60 
NATURE 
[May 21, 1885 
or by low swellings which mostly reach only from 1100 to 
1500 feet above the level of the surrounding valleys, and 
very seldom 3000 feet. The slope of these swellings above 
the valleys is so gentle that water-sheds only 1100 to 1500 
feet high are often twenty to fifty miles distant from their 
foot. These high valleys strictly correspond to what the in- 
habitants call “ Pamir.” “ Pamir” signifies, in fact, “a 
flat roof,” and when the inhabitants want to describe it 
in more detail, they add: “broad valleys between low 
mountains, so high, however, that nothing but grass may 
grow on them; where there is nothing,” they say, “and 
the earth is like the palm of the hand, that is the 
Pamir.” So they describe what a geographer would 
call a High Plateau. This plateau has, on_ the 
whole, the shape of a great horse-shoe, in the middle of 
which are situated the mountains of the Murghab and 
Alichur. This does not imply, however, that there are 
absolutely no mountain-ridges on the plateau ; no ange- 
haufte Gebirge, as Karl Ritter would say. The Pamir 
chain of mountains which runs east-north-east between 
the Pamir and the Alichur rivers in the south belongs 
to this category. It rises above the Great Lake as a 
stone wall 3500 to 5000 feet high; but it has its foot 
in the 10,000-feet-high valleys which surround the lake, 
and belongs to the category of the angehaufte Gebirge. 
Several other lower chains, such as the Alay, Trans-Alay, 
Riang-kul, Murghab, Alichur, and Vakhan, run in the 
same direction over the surface of the great plateau, and 
have the same character. 
As to the Western Pamir, which might be described as 
the mountainous Pamir, it has quite another character. 
The whole of the plateau sinks towards the west, but, at 
the same time, numerous chains of mountains make their 
appearance. We have there, according to Ritter’s classi- 
fication, an Alpine country. The rivers, which flow lazily 
in the east, become rapid, their valleys narrow; crags, 
rocks, and hills confine them; the routes become diffi- 
cult, and the mountain-passes very rare. The rich prairies 
of the east disappear also, giving place to forests, and, 
lower down, to agriculture, which rises as high as 8000 
feet in the north and 10,000 feet in the south. Even the 
inhabited valleys are mere mountain-gorges. It is obvious 
that, under such conditions, the real western limits of the 
Pamir cannot be determined with exactitude; and we 
consider M. Ivanoff very near the truth when he says 
that the Western Pamir merges into the Alpine highlands 
of the Darwaz, Shugnan, and Badakshan. The limits 
are thus far more undefined in the west than in the north 
and east. The author considers, thus, that the Shugnan 
and Darwaz ought not to be included in the Pamir proper ; 
they might be considered rather as a highland which has 
risenat theintersection of the eastern with thenorth-western 
ones of the Hindu-kush (as border ridges?). The Pamir 
would thus appear as a mighty plateau about 170 miles 
long, 200 miles wide in the meridional direction, and 
covering nearly 34,000 square miles. 
As to the much-spoken-of meridional upheaval of the 
Bolor, M. Ivanoff points out that there are absolutely no 
traces of upheavals having a direction either from north 
to south, or even towards north-north-west or north- 
north-east. On the contrary, all his observations on the 
stratification of rocks—and they are numerous—show 
that the stratification follows the direction either of east- 
north-east (that of the whole Central Asian plateaux), or 
north-west, that is, that of the Hindu-kush. The same 
is true with regard to longitudinal valleys, which always 
follow a direction towards north-north-east. As to the 
Kashgar Mountains, still unexplored, they seem to repre- 
sent a repetition of shorter chains running towards north- 
west, and arranged in éche/on. 
If this opinion of M. Ivanoff is confirmed—and it 
most probably will be, as it pretty well corresponds 
with the broad lines of the structure of the Central 
Asian plateaux, as also with what is already known 
as to their structure—we shall have definitely to re- 
nounce seeking for meridional chains in this part of 
Asia. We have already been brought to renounce 
them in North-Eastern Asia, where I believe I have 
proved that neither the Great Khingan nor the Kuznetzki 
Alatau, nor even the Sikhota-alin, have this direction. 
On the contrary, we will perceive that the Pamir is only 
the highest terrace of a series of plateaux extending 
throughout the central parts of Asia in a north-eastern 
direction from the source of the Amu to Behring Strait. 
But let us return to M. Ivanoff’s papers, and to 
his observations on the flora and fauna of the Pamir. 
The high valley of the Alay already belongs to the Roof 
of the World. It is covered with rich prairies, the chief 
elements of which are Graminez. Nearer to water you 
find a thick growth of Carex physodes, which has given 
its name, Rzazg, to so many parts of the Pamir high- 
lands. Numerous species of Papilionaceze, many of them 
relations of the flowers of our European meadows, give a 
pleasant aspect to the steppes of the Alay in June. The 
same character—a mixture of the vegetation of the 
steppes with that of cold climates and highlands—is 
found also on the Eastern Pamir as you advance further 
south. But itis sufficient to descend into the valleys of the 
west to find immediately a far richer flora and, very 
soon, corn-fields. 
The animals inhabiting the Pamir are also a mixture of 
those of the steppes with those of Alpine regions. The 
tame yak (Bos indicus) is met with the well-known 
“arkhars.” Although their horns are scattered in great 
numbers on the Pamir, they are far from disappearing, 
and M. Ivanoff has seen numerous herds of from 100 
to 150, and considers that they ought to be counted by 
thousands in the neighbourhood of the Great Lake. In 
the mountains the “kiiks” (Capra, probably szézrzca) 
are numerous, but very difficult to approach ; the brown 
bear is common, and M. lvanoff’s men killed four 
of them. The wolf of the steppes unavoidably accom- 
panies the herds of arkhars. The yellow marmots 
(Arvicola caudatus) are very numerous ; the steppes 
of the Pamir are their true dwelling-places, and the 
expedition has met also with great numbers of small 
Siberian hare, which is common on the Issyk-kul. The 
Indian goose, the Syrrhaptes of the high steppes, the 
Megaloperdix tibetana in the rocky hills, and the Perdix 
chukar—this last met with only once at a height of 14,000 
feet—are especially worthy of notice. 
As to the climate of Pamir, it is, of course, very severe. 
The winter reigns in full for seven months. As to frosts, 
there is hardly one single month without them, and 
even on July and August nights the expedition experi- 
enced frosts of 6° below zero. There are places on the 
Pamir where snow rarely reaches a great depth, but, its 
distribution depending mostly upon the prevailing winds, 
there are places where it falls in thick layers. As to the 
rivers, even the Murghab freezes for some time. 
The true inhabitants of the Pamir are the Kirghizes, 
namely, the Kara Kirghizes, who belong to four different 
stems—Teit, Gadyrsha, Nayman, and Kiptchak. The 
chief settlements are situated in the valleys of the 
Northern and Southern Ghezia, about the Riang-kul, on 
the Ak-baital, the Ak-su, the Alichur, and in the basin 
of the Kokui-bela. They are found also on the Upper 
Tagarma. These Kirghizes are very much like those of 
the Alay, but a special feature of them—very rare, on the 
whole, with the Mongolian race—is that they continually 
suffer from tooth-ache; perhaps it depends upon the 
climate; at any rate, common disease—an inflamma- 
tion of the eyes—obviously depends upon the clouds 
of salt dust raised on the Pamir by the western winds. 
They spend the winter, at a height of 11,000 to 12,000 
feet, in the same tattered Azbitkas, that they in- 
habit in the summer, and know nothing of the warm 
dwellings erected for the winter by the Alay Kirghizes. 
© pe ete eh) Oe de Oe CE 
