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bearing a green branch as a sign of peace, and by Sellier, an attached servant. His reception was not very favourable, and he had spoken only a few words, when the insurgents, hearing some shots, and fancying they were betrayed, opened fire upon the national guard, and the archbishop fell. He was removed to his palace, where he died on the

27th June 1848. Next day the National Assembly issued a decree expressing their great sorrow on account of his death; and the public funeral on the 7th July was one of the most striking spectacles of its kind. The archbishop wrote several treatises of considerable value, including one on Egyptian hieroglyphics.

AFGHANISTAN

THIS is the name applied, originally in Persian, to the valleys of the Lora river, and then of the Helmand, as

that mountainous region between N.W. India and Eastern Persia, of which the Afghâns are the most numerous and the predominant inhabitants. Afghans, under that and other names, have played no small part in Asiatic history. But the present extensive application of the name Afghanistan is scarcely older than the shortlived empire founded by Ahmed Khan in the middle of last century. The Afghans themselves are not in the habit of using the term.

In treating of this country we include a part of the Hazara mountain region, but not that part of the Oxus basin which is now under Afghan rule, for which see AFGHAN TURKESTAN.

Afghanistan generally may be regarded as a great quadrilateral plateau,-using that term in the technical sense of a region whose lowest tracts even are considerably elevated above the sea-level,-extending from about 62° to 70° E. long., and from 30° to 35° N. lat. This territory corresponds fairly to the aggregate of the ancient provinces of Aria (Herât), Drangiana (Seistân), the region of the Paropamisade (Kâbul), and Arachosia (Kandahår), with Gandaritis (Peshawar and Yûzufzai). Though the last territory belongs ethnically to Afghanistan, an important part of it now forms the British district of Peshawar, whilst the remainder acknowledges no master.

The boundaries of Afghanistan can be stated here only roughly; and, from the area thus broadly defined, many portions will have to be deducted as occupied by independent or semi-independent tribes. But, so understood, they may be thus stated:

On the north: beginning from east, the great range of Hindu Kush, a western offshoot of the Himâlya, parting the Oxus basin from the Afghan basins of the Kabul river and Helmand. From long. 68° this boundary continues westward in the prolongation of Hindu Kush called Koh-iBâbâ. This breaks into several almost parallel branches, enclosing the valleys of the river of Herat and the Murghâb or river of Merv. The half-independent Hazara tribes stretch across these branches and down into the Oxus basin, so that it is difficult here to assign a boundary. We assume it to continue along the range called Safed Koh or "White Mountain," which parts the Herat river valley from the Murghab.1

On the east: the eastern base of the spurs of the Sulimâni and other mountains which limit the plains on the west bank of Indus, and the lower valleys opening into these, which plains (the "Derajât") and lower valleys belong to British India. North of Peshawar district the boundary will be, for a space, the Indus, and then the limit, lying in unknown country, between the Afghan and Dard tribes.

On the south the eastern part of the boundary, occupied by practically independent tribes, Afghan and Bilûch, is hard to define, having no marked natural indication. But from the Shâl territory (long. 67°), belonging to the Bilûch state of KELAT, westward, the southern limits of

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far as the Lake of Seistan in lat. 30°, will complete the southern boundary. Thus the whole breadth of Biluchistân, the ancient Gedrosia, a dry region occupying 5° of latitude, intervenes between Afghanistan and the sea.

The western boundary runs from the intersection of the Lake of Seistan with lat. 30°, bending eastward, so as to exclude a part of the plain of Seistan on the eastern bank of the lake, and then crosses the lake to near the meridian of 61°. Thence it runs nearly due north, near this meridian, to a point on the Hari-Rûd, or river of Herat, about 70 miles below that city, where it encounters the spurs of the Safed Koh, which has been given as the northern boundary.

But if we take the limits of the entire Afghan dominions, as they at present exist, the western boundary will continue north along the Hari-Rûd to lat. 36°, and the northern boundary will run from this point along the borders of the Turkman desert, so as to include Andkhoi, to Khoja Sâleh ferry on the Oxus. The Oxus, to its source in Great Pamîr, forms the rest of the northern boundary. These enlarged limits would embrace the remainder of the Hazara mountain

tracts, and the whole of what is now called AFGHAN TURKESTAN, as well as BADAKISHAN with its dependencies, now tributary to the Afghan Amir.

The extreme dimensions of Afghanistan, as at first defined, will be about 600 miles from east to west, and 450 miles from north to south; and, if we take the whole Afghan dominion, the extent from north to south will be increased to 600 miles. Within both the areas so defined, however, we have included some territory over which the Afghan government has no control whatever, and much over which its authority is respected only when backed by a special exertion of force. Under the former head come the valleys of the Yusufzai clan north of Peshawar, the Momands, Afridis, Vazîrîs, &c., adjoining that district on the west and south-west, the high-lying valleys of Chitrâl or Kâshkâr, and of the independent Pagans or Kâfirs, among the loftier spurs of Hindu Kush. Under the latter head come the eastern districts of Khost and (partially) of Kurram, the Kâkar country in the extreme south-east, much of the country of the tribes called Eimâk and Hazara in the north-west, and probably Badakhshân with its dependencies.

If we suppose the sea to rise 4000 feet above its existing level, no part of the quadrilateral plateau that we have defined would be covered, except portions of the lower valley of the Kabul river, small tracts towards the Indus, and a triangle, of which the apex should be at the Lake of Seistan in the extreme south-west, and the base should just include Herat and Kandahar, passing beyond those cities to intersect the western and southern boundaries respectively. Isolated points and ridges within this triangle would emerge.

Further, let us suppose the sea to rise 7000 feet above its existing level. We should still have a tract emerging so large that a straight line of 200 miles could be drawn, from the Kushân Pass of Hindu Kush, passing about 35 miles west of Kabul, to Rangak on the road between Ghazni and Kandahar, which nowhere should touch the submerged portion. And we believe it is certain that a line under

like conditions, but 250 miles in length, could be drawn at | feet. The whole length of the river to its confluence with right angles to the former, passing about 25 miles south of the Kabul river cannot be less than 250 miles, i.e., about Ghazni. The greater part of this latter line, however, 80 miles longer than that regarded as the main stream, would lie in the Hazara country, in which we have no measured to its most remote source. observations.

In the triangular tract that would be submerged according to our first supposition, the lowest level is the Lake of Seistan, 1280 feet above the sea. Herat is 2650; Kandahar, 3490.

The Afghans themselves make a broad distinction between Kabul, meaning thereby the whole basin of the Kabul river, and the rest of their country, excluding the former from the large and vague term KHORASAN, under which they consider the rest to be comprehended. There is reason for such a distinction in history as well as nature. For the Kabul basin was in old times much more intimately connected with India, and to the beginning of the 11th century was regarded as Indian territory.

NATURAL DIVISIONS. Of these, this Kabul basin (1) forms the first. As others we may discriminate-(2.) The lofty central part of the table-land on which stand Ghazni and Kala't-i-Ghilzai, embracing the upper valleys of ancient Arachosia; (3.) The upper Helmand basin; (4.) The lower Helmand basin, embracing Girishk, Kandahar, and the Afghan portion of Seistan; (5.) The basin of the Herat river; and (6.) The eastern part of the table-land, draining by streams, chiefly occasional torrents, towards the Indus.

Kabul Basin.-Its northern limit is the range of Hindu Kush, a name which properly applies to the lofty, snowclad crest due north of Kabul, and perhaps especially to one pass and peak. But it has been conveniently extended to the whole line of alpine watershed, stretching westward from the southern end of Pamir, and represents the Caucasus of Alexander's historians. Its peaks throughout probably rise to the region of perpetual snow, and even on most of the passes beds of snow occur at all seasons, and, on some, glaciers. We find no precise height stated for any of its peaks, but the highest probably attain to at least 20,000 or 21,000 feet. The height of the Kushan Pass is estimated by Lord at 15,000 feet.

The Kabul river (the ancient Kophes) is the most important river of Afghanistan. It may be considered as fully formed about 30 miles east of Kabul, by the junction thereabouts (the confluence does not seem to have been fixed by any traveller) of the following streams :-(a.) The Kabul stream, rising in the Unai pass towards the Helmand, which, after passing through the city, has been joined by the Logar river flowing north from the skirts of the Ghilzai plateau; (6.) A river bringing down from the valleys Ghorband, Parwân, and Panjshîr, a large part of the drainage of Hindu Kush, and watering the fruitful plain of Dâman-iKoh (the "Hill-skirt "), intersected by innumerable brooks, and studded with vineyards, gardens, and fortalices. This river was formerly called Bárán, a name apparently obsolete, but desirable to maintain; (c.) The river of Tagao, coming down from the spurs of Hindu Kush on the Kafir borders. Some 30 miles further east, the Alishang enters on the left bank, from Laghmân, above which this river and its confluents drain western KAFIRISTAN. Twenty miles further, and not far beyond Jalâlâbâd, the Kabul river receives from the same side a confluent entitled, as regards length, to count as main stream. In some older maps this bears the name of Kama, from a place near the confluence, and in more recent ones Kûner, from a district on its lower course. Higher it is called the river of Kashkar, and the Beilam. It seems to be the Choaspes, and perhaps the Malamantus of the ancients. It rises in a small lake near the borders of Pamir, and flows in a south-west direction through the length of Kashkar or Chitral, an independent valley-state, whose soil lies at a height of 6000 to 11,000

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The basin of the Kabul river is enclosed at the head by the Paghman range, an offshoot of Hindu Kush, which divides the Kabul valleys from the Helmand. Up the head-waters of the stream that passes Kabul, leads the chief road to Turkestan, crossing for a brief space into the Helmand basin by the easy pass of Unai (11,320 feet), and then over the Koh-i-Baba, or western extension of Hindu Kush, by the Hajjigak passes (12,190 and 12,480 fect), to Bâmiân.

The most conspicuous southern limit of the Kabul basin is the Safed Koh, Spin-gar of the Afghans ("White Mountain," not to be confounded with the western Safed Koh already named), an alpine chain, reaching, in its highest summit, Sita Râm, to a height of 15,622 feet, and the eastern ramifications of which extend to the Indus at and below Attok. Among the spurs of this range are those formidable passes between Kabul and Jalalabad, in which the disasters of 1841-42 culminated, as well as the famous Khybar passes between Jalalabad and Peshawar. This southern watershed formed by the Safed Koh is so much nearer the Kabul river than that on the north, that the tributaries from this side, though numerous, are individually insignificant.

After flowing 60 miles (in direct measurement) eastward from the Kuner confluence, the Kabul river issues from the mountains which have hemmed it in, and enters the plain of Peshawar, receiving, soon after, the combined rivers of Swât (Soastus) and Panjkora (Guraus), two of the great valleys of the Yusufzai. This combined river is called by the Afghans Landai Sin or Little river, in distinction from the Abba Sin or Indus, and the name seems often to adhere to the lower course of the Kabul river. Both rivers on entering the plain ramify, in delta fashion, into many natural channels, increased in number by artificial cuts for irrigation. Finally the river enters the Indus immediately above the gorge at Attok. The lowest ford on the Kabul river is a bad one, near Jalalabad, only passable in the dry season. Below the Kuner confluence the river is deep and copious, crossed by ferries only, except at Naoshera, below Peshawar, where there is usually a bridge of boats. The rapid current is unfavourable to navigation, but from Jalalabad downwards the river can float boats of 50 tons, and is often descended by rafts on blown skins. The whole course of the river, measured by a five-mile opening of the compasses, is as follows:-From source of Kabul stream in Unai pass to Attok, 250 miles; from source either of Logar or of Panjshir to the same, 290 miles; from source of Kashkar river to the same, 370 miles.

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A marked natural division of the Kabul basin occurs near Gandâmak, above Jalalabad, where a sudden descent takes effect from a minimum elevation of 5000 feet to one of only 2000. The Emperor Baber says of this :—“The moment you descend, you see quite another world. timber is different; its grains are of another sort; its animals are of a different species; and the manners and customs of its inhabitants are of a different kind." Burnes, on his first journey, left the wheat harvest in progress at Jalalabad, and found the crop at Gandamak, only 25 miles distant, but 3 inches above ground. Here, in truth, nature has planted the gates of India. The valleys of the upper basin, though still in the height of summer affected by a sun of fierce power, recall the climate and products of the finest part of temperate Europe; the region below is a chain of narrow, low, and hot plains, with climate and vegetation of an Indian character.

till it falls into the lake of Seistan by various mouths. The whole length of the river, measured as before, is about 615 miles. Ferrier considers that it has water enough for navigation at all seasons, from Girishk downwards. At present boats are rarely seen, and those in use are most clumsy; rafts are employed for crossing.

Accounts of Kabul strike us by apparent contradiction. | it turns nearly north, and so flows on for 70 or 80 miles, Some give scarcely any impression but that of extreme ruggedness and desolation, awful defiles, and bare black crags; others dwell on the abounding orchards, green sward, charming dells, and purling streams. But both aspects are characteristic. The higher spurs, both of Hindu Kush and Safed Koh, are often clad with grand forests of pine, oak, and other alpine trees, and resemble the wooded ranges of Himalya. But the lower hills generally are utterly woodless, and almost entirely naked. In the bottoms, often watered by clear and copious streams, we have those beauties of verdure and fertility on which some writers dwell, and which derive new charms from contrast with the excessive sterility of the hills that frame them.

We cannot speak at equal length of the other natural divisions of Afghanistan, but some chief points will be noticed with the rivers. In general the remainder of the country, regarded by the Afghans as included in Khorasan, exhibits neither the savage sublimity of the defiles of the Kabul region, the alpine forests of its higher ranges, nor its nests of rich vegetation in the valleys, save in the north-east part adjoining Safed Koh, where these characters still adhere, and in some exceptional localities, such as the valley of Herat, which is matchless in richness of cultivation. Generally the characteristics of this country are elevated plateaux of sandy or gravelly surface, broken by ranges of rocky hills, and often expanding in wide spaces of arid waste, which terminate to the south-west in a regular desert of shifting sand. Even in cultivated parts there is a singular absence of trees, and when the crops are not visible this imparts an aspect of great desolation and emptiness to the landscape. Natural wood, however, is found in some parts of West Afghanistan, as in the almost tropical delta of the Helmand, in the Ghûr territory, and on the Herat river below Herat. Generally, indeed, in such cases the trees appear to be mimosas, tamarisks, and the like, with little body of foliage.

RIVERS. Next to the Kabul river in importance, and probably much exceeding it in volume as it certainly does in length, is the Helmand (Etymander), the only considerable river in its latitude from the Tigris to the Indus. The Helmand has its highest sources in the Koh-i-Baba and Paghman hills, between Kabul and Bamian. Its succeeding course is through the least known tract of Afghanistan, chiefly occupied by Hazaras; indeed, for a length of nearly 300 miles no European has seen the river. This unvisited space terminates at Girishk, where the river is crossed by the principal route from Herat to Kandahar. Till about 40 miles above Girishk the character of the Helmand is said to be that of a mountain river, flowing between scarped rocks, and obstructed by enormous boulders. At that point it enters on a flat country, and extends over a gravelly bed. Here, also, it begins to be used in irrigation. Forty-five miles below Girishk the Helmand receives its greatest tributary, the Arghand-âb, coming past Kandahar from the high Ghilzai country. It here becomes a very considerable river, said to have a width of 300 or 400 yards, and a depth of 9 to 12 feet. But this cannot be at all seasons, as there are fords at long intervals as far down as Pûlalik, 100 miles from the mouth. The desert draws near the left bank in the lower course, and for the last 150 miles the moving sands approach within 1 mile. The vegetation on the banks is here of luxuriant tropical character. The whole of the lower valley seems to have been once the seat of a prosperous population, and there is still a good deal of cultivation for 100 miles below Girishk. Even this, however, is inuch fallen off, and lower down still more so, owing to disorders and excessive insecurity.

The course of the river is more or less south-west from its source till in Seistan it approaches meridian 623, when

Arghand-ab.-Of this tributary of the Helmand little is known except in its lower course. It rises in the Hazara country, N. W. of Ghazni. It is said to be shallow, and to run nearly dry in height of summer; but when its depth exceeds 3 feet its great rapidity makes it a serious obstacle to travellers. In its lower course it is much used for irrigation, and the valley is cultivated and populous; yet the water is said to be somewhat brackish. Its course may be reckoned about 235 miles.

It is doubtful whether the ancient Arachotus is to be identified with the Arghand-ab or with its chief confluent the Tarnak, which joins it on the left about 30 miles S. W. of Kandahar. The two rivers run nearly parallel, inclosing the backbone of the Ghilzai plateau. The Tarnak is much the shorter (length about 197 miles) and less copious. The ruins at Ulân Robât, supposed to represent the city Arachosia, are in its basin; and the lake known as Ab-iIstada, the most probable representative of Lake Arachotus, is near the head of the Tarnak, though not communicating with it. The Tarnak is dammed for irrigation at intervals, and in the hot season almost exhausted. There is a good deal of cultivation along the river, but few villages. The high road from Kabul to Kandahar passes this way (another reason for supposing the Tarnak to be Arachotus), and the people live off the road to eschew the onerous duties of hospitality.

regarded as belonging to the Helmand basin, though it is not known The Lora is the most southerly river of Afghanistan, and may be that its waters ever reach that river. It rises near the Kand and Joba peaks in a branch of the Sulimani, and flows nearly east, passing through the large valley of Pishin, but lying too deep for irrigation. The river has a course of nearly 200 miles, and considerable breadth, but is never for a week together unfordable. In the Shorâwak district (long. 65°-66°) a good deal of irrigation is drawn from it. The river is said to terminate in a lake, on the verge of the sandy desert.

Rivers belonging to the basin of Seistan and the Lower Helmand are the Khash-Rud, the Farrah-Rud, and the Harut.

The Khash-rúd rises in or near the southern slopes of Siah-Koh (Black Mountain), which forms the southern wall of the valley of Herat, and flows south, in flood reaching the Lake of Seistan, but generally exhausted in irrigation. It is named from Khâsh, a village in the Seistan plain. In the dry season it is everywhere fordable, but in floods caravans may be detained by it several days.

The Farrah river flows from the same quarter, and has the same character in floods. It is a larger stream, and at Farrah is said to have a width of 150 yards, with 2 feet of water, and a clear, swift stream. In flood, Khanikoff was struck with the resemblance of this river, rolling its yellow waves violently between steep banks of clay, to the Cyrus at Tillis.

The Harût rises in the mountains S. E. of Herat, and has a course Canals from it supply of about 245 miles to the Lake of Seistan. abundant irrigation to the plains of Sabzvâr and Anârdarah. The river forms a true delta with fifteen branches, giving rise to marsh and much vegetation, especially tamarisk, willow, and poplar. The Harut receives in the plain a considerable afluent, the Khushkek river.

It is possible that confusion of the name of this river with the Hari-Rud, or river of Herat, led to the long prevalent mistake that the latter river flowed south into the Seistan Lake—a mistake as old as Ptolemy, if his Aria Lacus be (as it seems) that of Seistan.

The Hari-rúd is formed by two chief confluents in the lofty Hazara country, not far from the sources of the river of Balkh. Its early course is, for more than 100 miles and as far as the village of Jâor, westward, at a height of many thousand feet above the sea. It then descends rapidly (it is said with cataracts), but continues in the same direction, receiving numerous streams, to Obeh, where much water begins to be drawn off. Sixty-five miles further it flows past Herat, 3 miles to the south of the city. Hereabouts the Kandahar road crosses the river by a masonry bridge of 26 arches. Near this fifteen deep canals are drawn off. A few miles below Herat the river begins to turn N. W.; and after passing for many miles through a woody tract, abounding in game, in which are the preserves of the Herat princes, at the ancient and now nearly deserted town of Kassan, 70 miles from Herat, it turns due north. Though the drainage brought down by this river must be large, so much is drawn off that, below Herat, reaches of it are at times quite dry. Below Kassan it receives fresh supplies, and eventually the Meshed stream. It flows on towards Sarakhis, and dwindles away; but accurate information regarding it is still wanting. The channel is shown, in a map lately published, as passing Safakhs for some 250

miles, and ending in a swamp adjoining the Daman-i-Koh, on the derived by the Mahommedans from the patriarch Lamech,

border of the Turkman desert.

Of the rivers that run towards the Indus, south of the Kabul river, the chief are the Kurram and the Gomal.

The Kurram drains the southern flanks of Safed Koh. The middle valley of Kurram, forming the district so called, is highly irrigated, well peopled, and crowded with small fortified villages, orchards, and groves, to which a fine background is afforded by the dark pine forests and alpine snows of Safed Koh. The beauty and climate of the valley attracted some of the Mogul emperors of Delhi, and the remains exist of a garden of Shah Jahan's. The river passes the British frontier, and enters the plain country a few miles above

Banu, spreading into a wide bed of sand and boulders, till it joins the Indus near Isa-Khel, after a course of more than 200 miles. By the Kurram valley is one of the best routes from India into Afghanistan. It was travelled by Major Lumsden's party in 1857-58. The Gomal, rising in the Sulimani mountains, though in length equal to the Kurram, and draining, with its tributaries, a much larger area, is little more than a winter torrent, diminishing to a mere rivulet, till December, when it begins to swell. At its exit into the plain of the Derajat a local chief threw a dam across its channel; and it is now only in very wet seasons that its waters reach the Indus, near Dera Ismael Khan. Not long before leaving the hills it receives from the S. W. a tributary, the Zhob, of nearly equal length and size, coming from the vicinity of the Kand and Joba peaks, in long. 68°.

LAKES.—As we know nothing of the lake in which the Lora is said to end, and the greater part of the lake of SEISTAN (see that article) is excluded from Afghanistan, there remains only the Ab-i-Istada, on the Ghilzai plateau. This is about 65 miles S.S. W. of Ghazni, and stands at a height of about 7000 feet, in a site of most barren and dreary aspect, with no tree or blade of grass, and hardly a habitation in sight. It is about 44 miles in circuit, and very shallow; not more than 12 feet deep in the middle. The chief feeder is the Ghazni river. The Afghans speak of a stream draining the lake, but this seems to be unfounded, and the saltness and bitterness of the lake is against it. Fish entering the salt water from the Ghazni river sicken and die.

PROVINCES AND TOWNS.-The chief political divisions of Afghanistan in recent times are stated to be Kabul, Jalalabad, Ghazni, Kandahar, Herat, and AFGHAN TURKESTAN (q.v.), to which are sometimes added the command of the Ghilzais and of the Hazaras. This list scems to omit the unruly districts of the eastern table-land, such as Kurram, Khost, &c. But we must not look for the precision of European administration in such a case.

In addition to KABUL, GHAZNI, KANDAHAR, HERAT, described under those articles, there are not many places in Afghanistan to be called towns. We notice the follow. ing:

Jalálábád lies, at a height of 1946 feet, in a plain on the south of the Kabul river. It is by road 100 miles from Kabul, and 91 from Peshawar. Between it and Peshawar intervene the Khybar and other adjoining passes; between it and Kabul the passes of Jagdalak, Khurd-Kabul, &c. The place has been visited by no known European since Sir G. Pollock's expedition in 1842. As it then existed, the town, though its walls had an extent of 2100 yards, contained only 300 houses, and a permanent population of 2000. The walls formed an irregular quadrilateral in a ruinous state, surrounded on all sides by buildings, gardens, the remains of the ancient walls, &c., affording cover to an assailant. The town walls were destroyed by Pollock, but have probably been restored.

The highly-cultivated plain is, according to Wood, 25 miles in length by 3 or 4 miles in breadth; the central part covered with villages, castles, and gardens. It is abundantly watered.

The province under Jalalabad is about 80 miles in length by 35 in width, and includes the large district of Laghman, north of the Kabul river, as well as that on the south, which is called Nangnihâr. The former name, properly Lamghân, the seat of the ancient Lampage, is absurdly

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whose tomb they profess to show; the latter name is interpreted (in mixed Pushtu and Arabic) to mean "nine rivers," an etymology supported by the numerous streams. word is, however, really a distortion of the ancient Indian name Nagarahara, borne by a city in this plain long before Islam, and believed to have been the Nagara or Dionysopolis of Ptolemy. Many topes and other Buddhist traces exist in the valley, but there are no unruined buildings of grandson (Jalaluddin) Akbar built Jalalabad. Baber laid out fine gardens here; and his any moment. Hindus form a considerable part of the town population, and have a large temple. The most notable point in the history of Jalalabad is the stout and famous defence made there, from November 1841 till April 1842, by Sir Robert Sale.

Istalif is a town in the Koh Daman, 20 miles N.N.W. of Kabul, which was stormed and destroyed, 29th September 1842, by a force under General M'Caskill, to punish and for harbouring the murderers of Burnes. The place is the towns-people for the massacre of the garrison at Charikar, singularly picturesque and beautiful. The rude houses risc in terrace over terrace on the mountain-side, forming a pyramid, crowned by a shrine embosomed in a fine clump of planes. The dell below, traversed by a clear rapid stream, both sides of which are clothed with vineyards and orchards, opens out to the great plain of the Daman-i-Koh, rich with trees and cultivation, and dotted with turreted castles; beyond these are rocky ridges, and over all the eternal snows of Hindu Kush. Nearly every householder has his garden with a tower, to which the families repair in the fruit season, closing their houses in the town. The town is estimated, with seven villages depending on it, to contain about 18,000 souls.

Chúrikár (population 5000) lies about 20 miles north of Istalif, at the north end of Koh Daman, and watered by a canal from the Ghorband branch of the Baran river. Hereabouts must have been the Triodon, or meeting of the three roads from Bactria, spoken of by Strabo and Pliny. It is still the seat of the customs levied on trade with Turkestan, and also of the governor of the Kohistân or hill country of Kabul, and is a place of considerable trade with the regions to the north. During the British occupation a political agent (Major Eldred Pottinger, famous in the defence of Herat) was posted here with a Gûrkha corps under Captain Codrington and Lieutenant Haughton. In the revolt of 1841, after severe fighting, they attempted to make their way to Kabul, and a great part was cut off. Pottinger, Haughton (with the loss of an arm), and one sepoy only, reached the city then; though many were afterwards recovered.

Kala't-i-Ghilzai has no town, but is a fortress of some importance on the right bank of the Tarnak, on the road between Ghazni and Kandahar, 89 miles from the latter, and at a height of 5773 feet. The repulse of the Afghans in 1842 by a sepoy garrison under Captain Craigie, was one of the most brilliant feats of that war.

Girishk is also a fort rather than a town, the latter being insignificant. It is important for its position on the high road between Kandahar and Herat, commanding the ordinary passage and summer ford of the Helmand. It was held by the British from 1839 till August 1842, but during the latter nine months, amid great difficulties, by a native garrison only, under a gallant Indian soldier, Balwant Singh.

Farrah belongs to the Seistan basin, and stands on the river that bears its name, and on one of the main routes from Herat to Kandahar, 164 miles from the former, 236 miles from the latter. The place is enclosed by a huge earthen rampart, crowned with towers, and surrounded by a wide and deep ditch, which can be flooded, and with a covered way. It has the form of a parallelogram, running north

are usually cool. Baber says that, even in summer, one could not sleep at Kabul without a sheepskin, but this seems exaggerated. At Kandahar snow seldom falls on the plains or lower hills; when it does, it melts at once. At Herat, though 800 feet lower than Kandahar, the summer climate appears to be more temperate; and, in fact, the climate altogether is one of the most agreeable in Asia. In July, Ferrier says he found the heat never to pass 98°, and rarely 91° to 93° (Fahr.) These are not low figures, but must be compared with his register at Girishk, just given. From May to September the wind blows from the N.W. with great violence, and this extends across the country to Kandahar. The winter is tolerably mild; snow melts as it falls, and even on the mountains does not lie long. Three years out of four at Herat it does not freeze hard enough for the people to store ice; yet it was not very far from Herat, and could not have been at a greatly higher level (at Kafir Kala', near Kassan) that, in 1750, Ahmed Shah's army, retreating from Persia, is said to have lost 18,000 men from cold in a single night.

and south, and only two gates. As a military position it | occasionally by breezes from Hindu Kush, and the nights is of great importance, but it is excessively unhealthy. Though the place would easily contain 4500 houses, there were but 60 habitable when Ferrier was there in 1845, nor was there much change for the better when Colonel Pelly passed in 1858. Farrah is a place of great antiquity; certainly, it would seem, the Phra of Isidore of Charax (1st century), and possibly Prophthasia, though this is more probably to be sought in the great ruins of Peshawarân, farther south, near Lâsh. According to Ferrier, who alludes to "ancient chronicles and traditions," the city on the present site within the great rampart was sacked by the armies of Chinghiz, and the survivors transported to another position, one hour further north, where there are now many ruins and bricks of immense size (a yard square), with cuneiform letters, showing that site again to be vastly older than Chinghiz. The population came back to the southern site after the destruction of the medieval city by Shah Abbas, and the city prospered again till its bloody siege by Nadir Shah. Since then, under constant attacks, it has declined, and in 1837 the remaining population, amounting to 6000, was carried off to Kandahar. Such are the vicissitudes of a city on this unhappy frontier.

Sabzvár, the name of which is a corruption of old Persian, Isphizar, "horse-pastures," is another important strategic point, 93 miles from Herat and 71 miles north of Farrah, in similar decay to the latter. The present fort, which in 1845 contained a small bazar and 100 houses, must once have been the citadel of a large city, now represented by extensive suburbs, partly in ruins. Water is conducted from the Harut by numerous canals, which also protect the approaches.

Zarni is a town in the famous but little known country of Ghur, to the east of Herat, the cradle of a monarchy (the Ghurid dynasty) which supplanted the Ghaznevides, and ruled over an extensive dominion, including all Afghanistan, for several generations. Zarni, according to Ferrier, was the old capital of Ghur. Ruins abound; the town itself is small, and enclosed by a wall in decay. It lies in a pleasant valley, through which fine streams wind, said to abound with trout. The hills around are covered with trees, luxuriantly festooned with vines. The population in 1845 was about 1200, among whom Ferrier noticed (a remarkable circumstance) some Gheber families. The bulk of the people are Sûris and Taimúnis, apparently both very old Persian tribes.

CLIMATE. The variety of climate is immense, as might be expected. At Kabul, and over all the northern part of the country to the descent at Gandamak, winter is rigorous, but especially so on the high Arachosian plateau. In Kabul the snow lies for two or three months; the people seldom leave their houses, and sleep close to stoves. At Ghazni the snow has been known to lie long beyond the vernal equinox; the thermometer sinks to 10° and 15° below zero (Fahr.); and tradition relates the entire destruction of the population of Ghazni by snow-storms more than once. At Jalalabad the winter and the climate generally assume an Indian character, and the hot weather sometimes brings the fatal simúm. The summer heat is great every where in Afghanistan, but most of all in the districts bordering on the Indus, especially Sewi, on the lower Helmand, and in Seistan. All over Kandahar province the summer heat is intense, and the simum is not unknown. The hot season throughout the "Khorasan" part of the country is rendered more trying by frequent dust-storms and fiery winds; whilst the bare rocky ridges that traverse the country, absorbing heat by day and radiating it by night, render the summer nights most oppressive. At Girishk, Ferrier records the thermometer in August to have reached 118 to 120° (Fahr.) in the shade. At Kabul the summer sun has much of its Indian power, though the heat is tempered

The summer rains that accompany the S.W. monsoon in India, beating along the southern slopes of the Himalya, travel up the Kabul valley, at least to Laghman, though they are more clearly felt in Bajaur and Panjkora, under the high spurs of the Hindu Kush, and in the eastern branches of Safed Koh. Rain also falls at this season at the head of Kurram valley. South of this the Sulimani mountains may be taken as the western limit of the monsoon's action. It is quite unfelt in the rest of Afghanistan, in which, as in all the west of Asia, the winter rains are the most considerable. The spring rain, though less copious, is more important to agriculture than the winter rain, unless where the latter falls in the form of snow. Speaking generally, the Afghanistan climate is a dry one. The sun shines with splendour for three-fourths of the year, and the nights are even more beautiful than the days. Marked characteristics are the great differences of summer and winter temperature and of day and night temperature, as well as the extent to which change of climate can be attained by slight change of place. As Baber again says of Kabul, at one day's journey from it you may find a place where snow never falls, and at two hours' journey, a place where snow almost never melts!

The Afghans vaunt the salubrity and charm of some local climates, as of the Tobah hills above the Kakar country, and of some of the high valleys of the Safed Koh.

The people have by no means that immunity from disease which the bright dry character of the climate and the fine physical aspect of a large proportion of them might lead us to expect. Intermittent and remittent fevers are very prevalent: bowel complaints are common, and often fatal in the autumn. The universal custom of sleeping on the house-top in summer promotes rheumatic and neuralgic affections; and in the Koh Daman of Kabul, which the natives regard as having the finest of climates, the mortality from fever and bowel complaint, between July and October, is great; the immoderate use of fruit predisposing to such ailments. Stone is frequent; eye disease is very common, as are hæmorrhoidal affections and syphilitic diseases in repulsive forms. A peculiar skin disease of syphilitic origin prevails at Kandahar, and native physicians there are said by Bellew to admit that hardly one person in twenty is free from the taint in some form.

NATURAL PRODUCTIONS-Minerals.— Afghanistan is believed to be rich in minerals, but few are wrought. Some small quantity of gold is taken from the streams in Laghman and the adjoining districts. Famous silver mines were formerly wrought near the head of the Panjshir valley, in Hindu Kush. Iron of excellent quality is pro

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