140 NORTH-WEST FRONTIER RROTlINCE
Shirani country, a political dependency of Dera Ismail Khan District.
The precipitous Takht presents the grandest scenery on the frontier,
and forms an impassable barrier between the North-West Frontier
Province and Baluchistan.
Hazara District lies on the east bank of the Indus among the
confused mass of mountains formed by the meeting of the Outer and
Mid-Himalayan ranges. From this mass the two mountain walls,
which enclose Kagan, run in unbroken lines to where they meet at the
Babusar pass (13,589 feet). West of the Indus the mighty range of
the Hindu Koh, usually called the Hindu Kush, or Indian Caucasus,
runs almost due east and west along the north-eastern and northern
frontiers of the Province, and at its north-eastern corner meets a
continuation of the Outer Himalayan chain which crosses the Indus
above the Kagan valley. From this chain minor ranges descend in
a north-westerly direction, traversing Bajaur and Swat, until they meet
the curved range of hills which connects the Mid-Himalaya with the
Safed Koh and encircles the Peshawar valley on the north.
From the Dorah pass on the Hindu Kush a long broken line of
mountains runs almost due south, dividing the Province from Kafiristan,
and farther south from other parts of Afghanistan. It is pierced at
Arnawai by the Chitral river, which runs thence, under the name of the
Kunar, parallel with it in Afghan territory. Thus the Hindu Kush and
the two ranges which run southward from it enclose the Dir, Swat, and
Chitral Agency, the whole intervening space being filled by the minor
ranges which descend from them. The western line is again pierced
after its junction with the Kunar by the Kabul river, south of which
it merges in the Khyber hills, which form the eastern extremity of the
Safed Koh.
The Safed Koh also runs almost due east and west, forming the
watershed between the Kabul and Kurram rivers. Eastwards minor
ranges descend from its southern slopes to the Indus. The Sulaiman
range runs up the western border of the Province to meet the Safed
Koh, and also, throws out a series of parallel spurs to the east. These
traverse the whole of Kohat District. The Sheikh Budin range, the
southern extremity of the Salt Range, forms the boundary between
Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, and merges eventually in the Sulaiman
range.
With the exception of. the'Kunhar river in Hazara, which flows down
the Kagan valley into the Jhelum, the whole territory drains into the
Indus. That river divides the Province from Chilas for 'some miles,
and then enters it north of the Black Mountain. Farther south it
separates Hazara from the Gadun territory and Peshawar, and thence
forms the eastern boundary of the Province to its southern extremity,
only the Isa Khel tahsil of the Mianwali District of the Punjab lying
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