THE AFGHAN BORDERLAND 



By Ellsworth Huntington 



Part I: The Russian Frontier 



A T the present day, in spite of the 

 /\ boasts of civilized man, five im- 

 J_ \^ portant regions of the globe 

 still remain practically closed to him. 

 Two are the cold polar regions ; a third 

 is the huge dry desert of southwestern 

 Arabia ; a fourth is the fever-stricken in- 

 terior of the great island of New Guinea ; 

 while the other three are the countries of 

 Nepal, Tibet, and Afghanistan, among 

 the lofty mountains and cold plateaus of 

 the center of Asia. 



In all seven cases extreme conditions 

 of geographic environment are the cause 

 of the exclusion of civilized man. In the 

 polar regions and in the vast unexplored 

 portion of Arabia extreme conditions of 

 temperature or of aridity are in them- 

 selves enough to prevent the occupation 

 of the country by man. In the other 

 cases geographic environment accom- 

 plishes its function of exclusion in part 

 directly, by making the regions difficult 

 to traverse, and in part indirectly, by fos- 

 tering in the inhabitants a spirit of ex- 

 clusiveness and warlikeness, or by im- 

 posing upon civilized nations certain pe- 

 culiar political conditions. 



Among the closed countries of the 

 world the degree of exclusiveness seems 

 to increase in proportion to the political 

 importance of the regions concerned. 

 Thus there is at present no country 

 which is more difficult to enter than 

 Afghanistan, and none whose isolation 

 is likely to break down so soon. This is 

 due in the first place to the fact that the 

 power which holds the Afghan moun- 

 tains holds a strategic position of the 

 highest importance in regard to India. 

 Therefore England naturally has the 

 most serious objection to any attempt by 

 the Russians to obtain a foothold there. 



In the second place, from Constanti- 

 nople on the west to Manchuria on the 



east there is no place where the natural 

 configuration of the country offers so 

 easy a route from the Russian posses- 

 sions in Asia to the southern ocean as 

 through the western portion of Afghan- 

 istan. Consequently it is highly desira- 

 ble for Russia to control this route, and 

 she is naturally loath to see England su- 

 preme within the Afghan borders. 



Thus it happens that both countries 

 are willing for the present to leave Af- 

 ghanistan in independence, and to allow 

 the naturally wild and exclusive temper 

 of the Afghans to have free play. 



An account of the experiences of the 

 writer upon the northwestern border of 

 Afghanistan, where its territory adjoins 

 that of Russia ; upon the western border, 

 where the country touches Persia, and 

 upon the southwestern border, where 

 English influence begins to be felt, will 

 illustrate the degree of inaccessibility 

 which now prevails in this most exclu- 

 sive of kingdoms. 



In the winter of 1903-1904 the writer,, 

 in company with a young Russian offi- 

 cial, traversed the entire western frontier 

 of Afghanistan. We did not desire to^ 

 penetrate far into the country, but the 

 study of certain geographic and geologic 

 problems, such as the broad break in the 

 mountains which gives such easy access 

 to the country on the northwest, the 

 great depression which determines the 

 border between Afghanistan and Persia,, 

 and the fluctuations to which the en- 

 closed lakes of Khaf and Seyistan are- 

 subject, made it highlv desirable for the 

 writer to be able to cross the frontier, 

 while his Russian companion hoped to 

 win fame and promotion by penetrating 

 into some of the military secrets of the 

 Afghans. 



Late. in November I started ahead of 

 my companion from Askhabad, the cap- 



