The aspect of the Mohmand hills is exceedingly dreary, and the eye is everywhere met by dry ravines between long rows of rocky hills and crags, scantily clothed with coarse grass, scrub and the dwarf palm. In summer the want of water is greatly felt, and the desert tracts radiate an intolerable heat; this, coupled with the unhealthiness of the river lowlands, probably accounts for the inferior physique of the Mohmands as compared with their Afridi and Shinwari neighbours. The want of water is especially felt in the Gandab district, which with the Shilman and Pandiali are the largest valleys in the Mohmand country, and the entrances to which are covered by the respective forts of Shabkadar, Michni, and Abazai. The villages, or rather fort clusters, are scattered along the valleys wherever a spring, or proximity of water to the surface, encourages cultivation, but in some cases the drinking water has to be brought from great distances, and is either obtained from springs whose supply is uncertain or from small tanks made to retain the rain water. The women are employed in the laborious task of bringing the water from these places for the use of the village. [Sidenote: The Mohmand Country] The crops in the Mohmand hills are almost entirely dependent on the winter and autumn rains, and should these fail there is considerable distress. Even in ordinary times the country cannot support the surplus population, which has for years past been steadily emigrating to the Peshawar district. The products of the Mohmand country are few and rude; a little grain, firewood, grass, charcoal, ropes and mats, honey and cattle from the Baizai hills—these are the chief exports. But through the Mohmand country come India-wards the wood rafts from Chitral, Kunar and Laghman on the Kabul River, and from Dir and Swat; wax, hides, ghi and rice from Kunar; and the iron of Bajaur in lumps and bars. The imports are salt, cloth, paper, soap, tea, indigo, sugar, grain, tobacco, needles, scissors and other manufactures of civilisation, purchased by the Mohmands for themselves and their northern neighbours. The through trade, therefore, is considerable, and it is with transit dues levied on trade, and the profits earned as carriers of goods to and from the trade centres of Peshawar, Jalalabad, Pesh-Bolak, Lalpura and Shabkadar, that the Mohmands supplement the scanty returns of their barren soil. In the hot weather trade is brisk on the Kabul River, upon which wood rafts, or merchandise carried on inflated skins, are floated down to British territory.