Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/145

125 RUSSIAN EOADS TO INDIA. 125 knows anything definite. If it is possible to marcli an army from Karategin to Kilai Khumb on the Panja, then there can be no doubt that it is also pos- sible to send an army along the banks of that river to Sarhadd. It is possible, however, to do more than this. By pursuing the same route as far as Ishkasm, in Badakshan, an army would be brought into the close neighbourhood of the Nuksan pass — about thirteen thousand feet high — through the Hindoo Koosh into the country of the Kashkars, which is on the flank of the Kunar valley route to India. Nor is the Nuksan pass the only one through the Hindoo Koosh in this quarter. There is known to be the Dora, and there is said to be a pass leading from Ishkasm itself. In no direction can Russia hope to reach the Indian border-lands by a shorter way than here, for by annexing the Pamir khanates up to the frontier of Badakshan and Wakhan she is within fifty miles of Nuk- san, and Nuksan is only one hundred and eighty miles from Jellalabad. In a modified degree this road is also available to her for a flank advance through Hissar. But if the Pamir route has to be abandoned as im- practicable on account of the nature of the road, and the alternative roads still farther to the west through Hissar have to be adopted, then it will not be upon the Panja and Ishkasm that Russian troops will advance. They would strike straight at Faizabad, the chief town of Badakshan. Their base would be pushed forward to the town of Hissar, and advancing by Kurgan-tepe they would occupy Kulab, only twenty miles north of the Oxus, crossing at Sair Tchesme. Paizabad is two