| Show THE GREAT AMEER MOST AUTOCRATIC MONARCH ON tAHTH the niter 01 Afghanltn h iteweece 1111 and 110 Ills t tussey Ae eerding to the 111 or the teople ul The LAd Lod I UK Amccr of Af LAdif ghanlsuin who wan I if al nm impeded of complicity with the Indian bonier trou l II but whose In niKenre ii I now well established It I one I of the mOlt autocratic t f cratic monarch In s the world Nut the czar of lluitlo l nor the sultan of Turkey It I more absolute In authority Yet he Is I or make himself him-self curiously subject to the will of the people In some respects A few years ago he greatly desired vlilt HngUii and other European countries and the Ilrltlsh government was aniloni that ho ihoulj do 10 Hut lio illd not venture ven-ture to do ao without the consent 11 hU eople Bo he took a plblicltum on he subject He lint a prmlamatl 10 every vlllige In hit empire Ullltii what be wanted to do and explaining he advantage that would accrue to him and to the empire from such a 1 tour and asking the people to lake a rote on the subject and let him know the result So the question was HIV milled to universal suffrage After a few weeks the returns were Ml In anJ were counted and It Ill found that a considerable majority of the people were opposed to Mi leaving the country coun-try lie was disappointed but annul rued In the will of the people and stayed at home sending Ills second ton to Hngland In his place The Khyber Pass the northwestern gateway of Ilrltlsh India and one nf the four chief passes which unite the British possession with Iho Ameera territory Is I a narrow winding defile wending between cliff of shale sort limestone rock COO to 1000 tel liljli which run through the Khyber range the northernmost spurs of the Hated Koh Mountains between Peshawar and Jdlalabad IU highest point Is I 3400 feet above the sea on the ridge con fleeting the Khyber with the Sated Koh range and forming the watershed of two mall dreams the one flowing northwest to Jellalabad and the Kabul river the other southeasttowardt Jam rwo the last British outpost ten and a half miles from Peshawar The pus Has along the beds of these torrents and especially In July and August Ii I subject to sudden floods The gradient la I generally easy except at the Land Khans Pass hut It Is I covered with loose stones which become larger as the head of the stream la c afer To the north of the defile Ilea the hitcher range to the south the lIra Spur of the Sated Koh divide It from the IUra Valley the river of Peshawar Tbe mountains which abut It In vary In height from 0000 to 7000 feet Hero and there on the vast promontorlm of rock which run out Into the defile this Buddhist I Dagobo monument of the time a century after Alexander the Great when the great doctrine of Bakya Muni reigned throughout Noah em India Here and there written stones bearing OraecoUactrlom Inscriptions In-scriptions are to be eon In the mountains moun-tains while dolmen of unknown origin disposed 1l11 rings resembling the atone circlet of Stonehenge rise at the entrance en-trance of tributary gorges The following details aro condensed from General MacOregor1 olflvlal 10 count of the pass Immediately on leaving Jamrud 1670 feet a fort with three encircling Wall of stone which stands 100 fret above the valley tho defensible ground mar be sold to begin aa the spurs come almost up to that place In round bare knolls of low height but very ifU lcnt command of the road Kadam however how-ever a tillage on a hilltop three mlei from Jaoruil It I looked on as tbe real eastern entry of the paaa Thence to All Musjld C43 feet It I eight tolled At first the bed of the paul la may level and covered with mall shingle but the Mill coon close In the gorge nor rows first to n width of 370 feet the I hills on Blither side being shear preel plow and then gradually to 70 fret where It runt In a cleft between lofty precipices Opening out again to 310 feet It narrows to 40 feet at All ln Miinjld I the hills I being perpendicular I and rise cMlhlo To nil appearance they are Inaccessible the whole way from Ka I dam but In reality they ran be crowned In placo All Miujld Is strongly for ilfled and held by a detachment of Khyber Khy-ber lllflM levied from among the At I fill tribe who are now fighting against us Between All MusJId and Ivindl I Khnnn 24SS fret the road Min through n valley varying In width from 270 to 190 feet between hills on the left precipitous on the right comparathe ly easy but In the talibcg valley about one and n half miles lone the road narrows nar-rows to ten feet the hills bring quite perpendicular Itejond thin the road roes over I indl Khans Pass the width being 140 fret and the hills being my Steep especially on the left The top of the pans Is I at landl hotel SX7J retwhich la I strongly garrisoned Ten miles further on Is I Dhaka 1401 feet where the defile opens Into the plain of Jellalahad 1 The accent over the Landl Khans Pans Is I narrow rugged steep and generally the most difficult point of the whole road luna could not be drawn here except by men thee the-e It over n wellmade road and tdi aJ lt od r not to difficult I Just beyond All Mli jld the road Passes over a head of projecting pro-jecting and slippery rock which makes this portion extremely difficult for ltd enrd animal The whole length of the post from Jamrud to Dhaka It I thirty three miles Prom Jrllalabad a road run up the valley nf the Kounar river to Kaflrlstan which Affords an easy communication through Chltral with the ItiiHlan frontier on the Uxii The Khyber ran bo turned by the Tatara road which goes to the north nf the range from Jamrud to Dhaka In time of peace the trade In the Khyber Is I secured by the tribute paid to the At rldls who undertake to keep the past open on Tuesdays and Fridays and It has thus become the main road for communication com-munication between India and Afghanistan Afghan-istan rrt r i iI I I I z t c I + rr r ASiErIt OF AFYIIIANISTAN |
