busy in the Pamirs about 1860, and continued their investigations for the following fifteen years. In 1874 the mission of Sir D. Forsyth to Yarkand led to the first systematic geographical exploitation of the Pamir country. In 1885 Ney Elias made his famous journey across the Pamirs from east to west, identifying the Rang Kul as the Dragon Lake of Chinese geographers—a distinction which has also been claimed by some geographers for Lake Victoria. Then Lockhart and Woodthorpe in 1886 passed along the Wakhan tributary of the Oxus from its head to Ishkashim in Badakshan, and completed an enduring record of most excellent geographical research. Bonvalot in 1887, Littledale in 1888, Cumberland, Bower and Dauvergne, followed by Younghusband in succeeding years, extending to 1890; Dunmore in 1892 and Sven Hedin in 1894–1895, have all contributed more or less to Pamir geography; but the honours of successful inquiry in those high altitudes still fall to Lord Curzon, whose researches in 1894 led to a singularly clear and comprehensive description of Pamir geography, as well as to the best map compilation that till then had existed. Meanwhile Russian explorers and Russian topographers had been equally busy from the north. The famous soldier Skobelev was probably the first European to visit the Great Kara Kul. He was followed by scientific missions systematically organized by the Russian government. In 1883 Putiata's mission started south. Gromchevsky was hard at work from 1888 to 1892. Yanov began again in 1891, after a short spell of rest, and has left his mark as a permanent record in the valley of Sarhad (or Wakhan), between the Baroghil pass and Bozai Gumbaz. Finally, in 1895, the Russian mission under General Shveikovsky met the British mission under General Gerard on the banks of Lake Victoria, and from that point to the Chinese frontier eastward demarcated the line which thereafter was to divide Russian from British interests in highest Asia. Since then other travellers have visited the Pamirs, but the junction of the Russian and British surveys (the latter based on triangulation carried across the Hindu Kush from India) disposes of any further claim to the honours of geographical exploration.
Our estimate of the extent of Pamir conformation depends much on the significance of the word Pamir. If we accept the Persian derivation of the term (which is advanced by Curzon as being perhaps the most plausible), pai-mir, or “the foot of mountain peaks,” we have a definition which is by no means an inapt illustration of the Pamir Conformation. actual facts of configuration. It has been too often assumed that the plateau of Tibet and the uplands of the Pamirs are analogous in physiography, and that they merge into each other. This is hardly the case. Littledale points out (R. G. S. Journ., vol. vii.) that the high-level valleys of glacial formation which distinguish the Pamirs have no real counterpart in the Chang or plains of Tibet. The latter are 2000 ft. higher; they are intersected by narrow ranges, and are drained by no rivers of importance. They form a region of salt lakes and stagnant marshes, relieved by wide flat spaces of open plateau country. The absence of any vegetation beyond grass or scrub is a striking feature common to both Pamir and Chang, but there the resemblance ceases, and the physical conformation of mountain and valley to the east and to the west of the upper sources of the Zarafshan is radically distinct.
The axis, or backbone, of Pamir formation is the great meridional mountain chain of Sarikol—the ancient Taurus of tradition and history—on which stands the highest peak north of the Himalaya, the Muztagh Ata (25,000 ft.). This chain divides off the high-level sources of the Oxus on the west from the streams which sweep The Pamirs. downwards into the Turkestan depression of Kashgar on the east. There are the true Pamirs (i.e. valleys reaching up in long slopes to the foot of mountain peaks) on either side, and the Pamirs on the west differ in some essential respects from those on the east. On the west the following are generally recognized as distinct Pamirs: (1) the Great Pamir, of which the dominant feature is Lake Victoria; (2) the Little Pamir, separated from the Great Pamir on the north by what is now known as the Nicolas range; (3) the Pamir-i-Wakhan, which is the narrow trough of the Wakhan tributary of the Oxus, the term Pamir applying to its upper reaches only; (4) the Alichur—the Pamir of the Yeshil Kul and Ghund—immediately to the north of the Great Pamir; (5) the Sarez Pamir, which forms the valley of the Murghab river, which has here found its way round the east of the Great Pamir and the Alichur from the Little Pamir, and now makes westwards for the Oxus. This branch was considered by many geographers as the main Oxus stream, and Lake Chakmaktin, at its head, was by them regarded as the Oxus source. At the foot of the Sarez Pamir stands the most advanced Russian outpost of Murghabi. To the north-east of the Alichur are the Rang Kul and the Kara Kul (or Kargosh) Pamirs. Rang Kul Lake occupies a central basin or depression; but the Kara Kul drains away north-eastwards through the Sarikol (as the latter, bending westwards, merges into the Trans-Alai) to Kashgar and the Turkestan plains. Similar characteristics distinguish all these Pamirs. They are hemmed in and separated by snow-capped mountain peaks and ridges, which are seamed with glaciers terminating in moraines and shingle slopes at the base of the foot-hills. Long sweeps of grassy upland bestrewn with boulders lead from the stream beds up to the snowfields, yellow, grey or vivid green, according to the season and the measure of sunlight, fold upon fold in interminable succession, their bleak monotony being only relieved by the grace of flowers for a short space during the summer months.
To the east of the Sarikol chain is the Taghdumbash Pamir, which claims many of the characteristics of the western Pamirs at its upper or western extremity, where the Karachukar, which drains it, is a comparatively small stream. But where the Karachukar, joining forces with the Khunjerab, stretches out northwards for a comparatively straight run to Tashkurghan, dividing asunder the two parallel ranges of Sarikol and Kandar, which together form the Sarikol chain, the appellation Pamir can hardly be maintained. This is the richest portion of the Sarikol province. Here are stone-built houses collected in scattered detachments, with a spread of cultivation reaching down to the river. Here are water-mills and many permanent appliances of civilization suited to the lower altitude (11,500 ft., the average height of the upper Pamirs being about 13,000), and here we are no longer near the sources of the river at the foot of the mountain peaks. One other so-called Pamir exists to the east of Sarikol, separated therefrom by the eastern range (the Kandar) of the Sarikol, which is known as Mariom or Mariong. But this Pamir is situated nowhere near the sources of the Zarafshan or Raskam river, which it borders, and possesses little in common with the Pamirs of the west. The Mariom Pamir defines the western extremity of the Kuen Lun, which stretches eastwards for 250 m. before it becomes the political boundary of northern Tibet.
The Muztagh chain, which holds within its grasp the mightiest system of glaciers in the world, forms a junction with the Sarikol at the head of the Taghdumbash, where also another great system (that of the Hindu Kush) has its eastern roots. The political boundary between the extreme north of the The Muztagh Chain and Karakoram Extension.Kashmir dependencies and the extreme south of Chinese Turkestan is carried by the Zarafshan or Raskam river which runs parallel to the Muztagh at its northern foot (its valley dividing the Muztagh from the Kuen Lun), to a point in about 79° 20′ E., where it is transferred to the watershed of the Kuen Lun. Within the limits of these partially explored highlands, lying between the Pamirs and the Tibetan table-land, exact geographical definition is impossible. But we may follow Godwin-Austen in accepting the main chain of the Muztagh as merging into the central mountain system of the Tibetan Chang, its axis being defined and divided by the transverse stream of the Shyok at its westward bend, whilst the Karakoram range, in which the Shyok rises, is a subsidiary northern branch. The pass over the Karakoram (18,500 ft.) is the most formidable obstacle on the main trade route between Leh and Kashgar.
The Taghdumbash Pamir occupies a geographical position of some political significance. One important pass (the Beyik, 15,100 ft.) leads from the Russian Pamirs into Sarikol across its northern border. A second pass (the Wakhjir, 16,150 ft.) connects the head of the Wakhan valley of Afghanistan with the Sarikol province across its western head, whilst The Taghdumbash Pamir. a third (the Kilik, 15,600 ft.) leads into the head of the Hunza river
