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 hundred miles from Hissar, and about eighty from the Nuksan pass. Faizabad is one of the most de- lightful places to reside in that can be imagined. During summer, in the close vicinity of fever- stricken haunts, such as Kundus and the banks of the Oxus, it preserves a temperature and equality of climate that would make it the San Remo of Central Asia when that continent becomes the abode of travellers. In winter it is sheltered alike from the bitter winds of the steppe or the mountain range. An army could pass the most severe of winters in comfort at Faiz- abad, and for this reason Badakshan must always be considered one of the out-works of India. It is not recognised as fully as it ought to be in this country that Badakshan must never be permitted to pass into the hands of a power of whose friendship we possess no security. Russian troops on the Kokcha would repre- sent a most grave peril, and Faizabad must share with Balkh, Maimene, and Herat the right to be called an out- work, or "key," of the Indian battle- ments. In any movement in this direction the rivers Surkhab and Panja must operate very much in the favour of an invading army. The former river turns out to be of much larger volume than had been sup- posed, and some Russians are sanguine enough to believe that there is a waterway for flat-bottomed boats from Kilai Darwaza to its entrance into the Oxus. Of the roads we have up to this been considering, it may be said that it is uncertain whether they exist, except in the imagination of some enthusiastic Mus- covites. If Russia should advance against India from