S I N D
D I V I S I O N O F T H E A R M Y .
Jemedar of Belooch guides who escorted the kafilas as far as Quetta had died of the disease
there, and from May to October cholera continued to prevail in the outlying villages between
Mustoong and Khelat. Towards the end of September cholera appeared in the town of Khelat,
a 1pace redolent with excremental nuisances, and where sanitation is studiously ignored ; the
mortality caused by it there is unknown, but 4 or 5 deaths occurred in the " Miri," and
one of His Highness the Khan's sons was carried off by the disease. The last case of
cholera occurred among the troops in September, the patient being a syce, who recovered, but
sank from exhaustion, consequent on the attack at Mastoong in October. On our return
march I can only attribute our immunity from cholera at Mustoong and Khelat, where
it raged around us for months, to our living in tents, our attention to camp sanitary
arrangements, and the scrupulous care always exercised in protecting the source of our
water-supply from contamination in addition to this the men were warned and as far
as possible prohibited from going into the infected villages but anything like quarantine or
a cordon sanitaire was impossible and out of the question.
10. On the 12th August we marched from Guranee stream to Doing two miles from
Khelat and remained at this place till October 22nd when we began our return march to the
plains by Moongoocher Mustoong and the Bolan Pass the Battery and Rifles proceeding by
the Moola Pass and rejoining us at Mittree on 29th November.
11. Mittree where we are at present encamped is about 20 miles east of the mouth of
the Bolan Pass on the right bank of the Nari river which rises in the Murree hills
and traverses the plains of Cutchee in a south-westerly direction. The surrounding country
is bare and flat and only cultivated in such places as the surface water from the hills can be
intercepted the ground sloping gently towards the banks of the Nari which in some parts
are thickly lined with tamarisk bushes. So far as our present knowledge of the propagation of
cholera goes I am now satisfied that it was by means of the water of this river that
the troops were infected with that disease in April last.
12. Cholera was raging at Seebee, in Afghanistan territory where the Nari debouchee
on the plains before the troops left Jacobabad as we heard
Origin of the cholera epidemic.
that a number of people were carried off by an epidemic there.
The disease travelled through the different villages on the river and we most probably con-
tracted it at Kunda by means of the drinking water on the 6th April—the first two seizures,
both fatal having occurred three days afterwards. On the 9th April at Bagh from which
place the water we used at kunda had been let loose for the use of the troops a few days
before and swept through the dry river-bed a distance of 40 miles and past the village of
Kassim ke Joke where cholera prevailed at the time. Since then I have learned that there
was cholera at Mittree and Hajeeke Sher so that all the villages on the river suffered from the
disease which must have been conveyed and communicated from the one to the other from
Seebee downwards throughout Cutchee by means of the drinking water from the river-bed as
there are no wells as a rule in or near the villages.
13. The river at present is very low with a sluggish current between the pools in its
bed from which our water-supply is procured the water is
W a t e r - s u p p l y .
muddy but clears on standing and after being treated with
alum and passed through ghurras is not unpalatable. The supply however is precarious as
it not only depends on the rain-fall in the hills but may be cut off entirely at Seebee where it
is dammed and used for cultivation purposes it is also open to contamination from the villages
above us as well as from herds of camels and cattle and flocks of sheep and goats that are
daily watered in the different pools. Wells should therefore be sunk along the banks of the
river without delay whenever the site for the permanent camp is selected.
14. The left bank of the Nari would I think be preferable for a station to the right
being less liable to be flooded from the hills in the direction of Dadur and there is a suitable
piece of high ground above the " Izat Sha" tombs nearly opposite where we are at present
encamped that might answer the purpose of a site for a cantonment there is also an eligible
spot about a mile above us on the right bank where the river takes a sharp turn to the east
and forms deep pools which might be utilized as feeders to wells dug near them—an import-
ant matter where water is scarce but the ground would have to be protected from the hill
floods by a ditch and an embankment to the west.
15. Two tents were found insufficient for hospital accommodation one was wholly taken
up by the hospital stores and hospital assistants so that
Recommendation. there was only one available for the use of the sick. There
ought to be at least four tents to each regiment and if constructed to open at both ends they
could be more easily ventilated. I have frequently had occasion during the march to borrow
some of the regimental tents for hospital use and during the cholera epidemic I had grass
huts built which answered the purpose remarkably well. I think the hospital
e s t a b l i s h –
ment should be provided with separate tent accommodation.
B
196-34