890 Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. [Nov. 



reap a portion of it for the sustenance of their stock during winter. In 

 the west of Toorkistan this practice is but little known. In districts, 

 such as that of Samarkand, which are well cultivated, the stock, which 

 is not very numerous, is fed on straw or hay. Where natural pasture is 

 near and plentiful, they are driven out to it even in the depth of win- 

 ter ; hence an extraordinary fall of snow causes a great mortality among 

 them. It is still more fatal to the stock of the Kirghizes and Kuzzaks, 

 who inhabit a more rigorous climate, and having little agriculture 

 have less resource when the surface of the ground is covered with snow. 

 They make no provisions of dry grass, in which we are not altogether 

 to blame them as improvident, for some have scarcely a fixed residence 

 for winter ; and the flocks are so numerous, that it would be difficult to 

 provide sufficient provender for all. Some of the Kirghizes frequent the 

 Pamer, which bears a most luxuriant herbage, but by reason of the 

 cold it is not pastured more than a third part of the year. On their re- 

 turn, they feed their flocks in the warmer vallies below, until the heavy 

 falls of snow and severe cold force them to retire to their kishlaks in 

 the vallies, near which they have left forage remaining for the wants 

 of winter. The sheep remove the snow with their feet, or if too deep 

 they follow the track of the horse, where he has uncovered the herbage. 

 All the animals drink the snow in this season. It is thus the quantity 

 of herbage and its natural seasons, determine the mode of life of a 

 great part of the population. 



123. Pasturage may be divided into two species, the shepherd re- 

 maining in one climate, or visiting another different from his own. 

 In warm or temperate climates far removed from any other, he feeds his 

 flocks all the year near his own village, and according to the distance, 

 brings them back to the village by night, or not. In very cold climates 

 when circumstances prevent an access to more temperate ones during 

 the winter, they subsist in that season on reserved pasture, on the 

 grass which has been reaped, or on the straw or other products of tillage. 

 But when in the same neighbourhood there are warm plains and 

 cold mountains or upland plains, nature lays the foundation of a 

 more erratic life, the flocks being driven up in the summer and 

 down in the winter. Sometimes there are constant inhabitants in both 

 the upper and the lower countries. It is thus the Ghiljies, who stay 

 in the elevated country of Cabul and Ghuznee, send part of their 

 flocks in the winter to the various warm countries, from the most 

 southern parts of Daman to Koonur and Jellalabad. In the summer 

 the inhabitants of these countries send a part of their sheep to the 

 upper country, but the proportion is not considerable. Sometimes the 





