National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

6o   ACROSS THE VAKJIR PASS TO CHAKMAKTIN-KUL.

Min-feke, Kalik and other valleys contribute with their brooks. The name used here was Taghding-bash, not Tag hdum-bash. It is also pronounced as Taghden-

bash or -bashi; and by the Kirgiz as Daghdum or Daghdam-bash.

The Chinese power extends to Vakjir. A few days beyond this pass is the first Afghan post. At Ak-lash the Russian territory begins.

On August r 3th our journey continued nearly west 2 7.6 km., and the ground ascended 227 m. or to 4,082 m., the rate thus being I :121. The first half of the march the road sticks to the right bank where a little gravelly threshold is crossed, swept by the river. Beyond it there was an aul of 4 tents. The valley Olauche is to the south. Its neighbour to the west is called Das/ar and has a brook of about 2 cub. m.. per second. Kashka-su is the next tributary on the same side, and opposite it we pass the three jilgas, Kosh-lute.

From the gravelly terrace the road goes down to the considerable brook of Min-/eke some 2 0 m. broad and 0,4 m. deep on an average, flowing across a good grazing-ground. The valley of Min-/eke is broad and large. The road up to the pass was said to turn to the right; to the left a tributary valley called Kachenai enters the main valley. In the background a mighty snow-range rises.

Opposite Min-feke, . to the north, we have the valley Tamgeluk with a brook in a widespread delta. Then follow at the southern side three considerable valleys, all called Kara jilg-a by reason of the black schist cropping out here. Opposite the first of them we notice the valley O/ash. The main valley then turned N. W. for a while, after which we passed the northern tributaries Sari-task (= Sarik-/ash) and Kisil-dung, both with brooks. Sari-/ash leads to a pass which can be used on foot or with yaks.

A little beyond Min-/eke we cross the Taghdumbash River to its left bank where there is now sufficient space for the road. The river flows here in two branches crossing a swampy meadow and with resp. about 7 and 2 2, or about 3o cub. m. of water per second. A considerable part of this volume comes from the Tegirmensu, a northern tributary with a short-cut road to Ak-su and Kisil-rabat. The volume amounted to about 4 cub. m. per second. We camped in the angle between both rivers, which now were muddy after a clear day. In the afternoon the Tegirmen-su had a temperature of 10.2°, the Taghdumbash r i .6°. The latter, or main river, is also called Kara-chukur in its higher course.

From this place to the Vakjir Pass no Kirgizes live in the summer. In the winter some of them ascend a little higher up. Much snow falls, but usually it is blown away by the hard west winds. If it snows much and no wind blows, the snow accumulates and many sheep are lost. During such unfavourable winters the Kirgiz try to reach Tag-harma early. The west wind prevails in winter, the summer is somewhat windy. Northern wind brings clouds and precipitation; western wind

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