AFGHANISTAN 



74 



AFGHANISTAN 



AFGHANISTAN 



TIBET 

 N 



I NDI A 

 On the Overland Road to India 



Afghan Soldier 



Village Archite 



AfghanThreshing Machine!^ 



o. 



India, which makes it an effective barrier 

 against the encroachment of Russia upon 

 England's marvelously rich peninsula of India. 

 The country is independent of British authority 

 in local matters, but by treaty Britain controls 

 its foreign relations and thus is fortified against 

 any power that may threaten. Afghanistan's 

 boundaries are not at all points accurately 

 defined, but it contains about 245,000 square 

 miles, so it is not quite as large as Texas, but 

 about the size of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wis- 

 consin and Michigan, combined. 



The People and Their Surroundings. There 

 are about 6,000,000 people in Afghanistan, of 

 many races and clans; most of them are of 

 the native stock called Afghans, and nearly all 

 of these are tribesmen who like to quarrel and 

 who are more or less a law unto themselves. 

 Authority is intelligently exercised in the cities, 

 of which Kabul, with about 75,000 people, is 

 the capital, situated in the eastern part of the 

 country. Other cities are Kandahar, Herat and 

 Ghazni. 



The country is rough, and largely inacces- 

 sible; travel is difficult over the mountains of 

 the Hindu-Kush range, which rise in some 

 places to 18,000 feet, and over the smooth 



tablelands, which have an elevation of 4,000 

 to 7,000 feet. Only along one trail, from 

 Kabul to Herat, can a wagon be hauled with 

 ease; transportation elsewhere throughout the 

 country is by camels and horses. Commerce 

 is therefore carried on with difficulty, but not- 

 withstanding these natural obstacles, the turbu- 

 lent attitude of many of the inhabitants and 

 the primitive modes of life, there is consider- 

 able trade. Lying at all elevations, from deep, 

 intensely hot valleys to great heights with 

 bitter cold, it produces every kind of grain, 

 but principally wheat and barley, as well as 

 many fruits and much tobacco. The mineral 

 wealth is really great, but largely undeveloped ; 

 yet considerable gold, silver, mercury, copper, 

 iron and lead is taken out of the country by 

 caravans, and enough coal is mined to meet 

 the country's needs. The manufactures are lim- 

 ited to the simple needs of the people, and this 

 condition will doubtless long continue. 



Not all of Afghanistan is fertile, nor even 

 half of it. Over much of the area the moun- 

 tainous condition makes agriculture impossible, 

 and nearly half of the whole country is almost, 

 if not entirely, a desert. The valleys afford the 

 only extensive cultivable area. 



