of earth, varying from 40 to 60 feet in height, on the sum. 

 mit of which stands the wall of the town. There are about thirty 

 bastions on each face, circular and built of unburnt brick ; those at the 

 angles of the place being much larger and higher than the intermedi- 

 ate ones. The height of the bastions, and walls about the mound, 

 varies from 25 to 35 feet. 



The following rude section of the defences will illustrate my des- 

 cription of them : — 



a. The artificial mound mentioned above, which forms the real 

 circle of defence. 



b. The walls of the place. 



c. c. Trenches cut in the mound, or what may be called the ex- 

 terior slope of the rampart, about 6^ or 7 feet deep, and running 

 entirely round the place. These are called the upper and lower Sheer 

 Hajee, or Sheerazah, and in them are stationed nearly the whole of 

 the garrison. The Sheer Hajees communicate with one another and 

 with the town by subterranean passages, and since the commence- 

 ment of the siege, they have been partly traversed. 



d. The ditch. 



e. The town. 



I saw the ditch only at two points, at the S. E. angle of the place 

 it was about nine yards broad, with water in it, but not filled. The 

 Affghans had established a covered way, or place of arms on the coun- 

 terscarp, communicating with the scarp by means of a plank thrown 

 across the ditch. The Persians had worked up to within ten or 

 twelve yards of this work, and both parties were incessantly engaged 

 in mining and countermining. I also saw the ditch between the S. W. 

 angle and the Candahar gate, which is situated in the centre of the 

 southern face. It was dry at this point, and about twelve yards 

 broad. The Persians had here advanced a covered gallery half way 

 across the ditch. 



The exterior slope of the artificial mound or rampart is at an angle 

 of from 35 to 45, forming in most places too steep an ascent for men 

 encumbered with arms, in face of a determined enemy. The breadth 

 of this mass of earth, at its base, may be from 90 to 100 feet. There 



