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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is the Salep so much used in India
for its nutritive qualities. The Afghan name is
Peej-i-Koh, or “the onion of the mountains”;
but it is a Euloplia (Orchidaceae), not an onion.
The Arghesan and Dori, which unite
and join the Turnuk, drain the eastern slopes of the Western
Sulimani Range, and the northern sides of the
Khoja-Amran. The Arghesan, rising on the Gharaibi Pass,
in the Sulimanis, and flowing west, joins the Dori 7
miles from Kandahar.
The course of this river is entirely unknown; though the Bombay
column, under Neil Campbell, must have crossed it near
its source. The road from Kandaharto
the Gomul Pass, which has never been traversed by any
European, is said to meet the Arghesan 35 miles from Kandahar, and
to follow its course for 20 miles to the foot of the
Sargaz Kotal which divides two branches. After crossing
this pass the road again reaches the bed of the Arghesan
and continues along it for 30 miles to the Ghwarza Pass,
where it leaves the river. The Dori River rises in the
west slopes of the Kohjak Pass — on the road from
Kwatah (Quetta) to Kandahar
— and after a course of about 90 miles, falls into
the Turnuk.
Thus the rivers which drain direct
into the Seistan Lake are the Harut-rud, the Farah-rud,
the Khash-rud, and the Helmand: of which the latter is by
far the most important. The Helmand, Arghandab, and
Turnuk flow down valleys in the mountains of the Siah-Koh
and its offshoots, of the Paghman and Gul-Koh, all
belonging to the Hindu
Kush system; while the Arghesan and Dori drain the
eastern slopes of the Sulimanis and their offshoots. The
history of the lower course of the Helmand, after the
river has received all its tributaries, and of the
changes which have taken place in its mouths, presents a
most interesting and instructive subject of investigation
for the student of comparative geography. But the whole
history of Lake Seistan and its changes has already been
exhaustively discussed by Sir Henry Rawlinson in a
learned paper which appeared in the forty-third volume of
our ‘Transactions.' *
It remains to notice the remarkable
isolated basin of Lake Abistada on the eastern side of
the Western Sulimani Range. This basin is 150 miles long
by 50 broad. Its eastern half is drained by the river of Ghazni. This
river is formed in a little valley 12 miles from Ghazni, at the
foot of the Gul-Koh Mountains. The city of Ghazni, on the
left bank of the river, is built on level ground between
it and a spur of the Gul-Koh range. This place, which is
7726 feet above the sea, is important because it is the
capital of the Ghilzi country, and is on the direct line
of communication between Kabul and Kandahar, 85 miles
from the former, and 233 from the latter. Here, too, was
the capital of Mahmud, the famous invader of India, who
flourished from A.D. 997 to 1030. It was Mahmud who
formed the river of Ghazni. He
dammed •
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