Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/39

Rh the head- water of the Kashgar river, which eventiiallj becomes the Tarim. The expedition did not get much beyond the Kok-su, on account of the snow, but returned via Osh to Tashkent, having acquired most valuable information on many points, and with a fine ornithological collection. Captain Schwartz revised the map he had previously prepared, but these new results are not of course shown on the official map to which we have already referred. Russia has thus stored up considerable information concerning the Pamir during the past twelve months, and the rapidity with which the missions succeed each other proves that the Tashkent authorities believe that explorations in the Pamir khanates, over which their influence is steadily increasing, may prove as advantageous in a pohtical and a military sense as much as they are for scientific or geographical benefits.

In close connection with these Pamir explorations are the efforts that are being made to collect historical information concerning the Aryan races of the Upper Oxus, the Hindoo Koosh, and the Western Himalaya. The Russian Greographical Society has commissioned M. Minaieff to compile a systematic digest of whatever information has been acquired of those primitive peoples either by Russian, English, or native travellers. This work when completed should be most interesting, as much remains to be done in this respect. The people of the valleys of the Hindoo Koosh, the Kafirs, the Wakhis, the Chitralis, etc. etc., and also those of the Pamir, are of great sentimental interest; and their practical political importance may some day become 2 *