It wound for some seven miles, over a low hill, until the river bed was again reached.
The next ford was Barkhe.

The advance guard was well up in the hills by midday, when it met the Oxfordshire Regiment, which had come out seven miles to meet the force; but the baggage of a division, filing out of the river bed in pairs, is a serious matter, and there was necessarily a block in the rear.
General Westmacott moved as soon as the baggage was off but, long before it was through the first defile, his pickets were engaged, and a general action followed.

The enemy, fighting with extraordinary boldness, kept within a few yards of the pickets.
Followers with baggage animals were constantly hit, as they came up but, at half-past ten, the rear guard regiments marched out of camp, under cover of artillery fire.
The fighting was so severe that, within an hour, the ammunition of the 3rd Ghoorkhas was expended and, shortly afterwards, the two regiments of the rear guard were forced to call up their first reserve ammunition mules.

The march was continued at a rapid pace, until they reached the block caused by the narrowness of the path.
Here the whole river reach became choked with animals and doolies.
The wounded were coming in fast, when the Pathans, taking advantage of the block, attacked in great force, hoping to compel the retreating force to make their way down the long river defile.
General Westmacott, however, defended his right with energy; the rear-guard regiments supporting each other, while the batteries were in continual action.

The Borderers, Sikhs, and Ghoorkhas stood well to their task, till the last of the baggage animals were got out of the river bed.
The country now had become a rolling plateau, intersected by ravines and thickly covered with low jungle, in which the enemy could creep up to within three or four yards of the fighting line.
Progress was, consequently, very slow.