July 24, 1885.] 



SCIENCE, 



69 



SIR PETER LUMSDEN ON THE TRIBES 

 UPON THE AFGHAN BOUNDARY. 



In speaking before the Royal geographical society 

 oi London on. the 22d of June last, on the country 

 and tribes bordering on the Koh-i-Baba Range, Sir 

 Peter Lumsden, the chief of the Afghan boundary 

 commission, on the part of England, said that on the 

 25th of November last the commission crossed over 

 the Koh-i-Baba Mountains by the Chashma Saby 

 Pass ; and in drawing attention to the country, and 

 to the tribes inhabiting the slopes of this range, he 

 proposed to confine himself to the relation of such 

 matter as had not hitherto been brought before the 



marking the period when they were swept into slave- 

 ry or destroyed. For instance : in the tract of coun- 

 try between Gulran and the Kushk River, the last 

 inhabitants were Usbeg and Hazara, and on the 

 tombstones of their dead were dates extending as 

 nearly as possible over a century; viz., from A.D. 

 1650 to 1750. Another difficulty to the geographer is 

 that there are generally two names for each stream 

 or location, — the first, the traditional one, known to 

 Afghan and Persian, and frequently of Arab or Per- 

 sian origin; the second, that by which it may be 

 known to the Turcoman shepherds or sirdars, who 

 alone traverse these little-frequented routes. Along 

 the northern base of the Koh-i-Baba are a succession 



of fertile 

 valleys, 

 through 

 which run 

 streams for- 

 merly used 

 for irriga- 

 tion pur- 

 poses. The 

 marks of wa- 

 ter courses 

 point out 

 the lines of 



GATEWAY OF BALA MUBGHAE. (111. London graphic.) 



public. Touching, at the outset, on the diflaculties 

 presented to the geographer in such a region, he 

 pointed out that to us, happily ignorant of all the 

 horrors involved in the dreaded ' Alaman ' or Turco- 

 man raid, a map of a country swept by these raids is 

 diflBcult to comprehend. In such a district names do 

 not signify towns or villages, but merely the sites 

 where they once existed, marked, perhaps, by mounds 

 ■delineating the ground-plan of forts, caravanserais, 

 houses, or tanks, but of which no other traces now 

 Temain. Of the former inhabitants, frequently the 

 only records are the tombstones of their burial- 

 places, from some of which data may be secured in 



ancient channels, while in many places karezes (that 

 is, subterranean canals) indicate a state of past pros- 

 perity and extensive cultivation. Towers and walls 

 of still existing forts show, that, even in those far dis- 

 tant days, property required protection; and, as on 

 the site of the old castle of Gulran, the skulls and 

 skeletons scattered over it seem to indicate that in- 

 discriminate slaughter must frequently have attended 

 the destruction of local cities long since untenanted. 

 At Bala Murghab, Karawal Khana, Meruchak, and 

 Penj Deh, besides in several other places, there are 

 foundations marking the existence of former perma- 

 nent bridges across the Murghab ; and extensive re- 



