Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 65 ページ（カラー画像）

0065	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

touch with those who had helped in building up this most recent of Hindukush 'states' and
could give first-hand information about the process.

Nor did I fail to appreciate the advantage of the fact that quick-witted Shāh 'Ālam and his
intelligent henchmen, while fully familiar with the ground and the people, were yet, from the very
character of their employment, apt to keep a mental detachment from local interests. Regard
for these, among more settled subjects, might well have induced reticence on various topics.
I may add that the knowledge of the Pashtō language which we found among many of Pakhtūn
Wālī's retainers and the steady spread of which up the Indus Kōhistān is a noticeable fact, made
it easier for us to obtain information than it might otherwise have been among the Shināa-speaking
Darēlis.

From the left bank of the Khanbari river, where our first camp in Pakhtūn Wāli's territory
had stood at an elevation of about 5,500 feet, the route led north-westwards up a well-watered side
valley known at its mouth as Domōt. The Khanbari river, where we crossed it by a rough bridge
above the junction, carried a volume of water probably greater than that to be found in any of the
Chilās streams. This, as our survey showed, is due to the fact that its head-waters drain a long
stretch of the Gilgit–Indus watershed, probably fully twenty-eight miles in a straight line from
east to west and falling nowhere much below 14,500 feet. Though our line of travel did not allow
me to touch the main Khanbari valley anywhere except at Domōt, yet both the views gained
from subsequent survey points higher up and the information collected showed conclusively that
along the Khanbari river itself and in the upper side valleys there is abundant ground sufficiently
open for cultivation and an ample water-supply for its irrigation. In striking contrast with these
favourable conditions, the area actually occupied proved very limited, and everything I could
observe or learn pointed to scarcity of population as the chief or sole cause. In fact, the Darēlis
were said to have contented themselves, before Pakhtūn Wāli's conquest, with using only the
extensive grazing grounds at the heads of the valleys drained by the Khanbari river. The slow
immigration of Gujar settlers from the south and west appears to have commenced only since
the advent of more peaceful conditions.

The main facts here briefly indicated are well illustrated by what we saw on our march up
the Domōt valley on August 14th and in turn give additional interest to our observations. For
about a mile from its mouth the path led past fertile fields, overlooked from cliffs to the north by
the ruins of an old village fort. Farther up, though the valley bottom remained wide for a distance
of about three miles, there extended a succession of abandoned cultivation terraces, carefully
levelled but overrun by luxuriant scrub and reeds. Groves of big plane trees, which had once
been planted by the side of irrigation channels, still flourished and gave grateful shade ; all of
them showed great age. Only in small scattered patches had cultivation been resumed during the
last few years, and showed rich crops of wheat and maize. At the foot of a conspicuous rocky
spur known as Gaubē-chesh the valley bifurcated, and as the track turned up the branch trending
westwards at an elevation of about 7,000 feet, it became completely covered by magnificent forest,
mostly of Deodars (Fig. 9).

Though the bottom of the valley grew steeper and gradually narrowed, there were every-
where traces of ruined walls that had once supported carefully terraced fields. The size of the great
trees that had grown up over them left no doubt that cultivation must have been abandoned
here for centuries. Splendid forest growth, quite untouched by the axe, clothed the slopes on

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ