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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

TO THE KANDAHAR PASS.

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On August 2 i rst I visited together with Dr. Alcock of the British Commission, the hot sulphurous springs of Bakhmar-masar situated 6.2 km. E. S. E. of the headquarters camp. The water proved to have a temperature of 39.65°.

On September i 3th I rode with General Gerard and General Pavalo-Shveikovskiy to Ak-lash, a march of i 9.5 km. to the N. E., during which I had not the opportunity of continuing my map. Colonel BYSTRÖM has borrowed this part of the itinerary from the English map. For the whole march one sticks to the valley of the Ak-su. The most important place passed on this road is the aul of Kisil-rabal with the left tributary of the same name.

On September i 4th I left Ak-lash and travelled N. N. E., E. S. E. and N. E. for 28.9 km. The first 18.5 km. to the pass of Lakshak rise from 3,80 i m. to 4,645 m., or 844 m., being a rate of i : 2 2. The last i 0.4 km. descend from the pass to the next camp which was at 3,988 m., or a fall of 657 m., and at a rate of r : 15.8. These figures give an idea of a profile of the Sarikol Range in the southern part of its stretching.

At Ak-lash camp we crossed the Ak-szt, the bed of which was easy and shallow; the stream was very slow. At both sides of the river, cracks from the earthquake were visible. One has then to cross a secondary little threshold, Naisalash in a ramification from the Sarikol Range, standing between the Ak-su and the eastern Shinde brook, which carried very little water. From the left or south comes a little tributary called Kugechege, with a limpid brook but no road. At the left side of the Shinde valley the rocks are steep and clean-washed by the brook. At the right side is an erosion terrace. A little east of Kugechege the rock was hard crystalline schist, which also was true at Sari jilga, a little tributary from the south. At the Ak-sai jilga from the north the same rock lay in 51 ° S. 10° W., and was impregnated with white veins.

The valley is not narrow, though we generally ride in its deepest part, sometimes crossing the brook. Here and there grass grows; the rest is gravel. Beyond Ak-sai and Mus jilga the valley becomes narrow and its slope steep. The pass is easy; it is an even saddle, called Lakshak-bel. The eastern slope is covered with fine detritus material. There is no snow and no glaciers. The living rock lay here in 81° N. 600 E. On the eastern side the way down is at first steep, then gradually falling. In a very deep and narrow gorge the eastern brook, which also is called Shinde, turns to the N. N. E. Here the road runs on the hills at the right side of the narrow passage. The living rock is here porphyry in different varieties, as a rule steeply falling to the north. Curious formations such as rocky teeth and towers are not rare. At one place in the valley one such formation stands like a pillar 8 m. high. Finally the black schist appears again.

Where the valley becomes a little broader there is a karaul of two Tajik tents from Tash-kurgan. A short distance east of the pass a little southern valley

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