The Chitral campaign : a narrative of events in Chitral, Swat, and Bajour . purchased 3,026 ; total25,172. Besides these the elephants belonging tothe Campbellpore elephant battery w^ere made useof to take up the twelve pontoons for the permanentbridge over the Swat river. That pontoons shouldbe able to be sent across the Malakand Pass atall says a great deal for the excellence of the roadmade over it by Major Abbot, R. E. The elephants were a great source of wonder-ment to the Swatis, who had never seen any of the officers of the ist Brigade one afternoon,when there was no work for
The Chitral campaign : a narrative of events in Chitral, Swat, and Bajour . purchased 3,026 ; total25,172. Besides these the elephants belonging tothe Campbellpore elephant battery w^ere made useof to take up the twelve pontoons for the permanentbridge over the Swat river. That pontoons shouldbe able to be sent across the Malakand Pass atall says a great deal for the excellence of the roadmade over it by Major Abbot, R. E. The elephants were a great source of wonder-ment to the Swatis, who had never seen any of the officers of the ist Brigade one afternoon,when there was no work for them to do, amusedhimself bv takinor them over to a Sw^ati villao-e andgiving the children rides upon their backs. Atravelled graybeard who was there kept saying tothe other villagers, I told you I had seen ananimal in India with a long nose ; you w-ouldntbelieve me, but here it is, It should be remembered to the credit of therailway authorities, who, as a rule, come in formuch undeserved reviling on account of unav^oid-able delays, that their organisation stood the un-. TRANSPORT DIFFICULTIES 247 usual strain so well that in spite of the congestionof traffic caused by the despatch to Nowshera of somany animals, and of such enormous quantities ofsupplies, it was never found necessary to suspendthe ordinary passenger traffic between Lahore andPeshawar, One of the minor difficulties the transport officershad to contend with was the shipment of had never before been railed in largenumbers, and it was anticipated that they would givemuch trouble ; but these fears fortunately provedgroundless. They were made to kneel down inopen trucks—four in each truck, with a cameldriver to look after them, and presented a verycomical appearance with their ugly heads a-bobbinglike a bucket full of snakes. It was difficult to obtain as many animals as wererequired for so large a force in the short timeallowed for mobilisation, and the Imperial ServiceTransport trains volunteered by
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidchitralcampa, bookyear1895
