TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 447 



5. Afghan War. — Shoraivak Valley and Tola Plateau. 

 By Major Campbell, B.E. 



Major Campbell described the Shorawak valley and the Toba plateau in 

 Afghanistan. The Shorawak valley had never been visited by Europeans before 

 the recent campaign. It is a narrow strip of flat country lying between the desert 

 on the west and north-west, and a range generally known as the Sarlat Hills to 

 the east. Its total length is about 40 miles, with a width of 10 miles at the 

 northern end ; and it is 3,250 feet above the sea. The head of the valley, to the 

 north, is closed in by the southern spurs of the Khwaja-Amran range of mountains, 

 which nearly join the north-western spurs of the Sarlat Hills, only leaving a gap 

 of about a mile through which the Lora river runs into the valley. 



The desert, which stretches away westward as far as the Persian frontier, rolls up 

 in the form of sand hills to the edge of the cultivated land of the valley. The Lora 

 river, which waters the valley, runs nearly dry in summer, and its water is always 

 brackish, whence the name of the valley from the Persian words Shot- (brackish), 

 and Abak (scarcity of water). The valley is thickly populated, and crops of wheat 

 and barley are raised. _ Major Campbell suggested that Shorawak was once a lake, 

 which was^ gradually silted up by deposits from the Lora, and this seems to account 

 for most of the phenomena. The river, after flowing through the valley, is swal- 

 lowed up in the sand of the desert. 



The Toba table-land is at the north-eastern extremity of the Khwaja-Amran 

 range of mountains. It was visited by Major Campbell last May. The crest of 

 the Khwaja-Amran bifurcates at a short distance north-east of the Khojak Pass, one 

 line running nearly due east, and the other about north-north-east. Between these 

 two crests there is an elevated mountain mass extending eastward until it merges 

 in the general confused mountain system in that direction. This table-land° is 

 divided into two portions, called Toba and Tabin ; the former on the southern and 

 eastern edge, the latter on the western side. They are separated by a narrow line 

 of hills, running about north-east by east. The general elevation is over 7,000 feet. 

 Major Campbell gave an interesting account of this plateau and of its inhabitants. 

 It will probably form an excellent hill sanatorium for the troops stationed in the 

 Pishin Valley. The climate of the plateau in summer is very pleasant. 



6. Neio Routes to Candahar. By Captain T. H. Holdich, B.E. 



In weighing the capabilities of the various passes now known to exist in the 

 mountain barrier of Western and North-Western India, with the important 

 political and strategical object of selecting the best main route to Candahar, the 

 author commenced by stating his objections to those in use at present. Admitting 

 that Karachi may prove the best base for communication with our frontier posts as 

 they stand at present at Quetta and Pishin, he considered that the direct Son 

 Miani route,_connecting the coast with Biela, Khelat, and Quetta, though passing 

 through a friendly country, would be too great a burden to maintain, as it traverses 

 a wild, unproductive, and most unpromising region. The Jacobabad-Bholan route 

 on the western side of the Indus is also open to the periodical danger of inundation 

 by that river (resulting last year in the isolation of Jacobabad itself from Sukkur 

 by thirty-eight miles of water), and to the restriction of its use to cold weather, 

 owing to the painful and disastrous effects of crossing the Kachi desert in the hot 

 season. 



The journeys, however, of the native explorers, instructed by Colonel Browne, 

 through the previously unknown district lying between the Quetta-Pishin line and 

 the Sulimani range, have resulted in the accumulation of material sufficient to 

 warrant the march of a column under General Biddulph from Candahar eastwards 

 towards Dera Ghazi Khan, which has been selected as the base on the Indian side 

 on account of its proximity to Mooltan on the Indus Valley Bailway, and its 

 avoiding a desert passage to the hills. The object of this march was to investigate 

 the various practicable caravan and other routes said to exist between the Pishin 



