Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan. 609 



believe it when we first started on the Campaign of 1838-9. 

 The mountains are not sufficiently elevated to retain the 

 snows beyond the spring months of the year, and as the heat 

 is then great,* the snow melts rapidly, filling the streams for 

 a few weeks only, so that the water is all expended by the 

 sudden thaw, before the crops are sufficiently advanced to 

 ripen without its aid. Thus the valleys are left dry and 

 arid all the summer, at the very season when in more 

 favoured situations the crops are looking vigorous and 

 healthy. This causes the cultivators in the vicinity of the 

 hills to dam up streams, and thus preserve a body of 

 water for themselves, by the aid of which a rich but local 

 patch of cultivation is produced ; at the same time this 

 practice is most pernicious, for while it secures water for 

 a few cultivators near the hills, it is prejudicial to all the 

 country beyond, which being deprived of even a temporary 

 supply of water, is doomed to barrenness all the year through. 

 Thus the whole country wears, generally speaking, the same 

 dreary desolate aspect, forming one wide waste studded here 

 and there with bright and smiling patches of cultivation. 

 Where a permanent supply of water is insured, the case 

 is somewhat different, although cultivation is still restricted, 

 from the conformation of the valleys, to a mere narrow belt 

 on either side of the river ; for instance, about five miles 

 from Candahar, the river Argandab runs along a broad vale, 

 and as it rises among the highlands to the nothward, and 

 always furnishes an abundant supply of water throughout 

 the year, a beautiful and glowing scene presents itself on 

 crossing the range of hills which divides Candahar from the 

 valley of the Argandab. Both banks are richly cultivated 

 with barley, wheat, lucerne, and red clover fields, inter- 

 mixed with orchards of mulberry, peach, nectarine, apri- 



* In May and June, hot winds prevail at Candahar, and the Thermometer in 

 our tents stood at 114° to 120°. 



