404 THE PRESENT STANDPOINT OF GEOGRAPHY. 



Entering from the west, jil though the frontier prcninee of Azerbaijan 

 has, in its northern lialf, been systematically exi)lore(l and mapped by 

 Eussian surveyors, in its southern parts and on the Turkish border 

 attention might usefully be i^aid to the Persian Kurds, both nomad 

 and seudeutary, the former mostly iu the mountains, the latter in the 

 triaugie of which the three points are Suj-Bulah, Bijar, and Sinna. 

 Farther south, Luristan still remains unexplored in many parts, espe 

 cially in the western subdivision called Pusht-i-Kuh, the home of the 

 Feili Lurs. Since Sir Henry Rawlinson and Sir A. Layard were there 

 fifty years ago these regions have been almost unvisited. Again, to 

 the west of the route, from Tehran to Ispahan, there is a number of 

 small districts Avhich are very imperfectly known; while west of the 

 road from Ispahan to Shiraz there is an absolute blank on the thirty- 

 third parallel, between Kumishah and Yezd. Farther south, the Basha- 

 kerd province and Persian Baluchistan are very little known and largely 

 unexplored, and in Luristan there is a blank space on the maps between 

 the coast range and the caravan route from Faizabad to Lar. So that 

 it will be seen that there is a great deal to which a young geographer 

 might devote his energies in Persia. The same may be said of Balu- 

 chistan, where, between Kharan and the Mekran coast, excei)t along 

 the old Kafilah route from Lus-Bela to Panjgur (which was traversed 

 by Sir It. Sandeman in 1890), the map is almost a Dlank. 



Parts of Afghanistan are very dangerous for Europeans to be 

 employed in, and our knowledge of the mountain ranges between 

 Kabul and Herat, which are occupied by the Hazara and other tribes, 

 is most inadequate. Our ignorance of Kafiristan is complete. We still 

 know nothing whatever of that interesting country, and its explora- 

 tion is very desirable. Officers have been on its frontier — Col. Tanner 

 on the side of the Kunar River, my old friend. Sir William Lockhart, 

 on the north, and the late Mr. McNair from the side of Chitral. But 

 the country itself, from the passes of the Hindu Kush to the banks of 

 the Kunar, is unknown. Its cxjjloration is one of the great geograph- 

 ical achievements that remain to be done in Asia. The results would 

 be important both from a itolitical, a geographical, and possibly a com- 

 mercial ])oint of view, and there could be few nobler ambitions for a 

 young aspirant than to be the first ex^dorer of Kafiristan. In south 

 ern Afghanistan much also remains to be done, as, for instance, inthe 

 tracts to the west of the British iroiitier, between the Zhob and Iviir- 

 ram valleys. 



The Pamir table-land has been largely explored by several European 

 travelers; but there is plenty of room for further work, and a sys- 

 tematic survey of the whole region would be a valuable contribution to 

 geograi^hy. Farther to the east the plains of Turkistan have been 

 elaborately explored, and are sufficiently well known. The mountains 

 and hills to the south, however, being spurs from the Mustagh Hima- 

 layan ranges, are very imperfectly understood- It is doubtful, for 



