194 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 



his route survey. He had carried it on all the way from Ighiz Yar, 

 and it came to over 600* miles between the two. Points were fixed as 

 usual by an observation, and altitudes by boiling-point measurements 

 based upon Yarkand. In the map submitted by him to Govern- 

 ment on his return to India the altitudes were all given about 

 250 or 300 feet too low. It was made up before he had time 

 to send the boiling-point thermometers to Kew to be retested. 

 After that was done he computed all the altitudes afresh with 

 the new corrections and found the above general error. 



From Isbkashim Mr. Elias proceeded to Faizabacl and stayed 

 there till the beginning of January. It was too late in the year for 

 travelling at high altitudes, and all Mr. Elias was able to do was 

 to go on to Khanabad, near Kunduz, on a visit to the governor 

 of the province, and thence make an excursion to the confluence 

 of the Kokcha and Pan j ah during an interval of open weather, when 

 a little new geography was got in. Faizabad was found to be a 

 small trading place of about 4,000 inhabitants, mostly Tajiks, and 

 Khanabad a somewhat smaller town, with chiefly a Turki population. 

 Kunduz is now in ruins and almost uninhabited, and Khanabad has 

 taken its place. 



From Khanabad, early in February, Mr. Elias was obliged to 

 travel down to the Turkoman country to join the Afghan Boundary 

 Commission, then near Maruchak on the Murghab, and was only 

 able to leave them towards the end of April to return to Badakhshan. 

 However, no geographical work was done on Mr. Elias's return 

 as he was recalled to India via Chitral and Gilgit, arriving in 

 Kashmir eventually towards the end of September 1886. 



The zoological investigations during the Afghan Boundary Com- 

 mission fell to the lot of Dr. J. E. T. Aitchison, CLE., F.E.S., F.L.S., 

 who was appointed naturalist, and had thus to undertake general 

 duties in addition to his more special calling of botanist.f Captain 

 C. E. Yate and Lieutenant Bawlins and other members of the 

 mission rendered assistance in the supply of specimens, but the 

 absence of regular collectors was a drawback, the Afghans being 

 useless in this respect. Dr. Aitchison's collections comprised 290 



* Not 360 miles, us erroneously printed in the K. Gr. S. paper, p. 69. of 1887. 



j Transactions of the Liimean Society of London, 2nd series Zoology, Vol. V., 

 Part 3. " The Zoology of the Afghan Delimitation Commission," by J. E. T. Aitchison, 

 M.D., C.I.E., F.K.S.. F.L.S., London, 1S80 (plates and two maps;. 



See a/so a paper by Dr. J. Scully on the mammals and birds collected by 

 Captain (.'. E. Vale, C.S.I., of ih.- Afghan Boundary Commission (J. A. S. B'., lvi. 

 pt. ii., p. 68, 1887 



