Mastuj fort is about ninety yards square, and is built of masonry and woodwork, in the same manner as are all the forts in these parts. The walls are about twenty-five feet high, but at the time of the siege were in a dilapidated condition, for the place had only been temporarily occupied by the British as a residence for the political agent and his escort pending the decision of the Government as regards our permanent policy towards Chitral. And unfortunately a very severe earthquake in the previous year had shaken the walls very nearly to pieces. At that time I was the political agent there, and a little incident which occurred while the earthquake was taking place is worth recording as an instance of the steadiness of the native troops. Lieutenant Gurdon, the officer in command of the escort of Sikhs, and myself were seated in a room of the fort when we suddenly felt the whole place shaking. But earthquakes are common in Chitral and we did not at first move, till we heard stones crashing down outside and the whole room tossing about like a cabin on board ship. Then we dashed out of the door to the courtyard, and as we did so passed a sentry, who quietly proceeded to present arms in salute as if nothing was happening. The mountains round were in a cloud of dust from the avalanches of rock set rolling down their sides by the earthquake, and the rickety walls of the fort tumbling on all sides; but all this did not disturb the Sikh sentry; his sense of discipline was so ingrained that he saluted as usual, in the ordinary, everyday manner. The Mastuj fort is situated on the edge of a sloping plain running down from the hill-side which at one point approaches to within about 400 yards of the fort. The enemy occupied a row of houses some 300 yards from the fort, which they loopholed, and from these commenced firing upon the fort. They also built sangars at a distance of 800 yards, but the garrison succeeded in silencing their fire by aiming volleys into them; and on one occasion Punyali levies were sent out at night to whitewash the loopholes of sangars out of which the enemy had been driven during the day, so that it would be possible for the garrison to aim correctly if the enemy attempted to reoccupy them. The enemy did subsequently come back to the sangars, but only to be driven out again by the carefully-aimed fire from the garrison.