the Takht would be sanctioned for purely scientific purposes, except under guarantees which no highland Afghan tribe had ever yet voluntarily given; and as to the use of pressure, that was out of the question. The people of India are free, and the independent hillmen beyond are if possible freer. What, then, was to be done? The heads of departments were clamorous for the expedition. The Commander-in-Chief, the Quarter-master-General both Scotchmen,[1] by the way, who have achieved fame – and the Surveyor-General represented the urgency of the case to the Lieut.-Governor of the Punjab another Scotchman[2] who has deservedly won his spurs – and he even admitted the extreme desirability of the exploration and survey of the mountain; but, true to the policy of his Government, he declined to recommend action to the Government of India until a fitting opportunity should present itself.
At this juncture the able officer of the Survey Department mentioned at the beginning of this paper, considered it time to depute himself on a delicate mission to Dera Ismail Khán to further excite the enthusiasm of the local civil authorities there in the cause he had at heart. Like a prudent diplomatist, he first enlisted the vote and interest of a certain lady in his cause, who with himself and myself forthwith laid our heads together to arrange a plan of action under which Government would be able to consent to place the theodolite on Solomon's Throne without departing from its declared policy. Like true conspirators, we met seldom, and when we met we spoke little. Our prospects were at first too gloomy. We looked often enough at the provoking mountain, whose snow-covered slopes glistered in the morning sun so invitingly, yet so defiantly, pure and inviolable as a chaste virgin. We looked and looked, and every time we did so a deeper chagrin fell upon us. One day we passed an important resolution: we resolved that, officially and unofficially, we should, for diplomatic reasons, substitute the word "excursion" for "expedition." After that we advanced rapidly. Hindu, Mohammedan, and Sikh had each in succession ruled over Derah's broad plains; but to all three the Takht had been as an untaken fortress. Was it to remain a monument of reproach for us also? Pilgrims from Dera Ismail Khán had sat on Solomon's Throne, and had sometimes returned to their homes alive afterwards. Those who had done so described the distance from the border as a short two days' journey, and related wondrous tales of the sealed mysteries of the pine-clad basin which connects the northern and southern peaks. Westwards of the main range lies the Zhob Valley, described seventy-eight years ago as "the great caravan route to Candahar." The whole of this region was still a blank space in our maps. The inhabitants of the Takht – an Afghan tribe called Shiranis – and all their neighbours enjoyed free intercourse with British territory, and bartered the raw produce of their hills – the seed of the edible pine, which grows in forests in the upper plateaux of the range, wool of their sheep and goats, skins, live stock, and timber for cloth goods and
