136 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 



carried from a trigonometrical station on the frontier near Kusmore 

 along the Dera Bugti road, via the Bolan Pass, Quetta, and Kandahar 

 to Girishk on the Helmand on the one side, and to Kalat-i-Ghilzai 

 on the other. Captains Heaviside and Holdich were subsequently 

 attached to General Biddulph's column, which was returning to 

 India by what is often called the Tal-Chotiali route, an important 

 and direct line of communication between Multan and the Pishin 

 valley, by which it had been originally intended that the Multan 

 column should enter Afghanistan. The reconnaissance was a very 

 rapid one, the average rate of marching being 12 miles a day, but 

 a fair survey on the J-inch scale was nevertheless secured, embracing 

 about 5,000 square miles.* 



On completion of the survey of Pishin, Lieutenant Gore proceeded 

 to Kandahar, via the Barghaua route, which had not been previously 

 surveyed, and mapped that route as well as a good deal of the 

 surrounding country about Kandahar, and along the banks of the 

 Argandab and Dori rivers to their junction. He also extended 

 the triangulation towards the important village of Girishk, where 

 the road to Herat crosses the Helmaud river. An examination of 

 part of the Arghastan valley above its junction with the Lora was 

 also made, and the fact was elicited from natives that the latter 

 river takes the overflow drainage from Lake Ab-i-istadeh, and on 

 such occasions becomes very salt. 



In the spring of 1880 Lieutenant Gore set out with the 1st Brigade 

 of Sir Donald Stewart's force to Kabul, and advanced up the 

 Tarnak valley. In the valley of the Ghazni river the famous battle 

 of Ahmed-Khel was fought, and here much inconvenience was 

 experienced, from a surveyor's point of view, owing to the difficulty 

 of obtaining guides. "When the fighting commenced, Lieutenant 

 Gore's Hazara guide was with difficulty restrained from making oft' 

 to get his share of the plunder. At last a richly-caparisoned horse 

 trotting past proved too much for his cupidity and he finally 

 decamped. Up to Shahjui, in lat, 32° 31', Lieutenant Gore's work 

 was based on trigonometrically fixed points, but beyond he had to 

 rely on plane-table fixings and traversing until he joined Major 

 Woodthorpe's work in the Wardak valley above Ghazni. 



Major Leach, who had been invalided to Europe in consequence 

 of a wound in the first campaign, was sent to Kandahar on his 

 return, and executed some useful reconnaissances in the Argandab 



* A picturesque description of the country was given by General Sir M. A. Biddulph 

 before the Royal Geographical Society on the 9th February 1880. The paper in the 

 Proceedings (p. 212) is illustrated «'iih numerous sketches of the country. 



