1841.] Report on subjects connected with Afghanistan, 997 



to 6,500 feet. The Afghans only make use of it in the construction 

 of the matches for their match-locks. 



Of the timber trees of Eastern Afghanistan an extensive use is 

 not made ; the Baloot suffers most, from being most accessible. The 

 Zaitoon wood is remarkably heavy, sinking in water: it has a very 

 close grain, and may be found to possess valuable properties. On the 

 subject of forest trees, I have entered elsewhere. 



PART IV. 



It appears to me, that there are three natural defects, of more or 



Natural Defects of Af- ^^^^ general occurrence, throughout Afghanis- 

 ghanistan.— Small portion tan, as that kingdom is now limited ; viz. 

 of tillable soil. small proportion of tillable soil, want of fo- 



rests, and of water-carriage. Afghanistan is, I think, decidedly a bar- 

 ren and poor country. The tillable part of the soil bears no propor- 

 tion to that which is untillable. 



The untillable majority is composed of either bare rock, the mountain- 

 ous ranges for instance; or of the inclined planes of boulders and shingle, 

 which I fear must be considered almost as irreclaimable as rock itself. 



On the proportions of the tillable to the untillable part, I have no 

 direct observations to adduce. Those proportions are variable, but 

 very generally the irreclaimable parts are in vast excess,* and conse- 

 quently they oppose a considerable obstacle to any such great exten- 

 sion of cultivation, as would entitle Afghanistan to be considered even 

 a moderately rich agricultural country. 



It was a common remark throughout the army, how wealthy the 

 country would be, if stones were a source of richness and prosperity. 

 The stony nature of the country is almost inconceivable by a person 

 habituated to the extensive alluvial soils of British India. It is still 

 more striking, because, owing to the value of the tillable soil, all the 

 roads, with but very few exceptions, are carried over the edge of the 

 glacis slopes ; as an instance, and yet it is scarcely an extreme one, 

 I may cite the county between Bala Bagh near Jelallabad, and Book- 

 hak near Cabul, over which the great line of communication with the 



* I annex a survey of the valley of Dhukka to shew the proportion of vast excess ; 

 the section of the Peshawur valley gives the opposite and more favourable one. 



