[20] The area of Seistan Proper is 3847 square miles. [21] The area of Outer Seistan is 3159 square miles. [22] Sir H. McMahon before the Royal Geographical Society. April 1906. [23] “Sport and Politics under an Eastern Sky.” Earl of Ronaldshay. [24] “On the Outskirts of Empire in Asia.” Earl of Ronaldshay. [25] “Khurasan and Sistan.” Lieut.-Colonel C. E. Yate. [26] The telegraph stations are Nushki, Mull, Dalbandin, Meroi, Mashki Chah, Sainduk, Killa Robat. [27] Telegraph stations. [28] “The Middle Eastern Question.” Valentine Chirol. [Illustration: A CARAVAN OF PACK-PONIES] CHAPTER X PROVINCES AND DISTRICT CENTRES, ETHNOGRAPHICAL AND OROLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION Afghanistan to-day is divided into five major provinces--Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, Afghan Turkestan and Badakshan; and two territories--Kafiristan and Wakhan. Kandahar includes Seistan and the basin of the Helmund; Herat the basin of the Hari-Rud and north-western Afghanistan; Afghan Turkestan the former khanates Andkhui, Maimana, Balkh and Khulm; the province of Badakshan administers the territory of Wakhan and the regions of the Upper Oxus. Kabul, Herat and Kandahar are the centres of their respective provinces; Tashkurgan and Mazar-i-Sharif of Afghan Turkestan and Faizabad of Badakshan. The province of Kabul is bounded on the north-west by the Koh-i-Baba, north by the Hindu Kush, north-east by the Panjsher river and on the east by Jagdalik. In the south its limits are defined by the Sufed Koh and Ghazni; to the west by the hill country of the Hazaras, while its area of administration includes Bamian and Haibak. The province is very mountainous, but it contains also a large portion of arable lands which, lying along the base of the hills, derive much of their richness from the off-scourings of the mountain faces.