THE ARTILLERY IN CHITRAL. 509 
The Derajat battery occupied two positions and fired 18 ring and 
28 shrapnel shell, making good practice and very quickly dispersing 
the enemy. The latter at one period had occupied a small fort on a 
high bank of the river from which they were directing a very harassing. 
fire on our cavalry in the river bed. ‘The battery turned its fire on to 
the fort—range 1850 yards—and a few shell were burst just over the 
parapet with the result that the enemy were quickly seen streaming out 
at the back—a striking difference from the tenacity with which they 
stuck to their sungurs on the Malakand under fire of three batteries. 
This was the last action of the campaign. Next morning (18th 18th April. 
April) Mundia was occupied without a shot being fired, Umra Khan 
and his following haying left for Afohanistan the previous evening. 
On arrival at Mundia, General Low, having received news that the 
Chitral garrison were in great straits, ordered General Gatacre to push 
on with all possible speed with a flying column consisting of— 
The Buffs. 
4th Ghoorkas. 
No. 2 (Derajat) Mountain Battery. 
x No. 4 Company Bengal Sappers and Miners. 
2 Maxim Guns. 
The Derajat battery drew on No. 8 Mountain Battery to fill up its 
deficiencies of ammunition. 
This column moved forward the same evening starting at 3 p.m. and 
arriving at dusk at its camp near Barwa—about 10 miles—the battery 
mules having been saddled for 12 hours. 
On 19th April the column started to cross the Janbatai Pass. From 19th April. 
the accounts given by Lieutenants Fowler and Edwards, who had been 
brought along this road, it was thought that the pass was a fairly easy 
one. It proved to be anything but easy. The troops took from. 
5.30 a.m to 4.30 p.m. to reach the top while very little of the transport 
got up at all that day. The Buffs went down the other side of the 
pass for a distance, but the Derajat Battery and the Ghoorkas bivouacked 
on the summit of the hill that overhung us. 
One incident of the bivouac was connected with some doombas (moun- 
tain sheep) the joint property of the G.O.C. and the Political officers. 
Somehow these sheep strayed and were never found. Many a hungry 
officer thanked his patron saint that night for a mouthful of mutton : 
but the brigade orders next day contained some very stringent orders 
under the marginal heading of ‘loot.’ ” : 
On 20th April the baggage all came up and the Battery moved on and 20th April. 
joined the rest of the force at Bandagai—about & miles ahead. 
On 21st the column started at 5.80 a.m. to try and get to Dir—about 21st April. 
23 miles. ‘The march was a most trying one, constant stoppages being 
made while the sappers made the road practicable. At last, at 7 p.m., 
the advanced portion of the column halted for the night at Kotke, two 
miles short of Dir, while the remainder halted afew miles further back, 
half the battery being with each. A heavy thunderstorm, about 4 p.m., 
drenched every one to the skin and made the going worse than ever. 
The advanced party fared best as they came in for a square meal 
provided by the Khan of Dir consisting of cooked delicacies for the 
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