what is meant by the word "march" when used in the context of distance?
I'm doing some archival research, looking at old British travel guides to India from 100 years ago. They often refer to distances between cities in terms of "marches". For instance, they will say "town B is three marches up the valley from town A". What exactly does this mean? Does it refer to a specific amount of time that it took to travels (for instance, is one "march" the distance that one could travel in a single day? ) Or does it refer specifically to a set unit of distance? Thanks
I believe this is a military term and was the distance a body of soldiers could travel in one day before needing to stop. As the Indian continent was originally occupied by the British military, this may be the way the distances were first described and the term stuck into the days of tourism. Also, in those days, tourists would not travel alone and would take groups of native bearers with them to carry their extensive amounts of luggage, so many tourists would travel on foot or horse etc. if the terrain allowed, with an entourage of servants on foot. Therefore the same limitations that applied to military travel would apply to tourists who were also having to travel on foot!
What distance a "march" was could be dependent on the type of country being crossed. Perhaps "march" was a more realistic way of describing travel, as three days march over 15 miles of mountains could be the same as three days march over 50 miles of grassland!
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