32 
MOUNTAIN GUNS 
tor 
INDIAN FRONTIER SERVICE. 
BY 
CAPT. E. WALSH, R.A. 
The experience gained in tlie recent operations against the Jawaki 
Afriedies would seem to indicate the advisability of supplementing our 
mountain artillery with more powerful guns than the 7-pr. M.L.R., with 
which the mountain batteries on the Punjab frontier are now armed. 
This subject has already attracted the attention of several expe¬ 
rienced officers, and it is possible that a gun such as that invented by 
Lt.-Col. 0. B. Le Mesurier, R.A., may supersede the 7-pr. M.L.R. of 
200 lbs. In the meantime, however, it behoves us to consider how to 
make the best use of guns immediately available—such as, for instance, 
the 9-pr. M.L.R. of 6 cwt. 
In the campaign above referred to, four of these guns, carried on 
elephants and manned by gunners of “I” Batt., “ C ” Bde., E.H.A., 
accompanied the Peshawar Field Force, and played an important part 
in the capture of the Shergadra Heights, as well as in the subsequent 
operations in the Bori Yalley, and I think I cannot better illustrate my 
subject than by giving a brief account of their performances. 
The battery marched out of Peshawar at 10 a.m. on the 2nd Dec., 
1877, and, notwithstanding the slippery state of the road, and several 
deep ravines which had to be crossed, reached Fort Mackeson before 
sunset on the same day. 
In the morning of the 3rd December a slight reconnaissance was 
made in the direction of “ Kundas,^ and the enemy was found to have 
taken up a strong position on the Shergadra Ridge, which 
separates the Bori from the Peshawar Yalley, over which it has an 
average command of 1200 ft. The general direction of this ridge is 
east and west. It is steep and rugged, and sparsely covered with 
brushwood, consisting of wild olive and “ sinutta ” bushes. The crest 
is covered with rocks and loose boulders, which were turned to good 
account by the enemy in the construction of “ surgahs,” or rude 
breastworks. 
In the afternoon of the 3rd the 40-pr. battery, with a strong escort 
