1839.] Lieut. Irwin 's Memoir of Afghanistan. 889 



country of the Ymaks, where they find plentiful pasturage. The 

 Ymaks do not, on the other hand, resort in the winter to the country 

 of the Dooranees, which has less herbage than their own, though 

 warmer, but returning to their kishlaks, or winter residences in the 

 vallies, subsist their flocks partly on what grass they can find in good 

 weather, and partly on what has been cut for them in the autumn. The 

 Huzaras, in a climate still more severe, reap great quantities of grass 

 for their sheep, which are seldom unhoused during three months of 

 winter, but sleep under the same roof with their master. Grass is very 

 abundant during the summer in both countries. Bactria too, with the 

 exception of the sandy spaces, is a verdant country and has many mea- 

 dows, which are always green. In the plains the snow is seldom so 

 deep as to prevent the cattle reaching the grass, but among the hills it 

 is found prudent to provide in part for their provender by a stock of 

 grass, cut in the autumn. The reaping of grass is very common in 

 Kushmeer and in parts of Pukhlee, Bhooner, Swad, Punjkora, Cabul, 

 and Ghuznee, but in general the sheep which have not gone to the 

 low countries are driven out to feed on the shrubs and withered herb- 

 age of a hill exposed to the sun, which has been reserved for this pur- 

 pose. Straw also composes a great part of their food. 



122. With respect to Chinese Toorkistan, we have little information. 

 Yarkund and the sandy tracts (see para. 106) have but little grass. 

 Khootun is in this respect much superior, as in most others. As to in- 

 dependent Toorkistan beyond the Oxus, generally considered, it is not 

 inferior to Bactria, but within it we are to distinguish — 1st, the dry 

 sandy plains — 2nd, the moist plains and meadows — 3rd the little and 

 lower hills — 4th, the high hills and elevated plains. The first has least 

 grass ; the new leaf which had been nourished by the snow is on the 20th 

 March about three inches long ; after three months it withers from the 

 heat of the sun. The meadows have abundance of grass, which is conti- 

 nually renewed. Some banks of rivers have a close sweet turf, but the 

 meadows in general afford a deep grass. The lower hills are better 

 clothed with grass than the dry plains, but are not equal to the mea- 

 dows ; their grass has nearly the same periods as the former, and on a 

 given surface perhaps supports during the year an equal number of 

 animals. The hillocks, are, in the country beyond the Oxus, of sand, 

 and bear a scanty grass, which soon withers. In Bactria and Muro the 

 hillocks are of a good soil, and bear good grass. The high mountains 

 and plains of Toorkistan have a grass which makes little progress in 

 the spring, but grows luxuriantly in the summer, sometimes exceeding 

 a man's stature, and it does not wither until autumn ; the inhabitants 



