On the right bank, between the upper waters of the Oxus and Charog, there is the post of Langar Kisht where the Russians maintain one company of thirty men with a maxim gun. Charog itself, which is opposite Kala Bar Panja, is the principal post of the Russians in the region of the Pamirs. Here the strength of the garrison varies according to the season of the year. During the winter months the muster is fifty Cossacks with four officers and a maxim detachment. Two maxims and a single mountain gun have been mounted on the ramparts covering the river. Charog is connected with Fort Murghabi by a road along the Alichur Pamir and the banks of the Ghund Daria; built of clay, wood and stone, it possesses earthworks of an enduring character. Additional accommodation is in course of construction, as it is intended to establish quarters there for one battalion of troops. The winter strength of the Russian force in the Pamirs is 500 men; this will be raised to 1000 men so soon as the requisite barracks have been erected at Charog and Fort Murghabi. The probable disposition of the force will put 300 men into each of the three forts at Tashkurgan, Charog and Murghabi, the remaining 100 being detailed by companies to the smaller posts of Langar Kisht, Aktash and Kizil Rabat. At Kala Wanj there was an establishment of 300 levies from the native army of the Amir of Bokhara, a further detachment from the same establishment and similar in strength, being in garrison at Kala Wamar. At Kala-Khum, occupied by 1000 men, there was one native regiment. Along the reach of the Middle Oxus the same arrangement held good, native troops being distributed among all ferry and customs posts, constituting a useful supplement to the Russian troops in the riverine areas. Hitherto the employment of the Bokharan levies for garrison and frontier duty in Darwaz, Shignan and Roshan has been quite a feature of the Russian disposition along the Oxus. Drilled by Russian instructors and armed with modern weapons these territorial troops are regarded by the Russians as the equal of the Afghan soldiery. In war, they would be expected to relieve the regular forces of a multitude of fatigues and thus leave the energies and numbers of the Russian command unimpaired by that slow process of attrition by which, in the main, the fighting strength of an army becomes so quickly exhausted. Quite lately these posts have been taken over by the regular forces, the native troops being withdrawn for service in the Khanate. It has been always unlikely that, in the event of hostilities, the Russians would permit levies to take the field against the Afghan forces. [Illustration: AFGHAN POST AT KALA PANJA _Photo, Olufsen_]