Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/247

Rh RIVERS.] AFGHANISTAN 229 Accounts of Kabul strike us by apparent contradiction. 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 bot toms, 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 denies of the Kabul region, the alpine forests of its higher ranges, nor its nests of ricli 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 cultiva tion. 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 Ghur 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 (Eti/man(Ier),iie 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 succeed ing 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-ab, coining 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 deptli of 9 to 12 feet. But this cannot be at all seasons, as there are fords at long intervals as far down as Pillalik, 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 much 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 62, when it turns nearly north, and so flows on for 70 or 80 miles, 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 navi gation at all seasons, from Girishk downwards. At present boats are rarely seen, and those in use are most clumsy ; rafts are employed for crossing. Arghand-Ab. Of this tributary of the Helmand little is known except in its lower course. It rises in the Hazara county, N. W. of Ghazni. It is said to be shallow, and to run nearly diy 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 Ulan Robat, supposed to represent the city Arachosia, are in its basin ; and the lake known as Ab-i- Istdda, 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. The Lora is the most southerly river of Afghanistan, and may be regarded as belonging to the Helmand basin, though it is not known that its waters ever reach that river. It rises near the Kand and Joba peaks in a branch of the Sulimani, and ilows nearly east, pass ing through the large valley of Pishin, but lying too deep for irrigation. The river has a course of nearly 200 miles, and con siderable breadth, but is never for a week together unfordable. In the Shorawak district (long. (&amp;gt;f&amp;gt;-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-Kud, the Farrah-Rud, and the Harut. The Khdsh-rud 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 Khash, a vil lage 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 Titlis. The Ilartit rises in the mountains S. K. of Herat, and has a course of about 245 miles to the Lake of Seistan. Canals from it supply abundant irrigation to the plains of Sabzvar and Anardarah. 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 ailluent, 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 Jfari-rud 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 Jfior, 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 oiF. 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 oil that, below Herat, reaches of it are at times cpuite dry. Below Kassan it receives fresh supplies, and eventually the Mesiied stream. It flows on towards Sarakhs, and dwindles away ; but accurate information regarding it is still wanting. The channel is shown, in a map lately published, as passing Sarakhs for some 250