74

INDIA

and within the limits of those 50 the actual banks of
the river are seldom approached. Travelling from
Peshawur westwards, the course of the river is left far
to the north. It is here that it forms a curve, or loop,
extending into the mountain districts occupied by the
Mohmands, all of which is hidden amidst the declivities
of such a series of rugged and impassable defiles that
nothing short of an engineering process of great complexity
 and difficulty could carve out a practicable route
for wheels along its banks. Passing into the Khaibar,
a few miles west of the little frontier fortress of Jamrud,
the traveller is conducted over an excellent road passing
under the shadow of the hill fortress of Ali Masjid, until,
crossing a small subsidiary watershed at Lundi Kotal
(3600 feet), it touches the limits of our frontier near
Lundi Khana. So far we hold a narrow line passing
through independent territory, steeply enclosed (for the
most part) by lofty mountains inhabited by Afridi and
Afghan Pathans who overlook and dominate the road;
the former of whom have hitherto enjoyed the undivided
 responsibility of keeping it open for traffic both
in the trade interests of Afghanistan and the military
interests of India. At Lundi Khana (or very close thereto)
the territories of the Amir and those of British India
actually meet; and dropping down from the pass (or
Kotal) to Dakka, the route passes into Afghanistan. The
road is a good and sound highway, and so continues to
Kabul ; for it is to the interests of the Amir that the old
line of communication of the Afghan war of 1878-79
should be maintained in fair order, and the Amir is ever
ready to recognise the paramount importance of trade
interests to his impoverished country. From Dakka to
Jalalabad the road traverses the comparatively open
plains which lie at the foot of the northern slopes of the
great lateral range of Safed Koh, and here and there
touches the banks of the Kabul River, but from a little
beyond Jalalabad, at which point the Kabul and the
Kunar (the river of Chitral) unite, the road again diverges,
leaving the Kabul River to water the Laghman plains to