1839.] Lieut- Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. 755 



the Jadrans are the chief, and from them those mountains may with 

 propriety be named. They are of a height on the whole not superior 

 to the range of 32^°, unless the lofty mountain Bunseekun be con- 

 sidered as part of them. It lies towards their northern extremity, 

 and is covered with perpetual snow. The longitude of the Jadran 

 range is, by Lieut. Macartney's calculation, about 69|°. 



J 4. The southern part of Afghanistan is in all things far more 

 obscure to us than the northern, but chiefly we are ill informed re- 

 specting the conformation of the country. It is neither well peopled 

 nor much civilised, nor frequently traversed. It appears to be neither 

 mountainous nor plain, but diversified with numerous small and 

 tame- featured hills. Such a country is naturally in a warm climate 

 but little productive. It certainly contains no mountain on which 

 the snow does not melt before midsummer. The highest is the 

 famous Tukhti Sooleman, called by the Afghans Kuseghur, which rising 

 boldly from the low plain, right of the Indus, appears to the stranger 

 a most conspicuous object, but is certainly far less elevated than the 

 white mountain. From it proceeds a range of mountains in a direc- 

 tion parallel to the Indus, even somewhat beyond the most southern 

 limits of Afghanistan. Their height is but moderate. I know not 

 whether we can trace hills proceeding northwards from the Tukhti 

 Sooleman and bounding Mukuiwad and the Daman to the west, 

 or whether the hills which appear from Dera Ismael Khan in that 

 quarter be merely the ends of ridges running east and west, and 

 among others of that of 32J°. Somewhat more to the north, however, 

 begin some hills which extend for about 30 miles nearly parallel to 

 the Indus, ending at the right bank of the Koorm. Those hills form a 

 double range, and between is a sandy and barren valley known in the 

 neighbourhood under the name of Largee. It is plainly formed from 

 the ruins of these hills which are low and friable. The most eastern 

 range closely hems in the Indus, and little arable land is left be- 

 tween, yet here live the Khusor tribe of Afghans, while the western 

 range belongs to the Murwuts. The Khusor and Murwut hills are 

 •not properly comprehended in the southern Afghanistan, which 

 may be considered as having for its northern boundary the range 

 of 321° or the river Gomul, or the 32nd degree of north latitude. 

 The other hills of this tract need be but little expatiated on. The 

 country slopes east towards the Indus, south into Bulochistan, 

 and west into the Afghan Khoorasan, or country of the Dooranees. 

 but it is difficult to assign the boundaries of those natural divisions, 

 The western part, inhabited chiefly by the Kakur tribe of Afghans, 



