and opens a difficult and dangerous route to Gilgit. The Taghdumbash
is claimed both by China and Kanjut (or Hunza), and there is
consequently an open boundary question at this corner of the Pamirs.
From Lake Victoria of the Great Pamir the northern boundary of that extended strip of Afghanistan which reaches out to the head of the Taghdumbash from Badakshan north of the Hindu Kush is to be traced: westwards, in the Lake Victoria affluent of the Oxus; and eastwards, on the Nicolas range, dividing the Great and Little Pamirs, till it overlooks Boundary between Russia and Afghanistan. a point on the Aksu (or Murghab) river in about 74° 40′ E. Here it diverges southwards to the Sarikol chain, north of Taghdumbash. This eastward extension was laid down by the Pamir Boundary Commission of 1895. All the head of the Little Pamir, with the Wakhan valley, is consequently Afghan territory, but no military posts have been established so far. The Alichur, Rang Kul, Kargosh (Kara Kul) and Sarez are Russian Pamirs. The Mariom Pamir is Chinese.
The Wakhan glaciers under the Wakhjir water-parting, Lake
Chakmaktin near the sources of the Aksu, and Lake Victoria of the
Great Pamir have all been claimed as indicating the
true source of the Oxus. But detailed examination of
their hydrographical conditions proves that neither of the
two lakes, Victoria (13,400 ft.) or Chakmaktin (13,020 ft.),
Glacial Sources of
the Oxus.
can justly be regarded as sources, both of them being derived
from the same mighty system of glacial snowfields on the summit
of the Nicolas range. Both may be regarded as incidents in the
course of glacial streams (incidents which are diminishing in volume
day by day), rather than original springs or sources. The same
glacial beds of the Nicolas range send down tributary waters to the
Panja or Wakhan river, below its junction with the ice stream from
Wakhjir, and thus it becomes impossible to decide whether the
glaciers of the Wakhjir or the glaciers of Nicolas should be regarded
as effecting the most important contribution to the main stream.
There is evidence also that glacial moraine formations from time to
time may have largely affected the catchment area of these tributary
streams. It would be as rash to assert that from Lake Victoria
no waters could ever have issued with an eastward flow as it would
be to state that from Chakmaktin none ever flow westwards. The
measure of the veracity of Chinese pilgrims and geographers in the
early centuries of our era must not be balanced on such points as
these.
There is no evidence that the Pamirs were ever the support of permanent settlements. The few mud-built buildings which once existed at Chakmaktin and at Langar only decide recent occupation which could hardly have possessed a permanent character, and the few shrines and domed tombs which are scattered here and there about the Population and Ethnography. empty desolation of the Pamir slopes are all of them of recent construction. The nomadic population which seeks pasturage during the summer months in these dreary altitudes is entirely Kirghiz, and we may take it for granted that it will soon be entirely Russian. The non-Russian population during the summer of 1895 could not have amounted to more than a few hundred souls—occupying a few encampments in the Little Pamir and in the Taghdumbash. The total population of the Russian Pamirs has been reckoned at 250 “kibitkas,” or 1500 souls. There is no ethnographical distinction to be traced between the Kirghiz of the Alichur Pamir and the Kirghiz of the Taghdumbash.
The Kirghiz are Sunni Mahommedans by faith, but amongst
them there are curious survivals of an ancient ritual of which the
origin is to be traced to those Nestorian Christian
communities of Central Asia which existed in the
middle ages. A Christian bishopric existed at Yarkand
in Marco Polo's time, and is supposed to have survived
Evidences of the Survival
of Christian Symbols.
for another century (1350). The last Gurkhan of the
Kara Khitai Empire in the early part of the 13th century
(the legendary Prester John) was a member of a Christian tribe
called Naiman, which is one of the four chief tribal divisions
mentioned by Ney Elias. The Naiman tribe claim kinship with
the Kipchaks. It is curious that the same survival of Christian
ceremonial should be found amongst the Sarikoli, a Shiah people
of Aryan descent akin to the Tajiks of Badakshan, as may be traced
amongst the Kirghiz. Christian symbols have been discovered
in the southern towns of Chinese Turkestan by Sven Hedin.
The total area of the Pamir country may be estimated as about
150 m. long by 150 m. broad, of which about one-tenth is grass
pasture land and the rest mountainous. All of it once
formed part of the ancient kingdom of Bolor, itself a
survival of the yet more ancient empire of the Yue-chi,
Tokharistan; and across it, in spite of its bleak inhospitality,
Area of
the Pamirs.
Trade Routes.
there have been one or two recognized trade routes from east
to west throughout all ages. The most important commercially
was that which passed north-west via Tashkurghan
and Rang Kul, from Chinese Turkestan to the khanates
north of the Oxus; but the route via Tashkurghan and
Lake Victoria to Badakshan was also well trodden. The great
pilgrim route of Buddhist days was that which connects the
ancient Buddhist cities of the Takla Makan in Chinese Turkestan
with Chitral (Kashkar), by the Baroghil Pass across the Hindu
Kush. This was but one link in a chain of devout peregrination
which stretched from China to India, and which included every
intervening Buddhist centre of note which existed in the early
centuries of our era.
For six or seven months of the year (November to April) the
Pamirs are covered with snow, the lakes are frozen, and the passes
nearly impracticable. The mean temperature during
the month of January recorded by Russian observers
at the Murghabi—or Pamirski—post is −13° F. In
July this rises to 62° F., the elevation of the station being
Climate of
the Pamirs.
12,150 ft. During the spring and summer months the prevalence
of fierce cutting winds, which are shaped by the conformation of
the valleys into blasts as through a funnel, following the strike
of the valleys either up or down, makes travelling painful and
existence in camp most unpleasant. In the absence of wind the
summer atmosphere is often bright and exhilarating, but there is a
constant tendency to sudden squalls of wind and rain, which pass
as quickly as they gather. The most settled record of the Pamir
Boundary Commission of 1895 lasted from the 19th of August to
the 11th of September, the maximum temperature being recorded
at 77° on the 21st of August at Kizil Rabat (12,570 ft.); and yet on
the 16th of August snow had fallen to the depth of 6 in. and the
Beyik Pass was blocked. There were indications that monsoon
influences extended as far north at least as the Great Pamir, and a
definite analogy was established between the record of barometric
pressure on the Pamirs and that of the outer ranges of the Himalaya.
Authorities.—Captain J. Wood, A Journey to the Source of the Oxus (new ed., London, 1872), Report of the Forsyth Mission (Calcutta, 1875); Colonel T. E. Gordon, The Roof of the World (London, 1876); Pitman (trans.), Through the Heart of Asia (London, 1889); Earl of Dunmore, The Pamirs (London, 1893); Major Cumberland, Sport on the Pamirs (London, 1895); Hon. G. N. Curzon, “The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus,” R. G. S. Journ., vol. viii.; Report of the Proceedings of the Pamir Boundary Commission (Calcutta, 1897). (T. H. H.*)
PAMPA, LA, a territory of the southern pampa region of Argentina, bounded N. by Mendoza, San Luis and Cordoba, E. by Buenos Aires, S. by the territory of Rio Negro, from which it is separated by the river Colorado, and W. by Mendoza. Pop. (1904, official estimate), 52,150. It belongs geographically to the southern part of the great Argentine pampas, from which its name is derived, but in reality only a part of its surface belongs to the plain region. The western and southern part (perhaps the larger) is much broken by hills, swamps and sandy wastes, with occasional stretches of wooded country. The western half is crossed by a broad depression, extending from Mendoza south-east
to an intersection with the valley of the Colorado, which
was once the outlet of the closed drainage basin occupied by the
provinces of Mendoza, San Juan and San Luis. This depression
is partially filled with swamps and lakes, into which flow the
rivers Atuel and Salado. An obscure continuation of these
rivers, called the Chadi-leubu, flows south-east from the great
swamps into the large lake of Urrelauquen, about 60 m. north of
the Colorado. There are a great number of lakes in La Pampa,
especially in the south-east. The eastern half is described as
fertile and well adapted for grazing, although the rainfall is
very light. Since the closing years of the 10th century there
has been a large emigration of stock-raisers and agriculturists
into La Pampa, and the territory has become an important
producer of cattle and sheep, wheat, Indian corn, linseed, barley
and alfalfa. The climate is excessively dry, and the temperature
ranges from the severe frosts of winter to an extreme of 104° F. in
summer. Strong, constant winds are characteristic of this
region. Railways have been extended into the territory from
Buenos Aires and Bahia Blanca, the latter being the nearest
seaport. There is connexion also with the Transandine railway
line on the north. The capital is General Acha (pop. about
2000 in 1905), and the only other places of importance are Santa
Rosa de Toay and Victorica, both small, uninteresting “camp”
villages.
PAMPAS (Span. La Pampa, from a Quichua word signifying a level open space or terrace), an extensive plain of Argentina, extending from the Rio Colorado north to the Gran Chaco, and from the foothills of the Andes east to the Parana and Atlantic coast.[1] It consists of a great calcareo-argillaceous sheet, once
- ↑ There are other pampas in South America, such as the Pampas de Aullagas, in Bolivia, the Pampas del Sacramento between the Huallaga and Ucayali rivers in eastern Peru, and others less well known, but when the word Pampas is used alone the great Argentine plain is meant.
