164 J. Waterhouse—The Survey Operations in Afghanistan [No. 3, 
south of the Kabul river between Basdwal and Jelalabad. Regarding this 
tract Capt. Leach says the valley proper extends about 10 miles on the 
southern side of the Kabul river and is fairly level, then comes a belt of 
low broken hills inhabited by the Shinwdaris and then the main spurs of 
the Safed Koh Range which, in many cases, run nearly parallel to the main 
range and not at right angles, as shewn in existing maps. 
The first of these expeditions was made by Major Tanner and Capt. 
Leach to the Shinwari village of Mazina, 14 miles south of Jelalabad, with a 
view to proceeding as far as possible towards the slopes of the Safed Koh 
and surveying the entrances to the Papin and Ajam passes ; but as the 
Khan of Mazina refused to be responsible for any further advance into 
Shinwari country, the expedition had to be abandoned. Major Tanner was, 
however, able to fill in the drainage and low hills between Hada and Mazina, 
and he remarks that the country between Hada and the Mazina upland is 
intersected by numerous watercourses all paved with round boulders. The 
plain and broken ground between them is also thickly strewn with shingle 
and boulders, but after ascending a slight pass to the east of Za Khel, they 
suddenly found themselves in a beautiful plain highly cultivated and with 
forts and clumps of trees on all sides. The Safed Koh were but 10 miles 
off, with the valleys and slopes covered with beautiful pine forests. Be- 
tween them and the foot of the mountains intervened more shelving stony 
ground with undulations that hid the cultivated lands of Deh Bala (the 
high village) from them. The cultivated lands stretch from Mazina north- 
wards to Sher Shah and almost reach the arid tract near the Chorazali road. 
Mazina is some 1200 feet above Jelalabad. 
Early in March Capt. Leach received permission to survey over the 
old route between the Safed Koh and the Kabul river, followed by Burnes 
in 1839, confining his operations to the country eastward of Mazina. His 
first halting-place was at the Fort of a friendly Khan, 13 miles south of 
Jelalabad, and he had intended marching to Marhaiz, 9 miles further south 
and within 4 or 5 miles of the foot of the Safed Koh proper, whence he 
would have been able to get up to the lower spurs and snow-line, Marhaiz 
itself being 4000 feet ; but as the Khan who escorted Capt. Leach said they 
would be certain to be attacked if they camped at Marhaiz, he changed his 
plan and went to his old camp at Mazina, where he had another day’s work 
in the same direction and managed to get near enough to fix all the Shin- 
wari villages at the foot of that particular part of the main range. 
Capt. Leach says the country is a difficult one to sketch without actual 
survey. . 
The main range is easy enough and its features tolerably regular, but 
the lower slopes are completely buried by a glacis of low broken masses of 
