To the east of Kunduz, 15 miles distant, is Khanabad, the proposed centre of one of the suggested new provinces. It is situated on the right bank of the Farkhan branch of the Kunduz river. The population is dependent on traffic from Cis-Oxus areas, although in recent years considerable local trade has sprung up. The town is surrounded by high walls and lies on the brow of hills which overlook the Kunduz region; it contains some 1500 households. In summer-time a far larger estimate could be returned as its numbers fluctuate. A position of some military strength has been made, and the fort, which is comparatively new, possesses strong mud walls, 18 feet in height. The Farkhan river, abreast of Khanabad, divides into two channels: the western channel is 3 feet deep and 15 yards wide; the stream possesses a rate of 5 miles an hour. The eastern channel is 60 yards wide and flows immediately below the walls of the town. Tashkurgan, a cheerless group of villages enclosed by a mud wall, is the great trade mart of Afghan-Turkestan and a distributing point for the merchandise which caravans bring there from India and Bokhara. The wall, which is 3 miles in circumference, is pierced by wooden gates, and the houses of the villages number between 15,000 and 20,000. The population is subject to fluctuation. It falls as low as 15,000 in the winter season, rising with great rapidity so soon as the opening of the passes permits the resumption of trade relations with China, Russian Turkestan and India. Each house is protected by an 8-foot high mud wall, which imparts a dreary and monotonous appearance to the streets. The houses are built of clay and sun-dried bricks, with one storey and a domed roof. As a rule, they stand amid a profusion of fruit-trees; and, in the approach from the west, the town is lost in a maze of fruit-gardens. The streets are straight and only of moderate breadth; they intersect each other at right angles and down the centre of each there is an irrigating channel. A branch of the Doaba river, increased by many rivulets, runs through the town, but it is absorbed by the soil soon after it has passed Old Khulm.