February i i, 1892J 



NATURE 



ol. 



JOURNEYS IN THE PAMIRS AND ADJACENT 

 COUNTRIES. 



'T'HIS was the subject of the paper read at the meeting of 

 ■^ the Royal Geographical Society, on Monday, by Captain 

 F. E. Younghusband. The author described two journeys, one 

 in 1889 across the Karakorum and into the Pamir, the other in 

 1890 to Yarkand and Kashgar, and south to the Pamirs again. 



" The country," he said, " which I now wish to describe to you 

 is that mountainous region lying to the north of Kashmir, which 

 from the height, the vastness, and the grandeur of the moun- 

 tains, seems to form the culminating point of Western Asia. 

 When that great compression in nature took place this seems to 

 have been the point at which the great solid crust of the earth 

 was scrunched and crushed together to the greatest extent, and 

 what must have formerly been level peaceful plains such as 

 we see to the present day on either hand, in India and in 

 Turkistan, were pressed and upheaved into these mighty 

 mountains, the highest peaks of which are only a few hundred 

 feet lower than Mount Everest, the loftiest point on this earth. 

 It was amongst the peaks and passes, the glaciers and torrents 

 of this awe-inspiring region, and anon over the plain-like valleys 

 and by the still, quiet lakes of the Pamirs that my fate led me in 

 the journeys which I have now come before you to describe." 



Starting from Teh, in Ladak, C.iptain Younghusband's first 

 objective point was Shahidula. This place is situated on the 

 trade route to Yark and, and is 240 miles distant from Leh. 

 This he left on September -3, to explore the country up to the 

 Tagh-dum-bash Pamir. 



The route now led up the valley of a river, on which were 

 several patches of fine grazing, and till last year this had been 

 well inhabited, but was now deserted on account of Kanjuti 

 raids. The valley is known by the name of Kbal Chuskun. 

 Chuskun in Turki means resting-place, and Kbal is the name 

 of a holy man from Bokhara, who is said to have rested here 

 many years ago. The mountains bounding the north of this 

 valley are very bold and rugged, with fine upstanding peaks and 

 glaciers ; but the range to the south, which Hayward calls the 

 Aktagh Range, was somewhat tame in character, with round 

 mild summits and no glaciers. The Sokhbulak is an easy pass, 

 and from its summit to the east could be seen the snowy range 

 of the western Kuenlun Mountains, while to the west appeared 

 a rocky mass of mountains culminating in three fine snowy 

 peaks which Hayward mistook as belonging to the main Mustagh 

 Range, but which in fact in no way approach to the height and 

 magnificence of those mountains, and really belong to the 

 Aghil Range, which is separated from the Mustagh Mountains 

 by the valley of the Oprang River. 



On September II, the party crossed the remarkable depression 

 in the range which is known as the Aghil Pass. 



" From here is obtained one of the grandest views it is possible 

 to conceive ; to the south-west you look up the valley of the 

 Oprang River, which is bounded on either side by ranges of 

 magnificent snowy mountains, rising abruptly from either bank, 

 and far away in the distance could be seen the end of an im- 

 mense glacier flowing down from the main range of the Mustagh 

 Mountains. This scene was even more wild and bold than I 

 had remembered it on my former journey, the mountains rising 

 up tier upon tier in a succession of sharp needle-like peaks 

 bewildering the eye by their number, and then in the background 

 lie the great ice mountains — white, cold, and relentless, defying 

 the hardiest traveller to enter their frozen clutches. I deter- 

 mined, however, to venture amongst them to examine the 

 glaciers from which the Oprang River took its rise, and leaving 

 my escort at the foot of the Aghil Pass, set out on an exploration 

 in that direction. The first march was easy enough, leading over 

 the broad pebbly bed of the Oprang River. Up one of the j 

 gorges to the south we caught a magnificent view of the great 

 peak K 2, 28,278 feet high, and we halted for the night at a spot 

 from which a view of both K 2 and of the Gushirbrum peaks, four 

 of which are over 26,000 feet, was visible. On the following day 

 our difficulties really began. The first was the great glacier 

 which we had seen from the Aghil Pass; it protruded right 

 across the valley of the Oprang River, nearly touching the cliflTs 

 on the right bank ; but fortunately the river had kept a way for 

 itself by continually washing away the end of the glacier, which 

 terminated in a great wall of ice 150 to 200 feet high. This 

 glacier runs down from the Gushirbrum in the distance towering 

 up to a height of over 26,000 feet. The passage round the end 

 of the glacier was not unattended with danger, for the stream 



NO. I 163, VOL. 45] 



was swift and strong, and on my own pony I had to reconnoitre 

 very carefully for points where it was shallow enough to cross, 

 while there was also some fear of fragments from the great ice- 

 wall falling down on the top of us when we were passing along 

 close under it. After getting round this obstacle we entered a 

 gravel plain, some three-quarters of a mile broad, and were 

 then encountered by another glacier running across the valley of 

 the Oprang River. This appeared to me to be one of the principal 

 sources of the river, and I determined to ascend it. Another 

 glacier could be seen to the south, and yet a third coming in a 

 south-east direction, and rising apparently not very far from the 

 Karakorum Pass. We were, therefore, now in an ice-bound 

 region, with glaciers in front of us, glaciers behind us, and 

 glaciers all around us. Heavy snow-clouds too were unfortunately 

 collecting to increase our difficulties, and I felt that we should 

 have a hard task before us. On first looking at one of these 

 glaciers it would appear impossible to take ponies up them, but 

 the sides are always covered with moraine, and my experience 

 in the exploration of the Mustagh Pass in 1887 showed that by 

 carefully reconnoitring ahead, it was generally possible to take 

 the ponies for a considerable distance at least up such glaciers ; 

 and as the one we had now reached seemed no worse than 

 others, and there appeared a gap in the range which looked as 

 if it might be a pass, I took my ponies on, and after three days' 

 scrambling on the ice, reached the foot of the supposed pass, 

 and started at 3.30 on the following morning to find if it was at 

 all practicable." 



Captain Younghusband was, however, obliged to return after 

 reaching a height of 17,000 feet, and he decided to return to his 

 camp on the Oprang River. He thus describes the glaciers 

 from which this river takes its rise : — 



"The length of this glacier is 18 miles, and its average 

 breadth half a mile ; it is fed by three smaller glaciers on the 

 west and one on the east. At its upper parr, immediately under 

 the pass, it is a smooth undulating snow-field about a mile and 

 a half in width. Lower down this iievc'\% spilt up into crevasses, 

 which increase in size the further down we get. Then the sur- 

 face gradually breaks up into a mass of ice-domes, which lower 

 down become sharp needle- like pinnacles of pure white ice. 

 On each side lateral gravel moraines appear, and other glaciers 

 join, each with its centre of white ice-peaks and its lateral 

 moraines, and preserving each its own distinct course down ihe 

 valley, until some three miles from its termination in the Oprang 

 River, when the ice-peaks are all melted down and the glacier 

 presents the appearance of a billowy mass of moraine, and would 

 look like a vast collection of gravel heaps, were it not that you 

 see, here and there, a cave or a cliff of ice, showing that the 

 gravel forms really only a very thin coating on the surface, and 

 that beneath is all pure solid ice. This ice is of opaque white, 

 and not so green and transparent as other glaciers I have seen, 

 and the snow at the head of the glacier was different from any I 

 have seen befoi e ; for beneath the surface, or when it was 

 formed into lumps, it was of the most lovely pale transparent 

 blue. I must mention, too, that every flake of snow that fell in 

 the storm was a perfect hexagonal star, most beautiful and 

 delicate in form. The mountains on either side of the valley, 

 especially on the eastern side, are extremely rugged and preci- 

 pitous, forming little or no resting-place for the snow, which 

 drains off immediately into the glacier below. The western 

 range, the main Mustagh Range, was enveloped in clouds nearly 

 the whole time, and I only occasionally caught a glimpse of 

 some peak of stupendous height, one of them, the Gushirbrum, 

 over 26,000 feet, and others 24,000 feet. The snowfall on these 

 mountains must t)e very considerable, and it seems that this knot 

 of lofty mountains attracts the great mass of the snow-clouds, 

 and gets the share which ought to fall on the Karakorum, while 

 these latter, being lower, attract the clouds to a less degree, and 

 are in consequence almost bare of snow." 



After some further exploration of the glaciers, livers, and 

 passes in this wild region. Captain Younghusband returned to 

 India by way of Kashmir. In the summer of 1890, he once 

 more made his way northwards through Kashmir, with a com- 

 panion, Mr. Macartney. They reached Yarkand on August 31. 



" After a rest of two or three weeks at Yarkand," Captain 

 Younghusband went on to sa)', " Macartney and I left our com- 

 panions and started for a trip round the Pamirs. Approaching 

 this interesting region from the plains of Kashgaria, one sees 

 clearly how it has acquired the name of Bam-i-dunya, or Root 

 of the World. The Pamir Mountains rise apparently quite 

 suddenly out of the plain from a height of 4000 feet above sea- 



