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199 a scene of weary, stony desolation through which narrow white-worn tracks go in every direction. In the valley it is quite different. Cut squarely out of the plateau, these intersecting valleys, cliff-bound on either side with reddish walls like the ones which border the valley of Bamian, offer fair opportunity for sedentary life. Where these valleys open up there is space enough for cultivation, which in early spring makes a pretty contrast with the ruddy hills which hedge it on all sides. The plain of Aibak is watered by the Khulm River. The ancient route via Bamian, Saighan and Kahmard meets the present route at this place. From Aibak onwards there is a vast expanse. This is the famous Bactrian plain, which extends as far as the Oxus. It is flat with a scattering of prominences and mounds at intervals, denoting the site of some villages or fortresses of sufficient antiquity to account for its gradual rise on the accumulations of its own debris, probably assisted in the first instance by some topographical feature. Looking south, it appears to be flanked by a flat blue wall of hills, presenting no opportunity for passage through it. This great flanking wall is in reality very nearly what it appears to be—an unassailable rampart ; but on approaching it some narrow ways intersecting it are discernible, through which the rivers of the highland make a rough passage to the plains. Wherever they tumble through the mountain gateways and make placid tracks in the flats below, they are utlised for irrigation purposes. Thus there exists a narrow fringe of cultivation under the hills which extends here and there along the banks of the rivers cut into the open Bactrian plain. These rivers never reach the Oxus. The waters of the streams are all lost in the plains ere they approach the great river. Nevertheless, there are abundant evidences of the former existence of a vast irrigation