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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

about twenty miles in length. A stagnant lake called Túz, and Sussik Kúl (salt, putrid lake) lies near the western end. The water of it was described to me as being salt to the taste. Abdúl Mejid noticed this lake as at the first stage from Khargóshi, which agrees with the account given to us. To the east of the Sussik Kúl a fresh water stream rises and flows into the Yeshil Kúl lower down in the Alichór, from which another issues and falls into the Múrghab, below its junction with the Áksú.

The Káshghari army that fled with the Khojas in the last century before the Chinese, when they gained possession of Eastern Túrkistán, passed up the Alichór Pámir in their flight to Badakhshán. They were overtaken near the Yeshil kúl, and are said to have driven their women and children, mounted on camels and horses, into the lake to meet their death by drown-ing, rather than allow them to fall into the hands of the Chinese. The Kirghiz have a legend that the sounds of lamentation, and of people and animals in terrifying alarm at threatened death, are often heard to come out of the lake.

I have already mentioned the Siríz Pámir when speaking of the Áktásh valley. This Pámir appears to be a continuation of the Áktásh valley, similarly as the Little Pámir is, and as the Tághdúngbásh is of the Sirikol valley. It seems to run from Ák-bálik in the east, to Bartang in the west. Bartang is the beginning of the inhabited and cultivated portion of Shighnan in that direction. It is described as abounding with fruit-bearing trees, and must therefore be much lower than Kila Panj, with a very different climate. It is easy to believe this, when the long course of the Áksú, with its steady fall, is considered.

The Kirghiz spoke of the Rung (ibex) Kúla, large lake, about one day's journey from Ák-bálik, and situated in the Siríz Pámir. This probably is the Rung Kúl of Pámir Khúrd, mentioned in Colonel Yule's Essay on the Geography of the Oxus, the Áktásh valley being thus regarded as the Little Pámir, of which it is but the continuation, as I have already explained. By the Kirghiz accounts, the Great Kárakúl is four days, the Little Kárakúl three, the Rung Kúl one, and the Yeshil Kúl two and a half days' journey from Ák-bálik. I estimate the day's journey in these accounts at fifteen miles. Abdúl Mejid made seven marches from Khargóshi to the Great Kárakúl. Of these one probably was to the Alichór, two down it to Ák-bálik, and four up the Múrghab, by the road which is said to pass along its banks.

The animals of the Pámirs are the ovis poli, ibex, brown bear, leopard, lynx, wolf, fox, marmot, and hare. These remain throughout the year. Wild fowl swarm on the lakes in summer. The wild yak is not known on or near the Pámir.

We were not fortunate in pursuit of game. On the way over the Wakhán the snow lay too deep to permit of sport, and on the journey back our limited supplies would not admit of a halt for the purpose. The only ovis poli obtained was a female shot by Captain Trotter, on a long march of thirty-seven miles. The horns of the ovis poli and the ibex lie in great numbers at many places on the Pámirs. These animals suffer heavily from the leopards and wolves, which prey almost entirely upon them. A murrain is also said to have made great havoc amongst both some years ago. The ibex are similar to the Himalayan species, and accordingly differ from those we saw in the Thian Shán range, which were of the black species, also found in the Kúen Lúen. I brought away a pair of ovis poli horns measuring sixty-five and a half inches in length round the curve, fifty-three inches in a straight line from tip to tip, and sixteen inches round the base. I purpose giving them to the National Museum of Natural History in London.

We experienced none of the usual symptoms of great height, headache and difficulty of respiration, on the Pámirs, in the degree that native travellers have described. None of our camp followers and people suffered in any way beyond breathlessness when exertion was made. All were free from the pain of "dum" as it is called, with the exception of our mess khánsámáh, who invariably became a victim anywhere at an elevation over 12,000 feet.

There was perfect health among our party throughout the journey. One of the Wakhis, who accompanied us with the supplies over the Great Pámir, died suddenly on the last march to Áktásh, and this was the only casualty, or sickness even, among the numbers of men who