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| 0503 |
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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OCR Text
That it led up from the Oxus to the Alai had been estab-
lished long ago by Sir Henry Yule, that great elucidator
of early travel, when he proved that 'the valley of the
Komedoi', through which the ascent towards Imaos is
said to have led, could be no other than Kara-tegin, the
valley of the Surkh-ab. Mediaeval Arab geographers still
knew it by the name of Kumedh. The Kara-tegin valley
and its eastern continuation, the trough of the Alai, offer
in fact the easiest line of communication from the Oxus to
the Tarim basin. But the advantages of the physical features
which make the Alai particularly suited to serve as a natural
highway between the two were brought home to me best
by what the actual journey along it showed most clearly.
For fully seventy miles from where the Russian military
road crosses it the open trough of the Alai stretches with an
unbroken width from six to eleven miles at its floor down
to the Kirghiz village of Daraut-kurghan. Eastwards for
another twenty miles up to the Taun-murun saddle, where
the route from the Kashgar side enters the Alai, the 'thalweg'
is equally wide and easy. Climatic conditions, moister than
on the Pamirs to the south, provide everywhere ample steppe
vegetation. Hence the Alai forms the great summer grazing-
ground for thousands of Kirghiz nomads who annually move
up there from the plains of Farghana with their flocks,
camels and horses. Well did I remember their picturesque
caravans with camels carrying rich carpets, felts and other
comfortable possessions of nomadic households as I had
met them on their regular migration when I travelled early
in June 1901 from Irkesh-tam to Osh and Andijan in Far-
ghana. Now the warmth of the summer had made their
camps seek the higher side valleys for the young grass, and
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