Proceedings
of the
Royal
Geographical Society (Great Britain)
Norton Shaw, Francis
Galton, Clements Robert Markham, William Spottiswoode,
Henry Walter Bates, John Scott Keltie
Published 1879
The Basin of the Helmand.
By C. E. MARKHAM, C.B., Secretary K.G.S.
(Read
at the Evening Meeting, February 24th, 1879.)
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enters the lake, thousands of dead
fish are strewn. Some of the sources of the Arghesan River
approach very closely to the southern margin of Lake Abistada,
but they are separated by a ridge, from the northern
slope of which a stream, with a very short course, flows
into the lake. The Afghans say that this stream drains
the waters of the lake; and the point is still doubtful.
The surrounding country is very barren and dreary, with
scarcely any inhabitants.
The basins of the Helmand and
Abistada are partly occupied by Aymaqs and Hazaras, and
partly by Afghans, while in the cultivated parts there
are many descendants from Persian settlers. The Aymaqs
(Aymaq), a people of Turanian descent, but speaking
Persian, occupy the ancient kingdom of Ghor, on the
southern slopes of the Siah-Koh Mountains.
To the eastward are the Hazaras, who
are also established in the upper valleys of the Helmand
and Arghandab. The powerful Ghilzi tribe of Afghans
inhabits a region bounded on the south by Kalat-i-Ghilzi,
on the west by the Gul-Koh Mountains, on the east by the
Sulimanis, and on the north by the Kabul River. This
comprises the upper half of the Turnuk Valley, and the
whole of the Abistada Basin. Their number is estimated by
Lumsden at 200,000 souls, or 30,000 fighting men. The
Durani Afghans occupy a country north and south of the
road between Kandahar
and Herat,
which is about 400 miles long by 80 broad. This territory
is bounded on the north by the mountainous slopes of the
Siah-Koh, occupied by Aymaqs and Hazaras; on the west by
the Persian frontier; on the south-west by Seistan; on
the south by the Khoja-Amran Mountains; and on the east
by the country of the Ghilzis. Zamindawar, north of
Girishk, is inhabited by the Alizai branch of the
Duranis, and these shepherds find a summer retreat in a
mountainous region called Siah-band, abounding in cool
and grassy valleys, which they share with the Taimuni
Aymaqs. The Durani tribe, which includes the ruling clan
of Barakzais, numbers at least 100,000 families.
The authorities for the geography of
the basin of the Helmand are numerous. For the physical
geography of the lower Helmand and the Seistan Lake we
have the narratives of Christie and Conolly; the route of
Patterson; the works of Ferrier and Khanikoff; the
information given by Goldsmid, St. John, and Lovett, in
the official work on Eastern Persia; and the Paper by Sir
Henry Rawlinson. The Memoirs
of Babur, and the notes in Major Kaverty's
translation of the Tabakat-i-Nasri, contain much
information. Several travelers, and the officers of the
first Afghan campaign, have described Kandahar and the
route thence, by the Turnuk Valley, to Kabul, while
Broadfoot and Neil Campbell traversed the Abistada Basin.
Broadfoot reported on the Ghilzi country and Ghazni; Dr.
Kennedy gave an account of the country from the Kohjak
Pass to Kandahar, and from Kandahar to Kabul ; Masson's
and Vigne's journeys led them over the same country ;
General Lynch explored the valleys of the Turnuk and
Arghandab ; and
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