274 



NATURE 



[April 28, 192 1 



Marco Polo's "exceeding- great wild sheep, 

 having horns, some of them six spans long," the 

 "forms" of which, Alcock tells us, are to be 



Fig. 2. — Poa atlemiaia, Trin. (about half natural size). From 'Studies in the Vegetation 



of Pamir." 



found especially on the bare, unstable screes to 

 the north of a Pamir. The economic botanist 

 knows that Ovis poli is not the only creature 

 which finds this herbage wholesome. Marco Polo 



had been told that in this region "are excellent 

 pastures, so that in them a lean horse or an ox 

 may be fat in ten days." Five hundred years 

 later the same opinion was ex- 

 pressed in very nearly the same 

 words, for Lieut. J. Wood, who 

 journeyed to the sources of the 

 Oxus eighty years ago, was 

 assured by the Kirghiz that "the 

 grass of the Pamir is so rich that 

 a sorry horse is here brought into 

 good condition in less than 

 twenty days." The experience of 

 the Pamir Boundary Commission 

 of 1895 ^^^ iiot belie these older 

 estimates, for Alcock informs us 

 that, "of the many pack-animals 

 met with on our return march 

 from Gilgit to Kashmir, none ap- 

 proached our baggage-ponies in 

 condition." 



Pamir air may perhaps assist 

 the Pamir grass, for the climate 

 of these lofty uplands is as 

 healthy as it is severe. Paulsen 

 describes in poetic terms the 

 sense of well-being experienced 

 by the Danish explorers during 

 their halt near Lake Jashil-kul in 

 August, 1898. Their days, it is 

 fair to admit, were days of gentle 

 breeze or calm. If such halcyon 

 seasons be a feature of the valley 

 sheltered by the Shatyr-tash, that 

 Pamir is favoured beyond those 

 that lie between the Ak-baital pass 

 and the Alai range, or those 

 between the Chargush pass and 

 the Hindu-Kush. 



However this may be. Prof. 

 Paulsen, in these "Studies," has 

 provided an account of the High 

 Pamir and its vegetation so clear 

 and so fascinating that his readers 

 must feel prepared to face the 

 bitter winds experienced by 

 Alcock in the Aksu Pamir in 1895, 

 and by Fqdtschenko in the Kara- 

 kul Pamir in 1904, should fate 

 afford any of them an oppor- 

 tunity of visiting the region and subjecting the 

 eastern valleys to the careful study bestowed by 

 him and his companions on so many of the 

 western ones. 



Primitive Chronology. 

 By Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer. 



' I ""HE study of the ideas of uncivilised races with 

 -L regard to chronology has generally been left 

 to travellers who derived their information from 

 natives among whom they dwelt for only a short 

 time. The progress of civilisation among such 

 races has often made it difficult to obtain trust- 

 worthy information about the way in which the 

 NO. 2687, VOL. 107] 



division of time was formerly regulated among 

 them. When attempts have been made to collate 

 the information to be found in books of travel 

 and in works on ethnography, as has been done in 

 the ninth chapter of Ginzel's "Handbook of 

 Chronology " (vol. ii.), the result has been 

 a collection of scraps rather than a systematically 



