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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

the inhabitants of the district, all tended to show that the river which flows down the Sarikol valley from the Kanjúd mountains, and through the Taghdumbash Pámir, is undoubtedly the main stream. At the point I crossed, just above the junction with the Tagharma stream, it the river was 15 yards in width, with an average depth of 1½ feet, and a velocity of four miles an hour. Two miles beyond in a southern direction brought us to the village of Chushmán, leaving only five miles for our next day's march (the 10th from Yangí-Hissár) into Táshkurghán, the chief town or rather village of the Sarikol valley. Between Chushmán and Táshkurghán (both on the left bank of the Taghdumbash River) we passed the large village of Tiznáf. It is this village that has caused much confusion to geographers by giving its name to the river, which is frequently called the Tiznáf in its lower course, and is often confounded with another river of the same name which rises on the north side of the Yangí-Díván Pass and flows past Karghálík.

On approaching Táshkurghán (where we halted two days to rest our cattle), while passing up the valley I saw at its upper end some high peaks occasionally emerging from the clouds, but before I could get to camp they had disappeared, never to be seen again during our stay in the valley, or on our return journey, a great disappointment to me, as it is possible they were peaks in the Muz-tagh range, fixed by the Great Trigonometrical Survey. During our halt at Sarikol I took a set of magnetic as well as the usual astronomical observations, and some careful azimuthal bearings with theodolite to a large mass of snowy peaks called Muz-tagh, situated to the north of Táshkurghán. These are identical with Hayward's Taghalma mountains, which are visible from Káshghar, the highest peak of which I determined by accordant trigonometrical measurements from Káshghar and Yapchan, to be 25,350 feet above the sea.

The general outline of the Tashkúrghan valley towards its head, was fixed by bearings taken from different points on a line across it. On the return journey I was able, by ascending the ridge that separates this plain from that of Tagharma on its north (and by making a detour through the latter on the way to our camp at the foot of the Kok Mainak Pass) to lay down the borders of the northern plain with considerable accuracy. Practically the two form one large plateau divided in the middle by a low range of hills through which flows the Tagharma River. The Táshkurghán plain extends southwards from the dividing ridge before mentioned, right up to the foot of the Kanjúd passes in the Muz-tagh range, constituting in its southern portion, the Taghdumbash Pámir. The Sarikol valley may be said to have an average width of about four miles; it is bounded on the east by the snowy range of Kandár or Kandahar;* on the south-west and south are the Taghdumbash mountains; on the west the Shindí mountains; north-west the Bir-dásh, which also forms the western boundary of the Tagharma plain, to the east of which lie the Muz-tagh (or Tagharma) and the Chichiklik mountains. The Tagharma plain extends from the dividing ridge for about 12 miles in a north-north-west direction; it is only two miles in width immediately north of the ridge, but soon increases in an easterly direction to as much as 10 miles; it then narrows, being nearly closed up by spurs running down from the Bir-dásh mountains on the west and the Muz-tagh on the east. About 10 miles west of this point is the Bir-dásh Pass, over a range which divides this plain from another similar one running nearly parallel to it, viz., the Ak-tash or Ák-su. Opposite the Bir-dásh Pass the Sarikol plain again widens and extends, gently undulating, for some eight or ten miles further in the same direction.† According to statements of the Kirghiz it continues right up to the Kizil Art Pass, which separates it from the Alai, and the valley of the Surkhab River, the most northerly tributary of the Oxus. The height of the valley above sea level may be taken at Tagharma at about 10,500 feet, and I doubt whether it is very much higher in any part of its course. The drainage of the southern portion passes through the Tagharma plain into the Sarikol River;