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

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of the families settle down in the clay houses. The information regarding the climate was the same as at Baldir. To the S. W. of Vacha is the pass Ogri-art, which is said to be even easier than the Särg hak.
From Vacha we continued S. W. and east on September 18th, 18.8 km.; rising 553 m. or to 3,790 m. at the next camp, the rate of ascent being 1:34.
From the right or east the tributary Shar-tisak enters, and opposite it, from the west, Künési-jilga. The region in the main valley is called Karak or Grag. The next right tributary is Hunsérab, and higher up Ak-jilga, with a road joining the one in Shar-tisak, which is said to lead to Kisil-tagh and to be used by merchants. Then the main valley is called Sherab. It is well inhabited. Fields, irrigation canals, houses, groves, peasants, flocks and donkeys are seen in all directions. We pass a guristán or cemetery with a little mosque and a few gumbaz. Along the river there is some bush vegetation. Erosion terraces have been formed the whole way. Higher up, the valley becomes narrow and there is no population. It is formed by two valleys; Langar from the S. S. W. and Shuidun from the S. S. E. By Langar there is a road to Marian and Raskan-darya. In the corner of the junction a masar or saint's tomb is seen on an isolated rock, below which some gumbaz have been built.
About half the brook comes from Langar where soft green schist falls 37° S. 20° W. Leaving the Shuidun we enter the little eastern tributary Chakarga and pitch our camp at a little rest-house called Rabat-Kandahar. The grass is good.
Our road goes up the Shuidun valley, which partly is very narrow. From the S. S. W. enters the valley Marian-tangak with a road to Marian. Above it the valley again becomes broader. Again we pass a cemetery and a masar. The Shuidun valley is said to lead to a little pass Bichan-art or Pehan-art, which is flat and easy and leads to the village of the same name. Beyond the latter is the pass Kara-vatrak, high and difficult and with a road to Boramsal and Raskan-darya, which here was called Pil or Tong-darya; and finally to Chup and Asghan-sai above Kargalik. South of Rabat-Kandahar is the village of Marian not very large and situated in a narrow valley. It could be reached by a road crossing a pass to the south. This pass is obviously situated in a range joining the range of Kandahar-davan with the one of Ogri-art and Särg hak. The latter is to be regarded as a special range parallel with and west of the one of Kandahar-davan. The western range is the southern continuation of the one with Kata-kok-moinak, Kichik-kok-moinak or Chichiklib-davan and Mus-tagh-ata, and still farther north, the Ulug-art-davan. This range is the real Kashgar Range.
In the morning of September 19th, after a night temperature of —0.5°, the whole country was white with snow two inches deep. We had 12.5 km. to the Kandahar Pass which is 5,062 m. high, a rise of 1,272 m. at a rate of 1:10. The