1840.] Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. 63 



in the Cabul dominions. On the mountains are fed numerous 

 flocks of sheep, which are here a very valuable stock, yet are 

 cows, on the whole, kept to a greater value. There are no 

 buffaloes or camels. The chief carriage within the valley is by 

 boats, and with most of the neighbouring districts by the labour 

 of men. The quantity of rice produced far exceeds all the 

 other grains and articles of food. A Kushmeeree eats wheat 

 as a curiosity. That, like all other things, is sown in the spring. 

 Saffron is cultivated lulm, and some of the gardens receive 

 no water. The fruits and the palez are inferior in quality to 

 those of Cabul, and the rice is of a coarse kind, but productive. 

 Flesh is dear, timber and fuel cheap. The produce seems to be 

 equal to the consumption and no more, nor could Kushmeer 

 be easily made to yield supplies to an army not quartered in it, 

 for the access is difficult, and carriage expensive. Fodder is plen- 

 tiful, and especially rice straw, with which many of the poor 

 thatch their houses ; but in general the tops as well as the walls 

 of the houses are of wood. The natives are proverbially un- 

 clean. The trade of Kushmeer is great, and already well known 

 in Europe. 



Rajiver, fyc. 

 205. The southern dependencies of Kushmeer are well 

 watered vallies, of which the chief produce is rice and maize, and 

 the chief live stock cows and buffaloes. Wood and fuel are 

 abundant, and the houses, whether of stone or wood, flat-roofed 

 with timber. Provisions are cheap. The villages are small, 

 but numerous in the bottoms, though there be much uninhabited 

 space among the mountains. 



Pothwar, fyc. 

 206. Pothwar has a sandy soil of very poor quality, but a 

 portion of all the three rains. Wastes are to be found, some- 

 times stony, sometimes broken ground, but on the whole 

 the quantity of ground cultivated may excite surprize. The 

 chief crop is the khureef, and bajra the bread corn of the 

 people. The grain gives but a small produce on a given 

 surface. There are some towns, but villages are small. Wood 

 is dear, and part of the houses are thatched, part flat- 



