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200 system drawn from the Oxus. The small lines of level mounds, which break the horizon of the plains of Babylon are also to be seen here, and they denote the same thing. They are the containing walls of canals which carried the Oxus waters through the hundreds of square miles of flat plains, where they can never be carried again because of the alteration in the respective levels of the plain and the river. These rolling wavelike hills, with their marvellous spread of grass and flowers in early summer, and which are dreary, wind- scoured and barren in winter, are excellent sheep grazing grounds, and are the home of the famous Karakul sheep. The city of Mazar-i-Sharif, lying in the midst of this plain, is only 90 miles north of Aibak. After crossing the plain of Hazrat Sultan and Sabad, the traveller comes to the fertile valley of Khulm (previously called Tashqurghan), noted for its beautiful garden of Jehan Numa (the Mirror of the World). Khulm is 351 miles from Kabul, and 38 miles from Mazari- Sharif. Relics of the ancient city of Shahribanu (the Queen's City) can be seen here up to this day. From here a road goes cast and leads to Kanduz and Khanabad, while the main road, running west, crosses a vast plain, and via Gorimar leads to Mazari-Sharif. Mazar-i-Sharif : (Population : 50,000 ; height 2,650 Ft.): Mazar is now a thriving commercial centre of northern Afghanis- tan. Most of the trade to and from Russia passes through it, in addition to the huge trade that is done in Karakul skin through- out the district. The modern town of Mazar has been built around a shrine, supposed to be the last resting place (Mazar) of the fourth Caliph, Hazrat-i-Ali. Some believe that after the death of the Caliph, his body was brought here and