Birds of the Pamir Range. 49 



On the eastern border of the central Pamir there is also 

 a lower terrace, which, however, is not a continuous steppe, 

 like the Alai, but is interrupted by mountain-ranges. On the 

 soiithern side the Pamir is also bordered by the somewhat 

 lower tableland of Chitral. On the west of the Pamir is 

 Kohistan, a terrible entanglement of almost impassable 

 mountains and gorges, which separates the valleys of 

 Shignan, Roshan, and Darwaz. Still further away there is 

 another terrace of the Pamir, consisting of the tableland of 

 Wakhan and North-east Badakshan. 



For the lower frontier of Bash- Alai we can take a line 

 which goes fi'om the northern end of the Kysil-art gorge, in 

 the Trans-Alai range, to the mouth of the Katyn-art river 

 (whence diverge to the north-east and north-west the roads 

 leading to the passes of Artchat and Taldyk), across the 

 Kysil-Su, the northernmost source of the Oxus. The Kysil- 

 Su crosses this line at a height of about 10,000 feet. 



Beneath this line the Alai steppe is mostly covered with 

 feather-grass, Stipa altaica ; but above it the predominating 

 grass is Festuca, with a slight mixture of feather-grass, which 

 rises up to the highest points of the Alai steppe, up to the 

 Taumurun pass, and is even seen in the Pamir proper. 



The Taumurun pass lies between the two branches of the 

 Kysil-Su river, the western of which flows towards the Oxus, 

 and the eastern towards the Kashgar-Daria ; it is a flat intu- 

 mescence of the Alai steppe, the topographic character and 

 fauna of which continue unchanged on the higher parts of 

 its eastern slope. In the steppe along the western branch 

 of the Kysil-Su there is no sharp limit between the upper and 

 lower Alai : the faunae mingle very gradually ; and even the 

 fauna of Bash-Alai does not change as far as the first 

 groves of trees on the Kysil-Su, a little higher than Darant- 

 Koorgan. 



In the mountains a change in the fauna begins nearer to 

 the frontier of Bash-Alai above indicated. Bushes of Artcha 

 (juniper) appear in the gorges at Artcha Bulak, some 

 fifteen versts (ten English miles) from Katyn-art, along with 



SER. v. VOL. I. V. 



