478 Memoir on a Map of Peshdwar [Aug. 



from having equal flavour with those produced in the south of France. 

 The grape is only cultivated at the village of Shekh Imdm Mehdi. 



Peshdioar is situated in the middle of a vast plain, which stretches 

 towards the N. E., and which is twenty-five kos in length from the east 

 to the west, and fifteen in breadth from the south to the north. The 

 mountains of the Kattiuks, and the Afredis bound it to the east, and 

 those of Kohdt on the south. To the west it is bounded by the mountains 

 of the Kheibars, and to the north the river of Nagumdn separates it 

 from the districts of the Dudb and of the Yusafzais. This plain is 

 crossed by the river Bahreh, which has its source on the southern side 

 of the Koh-sufed, crosses the Kheibars, enters this district at A'lam-gujar, 

 and after* a short passage empties itself into the Naguman, seven kos 

 east of Peshdwar. Without it the district would be nothing but a bar- 

 ren desert. From June to September the river is dried up by the many 

 drains made to irrigate the cotton plantations and the barley fields. 

 The principal water- courses strike off at the village of Serband, and 

 are divided lower down into an infinity of lesser ones, which give asto- 

 nishing fertility to the soil of this district, and promote the cultivation 

 of rice, which is principally sown in the village of the Mdshturzais, 

 and is much prized by the inhabitants of Afghanistan, and the Pan- 

 j'db. The river Nagumdn, which I presume is no other than the 

 Malamantus of the Greeks, formerly ran to the west of Peshdwar, 

 and you may still trace its bed near the ruins of Rasheki. It appears 

 that some sovereign of the country must have changed its course, in 

 order to fertilize the land of the Mumunds, which extends to the 

 south of the town. This tribe, as well as that of the Kaleels who in- 

 habit the west, have often bloody contentions for the water. The 

 districts of the Ddudzais and of Kalessa are watered by the canal of 

 Budeni, led from the same river of Nagumdn ; its waters are so 

 favorable to vegetation, that grass grows on its banks to the height of 

 a full grown man. The territory of Peshdwar is, generally speaking, 

 most fertile, rivalling the best in Europe if it were but well administer- 

 ed. The harvest is gathered in the summer, and again in autumn. 

 That of the summer yields an abundance of barley and corn, — that of 

 the autumn several kinds of maize, rice, oil seeds, and abundance of 

 Cotton, which provides the inhabitants with a species of manufacture 

 suited to the climate. Wood is procured in great scarcity from the 

 surrounding mountains, on which very little grows. 



This country on every side presents to the view ruins of ancient 

 towns, of the very origin of which the natives are ignorant. The 

 most striking are those of Khohusser, more commonly known by 

 the name of the Takkal, where are the vestiges of three massive 



