174 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 



and the great grassy plain east of Kala Fath bears the appearance 

 of being the gigantic graveyard of successions of buried cities. 

 Kala Fath, itself the ancient capital of the Kaiani Kings, is still an 

 imposing mass of ruins. 



At Kala Fath, where the route turned northward, a new system of 

 surveying was introduced, and the distances were checked by 

 observed latitudes at each halt till Ibrahimabad was reached, 

 50 miles beyond. From thence the latitude and longitude were 

 carried out vigorously by means of observed latitude and azimuths 

 and such triangulations from short independent bases as might be 

 possible. Simultaneously with the running triangulation a plane 

 survey of the whole country was executed on a scale of four miles 

 to the inch, based on a perambulator traverse combined with the 

 trigonometrically fixed points. This survey included, roughly, a 

 strip of country averaging some 20 miles in width. The whole 

 work was completed with both accuracy and speed, the entire 

 distance as far as Kushan (310 miles) being covered in 19 days. 



From Kuhsan the method of surveying was as follows : — 

 Triangulation was carried on with Troughton and Simm's 6-inch 

 "subtense" theodolites as opportunity offered, along several lines, each 

 of which finally resolved itself into a series more or less complete. 

 The following were the main series : — 



1. From Kuhsan to Mashhad. 



2. From Kuhsan along the Hari Rud valley to Bamian. 



3. From Bamian via. Haibak to Balkh. 



4. From Zulfikar (on the Mashhad Series) to the Oxus at 



Khamiab. 



5. From Andkhui (on the " Boundary " or No. 4 Series) to Balkh, 



thus completing circuit. 



6. From Kuhsan southward to Birjand along the Persian border. 



In the course of this gradual extension many detached bases were 

 measured, and new linear values imported into the work together 

 with new azimuths. Astronomical checks were introduced when 

 observations could be taken over a sufficient number of days to 

 ensure trustworthy results. In this the officers of the Commission 

 wore agisted by Captain Guedeonoff of the Russian staff, who was 

 able to verify the results by observations with a Repsold instrument 

 of a much higher class than the small English theodolites. His 

 results, however, agreed closely with those of the latter. On the 



