GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 129 



But on the declaration of war with the Amir in 1878 it became 

 necessary to attach surveyors to each of the four columns invading 

 Afghanistan. To review, however, their geographical operations, it 

 is more convenient to divide them into three groups, viz., 1st, those 

 in Southern Afghanistan with the columns under the command of 

 Generals Stewart and Biddulph ; 2nd, those in the Kuram valley 

 and generally to the south of the Safed-Koh range with the column 

 under General Roberts; and 3rd, those in the Kabul valley and to 

 the north of the Safed-Koh range with the column under General 

 Browne. 



Seven officers proceeded to rendezvous at Quetta, and much survey 

 work was forthwith set on foot, the more important being Captain 

 Beavan's route survey from Kandahar to Girishk on the Helmand 

 river, and Captain Rogers's route survey from Kandahar to Kalat- 

 i-Gilzai and back by the Arghandab valley. In March 1879 

 Captains Heavdside and Holdich accompanied the column under 

 General Biddulph, which was under orders to return to India by 

 the direct and hitherto unexplored route by the villages of Tal and 

 Chotiali. The rapidity of the inarches made it impossible to carry 

 a continuous triangulation across the whole breadth of country, 

 thus, after a while, Captain Holdich had to depend on his plane- 

 table alone, but the final connexion with the fixed points of the 

 Indus Series showed that the work was very accurate for a ^,-inch 

 survey. It embraced altogether about 5,000 square miles. Lieu- 

 tenant Gore carried out a survey of the Pishin valley, and Major 

 Campbell, who was the senior survey officer in Southern Afghanistan, 

 made a survey through the Shorawak valley (between Pishin and 

 the great western desert) closing on Quetta. He also surveyed 

 the Toba plateau, and his report thereon was printed for the 

 Quartermaster-General's Department. 



Captain Woodthorpe was attached to the Kuram valley column 

 under General F. Roberts, and for four months was the only Survey 

 Department officer serving with it. In March 1879 he was joined by 

 Captain Gerald Martin. Woodthorpe accompanied the first advance 

 of General Roberts's force to the Paiwar pass in November 1878, and 

 took part in the fighting on the 28th November and 2nd and 3rd 

 December. He had a marvellously narrow escape during the action 

 of the 2nd, as in the dusk of the morning he went up by mistake to 

 a breastwork occupied by the enemy, who did not discover his 

 presence till he was within six yards, when they fired a volley at 

 him . The stock of his pistol was smashed by a bullet which grazed 



I Y 20321. I 



