104

INDIA

and a new carpet, bright with every conceivable hue of
summer flower, is spread abroad. The little lakelets nestling
 amongst surrounding crags on the broad back of the
Hindu Kush are unbound, and the glory of the budding
summer replaces the dreary silences of winter. It is then,
and then only, that travellers may make their way to the
northern borders of Kashmir, and cross the dividing line
setween Kashmir and Afghanistan.
The northern boundary of the dependencies of Kashmir
 (including Chitral, Gilgit, and the Kanjut province) is
the boundary of that arm of Afghanistan which reaches
out to the extreme north-east to interpose as a buffer
between India and Russia. It extends along the waterparting
 of the Hindu Kush until it reaches the Dorah
Pass, where a subsidiary range or offshoot carries it
southward, dividing the Bashgol valley of Kafiristan from
the valley of Chitral. Not far from the point already
indicated as the geographical tri-junction, from which
springs the Hindu Kush, the Mustagh, and the third great
watershed which reaches meridionally northward to serve
(provisionally) as the boundary between Russia and China
{now called the Sarikol), we have a vast agglomeration of
snow-fields and glacial lakes at an average height of
18,000 feet above sea-level. Amongst them lies the
hidden water-parting of the Hindu Kush, and from them
emanate all those river systems which offer opportunities
of approach to India from the north. Here the Chitral
River rises, and, sweeping southwards in two large tributaries
 through a mass of glacial hills, sometimes over a
comparatively wide and shingly bed, sometimes narrowed
to a torrent between precipitous cliffs, waters Chitral, the
Kunar Valley, and Jalalabad. The Chitral River and the
Kunar are one and the same. A third name for the
same river is Kashkar. This river, with its various
heads, forms the principal line of approach to India from
the north; the Panjkora and the Swat Rivers take their
rise farther south, amidst the unexplored mountain gorges of
Darél, and only offer a difficult route towards the Peshawur
Valley, along their cliff-bound banks south of Gilgit.