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198 The combined stream then flows towards Tala and Barfak, the famous coal mines. The road running parallel to the river enters another gorge, which terminates at the coal mines. For the next eighty miles the road runs through the district of small hills, chiefly composed of earth. Some of the hills are covered with small bushes. Remains of stupas and ancient cities can be seen on all sides. At Doshi (224 miles from Kabul) the Andirab joins Shikari. At Puli-Khumri (254 miles from Kabul) the road branches off ; one turning to the north-east to Beghlan, Khanabad, Kunduz, Hazrat-i-Imam, and finally to Bakhshan and Wakhan ; the other, turning to the left, enters an undula- ting plain. At Rubatak the neighbouring hills are all covered with pistachio trees. After crossing a small pass the traveller finds himself in a vast plain, where lies the historic town of Aibak (or Haibak). The whole of the district is full of important remains, stupas, monastries, and forts. Capt. Talbot, during the Afghan-Russian border disputes, unearthed some fine relics in this locality. A small irregular stupa made out of solid rock was discovered below ground level. It was surrounded by a ditch, and crowned by a small square-built chamber, which was also cut out of rock. Here he had the evidence of Buddhist occupa- tion and Buddist workmanship forming a distinct link between Balkh and Bamian, and marking one resting place of the weary pilgrim. The ditch-like valleys carved out of the wrinkled central highlands of Afghanistan have existed as the focus of devout pilgrimage, if not commercial activity, under the Bamian kings. Above the surface of the plateau the long grey folds of the hills follow each other in monotonous succession, with little relief from vegetation and unmarked by forest growth. It is generally