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BADAJOZ — BADAKSHAN comMaden, M.P. Cotton spinning and power-loom weaving inhabitants of the town or in the rest of Spain,Aand E H pletely failed. ( -) are the chief of the numerous manufacturing industries Ba.da.ksha.ri.—The Afghan province of Badakshan carried on. The principle of co-operation is stronglydeveloped ; a handsome store costing over £22,000 con- requires new definition since the boundary agreement of tains among other departments a free library for members, 1893 limited Afghan territory to the left bank of the with upwards of 12,000 volumes. Area, 6083 acres; Oxus. Much of the interior of the province is still unexpopulation (1881), 25,034 ; (1891), 23,498 ; (1901), plored. On the west, Badakshan is bounded by a line 22,503. which crosses the Turkestan plains southwards from the junction of the Kunduz and Oxus rivers till it touches Badajoz, a frontier province in the south-west of the eastern water-divide of the Tashkurghan river (here Spain, the largest of the whole kingdom with an area of called the Koh-i-Chungar), and then runs south-east, 8688 square miles, only 2,850,000 acres of which are culti- crossing the Sarkhab affluent of the Kunduz, till it stiikes vated. The population grew from 475,183 in 1887 to the Hindu Kush. The southern boundary is carried along 490,551 in 1897. The province is divided into 15 the crest of the Hindu Kush as far as the Khawak pass, administrative districts and 162 parishes. In the north- leading from Badakshan into the Panjshir valley. Beyond east, south-east, and south, there are some hilly regions, but this it is indefinite. It is known that the Kafir occupy the greater part is flat or slightly undulating, and in many the west of the Hindu Kush eastwards of the Khawak, districts looks like a dreary steppe, with sparse vegetation but how far they extend north of the main watershed is that affords very meagre pasture for the numerous flocks. not ascertainable. The southern limits of Badakshan Comparatively little rain falls in average years, and barely become definite again at the Dorah pass. The Dorah 13,000 acres are properly irrigated, whilst 1,900,000 acres connects Zebak and Ishkashim at the elbow, or bend, of the are devoted to pasture or covered with very thin bush and Oxus with the Lutku valley leading to Chitral. Prom the forest. The Guadiana, which flows through the north of Dorah eastwards the crest of the Hindu Kush again becomes the province, and its tributaries, have any considerable the boundary till it effects a junction with the Muztagh volume of water in their beds only at certain seasons of the and Sarikol ranges, which shut off China from Bussia and year, and the Guadiana is often fordable in many parts of its India. Skirting round the head of the Tagdumbash Pamir, course. Badajoz has more live stock than any other province it finally merges into the lately-defined Pamir boundary, —in all 1,302,754 head. This figure includes 10,705 horses, and turns westwards, following the course of the Oxus, to 33,471 mules, 38,273 asses, 35,057 cattle, 940,444 sheep, the junction of that river and the Kunduz. So far as the 108,354 goats, and 136,450 pigs, which supply famous northern boundary follows the Oxus stream, under the hams, &c. 336,285 acres are devoted to the culture of northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, it is only separated by wheat, 258,812 to oats, barley, rye; 86,437 to pod fruit; the length of these slopes (some 8 or 10 miles) from the 88,942 to olive plantations, and 46,012 to vineyards. One southern boundary along the crest. Thus Badakshan (in copper and 24 lead mines are now at work, while no which we include Wakhan) reaches out an arm into the less than 575 are registered as unproductive. This stag- Pamirs eastwards—bottle-shaped—narrow at the neck nation of the mining interests is chiefly due to the (represented by the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush), lack of means of communication, though some impulse and swelling out eastwards so as to include a part of the has been given of late years to the mining railways by a great and little Pamirs (see Afghanistan). Before the company that is working several concessions; another boundary settlement of 1893 the small states of Boshan company has endeavoured to lease several good lead mines, and Shignan extended to the left bank of the Oxus, and and has bought others near the central Badajoz railway. the province of Darwaz, on the other hand, extended to The mines will certainly attract more notice when several the right bank. Now, however, the Darwaz extension local lines are completed. Among those at present unpro- northwards is exchanged for the Russian Pamir extension ductive are 345 lead, 170 iron, 27 copper, and 12 quick- westwards, and the river throughout is the boundary silver, all duly registered. The local industries are not between Russian and Afghan territory; the political of much importance : manufactures of woollen and cotton boundaries of those provinces being no longer coincident stuffs of a coarse description, soaps, oil, cork, and leather. with their geographical limits. Subdivisions.—Te following are the chief provincial subdivisions The purely commercial interests are more important than the industrial, because of the transit trade to and from of Badakshan, omitting Roshan and ShignanOn the west Kataghan, Ghori, Karin, and Anderab; on the north Portugal through no less than seven custom-houses. The Rustak, Darwaz, Ragh, and Shiwa ; on the east Charan, Ishkashim, Zebak, climate shows great extremes of heat in summer and Wakhan; and in the centre Faizabad, Farkhar, Minjan, and and of cold in winter, when fierce north and north-west Kishm. There are others, but nothing certain is known about _ . winds blow across the plains. In the hot months inter- these minor subdivisions. Physiography.—TIig conformation of tlic mountain districts, w liicii mittent fevers are prevalent in the Guadiana valley. all the southern districts of Badakshan and the northern There are 275 miles of railways in the province, the prin- comprise hills and valleys of Kafiristan, is undoubtedly analogous to that of cipal being 133 miles of the main line from Madrid to the rest of the Hindu Kush westwards. The water-divide of the Hindu Lisbon, 78 of the Merida-Seville line, and 38 of the Kush from the Dorah to the Khawak pass, i.e. through the centre Huelva-Zafra. The roads, state and parish, are in bad of Kafiristan, has never been accurately traced ; but its topographiconformation is evidently a continuation of that which has been condition, and totally insufficient. Very few inhabitants cal observed in the districts of Badakshan to the west of the Khawak. emigrate from this province, where the birth-rate consider- The Hindu Kush represents the southern edge of a great central ably exceeds the death-rate. Education, even primary, is upheaval or plateau. It breaks up into long spurs southwards, deep in a very backward condition, not 33 per cent, of the amongst which are hidden the valleys of Kafiristan, almost isolated each other by the rugged and snow-capped altitudes which children between four and fourteen years of age being from divide them. To the north the plateau gradually slopes away sent to school. Badajoz, the capital of the province, is towards the Oxus, falling from an average altitude of 15,000 situated near the Portuguese frontier, 310 miles south-west feet to 4000 feet about Faizabad, in the centre of Badakshan, but of Madrid by rail. Population (1897), 29,006. It is still tailing off to 1100 at Kunduz, in Kataghan, where it merges into flat plains bordering the Oxus. , the centre of an active trade with Portugal, but the local theRivers and Roads.—The Kokcha river traverses Badakshan from industries have declined considerably. A serious military south-east to north-west, and, with the Kunduz, drains all tlie and republican rising took place in August 1883, but the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush west of the Dorah pass, borne movement found no response among the majority of the " of its sources are near Zebak, close to the great bend of the Oxus