Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/115

 X U S 103 Oxus, one to the north rising in and around the Alai plateau, the other to the south rising in the Pamir pla teaus, of which there are several. The two systems are divided by a great chain of mountains known locally as the Kizil-yart range, but called by Fedchenko (looking from the north) the Trans-Alai range, and by recent Russian surveyors the Peter the Great range; it lies from east to west on the southern border of the Alai plateau, and throws out spurs westwards to Darwaz ; its medium height above the sea-level is 18,000 or 19,000 feet, with occasional peaks rising to 25,000 feet. Of the Oxianian affluents to its north and west the principal are the Wakhsh or Surkh-ab ( = the Kizil-su = the Red River), rising in the Alai, and the Muksu and Khing-ab rivers, which join the Wakhsh in the district of Karategin. The system of southern affluents is, however, the most important of the two politically as well as geographically, comprising as it does the water-partings which define the boundaries between China, Afghanistan, and Bokhara, and all the rivers of what is generally known as the Pamir region. The name Pamir is suggested by Bournouf to have been derived from Upa-Meru, meaning the lands &quot; beyond the mountain of Meru&quot; ; a later and more probable sugges tion, by Major Trotter, is that it is the Khirgiz equivalent of Bdm-i-dunia. It means simply an elevated steppe or plateau. By the people of the country it is not applied, as European geographers apply it, to the entire region, which is one of mountains as well as table-lands, but to each of the plateaus with the addition of a distinctive designation. Thus there is the Pamir-Kalan (great), the Pamir-Khurd (little), the Pamir-Alichur, the Pamir-Khargoshi (of the hare), the Pamir-Sarez (of the water-parting), and the Pamir- Rangkul, on which the Rangkul lake is situated. There is also another, the Pamir-i-Shiva, which, though only recently brought prominently to the notice of European geographers, is of considerable magnitude, elevation, and importance; it lies in that part of Badakhshan which is enclosed to the north and east by the Panjah river, and to the south and west by a spur from the Hindu Kush range. This spur is an offshoot from the vicinity of the Tirich Mir peak (25,400 feet) north of Chitral ; it lies between Faizabad and Ishkdshim, sinks to 10,900 feet at the Zebak pass, and then again, ascending to higher altitudes, trends to the north-west, and strikes the western spurs of the Kizil-yart range in the Darwaz district ; it forms the water-parting between the Kokcha river of southern Badakhshan and the Panjah river. Though a spur from the main range, it is of itself an important range, and has some claim to be regarded as the western boundary of the Pamir table-lands, as it lies immediately over the Shiva Pamir ; if the claim be admitted, the breadth of the elevated barrier between the plains of eastern and western Turkestan will be found to be about 250 miles, whereas geographers have hitherto accorded to the Pamir plateau a breadth of only 100 miles. The Panjah river flows downwards through the region where the spurs of this western bounding range meet those of the Kizil-yart range, passing between narrow and precipitous gorges which form a natural gateway to the highlands, though one which in many parts is barely accessible, or has to be quitted altogether for the easier mountain passes on either hand. The most elevated portion of the highlands occurs on the north-east border, above the plains of Kashgar and Yarkand. Here a chain of mountains, interwoven with the Thidn Shdn and the Kizil-yart ranges, trends to the east and south-east, and throws up peaks of great height, culminating in Tagharma (25,500 feet) ; viewed from the plains to the east, it seems to form part of a great chain the Belut Tagh of Humboldt which connects the Thian Shan range with the Hindu Kush ; but it is broken through by rivers, and terminates over the plains of the Sarikol district. The line of water-parting which con stitutes the real connexion between the Thian Shan and the Hindu Kush lies more to the west, in hills which, emanating from the Kizil-yart range, pass between the Rangkul Pamir and the Kizil-yart plain, and then bending southwards strike an angle of the Hindu Kush range on the borders of the Sarikol and Kanjut districts ; they are probably nowhere of any great altitude above the general level of the table-lands; but they are of importance in that they may be regarded as the natural boundary between the states of eastern Turkestan now subject to China, and those of western Turkestan subject to Afghan istan and Bokhara. The best known river of the Pamir plateaus is the Panjah, 1 which receives all the other rivers of this region before it enters the plains ; above Kila Panjah it has two important affluents, one from the east rising in Kanjut, and probably about 120 miles long, the other from the north-east rising in the lake- of the Great Pamir (Wood s Lake Victoria), and about 80 miles long. From the point of junction to Kila-Bar- Panjah is 140 miles; here the united waters of the Sochan and Shakhdara rivers from the east are received ; 33 miles lower down, near Kila Wamar, the Bartang river, also from the east, is received. The upper source of the Bartang is the Ak-su (white water) river, which rises in the Oikiil or Gazkul lake of Little Pamir, and, winding round the highlands, passes through the Sarez Pamir, where its name changes to the Murghabi (water fowl), which lower down becomes Bartang (narrow passage). The Aksii-Bdrtang is probably the longest of the Pamir rivers ; its length exceeds 330 miles, while that of the Panjah from the source of its longest affluent down to the Bartang junction is probably under 300 miles ; thus it has been claimed as constituting, rather than the Panjah, the proper boundary line between Afghanistan and Bokhara. About 120 miles below Kila Wamar the Panjah debouches into the plains after receiving the Wanjab river of Darwaz on its right bank, and the Kof (Kufau) river coming from the Shiva Pamir on its left bank. Fifty miles farther on it receives on its right bank the Yakhsii river conveying the waters of a system of valleys lying between the Panjah and the Wakhsh rivers, the courses of which are here nearly parallel; 18 miles onwards it receives (left bank) the Kokcha river of southern Badakhshan, and at this point it loses its individuality and becomes the Amii river ; 80 miles to the west the Amu receives the Wakhsh or Siirkh-ab river, when the whole of the waters of the Oxianian highlands are brought together into one channel. Returning to the highlands, we briefly notice the princi pal lakes. Chief of all is the Great Karakul the Dragon Lake of Chinese writers ; it stands in the Khargoshi Pamir, has an area of about 120 square miles, and an altitude of 12,800 feet ; it was long regarded as the source of the Oxus, but has recently been found to have no out let. The Little Karakul and the Biilankul lakes, areas 15 and 8 square miles, on the Kizil-yart plateau, are probably over 13,000 feet. The Rangkul lake, area 15 square miles, is 12,800 feet. Wood s Victoria, the lake of the Great Pamir, height 13,900 feet, has an area of 25 1 The name Panjah is conjectured to be derived from a confluence of five rivers ; but more probably it is taken from the well-known fort of the same name, which is situated a little below the junction of the two upper affluents of the river. The fort derives its name either from the circumstance of its being built on five mounds, or from a sacred edifice in the vicinity erected over a stone bearing the supposed impress of the palm and fingers (panjah) of Hazrat AH, the son-in-law of Mohammed ; lower down the river, in Shiglman, there is a fort built over a similar mark, and called the Kila-Bar- Panjah (&quot;the fort over the panjah &quot;).