are also a few Sarikolis. All of these keep large flocks and herds, but cultivation and houses are not seen beyond Tashkurgan. The Pamir itself is a plain four or five miles broad, rising very gently on both sides to the mountain ranges by which it is enclosed. It gives one the impression of formerly having been a deep valley between two mountain ranges, which has now been filled up by the débris brought down by former glaciers.
On account of the insufficient rainfall, this valley has not been washed out and cleared of the débris, and consequently is now a plain at a high elevation. The Pamir rises from ten thousand feet at Tashkurgan, to fourteen thousand three hundred feet at the Khunjerab Pass. It is mostly covered with coarse scrub and gravel, but there are also some fine stretches of good grass. Fuel is very scarce, and the inhabitants generally use dung for their fires.
The total number of inhabitants, including women and children, probably does not exceed three hundred. They are a somewhat rough lot, and mostly bad characters, who have' fled, for some reason, from Shahidula, the Alai, or the Tagarma Pamir. The headman, Kuch Mahommed, really belonged to the Kirghiz of Andijan, but had been placed here by the Chinese, and was in charge of the frontier in this direction ; he, however, was also in the pay of the chief of Hunza, and seemed to have a good deal more respect for him than for the Chinese.
On October 3o I rejoined my escort on the Karachukur stream, and the following day set out for the Khunjerab Pass, which had just been explored by Lieutenant Bower. On the way I passed an encampment belonging to a Sarikoli, who very kindly asked me to have some refreshment ; his son had passed through India on his way to Mecca, and could speak a little Hindustani. He was delighted to find an Englishman to speak to, and he talked over all his experiences of India.
Heavy clouds had been collecting for the last few days,
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