Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎110v] (226/312)

from the Peshawur Valley. Tho argument
tbat Punjaub camels are unfitted for a cam
paign in Afghanistan is idle, for according to all
appearances the Indian Government has no idea
of a prolonged campaign this autumn, but only a
march of about ninety miles from Peshawur. It
is Tery certain that what could have been
accomplished by 8,000 men in the first week of
October will not be effected three weeks later with
a less force than 15,000 men. It is true that after
all we may have misjudged the authorities. A tele
gram from our Special Correspondent at Siiula
which we publish this morning informs n* that
General Ross is at Jumrood with 5,000 men, and
that considerable movements of troops are taking j
place on both sides. Those on our side may, how- j
a supposition which receives some countenanca
from the current belief in India that no serious
advance will take place till the Ist November.
Etou then, according to report, it is doubtful
whether we shall cross the border, it being
thought possible that by massing troops at the
entrance to the Passes we shall induce the Ameer
to submit to our demands. We talk of
our plans, however, but Shbee Am has already
disconcerted them. He says in effect you shall
fight not when and where you choose, but when
and where I choose, and has already produced a
great moral effect by assuming what ia
termed in strategical language, " the offensive
" defensive." It is reported that the Ameer
has assembled the chiefs of the mountain
tribes in conference, and the mere fact of their
consenting to meet him is a bad symptom. How
ever well disposed they may be to us, they
cannot but yield to the force which the Ameeb
can bring against them if we do not protect
them. Indeed, it is said that the Ameer i<
already employing the cogent argument of fir®
| and sword with the Khyberees in revenge
! for their agreement to open the Pass to us.
It is rumoured that the Momunds have made
their submission to 'the Ameer , and the other
tribes bordering on the Khyber will probably be
forced or cajoled into imitating their example.
They may thirst after British silver and dread
British lead; but the Afghans are at hand and
active, while we give no sign of any intention to
protect our allies. Thus the Indian Govern
ment, by its rash and inconsiderate action, will
probably add to the physical difficulties of the
Khyber the opposition of the numerous and war
like tribes who occupy the surrounding hills*
THE PESHAWUE VALLEY.
In a remote neok of oar north-wontorn
frontier, surrounded by lofty and picturesque
mountain heights, and almost entirely cut off from
| the main body of British territory by a circling
ring of wild Afghan tribes, lies the beautiful and
romantic valley of Peshawur, Its singular con
formation and lovely scenery would by themselves
entitle it to no small attention, even apart from its
immense strategical importance as the vestibule of
India and the highway to the heart of Afghan
istan. The nature of the valley may best be
understood from the history of its formation, as
evidenced by the geological structure of its rocks
and soil, Down to a comparatively late date in
the tertiary period, a great inland lake seems to
have filled up the deep basin of Peshawur,
1 and risen to a considerable height along the
sides of the neighbouring hills. The Cabul and
Swat rivers must have fed this splendid sheet of
water, while the snow-clad peaks of the great
mountain amphitheatre above must have mirrored
their pinnacles of eternal ice on its glassy surface,
unseen, doubtless, by any human eye. But in the
! course of time, the outlet by which the lake
emptied its surplus stores into the Indus appears
! to have worn a deep gorge through the rooky
i barrier that hemmed it iu, and step by step the i
j waters subsided to lower and yet lower levels,
until at length the whole valley was draimed of its
overflowing flood, and became a mere circular
glen, traverced by the united stream of the Cabul
and the Swat, which had formerly filled its whole
expanse. Yet even to the present day many signs
of this primeval condition remain stamped inde
libly upon the face of the Pesbawur basin. Its
bottom consists of a thick alluvial deposit,
the relic of its ancient lacustrine state;
and through the yielding soil the rivers i
cut their way in numerous divergent channels, |
which still recall the memory of the almost for- I
gotten lake. Especially in the rich wedge of land |
known as tho Doaba do these numberless minor |
watercourses carry off and distribute the swollen
current of the great mountain streams, thus pre
venting the possibility of inundation, and parcel
ling out the fertilising waters to the green fields
around. In this way the Peshawur Yalley is freed
from the danger of those two ever-present and
alternative Indian ojarses, flood and famine, which
usually succeed one aw other with such appalling
rapidity durine the wet or dry seasons re
spectively.
With such natural advantages of position and
water supply the amphitheatre of Peshawur can- |
not fail to exhibit a perpetual scene of beauty and
fertility. In the foreground of the picture stand
the cultivated fields, green with an almost English
greenness from the abundant irrigation and the
i constant percolation through the spongy soil
* Thrivingvillages,inhabitedby Afghanfamilies, who
have learned the habits of industry and peaceful 1
tillage under the firm but gentle pressure of •
English rule, thickly stud the central plain on |
either side of the chief streams. In the middle
distance rises the first tier of hills, clad with forest
growth, and inhabited by the wilder Afghans of
the border; while the background towers up to
the limit of perpetual snow, and displays its
white peaks against the limiting blue of the
horizon. The fertility of the valley is so famous
that the rice of Bara, grown along the banks of a
stream bearing the same name, has a reputation
over all India as the proper food of princes; and
Runjeet Singh, the Lion of the Punjab, as his
Sikh veterans loved to call him, exacted a part of
his royal revemie in this precious grain. Large
marshes exist in many parts of the plain, one of
which lies in the immediate neighbourhood of
Peshawur itself; and old maps of the valley show
a temporary lake, fonned every eight or ten years, '
and lying not far from tho present bed of the ■
Indus, with which river the Cabul unites imme- j
diately after passing out of the mountain glen, |
The population of tho valley consists almoa j
entirely of Afghans, who are of course Mohamme
dans in creed. As usual, they are subdivided into
clans and minor tribes, with an extraordinary
minuteness of detail. The Yusufzae of the
northern or Hindoo Koosh hills form the largest
element, exhibiting all the essential features of
their countrymen ia their love of independence
and their patriarchal institutions, while at the
same time they have learned under British rule to