328 Topographical Remarks regarding Afghanistan. 



ance, with dykes of dark porpliyrytic trap and veins of quartz ; 

 the height of the hill above Cabul is 1,200 feet. Cabul itself 

 being 6,000. The Pughman situated to the N.W. have snow- 

 in their ravines and hollows the whole year round, and must 

 be upwards of 13,000. The lower hills in the centre of the 

 valley or meadows, consist chiefly of limestone and indurated 

 clay, in some places perforated by caves, the occasional re- 

 sidence of wandering people. In the extreme north, towering 

 above the neighbouring mountains, are the snowy peaks of the 

 Hindoo-Koosh ; the valley is also shut in to the east by ranges 

 of hills, which may be considered as off-shoots from the Suf- 

 feid-Ko. On the top of one of them, and distant about 10 

 miles from Cabul, a minar or Bactrian pillar is distinctly seen. 

 The valley is shut in on all sides by bare primitive rocks, 

 which by reflecting and radiating heat, must tend to increase 

 the glare and temperature, but the air cooled by the snowy 

 mountain tops rushes into the valley, moderates the heat, and 

 produces vicissitudes of temperature. The soil of the valley is 

 a light clayey alluvial deposit, from three to five feet in depth, 

 to this succeeds gravel and sand, on reaching which, water is 

 found in great quantity : many parts of the surface are 

 incrusted with saline efflorescence, rendering the water more 

 or less brackish. 



Climate. — In so extensive a country, there is a great va- 

 riety of climate depending on elevation and position of the 

 valleys. That of Cabul is considered extremely salubrious ; 

 it is warmer than England in summer, and colder in winter. 

 The thermometrical range is very extensive, from below zero 

 to 102°. There has been no opportunity of calculating the 

 mean temperature of the year in the Cabul valley, from the 

 Regiment having been under canvas till the approach of 

 winter ; the difference between night and day, the diurnal 

 variation, is considerable, amounting to 40° j the nights and 

 mornings are cool, the noon-day sun hot. 



June, July, and August are the warmest months ; Decern- 



