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

The Sardai-miona valley has no high terraces, no terraces comparable to those
of Kizil Su. It is essentially a simple gorge, beginning with a V shape with low
terraces at the bottom, then changing to a canyon and finally opening again to
a V shape with low terraces at the bottom. These low terraces which mark its
last transition undoubtedly resulted from the recent uplift which faulted up the
northern side of the Hissar valley, breaking off the border of its floor with the
scarp of loess. The river, which is of nearly clear water, as its region is of crys-
talline and metamorphic schists, is a rapid and copious flow, but hardly a torrent.
Its grade is fairly even, though at intervals it becomes more rapid and passes
chutes. It may, therefore, be said that its last phase is still uncompleted.

Any explanation of the Hissar valley must explain why the Kafirnigan
with the other streams breaks through its southern side, instead of flowing east
to join the Karatagh, thus continuing the valley to its proper outlet. It may
be that the Hissar valley is not a valley, but no more than a belt of the Oxus
embayment, shut off by uplift of the plain south, and that the Kafirnigan cut
down as the mass rose. This is not likely, because the hills south of Hissar are by
no means sharp in outline, but are, on the contrary, of mature form. It would
seem that a regional tilt, raising the northern side with the Hissar Mountains, would
account for the canyons of tributaries there and the cutting back of an Oxus
tributary to capture the cross-streams at Hissar. The same process might account
for cutting back of the Vaksh to capture the Kizil Su at Obu-garm, thus leaving
the Hissar valley from there west without the great stream that belonged to it.

TENTATIVE RECONSTRUCTION OF EROSION CYCLES IN KARATEGIN AND HISSAR.

First cycle (Pliocene).
Erosion of Pliocene mountains to low relief, while Kizil Su flows straight through the
Alai valley, Karategin, and the valley of Hissar, and then south to the Oxus.
Cycle closes with valley widening and a many-mile wide flood-plain continuous
from the eastern end of the Alai valley to the Oxus embayment, a distance of
nearly 500 miles.

Second cycle (Quaternary).
High uplift; Hissar region tilted, raising north more than south. The Kizil Su cap-
tured at Obu-garm, the valley of Hissar at Hissar; the Kizil Su deepens the western
end of the Alai valley and canyons its valley in Karategin; the Sardai-miona
develops its canyon cycle.
Closes with the valley widening.

Third cycle (Quaternary).
High uplift. The Kizil Su deepens the western end of the Alai valley and canyons
the second-cycle floor of Karategin to a depth of 2,000 to 3,500 feet below the
first-cycle grade plains. Cycle closes with prolonged valley widening and glacial
alluviation. Great accumulation of loess.

Fourth cycle (Postglacial).
Warped uplift of a few hundred feet. Faulting up of northern side of Hissar valley.
Present channels incised in flood-plains of third-cycle alluviation. Now up to
200 or 300 feet in depth and still cutting down. Loess still accumulating.