The amount of ammunition in hand on the 30th of March was 29,224 rounds of Martini-Henry ammunition--_i.e._ 356 rounds per rifle for eighty-two effective sepoys and fourteen Sikhs. Besides this, there were 68,587 rounds of Snider ammunition in hand for 261 effective men of the Kashmir Infantry, that is to say, 262 rounds per rifle for these. There were now fit for duty 343 rifles in all. By these the following guards and pickets had to be furnished:--
Main gate 10 Parapet 40 (10 on each parapet) Water pickets 20 " tower 25 Stable picket 20 Water-gate guard 10 Guard over Amir-ul-Mulk 6 " " Chitralis at night 4 " on ammunition 6 " " garden gate 6 " " four towers 24 ---- Total 171
Thus only 172 rifles were available with which to make a sortie. The strength of the guards had been reduced to the lowest number compatible with safety, and out of 172, at least thirty-five would be required for an inlying picket. The garrison now had supplies to the amount of 45,000 pounds of grain, which would last the number of persons in the fort seventy-four days, or up to the 13th of June, at the rate of 540 pounds a day. Some allowance for wastage would necessarily have to be made. There were only left thirty-six pounds of the clarified butter which native soldiers require so much. And this was kept for the sick and wounded, and for lights at guards in the fort, and even then would only last another twelve days. After that it was known that the already heavy sick-list would be greatly increased, for the men were all the time on half rations, and were getting little else than this clarified butter. Stenches in the stables, too, in which were situated the latrines, were terrible, and a picket of twenty-five men had to be placed there every night, as it lay on the water-way. There was still a little rum left, and some tea, and the Sikhs were given one dram of rum every four days, and the Kashmir Infantry were given a tea ration every third day.
The enemy made a new sangar on the opposite bank of the river on the 31st of March, at a distance of only 175 yards from the place where the garrison had to take the water from the river. The enemy showed the greatest skill in the construction and defence of their sangars, making regular zigzag approaches after the manner of our own engineers, excavating trenches, and building up breastworks of fascines, stones, and earth. The defenders replied by placing screens of tents to conceal the men going down to the water, so that the enemy should not be able to see when any one was on the way to the river's edge. More beams were also put outside the water-gate, to protect the doorway from the fire of the riflemen on the opposite bank of the river.