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| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
TO CATHAY.
593
Shibrtu), but in the summer when the waters are out you must go by the route of Bahmian and Talakan (Talikhan) . The seventh (7) is by the way of Abdereh. In winter travellers make use of this road, it being the only one passable in the depth of that season." This last route is, I presume, to be looked for in the Koh-i-Baba, still further west than Shibrtu,
but I believe no existing map will help us to it.
The most complete notice of the Passes from the Panjshir and Ghorband Valleys is to be found in a Report by Major R. Leech of the Bombay Engineers, published at Calcutta by the Indian Government.' By help of this we make out the following list of the whole number, commencing with the most westerly :—
PASSES FROM PANJSHIR.
Pass of ANJUMAN. This is a pass starting from Puryan near the head of the Panjshir Valley and crossing into Badakhshan direct. It probably descends the Kokcha Valley by the lapis-lazuli mines. Paryan is perhaps the Perjan of Sharifuddin (in P. de la Croix) which Timur passed in his expedition against the Kafirs. Leech's Reports mention traditions of Timur's doings in the Passes into Kafiristan that ascend from Paryan.
KHAWAK Pass, at the very head of the Panjshir Valley, crossing to the Valley of Anderab, which it descends to the town of that name.
Tim. This is a loop line to the Khawak Pass. It quits the latter about twenty miles short of the summit and rejoins it at Sirab about twelve or fourteen miles2 beyond the summit in the descent to Anderab.
ZARYA ascends from Safed Chir on the Panjshir R. some six miles below Tûl, and joins the last pass just before reaching Sirab.
From UMRAZ (or Murz of Wood's survey), fifteen miles further down the Panjshir, and about thirty-one miles from the entrance of the valley, three bad passes, called Shwa, Urza, and Yatimak, lead across the mountains joining the Bazarak Pass (No. 6) on the other side of the ridge. The two last of the three are seldom free from snow.
BAZARAK. This quits the Panjshir at the village of that name, twenty-eight and half miles from the mouth of the valley, and descends upon KHINJAN on the Anderab River.
SHATPAL. This starts from Gulbahar at the entrance to Panjshir Valley, and joins the Bazarak Road on the other side at Kishnabad or Kishtabad, twenty-one miles from Khinjan.
1 I have only MS. extracts of this report, for which I am indebted to
Dr. F. Hall, of the India Office Library.
2 These distances in the Panjshir Passes I take from Wood's survey as embodied in a map by Mr. J. Walker. The distances here as given in Leech's report are inconsistent, and in fact impossibly small. In the
Ghorband Passes I have to take Leech's distances.
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