GIRISHK  , a

village and fort of Afghanistan . It stands on the right bank of the Helmund 78 1n . W. of Kandahar on the road to Herat; 3641 ft. above the sea . The fort, which is garrisoned from Kandahar and is the residence of the governor of the district (Pusht-i-Rud), has little military value . It commands the fords of the Helmund and the road to Seistan, from which it is about 190 M. distant; and it is the centre of a rich agricultural district . Girishk was occupied by the British during the first Afghan War; and a small garrison of sepoys, under a native officer, successfully withstood a siege of nine months by an overwhelming Afghan force . The Dasht-i-Bakwa stretches beyond Girishk towards Farah, a level plain of consider-able width, which tradition assigns as the field of the final contest for supremacy between Russia and England .