. Nature . ases even in religion and political institutions ; nor are the materials at hand bywhich these heterogeneous fragments could be weldedinto a single body politic for many generations to come. A mere glance at the accompanying sketch map willsuffice to show that the Afghan race proper, since thedeath of Nadir Shah (1747) heir to the former Persianj masters of the land, nowhere even approaches the northernI frontiers, except in the Herat district towards the north-west. Notwithstanding their great elevation, the moun-tain ranges stretching from the Hindu-Kush, through theKoh-i-Babaand
. Nature . ases even in religion and political institutions ; nor are the materials at hand bywhich these heterogeneous fragments could be weldedinto a single body politic for many generations to come. A mere glance at the accompanying sketch map willsuffice to show that the Afghan race proper, since thedeath of Nadir Shah (1747) heir to the former Persianj masters of the land, nowhere even approaches the northernI frontiers, except in the Herat district towards the north-west. Notwithstanding their great elevation, the moun-tain ranges stretching from the Hindu-Kush, through theKoh-i-Babaand parallel Safed-Koh and Siah-Koh chainswestwards to Khorasan, constitute neither an ethnical, apolitical, nor even a complete physical parting linebetween the Afghan plateau and the Turkestan low-lands. The Hindu-Kush itself doubtless forms a distinct divide for the waters flowing north to the Oxus, southto the Indus basin. Further west, also, all the headstreams of the Murgh-ab, or River of Merv, have their. English Statute MilesG0° -Longjtuiii E-of Greenwich sources on the northern slope of the Safed-Koh, probablythe Paropamisus of the ancients. But here the mountainbarrier is completely pierced by the Heri-rud, whichtakes its rise south of the Koh-i-Baba, and, after flowinga long way west between the Safed-Koh and the Siah-Koh, trends northwards beyond Herat to the Turkestansteppe. Politically, also, the rampart is broken allalong the line, both slopes from Kashmir to Persia beingclaimed and hitherto recognised as integral parts ofAfghan territory. Thus the whole of Afghan Turkestan,of Badakhshan, and the more remote north-eastern pro-vinces of Wakhan and Shugnan, are comprised withinthe Aralo-Caspian hydrographic system. A < lear idea of these geographical features is necessaryto a right understanding of the racial conditions in thisextremely intricate ethnological region. From before thedawn of history constituting a natural parting line be-tween Iran and Turin, it has,
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