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VII. 



AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 



An enormous addition to our knowledge of northern and western 

 Afghanistan was made by the labours and researches of the 

 Boundary Commission, which was engaged, in conjunction with a 

 Russian Commission, in laying down the northern boundary of the 

 country in 1884-86. Unlike the Eastern Persian Mission under 

 Sir F. Goldsmid, and the Tarkand Mission under Sir D. Forsyth, of 

 which official narratives were duly compiled, an official account of 

 the Afghan Boundary Mission has not yet been written ; but the 

 following details, culled from various published sources, but chiefly 

 from the excellent papers contributed by Lieutenant - Colonel 

 T. H. Holdich to the Royal Geographical Society's Proceedings, will 

 give a general idea of the geographical results achieved. 



The Indian section of the Afghan Delimitation Commission left 

 Quetta on the 19th September 1884 under the command of 

 Lieutenant- Colonel (now Sir) J. "W. Ridgeway. A small survey 

 party was attached to the Commission, consisting of Captain St. G. 

 Gore and Lieutenant the Hon. M. G. Talbot, assisted by three 

 native sub-surveyors. It was subsequently decided to depute a 

 third officer, and Major J. Hill, R.E., was at first selected, but 

 in consequence of his weak state of health he was unable to 

 proceed further than Quetta, and Major Holdich was recalled from 

 the Zhob valley expedition to take his place. 



The triangulation laid out by Lieutenants Talbot and Wahab in 

 1883 to the south and south-west of Kelat formed the basis for an 

 extension of the Afghan triangulation from Nushki to the Helmand. 

 But the extension was carried out with great difficulty, owing to the 

 thick haze, and Captain Gore and Lieutenant Talbot were unable 

 to keep up communication between their respective series; but, 

 nevertheless, a fairly satisfactory junction was effected at Galichah, 



