Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/246
like conditions, but 250 miles in length, could be drawn at right angles to the former, passing about 25 miles south of Ghazni. The greater part of this latter line, however, would lie in the Hazara country, in which we have no 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, snow-clad 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; (b.) 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-i-Koh (the "Hill-skirt"), intersected by innumerable brooks, and studded with vineyards, gardens, and fortalices. This river was formerly called Bârân, 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 Jalálábâd, 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 Kâma, 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 feet. The whole length of the river to its confluence with the Kabul river cannot be less than 250 miles, i.e., about 80 miles longer than that regarded as the main stream, measured to its most remote source.
The basin of the Kabul river is enclosed at the head by the Paghman range, an offshot 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 feet), 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, Sîta 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 Kalalabad, in which the disasters of 1841–42 culminated, as well as the famous Khybar passes between Jalalabad and Peshâwar. 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 Peshâwar, receiving, soon after, the combined rivers of Swât (Soastus) and Panjkora (Guræus), two of the great valleys of the Yusufzai. This combined river is called by the Afghans Landai Sîn or Little river, in distinction from the Abba Sîn 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 Peshâwar, 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-miles 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.
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. The 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.