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The heart of a continent : vol.1 |
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a type common in very elevated regions where the winter is
long and the rainfall in summer small, but not elsewhere.
Tibet is a collection of Pamirs on a large scale, for there, too,
there is not sufficient water to wash out the valleys down to
their bottoms, and in many parts of the Himalayas, the Kara-
koram Mountains, and the Hindu Kush, where similar conditions
exist, there are regular pamirs. And by this time the reader
will have gathered that the word "pamir" is merely the distinctive
name of this particular kind of valley. The Shimshal Pass into
Hunza is called by the people of that country the Shimshal
Pamir, though it is far away from the regions which we mark
on our maps as "The Pamirs."
This, then, is the physical formation of the Pamirs. Of
their outward clothing many conflicting accounts have been
given. One traveller, going to them in the late autumn, when
everything living has been nipped by frost, says that they are
an utterly desolate region. Another, seeing portions of them in
the summer, says that they are covered with the most splendid
grass. My own experience was that, though grass of a close,
good quality was to be found in certain places, the greater part
of the valley bottoms is covered with coarse wormwood scrub
only. Patches of rich pasture are to be found here and there, but
no one must imagine rolling grassy plains on the Pamirs. This
is what I had expected, and I thought the ponies of my caravan
would have an abundance of rich pasture to graze on ; but I was
sadly disappointed to find that only in a few favoured spots
could they obtain this, and that, for the greater part of the way
they had to content themselves with picking about among
scrub.
Trees, of course, are never seen, and even shrubs and bushes
in a few places only. Consequently fuel is scarce, and the
inhabitants and travellers have to content themselves with the
roots of the wormwood.
The climate, as might be imagined, is very severe. I have
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