the usual mud structure, designed for a mosque,
but not domed as is customary in Mussulman cemeteries, but ornamented
with flagstaffs bearing white bits of cloth. These low sand ridges are
often very much undulated; they consist of a very fine powder, and at
Huzarnow are evidently of the same nature as the cultivated soil: they
are neither in attachment as it were to the neighbouring hills, nor
distinct from them, but always have some communication with the shingly
slopes, to which they are evidently inferior.

So that the base of Khorassan may be taken to be the tillable portions,
over which occur, to a vast extent, the shingly very barren slopes, which
every section shows to be nothing but a mass of debris, resting on the
mountain rocks.

_9th_.--Ali-Baghan. To this the road is good, along the right bank of
the river, wherever it does not wind along over the spurs forming a
considerable part of the march. To the first point where this occurs, it
extends over the same sort of plain as that about Ichardeh; keeping
rather close to the bank of the river, it is good, also through the
valley of Gundikuss, and from near the _Choky_, to Ali-Baghan.

The first rocky ridge is about three-quarters of a mile in length, and is
not very difficult; at the end near Gundikuss, is a curious ruin built
into the stream, where the latter runs with violence on the rocky bank:
it consists of a broadish pathway, with a wall on the river side, breast
high; the masonry is good and solid, of the usual Bactrian materials, but
well cemented; it has mostly been ruined by the river, only one end being
perfect. Although the materials are _Bactrian_, the contour is
Mussulman, and I was told by some people that it was a Mussulman
erection: originally it perhaps extended all along this part, as slight
traces here and there are discernible; for what use the original
structure was intended I know not, as there are no remains visible of a
fort.

The inlet of Gundikuss is well cultivated, the village itself a large
straggling one, built close under a ridge.

From this to the _Choky_ the path is rocky, and in many places very bad,
consisting of a series of ascents and descents, and winding round spurs;
in the worst place, the path almost overhangs the river 200 feet above
its bed, and it is very hard and very rocky. The distance between ten or
eleven miles, the road is impracticable for guns, etc. nor could our
camels with loads well get over it.