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

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having fallen down from the mountain sides into the gorge; only on foot or with yaks was the passage possible. Even in this narrow gorge there are widenings with grass and bush vegetation from which fuel used to be obtained for the Chinese chiefs.
Regarding the climate, the winter was said to be very cold and the snow about half a meter deep. The summer is more windy than the winter, and it blows as a rule from the west. Even during the summer the greatest part of the precipitation comes as snow. In the winter all the watercourses are frozen, except just below the spring. The nomads passing the summer in the upper yeilaks of the valleys here about, wander in the winter down to Hojet-Bai, Kutas-soidu and farther north. The inhabitants are for the greatest part Tajiks, living in ak-üi or white tents of felt.
On July 31st we travelled S. E. and south 12 km., rising 283 m. or to 4,222 m. at Camp Uprang; being a rate of 1:42.
Leaving Kara-su, in the upper reaches of which 15 Tajik tents were said to be pitched, we continued on the right or eastern bank of the Hunserab. At the western side of the valley we passed the jilga Kashka-su with five Tajik tents and three of Naiman Kirgizes. The main valley is fairly broad, with undulated and grass-grown ground. From Kashka-su a brook comes down to the Hunserab, piercing the erosion terrace at the left side of the river. On the lower slopes of the western mountains there was an aul of five Tajik tents called Därvase. Bugos is a yeilak on the river with two tents and a little brook. The space between Kara-su and the main river in its lower part is occupied by detritus hills and terraces; higher up by a snow-covered ramification from the Kashgar Range.
Örtäng-tus is a widening of the valley with five scattered Tajik tents. Korum (pronounced Gorum) is a considerable valley from the west with four Tajik tents. From the east Ak-jilga comes in with a brook. Here we leave the bank of Hunserab and ride across dry slopes to Uprang, an important valley with an aul of four Kipchak tents. A little beyond the aul and a gravelly ridge we camped at the Uprang brook where the grass was good. At 5 o'clock p. m. the brook carried about 2.5 cub. m. per second of clear water. At 7 o'clock, when the water from melting snow and ice had reached so far down, the brook was three or four times larger and its water muddy. On the first occasion it had a temperature of 15.1°, on the latter 11.2°. The bed was filled with gravel and blocks of granite, gneiss, red porphyry, fine-grained crystalline schist, etc. The brook makes a considerable contribution to the Hunserab.
The passes of Uprang, Ulutör and Hunserab may be said to mark the southern boundary of Taghdumbash Pamir. My Tajik and Kirgiz friends regarded Deftar as the northern boundary of the same district. According to them Rang and Tash-kurgan therefore did not belong to Taghdumbash. The whole valley up to the