Innermost Asia : vol.1 / Page 119 (Color Image)

0119	Innermost Asia : vol.1

the Chinese border on the Pāmīrs.⁹ Long after nightfall the same day we reached my old camping-
place at Murkushi, where the two available routes to the Tāgh-dumbāsh Pāmīr, via the Kilik
and Ming-taka passes, diverge. Here I found Surveyor Muhammad Yāqūb and Naik Shamsuddin
of the 1st Sappers and Miners, who had safely arrived with our heavy baggage by the route
via Gilgit and Hunza.

Though the Kilik pass which I crossed in 1900 is certainly the easier, except during the
months of deep snow, I decided for the sake of seeing new ground to take the route across the
Ming-taka pass.¹⁰ It leads up along the moraine of a glacier considerable in size (Fig. 62) and
offers splendid views towards the maze of fantastically serrated peaks to the south (Fig. 63). As
this route, too, is well known, there is no need to describe here the ascent, which by midday of
September 7 brought my now reunited party to the top of the pass (Fig. 65) and thus to the border
of Chinese Turkestan. Our mercurial barometer indicated for the Ming-taka pass an elevation
of 15,650 feet. In the open high valley beyond, with its true Pāmīr character, I found myself
once more on ground with which my two previous journeys had made me familiar. But how easy
seemed the routes I had then followed, by comparison with the tracks which had brought us this
time to the westernmost corner of China! Barely five weeks had elapsed since I left the Kashmīr
valley, and during this period of strenuous marching with only two days of halt, we had crossed
fifteen passes between 10,000 and 17,500 feet in height. The total distance we had marched
amounted to about 520 miles, and of this nearly four-fifths had of necessity been done on foot.

Section IV.—IN THE VALLEY OF TĀSH-KURGHĀN

The four rapid marches which carried me on September 8–11 down by the Tāgh-dumbāsh
river to Tāsh-kurghān, the Sarīkol 'capital', led necessarily over ground already familiar to
me. In Ancient Khotan and in Serindia I have fully discussed the early notices bearing on the
history of Sarīkol and such ancient remains as I was able to trace on my preceding visits.¹ Similarly
a descriptive account of the chief geographical features presented by the main valley and of its
present population will be found in the corresponding chapters of my personal narratives of those
journeys.² Hence I am able to restrict the record of my third passage through Sarīkol to brief
notes on some antiquarian remains not previously noticed and a few supplementary observations
of a geographical interest.

Taking my observations as they occurred in the course of my route, I may first briefly mention
that, descending along the Tāgh-dumbāsh or Tāsh-kurghān river, as it flows in its initial stage
from west to east, I came upon a mark of former extensive glaciation at a point known as Tōke-
sakrik, some three miles below Payik-karaul ;³ a big terminal moraine here fills the mouth of the
side valley that descends from the high snowy range on the south. The appearance of this old
moraine is such as to leave no doubt about its being, geologically speaking, of quite modern date.
Yet within two miles below it, at an elevation of about 12,000 feet, I found further confirmation
of what I had before had occasion to observe, that cultivation once extended much higher up
the valley.⁴ On the small grass-covered plain of Chādir-tāsh old terraced fields had in recent
years been tilled again by Kirghiz for a brief period, and on the opposite (left) river bank,

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

Citation Information

OCR Text

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