1839.] Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. 875 



wells in the city of Cabul is acknowledged to be bad. The neigh- 

 bourhood of Ghuznee has a light soil, with a mixture of small stones. 

 Some other parts of the table land are stiffer, as having more clay in 

 their composition. A mixture of stones in the cultivated fields is 

 universal, and indeed considerable tracts of the table land are so 

 covered with small stones, as to yield but little, even in pasturage. 

 The north has a good deal of broken ground; the south is more 

 level. With respect to the lands of the Huzaras, they are of no one 

 kind except that they are generally stony. 



100. Mookr and Abitazee, on the road from Ghuznee to Candahar, 

 have light soils with a mixture of small stones. The Dooranee country 

 generally considered must be pronounced sandy. Near Candahar the 

 soil is sandy and thirsty, but facilities exist for irrigation. In the city 

 of Candahar water in draw-wells is near the surface, and of good qua- 

 lity, and few places can be named in the whole of Khoorasan where the 

 water is bad. In general the inhabitants drink from running streams, 

 but draw-wells are not unknown, especially within cities and in the 

 desert places frequented only by shepherds. Between Hirat and the 

 Persian Khoorasan there is a sterile tract, which forms an imperfect 

 barrier. The Regimulikan would be crossed in the direct road from 

 Jellalabad, the capital of Seestan, to Furah, and is of considerable extent, 

 South of Soorbut the traveller crosses a desert tract forty miles broad, 

 on the road to Goonabad and Ghaeen. In Seestan, especially the west, 

 there are considerable expanses of sand, generally without fixed in- 

 habitants, and sometimes without water. Between Jellalabad and 

 Kilat of the Beeloches, the country is supposed to be generally a desert. 

 The various desert or sterile spaces now mentioned, appear to me to 

 have an imperfect communication with one another, and therefore do 

 not constitute a military barrier ; nay, we perhaps over-rate the diffi- 

 culties they would throw in the way of the disposition and passage 

 of troops. By digging draw-wells an enterprising and ingenious 

 enemy would find water at a less depth in the earth than is commonly 

 imagined. 



101. Zumindawur is situated, as already mentioned, on the right of 

 the Helbund, (see paragraph 56.) Its soil is more loamy than that of most 

 other parts of the Dooranee country, and is of a good quality. North- 

 west of it is the country called Seahbund, situated within the Parapar- 

 nisan mountains, and inhabited by the Tymunus, a tribe of Ymaks : 

 part of it has a clayey soil. The Gurmseer lies south and south-west 

 of Zumindawur. Its soil, which is naturally sandy and weak, is ren- 

 dered productive by water drawn from the Helbund. The Joolgha 



