TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 725 



sional sun-ridges (or drifts) of a few yards only in width, but deep and shifting, with 

 an occasional hut or ziyurat (the dwelling of a desert /«/.■»•), like an inverted bird's 

 nest of sticks adorned with quaint deyices, leaves little wanting to complete an intel- 

 ligible picture. From Gazchah onwards we are told that ' a marked geographical 

 change occurs,' and that the line of march for about 90 miles further is ' a mere 

 track, winding and twisting over the successive waves of rolling stone-covered plateau 

 hills, with the line of distant rugged pealis to the south ; a few scattered isolated 

 hills on the northern horizon, and one or two remarkable conical peaks rising 

 straight up from the plain, forming a peculiarly definite line of landmarks for the 

 marching force. The direction at night was indicated by fires kept up at intervals 

 of a few miles.' The last 50 miles or so to the river is ' a troublesome strip of 

 waterless desert.' It should be noted that, with one exception, where it was 

 reached at 25 or 30 feet below surface level, Major Holdich states that five 

 to six feet is about the average depth at which water is found between Nushki and 

 the Helmand. 



Few can deny that all this is very useful and interesting information. So far 

 back as the spring of 1808, Capt. Christie had made an adventurous journey to 

 the left bank of the Great Afghan River, also from Nushki, whither he had pro- 

 ceeded from Kelat in company with Lieutenant Pottinger. He reckoned the dis- 

 tance at 191 miles, or somewhat less than the Mission's estimate. AVhen Sir 

 Charles MacGregor and Captain Lockwood passed through Western Baluchistan 

 in 1877, they separated at a place called Lai Khan Chah, about 60 miles below 

 the Helmand, to return, by different routes, to the Sind frontier post of Jacobabad, 

 Captain Lockwood taking the upper route by Nushki and the Bolan, and Colonel 

 MacGregor the lower by the Baila country ; but they did not penetrate so far 

 north as the Helmand itself. Nushki has, however, been more than once visited 

 of late years by British officers from Kelat. 



' Khwajah Ali,' writes Major Holdich, ' where the Boundary Commission first 

 struck the Helmand, exists only in name.' Neither he nor the correspondents of 

 the ' Pioneer ' mention its distance from Rudbar, but it may fairly be concluded 

 that it is not many miles to the eastward of that place. The river appears to 

 have been forded at Chahar Burjak, whence the party moved up the right bank 

 to Kala'i-Fath and Kohuk, passing on through Northern Sistan and its reed-beds 

 to the Afghan territory of Lash Juwain. Having myself visited the locality at 

 which we have here arrived, it might naturally be inferred that I -should pause to 

 say something regarding it, but I will not weary you by recurring to narratives and 

 descriptions published many years ago, reserving all personal experiences to guide 

 me in the general conclusion to be sulDmitted. How the British Commissioners for 

 delimitation of the Russo-Afghan frontier proceeded from Ivash Juwain to the 

 immediate vicinity of Herat, and on to the quasi-Mesopotamia of Badkhiz, I leave 

 to be dealt with by the authoritj' to whom I have already referred. 



Time, too, warns me that I have detained you long enough, and that if my 

 illustrations apply to the argument entrusted to your consideration, the application 

 should at once be made evident. To my own mind the bearing is clear. A 

 Boundary Commission represents the three branches of Science, Research, and 

 Diplomacy — in other words, all that comes under scientific geography and political 

 geography. The first, you will understand, comprises the survey of country, map- 

 ping, and determination of localities. The second has to do with the definition of 

 territorial limits, and, in such sense, with history, ethnology, and laws of nations. 

 That all this has been done, and well done, on the present occasion is not disputed, 

 any more than that enlightened attention will be given to the due disposal of results. 

 But are not these matters of sufficient importance to be taught as daily lessons in 

 our schools, and presided over in university chairs ? Even those barren and desolate 

 lands of which we have now spoken— and I have myself traversed many miles of 

 such, some, indeed, in the near vicinity of the Perso- Afghan frontier, between Herat 

 and Farah — they may have a meaning which can only be understood by the ini- 

 tiated, by those who have made them a long and seriously-undertaken study. To 

 the many they are but miserable deserts displayed in incomplete maps ; to the few 

 they may have a value far beyond their outer show. Were I asked to sketch out the 



