All the rivers find their tumultuous way into the Kabul, either
directly, as the Alingar at Laghman, or after commingling with the
Kunar at Arundu and at Chigar-Serai. The Bashgal, draining the eastern
portion of the country, empties itself into the Kunar at Arundu. It
draws its highest waters from three main sources at the head of the
Bashgal valley. It glides gently through a lake close to this origin,
and then through a smaller tarn. The first affluent of importance is
the Skorigal, which joins it above the village of Pshui. Next comes
the noisier Manangal water, from the Shawal pass, which enters the
main stream at Lutdeh or Bragamatal, the chief settlement of the
Bashgal branch of the Katir tribe. By-and-by the main stream becomes,
at the hamlet of Sunra, a raging, shrieking torrent in a dark narrow
valley, its run obstructed by giant boulders and great tree-trunks.
Racing past Bagalgrom, the chief village of the Madugal Kafirs, the
river clamours round the great spur which, 1800 ft. higher up, gives
space for the terraces and houses of Kamdesh, the headquarters of the
Kam people. The next important affluent is the river which drains the
Pittigal valley, its passes and branches. Also on the left bank, and
still lower down, is the joining-place of the Gourdesh valley waters.
Finally it ends in the Kunar just above Arundu and Birkot. The middle
part of Kafiristan, including the valleys occupied by the Presun, Kti,
Ashkun and Wai tribes, is drained by a river variously called the
Pech, the Kamah, and the Presun or Viron River. It has been only
partially explored. Fed by the fountains and snows of the upper Presun
valley, it is joined at the village of Shtevgrom by the torrent from
the Kamah pass. Thence it moves quietly past meadowland, formerly set
apart as holy ground, watering on its way all the Presun villages.
Below the last of them, with an abrupt bend, it hurries into the
unexplored and rockbound Tsaru country, where it absorbs on the right
hand the Kti and the Ashkun and on the left the Wai rivers, finally
losing itself in the Kunar, close to Chigar-Serai. Concerning the
Alingar or Kao, which carries the drainage of western Kafiristan into
the Kabul at Laghman, there are no trustworthy details. It is formed
from the waters of all the valleys inhabited by the Ramgal Kafirs, and
by that small branch of the Katirs known as the Kalam tribe.
Climate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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