574 Extract from Mr. Trebeck's Journal [Nov. 



resist the temptation of extracting a paragraph concerning them from 

 the Manuscript Journal of Mr. Trebeck, the companion of Mr. Moor- 

 croft, now in my hands for transmission to Europe. These travellers, it 

 will be seen, visited the spot where Mr. Masson has lately been so 

 actively engaged. They procured some of the coins now so common 

 to us, and they had received from native tradition the same account of 

 the contents of the topes which has now been confirmed by direct 

 examination. 



" On the evening when we were encamped at Sultanpur, Mr. Moorcroft, in 

 the course of some inquiries learnt that there were in the neighbourhood a number 

 of what the people called Burjs or towers, which according to their accounts of 

 them were exactly of the same form as that seen by us in the Khurbur country. 

 In consequence of our stay at BaM Bagh, we had sufficient leisure to reiurn in 

 search of them, and in the forenoon of the 8th, taking along with us a person 

 in the service of Sultan Mahmud Khan, we set off towards the place where they 

 were said to be. Our road lay between Sultanpur and the Surkh£h, and taking 

 a guide from that village, we were conducted to the bank of the latter rivulet 

 which we were obliged to ford. The water was so deep and rapid that a man on 

 foot could not have got across it, and its color was quite red, from the quantity 

 of red earth washed along by it. Having passed it, and ridden over some fields, 

 belonging to a small Garhi, or walled hamlet, and over a piece of clayey land, 

 much cut and broken by water-courses, we reached a narrow gravelly slope, 

 joining at a few hundred yards, to the left, the base of the mountains bounding 

 this side of the valley. Here we found a Burj, but were a good deal disappointed 

 by its appearance. It differed considerably from those we had before met with, 

 and though certainly antique, was built much less substantially : its exterior being 

 for the most part of small irregularly-sized slate, connected without mortar. A 

 good deal of one side of it had fallen down, and there were others before us ; we 

 did not stay long to examine it. We counted several whilst proceeding, the 

 number of them amounting, as well as I can recollect, to 11, and seeing one more 

 to the westward, and better than the rest, we advanced towards it. It was 

 situated on a stony eminence at the base of the hills near where the main river 

 of Kabul issues from behind them, and nearly on a line with the garden of Chahar 

 Bagh. 



" We ascended to it, and found it to be of about the same size as the one near 

 Lalla Bagh, but as just observed of a different form. It was in a more perfect 

 state than any of the rest in the same vicinity, but varied little from them either 

 in style or figure. It was built upon a square structure, which was ornamented 

 by pilasters with simple basements ; but with rather curious capitals. Were it a 

 tomb, one might suppose the centre of the latter coarsely to represent a skull 

 supported by two bones, placed side by side, and upright, or rather a bolster or 

 half cylinder with its lower part divided into two. On each side of this were 

 two large pointed leaves, and the whole supported two slabs, of which the lower 

 was smaller than the upper one. The most curious circumstance in this orna- 

 mental work was, that though it had considerable effect, it was constructed of 

 small pieces of thin slate, cleverly disposed, and had more the appearance of the 

 substitute of an able architect, who was pressed for time, and had a scarcity of 



