182 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 



Many of them are grandly picturesque ; below Paoghan the Astarab 

 river flows in a narrow gorge often not more than 30 yards wide, 

 and enclosed by vertical walls of limestone, some 1,500 feet in sheer 

 height above the river bed. Most of the rivers flow from south 

 to north, and hence form transverse valleys through the ranges 

 of Turkistan. They have eroded gorges where they cross anti- 

 clinals and formed wider valleys with side streams when on a 

 synclinal. 



In the summer of 1SS5 the necessity of finding some fixed 

 geographical point on tho Oxus near that end of the boundary 

 became apparent. The Kuhsan base had been connected with 

 Mashhad by direct triangulation, and the longitude value of 

 Mashhad (determined telegraphically with Tehran) was thus 

 brought down to Kuhsan, while the triangulation itself formed an 

 excellent basis for the commencement of boundary demarcation 

 from any point on the Hari-Rud adjoining the Russian frontier. 

 But it was then known that the boundary would run in a north- 

 easterly direction through the clwl, a country particularly un- 

 favourable for connected triangulation. Without some reliable 

 check the accuracy of the boundary survey would have been 

 unavoidably open to question. Captain Talbot was therefore deputed 

 to undertake the difficult and dangerous duty of carrying out a 

 series eastward along the Hari-Rud valley, from which series it was 

 hoped that points might be fixed to the south wai'd for the basis 

 of surveys between the Hari-Rud and Zamindawar. He was to 

 push his triangulation eastwards if possible to a junction with 

 points already trigonometrically fixed from India on the Hindu 

 Kush and Koh-i-Baba mountains, within sight of Kabul. He was 

 then to carry it across the great central mountain chain to Bamian, 

 extend northward through Haibak and Ghori to Mazar-i-Sharif and 

 Balkh, and finally carry on westwards till he sighted Kilif on the 

 Oxus and the mountain peaks of Bokhara. Pari passu with his 

 triangulation he was to carry out a plane-table reconnaissance 

 embracing all the country he could see, for there was no topographer 

 available for the duty. All this work was successfully accom- 

 plished, though not all at once. After pushing forward his 

 triangulation past Herat to Daulatyar with fair success, Major 

 Talbot was hurriedly recalled in August 1885 to help in making 

 arrangements for the defence of Herat. It was not till late in 

 September that the political situation enabled him to retrace his 



