1 S9S MERIDIAN OF CANDAHAR.
2 4
3 extent, MoA inftrior in popuktMML The popuhtion is liy no mawii
4 evenly spreadt nor is the* ftce of the countij thjou|^ all its estent
5 the same. Thep«rtwhidi]iesi«eitoflon^tiide63eaat (• ili^ not
6 exceeding seventy or nules in faveadth)* is situated between
7 tbe sandj desart aheadj described and the Ftaopamisaa momitaini^
8 andpactakesof the nature of both of those tracts. Ingenefal it con^
9 sista of arid and uncultivated pkuns* crossed by ranges of hills lumiing
10 westwvd ham the Paropamisan mountains into Penian Khonasaan i
11 but) thongh its general appearance be waste and barren, most paits
12 of it supply water and forage to the pastoral hordes that fiequent it,
13 and it is not destitute of many well-watered and pleasant valleys, and
14 some fertile plains surrounded by mountains. In those tracts are
15 many villages, but the only town in this part of the country is Furrah,
16 on the river of that name, which was once a place of j^rreat extent,
17 and is still a considerable walled towTi. This appears to be the
18 antient Parra, by which name indeed the A%hauns still distin-
19 guish it.
20 The Houthern part of the tract I have been d^cribing, is by no
21 means so mountainous as the northern, and it seems not improbft!>le
22 that it may oiice have been a fertile r^ion, and may have been
23 encroaclu d on by the desart like the contiguous country of Seestaun,
24 This opiniuii Ls supported no less by the magnificent ruins whitli :ire
25 still to be seen, thaii by the recorded accounts of the fertility and
26 extent of Seestaun, to which the tract in question i& biud to have
27 belonged. *
28 From longitude 6S east, .e tract of very considerable extent
29 stretcfaea eastward ior upwards of two hundred miles to the
30 of Qmdahar. Its genend breadth is near 100 miles. Its boundaries
31 are ill defined, for, on the north, the hills sometimes run into the
32 phun, . and the southern parts of the inhabited- country are not easily
33 * Seestaun is said to have contained 1 20,000 ploughs. For an awmmt «£ die nUM
34 ■en bijr Ctftmu Cbiutia^ lee Mr. Kimieu^* Owgttfbf at Pntila. .
35 Digitized by Googlc