CHAPTER XVI.


We were now about to explore a part of Toorkisth[=a]n which I have
reason to believe had never been visited by Europeans; the distance
between Ghoree and Badjgh[=]ar is about eighty miles, across as wild
and romantic a country as can well be conceived, consisting of a
succession of difficult and in some places perilous defiles; the last
of these was the famous Dushti Suffaed, which leads to Badjgh[=a]r.
There is a sameness in the features of these Toorkisth[=a]n passes
which renders a faithful description tedious, from its monotony and
the necessary repetition of similar characteristic features; yet the
reader will hardly fail to draw important conclusions from the immense
difficulty and almost practical impossibility that a modern army
of considerable numbers, with all its incumbrances, through such a
country, with any hope of its retaining its efficiency or even a
tithe of its original numerical strength, will encounter. And when we
consider that the passes of Toorkisth[=a]n embrace only a small part
of the distance to be traversed by an army from the west, we may
well dismiss from our minds that ridiculous impression, once so
unfortunately prevalent in India, that is now justly denominated
_Russophobia_. What a fearful amount of human suffering might have
been averted! what national disgrace might have been avoided! and what
millions of treasure saved, had the authorities in India but examined
the practicability of an invasion which Russia had too much wisdom
ever seriously to contemplate!