1839.] Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. 785 



Mushhud is considerably colder than both. Mushhud and Kilat 

 of the Beeloches may be conjectured to have an animal heat not 

 very different. Ghaeen and Birjund are various in different places, 

 but generally may be pronounced intermediate between Hirat and 

 Candahar. Seestan is warmer than the gurm seer, yet contains 

 hills on which snow falls in the winter. The great desert to the 

 south has a most sultry climate. 



57. Snow falls every winter in the whole of Toorkistan, unless 

 indeed there be any exception in the deserts towards the Cas- 

 pian, of which our information is in most particulars very scanty. 

 This country sloping westward, the eastern quarters are the coldest ; 

 but in the distance of a few miles there is frequently great differ- 

 ences of climate. It also deserves remark, that the kingdom of 

 Bokhara and other parts west, being open countries, are also windy, 

 and their air sharper to the feelings in the winter than that of the 

 east. But no doubt exists of their real cold being less, for their winter 

 is shorter, and the snow sooner melts. In Bokhara it seldom rains, but 

 snows in the sign Sagittarius, which begins the 20th November. 

 Snow falls knee deep in the course of the ensuing month Capricornus, 

 and that quantity melts in five days. In some years there happens 

 much greater falls, and it has been known to snow after the ver- 

 nal equinox. The spring and autumn are generally temperate, and 

 two months only of the summer are hot, namely Cancer, which begins 

 the 20th of June, and Leo, but especially the former; the noon- 

 day winds then feel warm, but close nights are not known. The 

 natives are not so fair as the Cabulies. Khwaruzm is warmer than 

 Bokhara ; the kingdom of Kokur is colder, and has both a healthier and 

 pleasanter climate, though Bokhara cannot be said to be unhealthy. 

 Taskund is nearly similar. The Kinghuzes live in a colder country 

 than the Kuzzaks, whose country is yet colder than Bokhara, and 

 not much warmer than Taskund, which borders on it to the east. 

 Keerategin is a cold country, but some places are much colder than others. 

 The town of Durwaz is noted in its own neighbourhood for heat, 

 being situated in a deep and narrow valley. 



58. Budukhshan being composed of vallies which take their origin in 

 mountains covered with perpetual snow, and whose months have nearly 

 the same level as the lower parts of Toorkistan, thus possesses great 

 diversity of climate. In many of the loftier parts the crops are in 

 some seasons spoiled by the frosts before ripening. All the consider- 

 able places, however, lie in temperate climates. Fyzabad is warmer 

 than Cabul. The Koocha is not known to freeze at that town or 



