1 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS. 351
2 and even musketry, it would appear simple, but it
3 is no such thing; there are eleven defences, I Strength of
4 believe, to get through before we reach the citadel, * "!**
5 I do not think we could get possession in less than
6 ten days after we commenced, and by that time,
7 the rains will be fairly upon us, and as we came by
8 a mountain torrent, we can’t get back that road,
9 and our baggage ean’t get back by the other, so we
10 are in a fix! This is a beautiful place, with a high
11 range bespeckled with snow close to us, from which
12 we get snow for our beer, if we had any beer for
13 our snow, but it is very scarce. The thermometer
14 ranges from 66° at sunrise, to 102° in the day-time
15 in the tents; yet I am alive and well.”
16 From this last extract, it would seem, that the
17 writer considered the place of great strength, and
18 likely to stand a siege of ten days at least, thus
19 rendering the position of the force very uncomfort-
20 able, and its return to the plains a task of some
21 difficulty. The toil of bringing guns up the bed of
22 a river, or nullah, can ‘only be conceived by those
23 who have travelled up the ascents to Malown in
24 Nepaul, where the late Sir David Ochterlony
25 planted his two guns, much to the wonder and dis-
26 may of the Goorkhas, and to the no small surprise
27 of the late Fukeer Azeezoodeen, who was then in
28 Sir David’s camp. Probably the killadar of Kangra
29 anticipated that we should experience insurmount-
30 able difficulties in bringing guns and mortars against
31 his strongholds, and so preserved his determination
32 of holding out until he should see them. The follow-