796 Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. [Oct. 



the east or south-east. Budukhshan, Durwaz, and Keerategin Budukh- 

 shan are more humid than Cabul, as is Kushmeer. The humidity of 

 Kushmeer adapts it for the production of rice, which however is there 

 raised chiefly by artificial watering, and ripens in the drier part of the 

 year. The dry and sunny summer of Cabul is favorable to the 

 delicate fruits of the cold and temperate climates, which are here 

 cultivated to a great extent and with much success, but in Kushmeer 

 the apple only can be commended. Within the limits of India there 

 is no place perhaps where less rain falls, and that little so irregular, 

 as the neighbourhood of Mooltan. This however is little regarded by 

 the farmer, who waters his khuruf crop from wells or canals drawn 

 from the river, and raises a proportion of his rubbee on the moist lands 

 which in the cold season the river has abandoned. Nor does the 

 scantiness of the rains imply a dry air. Mists have been already 

 mentioned as common there in the winter. 



77* Having now mentioned in succession the altitudes of the 

 mountains, and their course, the slope and conformation of the land, 

 the sources of the rivers, the heat of the climates, and the periods 

 and quantities of the rains and snow, we may proceed to deduce from 

 these facts in combination the periods of the rising and falling of 

 the streams and rivers. Few considerations are more important to 

 the farmer and the traveller, or to armies. 



78. In perfect plains in a warm climate we rarely find constant 

 streams to originate. The rains of such countries though copious, 

 are violent and of short duration. During the greater part of the 

 year no moisture falls. The rains of the rainy season are drained 

 off with a rapidity corresponding to their violence and their short 

 duration. In their passage they cut deep channels which are dry 

 during other parts of the year ; such are very numerous in India, 

 and are by us called dry nullahs. After rain they are always in- 

 convenient to travellers, sometimes dangerous. Where they afford 

 a level higher than the neighbouring ground under tillage, they are 

 not without their use in agriculture, for by a little pains the water 

 they discharge may be turned upon the fields. The Afghans are very 

 sensible of their value, and reckon lands situated so as to be watered 

 from them next to those which can be watered from constant streams, 

 and superior to such as receive no water but what falls on their 

 own surface. A dry nullah is in Pushtoo called ( Khevur,' and in 

 the Hindhee of Peshawur and the west of the Punjab, ' Kus.' 

 Even low hills in a warm climate usually give out but temporary 

 streams. The snow which may fall on them soon melts, and the 



