INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 255 



ram 



falls at this season. Spring sets in 

 in March in the temperate zone, and with the change of the 



monsoon 



cur, caused perhaps by the southerly direction of the mon- 



wind 



into 



The general aspect of the whole of Afghanistan is that of a 



desert. As the mountains 



termination 



spring rains ; but when the country was the seat of a great 

 empire, an energetic race of inhabitants conducted every avail- 

 able streamlet into artificial channels, by the help of which 

 an extensive cultivation is still carried on in many of the 

 valleys. Around the chief towns and many of the villages, 

 therefore, the country is beautifully verdant. The crops are 

 chiefly wheat and barley, even up to 10,000 feet elevation. 

 Rice is cultivated in great quantity at Jellalabad (2000 feet), 

 at Kabul (6400 feet), and to a considerable extent at Ghazni 

 (7730 feet) . Poplars, willows, and date-palm trees are ex- 

 tensively planted, as well as mulberry, walnut, apricot, apple, 

 pear, and peach-trees, and the Elceagnus orientalis, which also 

 bears an eatable fruit. The vine abounds, as in all warm and 

 dry temperate 



Afghanistan 



types. From the great 



solar power, and the absence of rain during summer, the 

 heat is excessive, so that the vegetation is that of a hot, dry 

 country. On the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush the 



great 



more 



elsewhere in Afghanistan ; and there is therefore a forest belt, 



from 



These forests are 



entirely confined to the mountains which rise out of the 



further 



69th degree of longitude : elsewhere the country is extremely 

 barren, and almost destitute of tree vegetation. The trees are 

 chiefly oaks and pines. There is also a pine forest on the 



