Moreover, the largest streams have numerous tributaries, and nearly all alike flow circuitously between steep if not vertical cliffs or in deep craggy ravines overlooked by distant hills, among which the wagon road has wound its way with difficulty.
Other routes there are, open to trade, between Herat and northern India, either following the banks of the Hari Rud, or, more circuitously, through the valley of the Helmund to Kabul; or the line of hills between the Arghandab and the Tarnak may be crossed close to Kalat-i-Ghilzai; but of the two former it may be said that they are not ways open to the passage of Afghan armies owing to the hereditary hostility existing between the Aeimak and Hazara tribes and the Afghans generally, while the latter is not beyond striking distance from Kandahar.