J 839] Lieut, Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan, 747 



Of the Climate, Soil, Products, and Husbandry of Afghanistan and 

 the Neighbouring Countries. 

 In the following pages I treat of a wide extent of country, being 

 nearly the whole of the space of which a map has lately been con- 

 structed by Lieut. Macartney. In a more particular manner will 

 be treated Afghanistan, which is centrical in it. Such is the extent 

 and diversity of this last country alone, that were our attention 

 confined to it, still could a brief treatise contain but cursory notices 

 even of the important parts of a subject so extensive ; much more 

 must it be so, when the neighbouring tracts are to be in some measure 

 included in the survey. With respect to the accuracy also of the 

 matter here offered, although it be hoped that there is a considerable 

 preponderance of truth, it must be supposed that in the circumstances 

 under which it has been collected and digested, the errors too must 

 be numerous. 



2. Afghanistan is bounded on the north by mountains which divide 

 it from Kashkar and Budukhshan; other mountains divide it on the 

 north-west from that part of Toorkistan which lies on this side of 

 the Oxus, and that part of Khoorasan which extends north nearly to 

 that river; on the west it includes a part of that famous geographical 

 division ; while beyond in this direction is the Persian Khoorasan ; 

 to the south it has deserts and Bulochistan. The Indus from its 

 exit from the lofty mountains in about the latitude of 45° N. some- 

 times constitutes its eastern boundary, and sometimes is comprehended 

 in it, as will be in the sequel more fully explained. Discarding the 

 provinces of Sindh and Kushmeer, as if parts of India, and also the 

 provinces lately belonging to the monarchy in the south-east of 

 Toorkistan, with the contiguous ones in the north-east of Khoorasan, 

 the Afghan people and government may be considered as included 

 within the 35th and 29th degrees of north latitude and the 62nd and 

 73rd of east longitude. 



3. Without discussing the nature of the political connection between 

 Bulochistan and the Afghan monarchy, it seems sufficient for us that 

 there is a practical convenience in naming and considering them 

 separately. Bulochistan, so called from two nations called Bulochis, 

 who compose the bulk of its population, has Afghanistan to the north, 

 a desert dividing it in that quarter from Seestan, (Seestan on the 

 whole lies north-west of Bulochistan) ; to the west, deserts or very ill- 

 peopled tracts divide it from the Persian province Kirman ; to the 

 south is the sea; and to the east Sindh. The government of Sindh 



