384 SOURCE OF THE OXUS. 



CHAPTER use a native expression, upon the Bam-i-duniah or Roof 

 •^^^^'^' of the world, while before us lay stretched a noble but 

 L:Uve Sir i- frozen sheet of water, (Lake Sir-i-kol,) from whose west- 

 ern end issued the infant river of the Oxus. This fine 

 lake lies in the form of a crescent, about fourteen miles 

 long from east to west, by an average breadth of one mile. 

 On three sides it is bordered by swelling hills, about 500 

 feet high, while along its southern bank they rise into 

 mountains 3500 feet above the lake, or 19,000 above the 

 sea, and covered with perpetual snow, from which never- 

 failing source the lake is supplied." 

 Elevated Few more remarkable points of elevation could re- 



Oxu3*^ " ' "^ P^y the toil of the enterprising traveller than this ele- 

 vated source of the river Oxus. The Lake Sir-i-kol, 

 from whence it flows, is situated some 15,600 feet above 

 the level of the sea, and from the corresponding heights 

 which surround it, some of the principal rivers of Asia 

 take their rise. Lieutenant Wood has thus described one 

 of tbe most important works in this district, by means 

 of which some portion of its great mineral wealth is ren- 

 Eiiby mines, dered available. "The ruby mines are within twenty 

 miles of Ishkashm, in a district called Gharan, which 

 signifies caves or mines, and on the riglit bank of the 

 river Oxus. They face the stream, and their entrance 

 is said to be 1 200 feet above its level. The formation of 

 the mountain is either red sandstone or limestone, largely 

 impregnated with magnesia. The mines are easily 

 worked, the operation being more like digging a hole in 

 sand than quarrying rocks. Tbe galleries are described 

 as being numerous, and running directly in from the 

 Mode of river. Wherever a seam of whitish blotch is discovered, 

 ""'*'"" the miners set to work, and when a ruby is found, it is 



always encased in a round nodule of considerable size. The 

 mines have not been worked since Badakhshan fell into 

 the hands of the Kunduz chief, who, irritated, it is sup- 

 posed, at the small jirofit they yielded, marclied the inhabi- 

 tants of the district, then numbering about 500 families, 

 to Kunduz, and disposed of them in the slave market." 



