Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/878

Rh 838 HINDU K U S H of which the axial lines approach in a direction from S.E. to N.W.; and (2) of the Thian-Shan and allied ranges, of which the axial lines run from E.N.E. to W.S.W. The parallelism of Hindu Kiish seems to attach it to the latter system, The definition of geographical features mu&t often be in part arbitrary, but that of Hindu Kiish fairly coincides with .natural limits. On the east we take it as commencing at tha Baroghil Pass, leading from the high valley of Little Pamir south into the valley of Kashgar or Chitral. Just east of this is a cluster of peaks of great altitude, but their alignment attaches them to the great Gilgit range of the Himalaya (Muztagh of some maps, Dapsang of Richthofen). On the west we regard Hindu Kiish as including and terminating at the Hajjigak Passes, those most commonly used between Cabul and Turkestan. West of this the -range continues as a watershed of considerable altitude, but with a partial change of direction and loss of true alpine character. In maps this prolongation is styled Koh-i-Baba. Properly Koh i-Haba is the name of a conspicuous three- peaked mountain rising over the Hajjigak Pass, to a height of at least 16,500 feet, which we regard as the terminal prominence of Hindu Rush, though it is in truth also isolated from the higher summits to the eastward, which especially claim that name, by a considerable interval of tamer mountain, rounded and naked. The total length of Hindu Kush as thus defined is 3G5 miles. Towards the eastern extremity the watershed per haps emerges little from the table-land, for the Barogbil Pass is of singularly easy acclivity on both sides, and no prominent summits adjoin it on the west. But for the rest of its extent the mountain tract of Hindu Kush realizes the popular idea of an alpine chain, i.e., of an unpierced mountain barrier whose passes are never far below the line of perpetual snow, and whose highest peaks are never very far from the watershed. The general altitude of the &quot; cols &quot; or passes runs from 12,000 to 13,000 feet. We give those that have been calculated (besides which some 20 or 22 are known more vaguely), beginning from the east : Long. Feet. 1. Baroghil Pass 7326 12,000 2. Nuksan 7l37 17,000
 * 3. Dora 7124 16,000-16,500

4. Khawak 69S9 13,200 5. Sar-ulang 6847 12,000 6. Kushan 6840 15,000 7. Irak 6752 12,900 8. Kalii (on Hajjigak Koad)6745 12,480 The three highest (2, 3, G) do not rest upon any observa tions of barometer or boiling point, but on other and looser data. Of the height of the peaks we have nothing definite. Captain Burslem, who ascended Koli-i-Buba with Lieutenant Sturt in 1810, speaks of seeing the lofty peaks to the eastward &quot; many thousand feet &quot; above, and Burnes uses similar language. The great peak near the Kushan Pass, sometimes specially called Hindu Kush, which is seen at once from Cabul on the south and from Kunduz on ths north, is probably not less than 20,000 feet high. Much further east the estimated heights of passes 2 and 3 indicate probable summits of as great altitude. A. great mountain due north of Chitral, called Tirich Mir, and said to be visible from a great part of Kafiristan and from Zebak in Badakhshan, is estimated by Major Biddulph, who alone has seen it, at the enormous height of 27,000 feet, but General Walker reduces this to 23,000 with a 0). Apart from this exceptional peak we shall form a just conception of the calibre of Hindu Kush among the ranges of the world if we class it with the French and Swiss Alps in extent and mass, but with greater average altitude. We have only one report of a glacier, viz., on the Nuksan Pass, No. 2 in the list of heights above. The idea of a distinct southern range running parallel to Hindu Kiish, north of the Cabul river, which Wood calls &quot; the Himalaya,&quot; is founded on misconception. But peaks have been measured on the spurs which run south on both sides of the Kunar river. They rise to near 19,000 feet on the left bank, east of Chitral, descending to 11,800 near the Afghan boundary. In Kafiristan there are peaks on these spurs of 1G,GOO and 16,800 feet, and even within 25 miles of the Cabul river are some as high as H,000 feet, On the south side of Hindu Kiish the earliest sources of the Helmand are in the gorges up which the Koh-i-Baba passes mount. All the rest of the range drains on that side to the Cabui river, and so to the Indus. On the north all the drainage reaches the Oxus. Both hydrographic features and the limits of our know ledge conveniently divide the Hindu Kush into three sections. (1.) Beginning from the east, in the first section, drainage southward is into the Chitral valley, and forms the great, perhaps greatest, contributary to the Cabul river, known as the Kunar or Beilam (probably Choaspcs and Malamanthus of the ancients). The highest part of this basin is known as Chitral Bald (upper and is politically united to Yasin in the Gilgit basin (see GILGIT). It consists of two or three conlluent valleys, some of them thick with villages, whose continuous cultivation, supported by copious springs, extends far up the hill-sides. Mastiij, the chief place, stands 7500 feet high, in 36 10 N. lat. Twenty miles fartlur down is the boundary of Lower Chitral or Kashgar. This forms a state of which the chief or king ^he is styled &quot;Badshah&quot;) resides at Chitral town (height 5200 feet, 35 53 N. lat.). The people are Moslem, apparently a converted section of the neighbouring Kafirs, and speaking a kindred dialect of Sanskritic affinity. Fruit is good, including fine grapes, and the wine was once famous. Chitral is the Bolor of Chinese geography, the misplacement of which so long perplexed and vitiated the geography of the Pamir highlands. The name Balaur medievally covered a larger tract, probably the whole of the then pagan country fiom Khawak Pass to the Indus. Below Chitral the valley narrows, and is shut in by Kafir villages in nominal subjection to the small state of Asmar (35 4 N. lat.). Afghan territory begins at Maraora, 20 miles farther down. On the north of this section most part of th drainage flows directly into the Little Pamir stream of the Oxus, or into the Panja, the union of the streams from Little and Great Pamir. We have accounts of no passes immediately west of Baroghil, though certainly they exist. From Avi, near the boundary of Upper and Lower Kashgar, a pass crosses (about 72 Vardoj branch of the Kokcha or river of Badakhshan. On the &quot;Nuksan&quot; (quasi Via Mala} in descending towards Chitral the traveller is girt with a leathern kilt, and slides down the snow. Ponies, with feet tied, are rolled down. &quot;By these processes,&quot; says the native authority, &quot; both men and beasts generally reach the bottom in safety.&quot; (2.) The next section is that of which we know least. It embraces on the south Kafiristan, never yet penetrated by European traveller. There Sanglich, and one streams southward. Chigar Serai (Chaghanserai of Sultan Baber), and the Alingar and Alishang, which unite in Laghman, formerly Lamghan (Lambagce of Ptolemy), and join the Cabul river at Charbagh above Jalalabad. West of Kafiristan are the Afghanized valleys of Tagao and Nijrao, hardly better known, and occupied largely by Pashais, a people seemingly akin to the Kafirs. On the north side the valleys form mir-ships or cantons among the congeries of small states owning allegiance to Badakhshan, and several of them having their peculiar dialect of old Persian affinity. One of these valleys is Kuran, down which flows the Jerm branch of the Kokcha, It is a wild glen near the borders of Kafiristan, coupled in a local rhyme with the jaws of hell, but which in the 8th century was of sufficient substance as a state to send a mission of homage to the Chinese court, such disproportionate pretensions being probably due to its containing the mines of lazuli, famous for ages, commemorated by Marco Polo, and visited by Lieutenant Wood in 1838. Adjoining this arc Mungan and Anjuman, high valley cantons of which we barely know the names. Their streams chiefly bear north-west, and join the river of Taljkan, which carries them to the river of Kunduz, and so into the Oxus about 68 18 E. long. (3. ) The last section extends from the borders of Kafiristan to the