Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/249

Rh CLIMATE.] AFGHANISTAN 231 and south, and only two gates. As a military position it 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 Propkthasia, though this is more probably to be sought in the great ruins of Peshawaran, farther south, near Lash. According to Ferrier, who alhides to &quot; ancient chronicles and traditions,&quot; 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 GOOO, was carried off to Kandahar. Such are the vicissitudes of a city on this unhappy frontier. Sabzvdr, the name of which is a corruption of old Persian, Isphizar, &quot; horse-pastures,&quot; 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 circum stance) some Gheber families. The bulk of the people are Su ris and Taimunis, 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 be low 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 simum. 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 &quot;Khorasan&quot; 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 1 1 8to 120 (Fahr.) in the shade. At Kabul the summer sun has much of its Indian power, though the heat is tempered occasionally by breezes from Hindu Kush, and the nights 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. 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 Afghan istan, 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 hsemorrhoidal affections and syphilitic diseases in repul sive 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 Lagh man 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-