Topographical Remarks regarding Afghanistan. 327 



The highest part of the Upper Hissar is about 150 feet above 

 the surrounding meadow, and the lower is 30 feet. In the 

 Lower Hissar there is the palace in the northern corner ; the 

 barracks were built for the temporary accommodation of the 

 troops during the winter, it contains 6,000 inhabitants. 



The wet ditch is filthy and muddy, filled with impurities, 

 and 6 feet in depth, covered with vegetation. On the melting 

 of the snow, and during the spring rains, the stench and 

 effluvia that arises from it renders its neighbourhood very 

 disagreeable, and cannot but prove injurious. From the top 

 of the citadel there is a good view of Cabul and the surround- 

 ing country ; on the north-west, the Pughman hills ; to the 

 north, the snow-clad Hindoo-Koosh, and the plain shut in on 

 all sides by ranges of mountains. The plain itself is crossed 

 here and there by low hills, the intervening spaces being the 

 meadows of Cabul, with cultivated fields, gardens, walled 

 villages, and forts plentifully scattered around. The plain is 

 watered by the Cabul and Logar streams, from whence numer- 

 ous canals and water-cuts are led all over the valley for the pur- 

 pose of irrigation. About one-third of the valley is either cover- 

 ed with water, or is marshy ground. North from Cabul, five 

 miles, is the lake of Vizeerabad, about 7 miles in length, and 1^ 

 in breadth ; but varying considerably according to the season 

 of the year. It is very shallow, and the drying up of its borders 

 leaves the ground white with saline efflorescence. Along the 

 foot of the hills, from the south-east of the Bala Hissar, is a 

 very extensive marshy surface, and the other part of the mea- 

 dows is merely what in England is termed a bottom, the water 

 being close to the surface. On the melting of the snow and 

 the spring rains all around the Bala Hissar, the surrounding 

 meadows appear almost covered with water, the resort of 

 wild fowl in winter, and in summer and spring the source of 

 intermittent fevers. 



Mountain Soil. — The hills around Cabul are chiefly primi- 

 tive, composed of gneiss in places assuming a granitic appear- 



