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AFGHANISTAN

wish and directions, and for the purposes and profit of, the charterers. But, as we have already explained at the beginning of this article, the shipowner continues in possession of his vessel by his servant the master, who remains responsible to his owner for the safety and proper navigation of the ship. The result of this, as has been already pointed out, is that the holder of a bill of lading signed by the master, if he has taken the bill of lading without knowledge of the terms of the time charter-party, may hold the owner responsible for the due performance of the contract signed by the master in the ordinary course of his duties, and within his ostensible authority as servant of the shipowner, although in fact in signing the bill of lading the master was acting as agent for and at the direction of the time charterer, and not the shipowner. In the language of the ordinary time charter-party the ship is Let to the charterers but there is no true demise, because, as we have pointed out, the vessel remains in the possession of the shipowner, the charterer enjoying the advantages and control of its employment. Where the possession of a ship is given up to a hirer, who appoints his own master and crew, different considerations apply; but though the instrument by which the ship is let may be called a charter-party, it is not truly a contract of affreightment. There are certain rights and obligations arising out of the relationship of shipowner and cargo-owner in circumstances of extraordinary peril or urgency Customary ^ ppg course 0f a voyage, which, though not rg s ‘ strictly contractual, are well established by the custom of merchants and recognized by the law. It is obvious that, when a ship carrying a cargo is in the course of a voyage, the master to some extent represents the owners of both ship and cargo. In cases of emergency it may be necessary that the master should, without waiting for authority or instructions, incur expense or make sacrifices as agent not only of his employer, the shipowner, but also of the cargo-owner. Ship and cargo may be in peril, and it may be necessary for the safety of both to put into a port of refuge. There it may be necessary to repair the ship, and to land and warehouse,

and afterwards reship the cargo. For these purposes the master will be obliged to incur expense, of which some part, such as the cost of repairing the ship, will be for the benefit of the shipowner; part, such as the warehousing expenses, will be for the benefit of the cargo-owner; and part, such as the port charges incurred in order to enter the port of refuge, are for the common benefit and safety of ship and cargo. Again, in a storm at sea, it may be necessary for the safety of ship and cargo to cut away a mast or to jettison, that is to say, throw overboard part of the cargo. In such a case the master, acting for the shipowner or cargo-owner, as the case may be, makes a sacrifice of part of the ship or part of the cargo, in either case for the purpose of saving ship and cargo from a danger common to both. Voluntary sacrifices so made and extraordinary expenses incurred for the common safety are called General Average {q.v.) sacrifices and expenses, and are made good to the person who has made the sacrifice or incurred the expense by a general average contribution, which is recoverable from the owners of the property saved in proportion to its value, or, in other words, each contributes ratably according to the benefit received. The law regulating the rights of the parties with regard to such contribution is called the Law of General Average. It must, however, be remembered that the owner of the cargo is entitled under the contract of affreightment to the ordinary service of the ship and crew for the safe carriage of the cargo to its destination, and the shipowner is bound to pay all ordinary expenses incurred for the purpose of the voyage. He must also bear all losses arising from damage to the ship by accidents. But when extraordinary expense has been incurred by the shipowner for the safety of the cargo, he can recover such expense from the owner of the cargo as a special charge on cargo ; or when an extraordinary expense has been incurred or a voluntary sacrifice made by the shipowner to save the ship and cargo from a peril common to both, he may require the owner of cargo to contribute in general average to make good the loss. See Carver, Carriage by Sea. London, 1899.—Scrutton, (w.)
 * Charter-parties and Bills of Lading. London, 1900.

AFGHANISTAN. Geography and Statistics. ERY much was contributed to our knowledge of Afghanistan during the last quarter of the 19th century. The Afghan war of 1878-80 afforded an opportunity for the extension of wide geographical surveys on a scientific basis; and this opportunity was afterwards repeated by the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission of 1884-86. Since then much of the country on the immediate borders of India has been explored by the native employes of the Indian Survey during the progress of a series of minor expeditions; and the boundary delimitations which resulted from the agreement of November 1893 at Kabul, together with the frontier campaign of 1897-98, have finally reduced the geography of the whole borderland to practical shape. For the purposes of this article there will be included within the general term “ Afghanistan ” not only those districts which fall within the new political boundaries of the Kabul Government, but those states on the border, lying between Afghanistan and British India, whose status has lately been defined as “ independent,” and which are peopled either by Pathans or Afghans, speaking the same language and belonging to the same religious community as the Afghans of the Kabul kingdom.

River Basins.—Whilst, broadly speaking, the chief features of Afghan topography and hydrography were well enough known previously to the Afghan war of 1878, certain modifications in detail are to be noted in modern maps, and much supplementary information can now be added. It will be convenient to deal with Afghanistan under the natural divisions of its river basins rather than of the separate provinces included within its political boundaries. The following are the chief hydrographic divisions of the country—(1) the Kabul river and its tributaries; (2) the Indus affluents, which for the most part drain the independent provinces of the frontier ; (3) the Oxus basin ; (4) the basin of the Helmand; (5) the basin of the Hari Rud. The Kabul river rises at the foot of the Unai pass, leading over the Sanglakh range, an offshoot of the Hindu Kush, towards Bamian and Afghan Turkestan. From its source to Kabul is only 45 miles as the crow flies, and the amount of water which the river carries is small and often insufficient for purposes of irrigation. Neither in volume nor in length is it to be compared with the Logar river, which joins it at a point less than half a mile east of Kabul. The Logar rises beyond Ghazni, amongst the slopes of the Gul Koh (14,200 feet), which overlooks the Ghazni plain from the west, and with minor affluents drains the rich valleys of Logar and Wardak for more than 100 miles ere it emerges from the gorges of the Shakh-i-Barant to join the Kabul