Seistan Military Mission.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7982, 20 November 1905, Page 2

Seistan Military Mission.

TKHKIHLK 11 AHUSllll'S. A thrilling' account of 'the hardships encountered ley the Seistan Jlis, sion, which, under Colonel A. Jt. .Mac.Mahon and ten other llritish ollirers, was entrusted with 'the work of demarcating the boundary between Afghanis-tan ami Persia in Seistan. is furnished liy recent reports.

A large portion of the boundary lay through absolute waterless anil unknown desert, the remainder being dense marsh, swamp, and inundated count ry. To lix this 'Jim miles occupied l.Vm men for two and a half years, al a cost of live lives l of lifty members of the mission. l Starting from (Jnettah, the mission proceeded through Afghan tcrrilory ,",U miles, the Journey occupying live weeks The temperature was very low, with the iherm.om.Qtcr' \ all four degrees above zero, and frightful blizzards were encountered. Three ineni were frozen to death, and a tininlier of animals died, That tile Work,* should have been accomplished in face of strong liussifin opposition, intrigue and misrelil'esentaiion is an important obiectesson lo Persia, and has proved « serious blow to Russian prestige itnd influence.

Last winter all iho jackals, will which Scislaii abounds, for suin« imi known cause went mad, ami attackec men null animals. Tin- disease nls, .prend to the wolves, who i.lovc great hiivuc. F • members (if lln mission were -bitten, one of whou dial of hydrophobia. Our wild night in .March ]i\sl, during- « hliz/.jird blowing at a velocity of 120 mile: ail hour, a mini wolf wl lacked tin camp of the Camel Corps, and hit seventy-eight camels ami one horse-forly-eight of thu camels and (In horse died of hydrophobia. On another occasion a horde of mad wolves tried mi'su;cces!sfu.ll,.v 1,0 rush the camp. The' Seisvans. themselves were so overcome by terror of these mad animals that they ■actually killed oil all but a very few of thvii dogs, on whom tlire depend for safe l.v and security at. night. One of the most tragic was the death of an Indian surveyoi while on duly in the waterless .'lesert of ]>nsht-l-Alargo, which chart never before lieen {isited or surveyed. 11, ventured too far from' water, ami 'owing to thi! intense heat was unable either |.o niciVfi forward or la retrace his steps, lie had seven of his followers paid the penally, with their lives, and the : Inciilciu was marked by the heroism of one of his men, who. seeing the surveyor die, determined to rescue the map for which so manv lives had been given lie cut it. off from the hoard of t he plane (able, and knowing he could it under his vaistclotli rouod His

Then lie blindly started northward in the hope of reaching water. The four men who started with him collapsed, and he himself remembers no more than coming to consciousness at night timo lying in a pool of water by the Khash Hivcr.) J lore lm was found by a wandering Afghan, who carried him on his back to an Afghan Village, where Ids life was saved, after receiving careful ■attention. The -bodies of his unfortunate | companions were afterwards discovered ijj a completely mummified ton. ilit ion. In K'oliak the maximum summer temperature was .11!) in -the shade, and on the road back along the Nushi-Scistun route in May and June last the temperature rose, to 1.22, as a result of which one man and a largo number of animals died. The mission suffered greatly from .the terrible .winds of Siislan, especially while under canvas. The wind,' known as the "120 days' wind," bemuse if blows almost unceasingly for four manths, will never, be forgotten. During the summer this wind attains a velocity of anything up to seventy miles an hour, and it is impossible to. venture out except perhaps for an hour in live evening, when it slightly moderates The air is full -of dust and salt, ami is , extremely painful. In Ihe winter lerrilic blizzards are the. common experience. 'the last visitation,of this sorli was on March 29 of this year, when the, temperature dropped to four above zero, and the wind registered 120 miles. In that storm (jot) camels were killed, but their corpses disappeared in oil incredibly short lime, as the Seis: tans, wdio are always anxious to get flesh, rushed in and \speedily demolished them.