254 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



Some thirty miles in direct distance to the south 

 stands the massive range, well deserving the name of 

 Safed-Koh the white (or snow-covered) mountains 

 its crest rising to 15,000 feet and more, a succes- 

 sion of pinnacles, on whose steep sides the snow can 

 scarce find a resting-place. Often it falls from them 

 in masses, and leaves bare, huge, black, rocky scarps, 

 which form a* striking contrast with their white 

 neighbours. 



Jutting northwards from these crests is a succes- 

 sion of bold spurs, which first fall abruptly to a 

 height of about 12,000 feet, and are thus far treeless 

 and bare ; then for some miles continue their course, 

 with very slight gradients, where their sides are 

 densely wooded ; then fall abruptly to the height of 

 4000 to 6000 feet, whence they break up into hill- 

 ocks and ravines, or spread northwards in fan-like 

 plateaux, gradually falling away till they are lost in 

 the low rice -covered lands along the banks of the 

 Cabul river or, before doing so, suddenly start up 

 again in the shape of isolated small hill groups 1000 

 feet above the plain, which end abruptly where the 

 waters of the river wash their bases. These latter 

 plateaux, unlike those which fall away completely 

 and are cultivated, are generally covered with pebbles 

 and rocks, and are bleak and barren in the winter, 

 hot and dusty in the summer; and those of our 

 troops whose misfortune it was to spend the last 

 months of the occupation on them encamped in 



