Pass, where there was not a breath to disturb the meagre foliage, we
were suddenly surprized by a bleak piercing wind, which we were told
invariably blew across the table land on which the fort is built.
Although in the height of summer, the wind was intensely cold, and we
were glad to take into wear the scanty supply of winter clothing which
we had brought with us in case of emergency. Out of the stream running
in front of the fort in less than an hour I managed to take a few
well-flavoured trout, which swallowed my bait most greedily. From
Surruk Durrah to Akrob[=a]d the road was, comparatively speaking,
good, it being under the superintendence of Lieut. Broadfoot, who
had been directed to make it practicable for artillery as far as
Sygh[=a]n; he had made good progress in his work, and at the period I
write of, it was a very fair military road as far as Akrob[=a]d. Poor
Broadfoot was slain in the gallant and desperate charge made by the
officers of the 2d Bengal Cavalry at Purw[=a]n Durrah, of which I
hope in the proper place to be able to give the reader a slight
description.

The hills about Akrob[=a]d are so situated as to form a funnel for all
the winds of the snowy range, rendering the temperature of the little
table-land bitterly cold both in summer and winter--so much so in
winter, that the Huz[=a]reh inhabitants desert the fort in autumn for
some more sheltered locality, and return again with the spring.

We now entered Toorkisth[=a]n, the pass of Akrob[=a]d dividing it from
Affghanist[=a]n. Should the traveller form his opinion of the country
beyond by the specimen now before us, he would be loth indeed to
proceed, for a more dismal corner can hardly be conceived. The outline
of the adjacent mountains was dreary and uninviting, with very little
cultivation in the valley, which also bore a most desolate aspect--it