160 J. Waterhouse—The Survey Operations in Afghanistan [No. 8, 
for some seven or eight miles, passing between thickly-wooded spurs of the 
mountains. It then winds up the spurs towards the Kotal, among 
the pines and here begins to be somewhat steeper, until it arrives at a small 
saddle from which to the Lakarai itself the slopes are somewhat slighter. 
From a little below this saddle to the Kotal the snow was very deep, 25 
to 3 feet. On the north side it was deeper still, and sometimes lies 7 to 8 
feet thick. The height of the Kotal is about 10,600 feet. 
They crossed the Kotal and continued some little distance down to 
where they could get a fairly good view cf the river-bed and the villages 
below. ‘The part of the road near the Kotal is called Mangal Tangi and 
the villages in the valley are Gabar Mangal. They are Taghan, Langar 
Kila, Sirkoti and Nazir Mahomed. 
The nearest is Taghan, about five or six miles from the Kotal, and is a 
fairly large village. They were unable to go down to this village, partly 
because it was getting late and partly because the villages were unfriendly. 
They could see the tops of the Jizin and Jagdalak Hills and, as at Matun- 
geh, some of Major Tanner’s points, but the height of the Safed Koh 
on the right and the hilly nature of the country in front prevented their 
seeing Gandamak or Jagdalak. Lieut. Martin was also able to see the 
other side of the Safed Koh and so check, correct and add to the work he 
had done at Matungeh. The weather was very cold with a wind which 
almost made their fingers too numb to draw. Lieut. Martin gives a very 
graphic description of the beauty of the scenery, which he describes as 
quite Alpine. 
During the month of May reconnaissances were made to the Sirkai 
and Shuturgardan Kotals ; to the Zarrazod Peak, near the Mangior Pass ; 
to the Istiar Pass and head of the Mangior defile, looking over the Ahmed 
Kheyl country; to the Kafirtaga Hill and to the Naktek Peak, over the 
Ahmed Kheyl and Lajji country, on which occasion a good deal of work 
was done and the positions of the Ahmed Kheyl and Lajji villages fixed, 
and a good deal of the topography between Ali Kheyl and the principal 
part of the Kuram sketched in as well as the ranges and principal water- 
courses on the opposite side. 
Lieut. Martin gives some interesting details regarding the course of 
the Kuram river. There are two principal sources. One rises near the Shu- 
turgardan, flows east and then south; the other rises in the Peiwar range, 
flows west and meets the former at Ali Kheyl and continues along with 
it in that direction until it arrives at the Ahmed Kheyl great village. 
Here the bed narrows and the closeness of the rocks gives it the name of 
“angi.” This is the spot where the river suddenly turns south into a 
