GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 131 



fight, a hand-to-hand affair, lasted the whole afternoon, and the 

 safety of the party was due to Mr. Scott's gallantry.* Later 

 on Mr. Scott visited the peak Sekh-ram (Sikaram), the highest 

 point of the Safed-Koh range, where he obtained observations to 

 numerous distant peaks, including a lofty pyramidical-shaped peak 

 away to the north overtopping all the surrounding peaks of the 

 Hindu Kush. The further identification of this important peak is 

 a task reserved for some future traveller. 



"While Captain Strahan was surveying near Jugdulluk pass, where 

 the remnants of the Cabul division made their last desperate stand in 

 January 1842, he found that his assistant, Akram Khan, was the son 

 of the man in whose house Captain Souter (father of Sir F. Souter of 

 Bombay) had been detained as prisoner. Akram Khan remembered 

 " Souter Sahib " and his teaching him a few English words, and 

 produced a touching letter written by Captain Souter to Captain 

 Fenwick at Jalalabad, bearing a postcript in pencil : — "I write this 

 " as I believe it to be Sunday the 30th January 1842. * * * * 

 " I have neither seen nor have been able to hold any intercourse 

 '• with Major Griffiths since the first day I arrived, now nearly three 

 " weeks — a long time to wear a bloody shirt." Captain Souter and 

 Major Griffiths were eventually taken with the other prisoners 

 into Lughman by Akbar Khan. 



The work completed by the surveyors attached to the northern 

 column covered altogether an area of about 2,200 square miles, 

 extending from Forts Michni and Jatnrud on the British frontier 

 near Peshawar to the Surkhab river west of Gundamak, and 

 including a little of the northern and most of the southern portion of 

 the basin of the Kabul river. Some blanks remained on the northern 

 slopes of the Safed-Koh in the country of the Shinwaris and 

 Khugianis, which were unavoidable owing to the conditions under 

 which the survey in an enemy's country was conducted. A good 

 deal of information was also obtained across the Kabul river in the 

 Lughman plain and neighbouring tracts. 



With respect to the lessons of the campaign, so far as survey 

 matters were concerned, one of the most difficult proved to be the 

 question of equipment and men. In a few instances it was possible 



' := Mr. Scott received a sword of honour and an honorarium from the Government 

 of the Punjab for his services in 1868. He also received an honorarium for tiie 

 exploit described above. 



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