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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

270   PHYSIOGRAPHY OP CENTRAL-ASIAN DESERTS AND OASES.

GREAT FEATURES OF THE HISSAR VALLEY.

Hissar becomes of interest because of the extraordinary hydrography of its great valley. Opposite ancient Bactra a 15-mile wide strip of steppe sweeps up from the Oxus embayment into this valley, continuing northward up the Surkhan River as far as Karatagh, then bending due east into the wide open valley of Hissar. This portion of the valley-floor averages 2,500 feet in elevation, and is distinguished for its utter lack of a trunk-stream. It is, on the other hand, crossed by three tributaries, the Kanaka, Dushambeh, and Kafirnigan, converging to near the city of Hissar, where they break through the southern side and flow to the Oxus.

The valley has a mixed population, divided

between Usbeg camps and Tadjik villages.

Throughout the old khanate it is famed for

its wealth of pasture and the grace of its

horses. The streams descending from the

mountains north are diverted to irrigate a

F • : ,...± `'"   wide continuity of rice and grain-fields, while

the silk woven in Karatagh and Hissar is

prized throughout the cities of Central Asia.

Ten days were spent in attempting to decipher the remarkable physiography of the Hissar valley. The more open part of the valley east from Karatagh is about 4o miles long and floored by a grass plain with an average width of • 5 miles, but of irregular definition. On the northern side this plain is often bounded by a loess cliff, surmounted by a narrow belt of steppe rising north. From this it inclines transversely or southwards on a grade of about 20 feet to the mile, and sweeps up again to meet the mature topog-

:'   K~    raphy of the southern side. The loess cliff
varies up to loo feet in height, and running along the northern side of the main valley

Fig. 447.—A Swimmer of Rapids, with an Inflated truncates tributary spurs and tributary valleys

Goat-skin (Karategin).   in one plain ; but is interrupted by the broad

flood-plains of larger tributary valleys dissecting it ; in general, it runs east and west, sometimes perfectly straight for several miles; sometimes gives way to a dissected deformation of the plain, and has the appearance of a recent fault-scarp. From near Dushambeh it runs straight east for 8 miles, dissected by local streams at rare intervals.

The Hissar valley is all loess, except where crossed by the gravel flood-plains of the three larger streams. These streams cross in wide channels, beginning with a depth of about zoo feet, decreasing till near the southern side, where flood-plains