134 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 



the river ; on this tract some interesting notes were collected by 

 Captain Holdich. It is on the summit of the great white peak of 

 Kund overlooking Lughinan from the region of Kafiristan that 

 Noah's Ark is said to have rested after the Flood, and the valley 

 of Dara-i-Nur, which lies on the border of Kafiristan territory, 

 still bears his name. The famous ziarat or shrine of Lamech 

 (Michtar Lam') is in the adjoining Alishang valley, and numbers 

 of pilgrims annually repair thither from Jalalabad. There are 

 evidences of a former Buddhist population in the caves bordering 

 the river, both at Deronta and elsewhere. The Lughmanis too 

 have ever been the connecting link between Kafiristan and the 

 southern world in the matter of trade, and Kafir slave girls brought 

 down from the mountains to the Dara-i-Nur were introduced by 

 Lughmanis through the markets at Jalalabad and Kabul to the 

 harems of the wealthy. 



Captain Holdich then accompanied General Sir F. Roberts on his 

 march through the Logar valley, taking advantage of the oppor- 

 tunity to make a leisurely re-survey of the valley on the ^-inch 

 scale. The valley is described by Captain Holdich as very beautiful 

 at times, the white-walled, square-towered villages, each with its 

 bastioned fort, being literally buried in groves of dark green 

 mulberries and palm trees. Poplar avenues and wide fields knee- 

 deep in clover or waving with wheat and fenced off with low mud 

 walls or hedges of the wild yellow rose, form a pleasant contrast 

 to the rough background of hills. Near the junction of the Logar 

 and Kabul rivers there are Buddhist remains in plenty, one minar 

 conspicuouslv.erected on the ridge overlooking the Kabul and Khurd 

 Kabul plains being 95 feet high and 62 feet in girth at the base. 

 The Logar valley triangulation was at the same time improved and 

 extended by Major \Yoodthorpe, who also fixed a number of points 

 on the Altiinor, Pughman, Deh-i-Sabz, and Karkatcha ranges. The 

 same officer subsequently accompanied General Ross's division on 

 its march towards Ghazni to meet Sir Donald Stewart advancing 

 from Kandahar, and having extended the triangulation towards the 

 head of the Logar river, effected a junction at Saidabad with the 

 work of Lieutenant St. G. C. Gore, who had left Kandahar on 

 the 30th March. 



Amongst other surveys executed in Northern Afghanistan during 

 the year should be mentioned Captain Martin's mapping of 700 

 square miles in the Koh-i-Daman and Kohistau, in the course of 

 which he obtained information regarding the course of some of the 



