Note 231 — Chapter IV

A writer in the Calcutta Review says: “Major Pottinger told us that when the retreat was decided on, and no attention was paid to his, Lawrence’s, and Conolly’s advice to concentrate in the Balla Hissar, he urged the officers to have all the old horse-clothing, &c., cut into strips, and rolled round the soldiers’ feet and ankles after the Afghan fashion, as a better protection against snow than the mere hard leather shoes. This he repeatedly urged, but in vain, and within a few hours the frost did its work. Major Pottinger said that there was not an Afghan around them who had not his legs swathed in rags as soon as the snow began to fall.”