750 Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. CSept. 



towards Afghanistan this height is usually gained very rapidly, so 

 that not unfrequently low and hot valleys and plains lie at the foot of 

 mountains white with perennial snow. 



7- In the opposite quarter they do not preserve one character; 

 Hindookoosh has a rapid descent into Budukhshan, which it divides 

 from the valley of Cabul ; more to the east there issues from the 

 great northern ridge another, by geographers named Belur, a term 

 corrupted from the Toorkee word Beloot, signifying a cloud, and 

 which runs perhaps due north and divides Budukhshan, Durwaz, and 

 Kuralegin on the west, from Kashkar on the east. Into all those 

 countries, and beyond them into Toorkistan between the Oxus and 

 Jaxartes, it sends branches generally of considerable height; but ac- 

 cording to Lieut. Macartney it cannot be considered as extending 

 beyond the river Jaxartes, which rises in its northern extremity not 

 far from the farthest sources of the Oxus. The Kashkar river too 

 seems to originate in the same neighbourhood but to the east of this 

 range, along the foot of which it generally runs, and by which it is 

 prevented running westwards towards the Caspian. To the left 

 chiefly, or to the east of this river, is the country of Kashkar, which 

 has on the south the great northern chain, so called as lying to the 

 north of Afghanistan. This chain has here a moderate descent, and 

 Kashkar appears to be generally speaking an high plain, which is as 

 it were, supported by it. Many points however remain very obscure. 

 Lieut. Macartney is of opinion that this high plain of Kashkar is sur- 

 mounted to the north or north-east by another chain of mountains 

 nearly parallel to the first, and in which originate, or partly originate, 

 the Indus and the Kashkar river ; and that these mountains in their 

 north-western extremity join the northern extremity of the Belur 

 chain. With respect to this other range which meets the Belur, it seems 

 rather a slight height of land than a lofty ridge, and there is no ab- 

 surdity in supposing it lower than the ridge first mentioned, though 

 the streams generated in it pierce that ridge. In short, it seems 

 probable that the table land is continued from Tibet as well as the 

 mountains, and this table land naturally has a ridge from which the 

 waters are turned contrary ways, but which need not be supposed 

 lofty above its base. Certain it is that after entering Kashkar travel- 

 lers from Peshawur to Yarkund, whose course is not very different 

 from due north, have no very high mountains to pass. It is true 

 Kashkar is not destitute of other mountains besides those bounding it 

 to the south and west, but they do not appear to give a character to the 

 country. The north-west part of this table land which lies north of 



