Sir George Robertson, in his _Chitral_, says that “food is so scarce that a fat man has never yet been seen in the country; even the upper classes look underfed, and the most effective of bribes is a full meal. The hill tracks, which form the main lines of communication, are seldom easy; they are often difficult, sometimes dangerous.”
The country is watered by the river which goes in its northern course indifferently by the names of the Yarkhun, the Mastuj or the Chitral River, and which, flowing from a glacier of the Hindu Kush, runs south-westerly to Asmar, where it becomes known as the Kunar River, and falls into the Kabul River near Jalalabad. During its course it receives the drainage of numerous valleys on either side, and is spanned by many rope bridges, by several untrustworthy native-built bridges, usually constructed on a rough cantilever principle, and by good suspension bridges at important crossings, such as Chitral, Mastuj, Drosh and other places. “Even when the rivers are moderately placid and shallow, the fords,” Sir George Robertson tells us, “are always bad, because of the boulders and stones in their beds; they are frequently devious also; and, consequently, always require a guide. It is dangerous to miss the proper line, for then one is liable to be carried into deep, heavy water, or to find oneself in a quicksand.”[79]
There are two main routes from Chitral to India: that which has been followed in the preceding chapter, from Chitral over the Lowari Pass, through Dir and Swat, and across the Malakand to railhead at Dargai; and another from Chitral across the Shandur Pass to the Gilgit road, and thence through Kashmir and the Jhelum Valley to the rail at Rawal Pindi. Those passes leading to the north or to the west are for the most part very difficult; some are impracticable for pack animals, some are only passable at all during certain brief seasons of the year; others again could only be crossed by a lightly equipped force of selected troops under unusually favourable circumstances. The Baroghil Pass (12,460 feet), which leads out of the Yarkhun Valley into Wakhan, is practicable for laden animals during eight months of the year, and climbs over what Holdich calls “the comparatively easy slopes of the flat-backed Hindu Kush.” Many passes, but all more or less difficult, lead from Chitral into Kafiristan, while that leading from Chitral to Upper Badakshan—the Dorah Pass (14,800 feet)—is much trodden, and is used by laden animals as a commercial link between the Kunar Valley and Badakshan. It is open from July to September, and has been crossed as late as early in November.