1879. ] during the Campaign of 1878-79. 163 
Sisobi Pass v7é Chunar, did a good deal of survey in the western part of 
the valley, and was able to fill in a considerable portion of the hill tract 
between Dakka and the Sisobi Pass, the position of which was accurately 
fixed. 
While the Force remained in the valley no surveying beyond the 
immediate vicinity of the camp at China could be undertaken, nor any 
exploration made towards the Bara and Tirab Valleys, the Zakha Kheyls at 
once opposing the advance of any reconnoitring parties in those directions, 
Capt. Leach remarks, as the result of observations on this expedition, 
that the passes over the Safed Koh apparently exist at intervals of 5 to 10 
miles, and the one they crossed—the Sisobi—was under 5000 feet and a 
comparatively easy one for camels. 
The higher ranges of the Safed Koh are fairly wooded, but the Kabul 
river runs through a bare stony plain from Jelalabad to the Khyber, and 
cultivation is very limited. 
The most notable feature of the country is the elevated valleys which 
are composed entirely of beds of conglomerate brought down from the main 
ranges, and which rise gradually several thousand feet before the steeper 
slopes like those of the Himalaya commence. It is difficult to explain the 
formation, but it presents all the appearance of a sudden disintegration of 
the mountain ranges by voleanic action, the drainage lines cutting out 
broad channels in the most erratic manner over the deposit thus formed, 
and the spurs apparently having been half-buried by the immense masses 
of loose stone. 
The route between Dakka and Jelalabid was surveyed by Major Tan- 
ner, the survey comprising nearly all the country between the road and the 
Kabul river and the villages 2 or 3 miles to the north of the river, and it 
was afterwards added to, chiefly towards the south, by expeditions from 
Jelalabad. 
Capt. Leach, writing in January of the route between Dakka and Jela- 
labad, says that the country is disappointing and the fertile valley of 
Jelalabad, so far as he could see, wasa myth. ‘There are few trees and 
for several miles to the south of Jelalabad there are undulating ranges of 
low~ hills with broad expanses of waste land covered with stones. This is 
the character of the road the greater part of the way from Dakka, and the 
tract of country it passes through is to all appearances a continuous river- 
bed. Round Jeldlabad itself there is a certain amount of irrigated culti- 
vation, but the camp and roads were deep in dust and there is absolutely 
no vegetation on the hills. 
Various attempts were made to explore the hitherto unknown tract of 
country lying along the northern slopes of the Safed Koh range to the 
