Regiments are occasionally drawn up on parade and fire volleys of blank cartridges; but there are no rifle ranges at which the men are trained to shoot. Some batteries of artillery occasionally have target practice: but this is more to test guns than actual training. Those artillerymen whom I have seen at practice were very erratic in their shooting, and were seldom nearer than fifty yards of the object fired at, and when their general sighted a gun himself and got the target at two thousand yards, he was so pleased that he had to walk up and down for a few minutes. The reason men are not trained in shooting is, I think, because in Afghanistan among all classes of men a cartridge is looked upon as a cartridge, and not a thing to be used without necessity. The only good shots I have seen are the workmen who test all rifles and guns as they are turned out of the shops. I have sometimes, when practising, given the small rifle I was using to one or other of the soldiers with me to try a shot, and in no case was any man at all near the target. The hillmen who are more accustomed to shooting and are sometimes good shots, lie down and rest the rifle on a rock when firing. The Amir’s bodyguard, foot and cavalry, are the only regiments properly uniformed, and the Amir sees that they keep their uniforms clean, and their arms too. The foot-guards are armed with Lee-Metford rifles and bayonets, and the horse-guards with revolvers, swords, and carbines. Of the other troops, a few regiments of the most trusted men are armed with Martinis, and the rest have Sniders. The artillery batteries have six and nine pounder guns, and there are some mule batteries with six and three pounders, but the guns are badly sighted and of short range, the fuzes also are unreliable, and the shells of small efficiency, so that the artillery cannot be considered very formidable. The mules and horses used for the artillery and transport are strong and sturdy, and are used to mountain paths and roads, but the transport animals are too few for the service of a large army. The rifles, which are made in the Government shops, are also badly sighted, and hardly two of them shoot alike. If they are used for firing against a large number of men massed together, the defective sighting may not make a great deal of difference; but accuracy is of first importance in a rifle, and the shooting of trained troops in action is sufficiently bad, without leaving much else to chance. Another great defect is that the powder, which is made in the country, fouls the bore after four or five rounds so badly that cleaning is necessary, for otherwise the kick of the gun prevents straight shooting, and tends to demoralize the shooter. Maxim and Gatling guns are also made in the shops, but owing to the inaccurate fitting of working parts, and the cartridges not being uniform and exact to gauge, it is seldom that a full belt of cartridges can be fired without a stop.