acter as the neighbouring mountains. It will account for the
appearance of the conglomerate in every ravine until the top of the
culminating point is reached.

As the mountains were elevated, portions of conglomerate would be
detached, and these resting again on all suitable places, would account
for the existence of conglomerate on certain parts which are flatter than
usual.

Whirlwinds are common about Cabul, commencing as soon as the sun has
attained a certain degree of power.

In all cases they assume the shape of a cone, the point of which being a
tangent on the earth's surface: the cone varies in shape, is generally of
a good diameter, occasionally much pulled out, some being 2,300 feet in
height, the currents are most violent at the apex.

They come and go in all directions, even after starting, not always
preserving the original direction. They are less common on days in which
winds prevail from any given direction, and vary much in intensity from a
mere breeze, lightly laden with dust and with no tortuosity, to a violent
cone of wind, capable of throwing down a _soldari_.

Northerly winds are prevalent here from 1 or 2 P.M. until 8 or 9 P.M.,
occasionally they only commence in the evening, when they are obviously
due to the rarefaction of the air of the valleys by the great heat of the
sun, amounting now to 100 degrees at 3 P.M., and the vacuum being
supplied by gusts from the high mountains to the north and north-east.

CHAPTER XVIII.

_From Peshawur to Pushut_.

_January 8th_.--At Ichardeh. Between Busoollah and Lalpoor are three
curious low ridges, none above sixty feet high, and all of small extent;
they are covered with fractured masses of rock of the same size as those
strewn so liberally about the shingly slopes; but they are much cleaner
or fresher looking, and appear to me less worn. Whence do they derive
their singular situation? They occur in such numbers, that one would at
first think they originated from a mass of ruins, but the ridges present
scarcely any surface for buildings to stand upon, certainly not to such
extent as would account for the abundance of these fragments.

About Huzarnow and on both sides, low ridges of sand occur. In this sand
graves are usually dug, and in some places to an extent indicating
dreadful devastations from disease, each grave is headed by a stone, and
about every ramification of the irregular size of the burial ground,
there is a building of