1 188 PIONEERS LENT BY GEN. AVITABILE.
2 since it has been used and improved by General
3 . Avitabile, themresent governor of Peshawr, who,
4 having no further occasion .for the pioneers
5 whom he had been employing there and at At-
6 tok, allowed Lieutenant-Colonel Wade to take
7 them from him ; and they proved of the greatest
8 service to us in erecting stockades and clearing
9 the way through Khaibar for artillery. They
10 were afterwards increased to two hundred and
11 fifty men, and put in charge of an officer.
12 About the middle of the pass is situated a Burj,
13 or tower, on a height to the left. A party of
14 sepoys is always established here to protect
15 -the road, which formerly was infested by the
16 Khatak people who occupy the neighbouring
17 hills; but they are apparently now on good
18 terms with the Sikhs. The rest of the road
19 was good, but here and there spread over with
20 stones. About three and a half kos from the
21 last encamping ground we passed the dry bed
22 of a Nala. During the floods it swells very
23 extremity of a jutting crag, paced to and fro on their ele-
24 vated and confined posts, and added much to the pic-
25 turesqueness of the effect.” —Barr’s Journal, p. 200.