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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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were attached to our camp when crossing and recrossing the Pamirs. All the natives of India ,

with us bore the severe cold and hard work with remarkable endurance and courage.

The Pamir plateau may be described as a great, broad, rounded ridge, extending north and south, and crossed by thick mountain chains, between which lie elevated valleys, open and gently sloping towards the east, but narrow and confined with a rapid fall towards the west. The waters which run in all, with the exception of the eastern flow from the Taghdtingbash, collect in the Oxus; the Aksti from the Little Pamir lake receiving the eastern drainage, which finds an outlet in the Aktash valley, and joining the Mtirghab, which obtains that from the Alichôr and Siriz Pamirs. As the eastern Taghdiingbash stream finds its way into the Yarkand river, the watershed must be held as extending from that Pamir, down the range dividing it from the Little Pamir, and along the Neza 'ash mountains to the Kizil Art pass leading to the Alai.

We saw hot springs at Patir, thirty-five miles below Sarhadd (tern. 130 deg.) at 'Long, near Kila Panj, and at Isligh, between the Great Pamir lake and the Aktf;sh vallèy.

We made repeated enquiries from Kirghiz and Wakhis, and from Mir Fatteh Ali Shah, regarding " BSlôr," as a name for any mountain, country, or place, but all professed erfect

7 ignorance of it.   44 f d- &,,, ,9 teviv AA Aka tinAAA vh 1L Itti 14140,

I have already explained bow the name of a place has been mistaken for that of the Little Pamir lake. A similar mistake appears to have been made in the name " Sirikol" given to the lake of Great Pamir. When speaking of our journey up to the lake, we were told of stages called Bun, Bekh, and Payan-}-kiil" (base, root, foot of lake), "Miyan and Barabar-i-ktil" (middle, and half way up the lake) and "Bala and Sir-i-knl (above, and head of, the lake). Sir-i-ktil was most frequently mentioned, being the usual caravan stage, and it was said in such a way as to lead easily to the idea of its being the name of the lake. When the guides were asked pointedly as to the real name of the lake, they answered—" It is called Kill-i-Kalan (the Great Lake) because there is no other lake in the country equal to it in size." Therefore the name "Victoria," given by Wood, displaces no distinctive local one, ând may well continue

1 Note.—The same explanation of the word was given to me at Yangi-Hissar. It is in fact a Khokandi

Turki word.

(Sd.)   T. D. F.

s

to be used, without fear of causing confusion.

i0   _   , 81/ 4.1   14*NC

I have spoken of the Aktash stream flowing from the Little Pamir lake as being called Set (1tac   TO ,

" the Aksti" by the Kirghiz. In Turki the "A" in "Ak" (wbitAL, .„pkonouuced so broad ;as ,'   d . d.~
to sound exactly like " O." Captarn i u p , on hearing the name so pronounced " Oksu,"

suggesterirtrbTable derivation of the Roman " Oxus."

We asked at Tashkurgan the meaning of " Sirikol." Hussun Shah, the governor, gave his opinion that it is a corruption of Sir-i-koh, the place being at a great elevation. On finding the valley to be a continuation of the Taghdtingbash, I looked upon Hussun Shah's explanation As probably correct from the fact of its being a literal translation of Taghdting

bash, both meaning " head of the mountain." Nothing seems more likely than that the

Persian-speaking Sirikolis should, on settling in the valley, give it a Persian name, literally 9 4 rn   IL':fine t4

interpreting its Ttirki one.   4 -   "NfiLL. eGt+d

Regarding the name " Pamir," the meaning appears to be wilderness—a place depopulated, trf 740 At ,,,{ abandoned, waste yet capable of habitation. I obtained this information on the Great Pamir from one of our intelligent guides, who said in explanation—"In former days when this part

was inhabited by Kirghiz, as is shown by the ruins of their villages and bûrial grounds, the   .:~

valley was not all called Pamir, as it is now. It was then known by its village names, as is the country beyond Sirikol, which being now occupied by Kirghiz is not known by one name, but partly as Charling, Bas Robat, &c. If deserted it would be Pamir."t

* Note.—One objection to this otherwise reasonable explanation is that the word Oxus was used by the 4

1;3;4E4 kt

Greeks, not Romans, long before Turki had spread so far west.   b P.e.

(Sd.)   T. D. F.

a 30