Nov. 27, 1879] 



NATURE 



97 



The valley of the Upper Indus running from southeast to 

 north-west, at the northern base of the Northern Himalaya, and 

 between the Northern Himalaya and the Karakorum Mountains, 

 is carried forward in the same direction by the valley of the Gilgit 

 river up to Yassin, and thence over a relatively low water-parting 

 into the upper valley (if the Kunar river. Near the confluence 

 of the Indus with the Gilgit, the Indus makes a rectangular bend 

 on entering the gorge through which it intersects both ranges of 

 the Himalaya to enter the plain of Peshawur. But the range 

 of the Northern Himalaya which, it is allowed, dominates the 

 left bank of the Indus as far as the gorge, does not cease there, 

 but is continued across the Indus in the same direction as before, 

 and proceeding westward forms the southern barrier of the Gilgit, 

 Yassin, and Chitral valleys, until it meets the Hindu Kush on 

 the west of the Kunar river. The separation of the Hindu 

 Kush from the Himalaya will be discussed further on. The 

 valleys of Gilgit, Yassin and Chitral, in which the base of the 

 Northern Himalaya is found, are indeed a prolongation of the 

 great trough which forms its northern base throughout. At the 

 extremity of the Himalaya the Kunar river drives a passage 

 through a gorge which remains unexplored, although it is pro- 

 bably not less accessible than the gorge of the Indus with which 

 H e have only recently been made acquainted. 



Having now traced the Northern Himalaya up to the Hindu 

 Kusb, the continuation of the Southern Himalaya west of the 

 gorge of the Indus remains to be made out. It is defined by a 

 series of peaks fixed by the Trigonometrical Surveyors in a line 

 from that gorge up to the southern end of the Kunar gorge. 

 Beyond the Kunar, the line of peaks bulges southward and bends 

 again northward following the base formed by the Kunar, the 

 Kabul and the Panjshir valleys, till it meets the Hindu Kush. 

 Like the rest of the peaks of the Southern Himalaya, the peaks 

 west of the Indus form the culminating summits of the southern 

 slope which ascends in unbroken continuity along the whole 

 extent of the Indian lowland, from the eastern extremity of the 

 valley of Assam to the plain of Peshawur, and the line of the 

 Kabul river. Lieut. Wood, the explorer of the Oxus, who as 

 surveyor accompanied Sir Alexander Burnes' famous mission to 

 Kabul, remarks that " the Himalaya, as is well known, bounds 

 Hindustan on the north, and after crossing the river Indus, 

 extends westward to the valley of Panjshir." The Trigono- 

 metrical surveyors have since defined the exact position of the great 

 peaks which mark the culminating summit of the range along its 

 whole extent. At the present time, we have still to await 

 the exploration of the high ground between the northern and 

 southern ranges west of the Indus. There is little doubt that it will 

 be found to correspond with the rest of the interval between the 

 ranges throughout their extended course. 



•\We may now turn to the Hindu Kush. The ends of the axis of 

 the Hindu Kush are well defined as that axis is the water-parting 

 between the basins of the Indus and the Oxus. Its southern 

 base is to be sought in the same line of watercourses which 

 define the northern base of the Northern Himalaya with the 

 addition westward of the Ghorband valley. The known parts of 

 this line include the Ghorband and Panjshir valleys, and the 

 Upper Kunar in Chitral. It remains for future exploration 

 in Kafirislan to trace out a line of lateral valleys serving to 

 connect the Panjshir with the Upper Kunar, in order to corh- 

 plete the line of contact and division between the Hindu Kush 

 and the Northern Himalaya. 



The northern base of the Hindu Kush may be traced from 

 Bamian along the Surkhab to its junction with the Anderab 

 valley, from the head of which, I have little doubt, aline of 

 lateral valleys will be found connecting Anderab with Kuran, 

 Zebak, the Panja, and the Sarhad-wakhan or southernmost head 

 of the Oxus 



The division between the Hindu Kush and the Himalaya is, so 

 farasit goes, likewise the division between the Tibeto-Himalayan 

 system and that of the Pamir. To complete the division of the 

 latter systems we must find a line of watercourses from the Kunar 

 river up to the Tagh Dumbash Mountain, which marks the common 

 termination of the Karakorum and the Hindu Kush ; and from 

 the Tagh Dumbash Mountain the dividing line of the two 

 systems must be carried down to the plain of Yarkand by an 

 affluent of the Yarkand river. 



The Pamir group of mountains has the southern base of the 

 Hindu Kush for a part of its southern limit. Its western base 

 is in the plain of Gobi between the Yarkand and Kashgar rivers. 

 Its northern base is in the plain of Kokand or Ferghana, 

 watered by the Syr Daria or Jaxartes of the ancients. The 



western base strikes southward along the foot of the mountains ; 

 crosses the Zarafshan river and passes Bokhara ; after which the 

 group bends round to the eastward and finds its southern base 

 along the right bank of the Oxus, up to its outlet from the 

 mountains ; then it follows the mountains crossed by the Lata- 

 band Pass, to the Akserai or Surkhab river, which it ascends to 

 Bamian and Ghorband, where the continuation of the southern 

 base of the Pamir group is found in the southern base of the 

 Hindu Kush, as already mentioned. 



We have heretofore defined the indisputable limits of the great 

 quadrilateral Iranian group, and while the recollection of the limit 

 of the Pamir along the course of the Surkhab or Akserai to 

 Bamian and Ghorband, is fresh upon us, we will at once point 

 to the same line as defining the separation and the contact of 

 the Iranian and Pamir groups. From Ghorband by the line 

 of the Kabul river to the Indus, is also traced, the separation 

 and the contact of the Iranian with the Himalayan group. We 

 cannot see that a more distinct or better limitation can be 

 suggested for these important items of geographical nomen- 

 clature. 



The principal ranges in the Pamir group are now fairly made 

 out by British and Russian observers. The most easterly range 

 is that of the Western Kuenlun, which rises in the plain of the 

 Gobi above the cities of Yarkand and Kashgar, and culminates 

 in snowy peaks, of which Togarmah is 25,500 feet in height 

 above the sea, and Tash-baJik is 22,500 feet. Westward of the 

 Kuenlun range is the water-parting between the basins of Lake 

 Lob and of the Oxus, a range which is in continuation with the 

 Karakorum and Hindu Kush, and the meeting of the three is at 

 Tagh Dumbash. This range was long since pointed out by that 

 grand geographer Baron Humboldt, and was identified by him 

 with the Bolor of Oriental writers. An attempt has been made 

 by a mistaken Russian geologist and some of his followers, and 

 also by a critic distinguished for another reason, to do away with 

 this well established and distinctive .name ; but such a feature 

 parting two famous river basins and connecting other great 

 ranges cannot go unnamed ; and we contend that the name 

 rendered classical by the labours of Alexander Humboldt, ought 

 to be maintained. This Bolor range is separated from the 

 Kuenlun by a series of valleys with streams that descend to the 

 Gobi, including the Kizilyart Plain in the northern part, while 

 in the southern part the repetition of the name Tagharmah is 

 probably connected with the ancient Toghari, or Tochari. The 

 Bolor range also forms the eastern limit of the Pamir or Roof of 

 the World, a lofty plateau rich in summer pastures, drained by 

 the Oxus and its affluents, and bounded on the west by another 

 great range named Khoja Mohammed. 



If we compare this part of the Pamir system with the western 

 Himalaya, a certain similarity will be observed. Thus the Upper 

 Oxus between the Khoja Mohammed and Bolor ranges, flows 

 at an altitude similar to that of the Upper Indus, between the 

 Northern Himalaya and the Karakorum ranges, or about 10,000 

 feet. 1 West of the Khoja Mohammed range, is the range crossed 

 by the Lataband pass, the latter separating the lowland of 

 Kunduz from the elevated valley of Lower Badakshan, just as 

 the southern Himalaya separates the elevated valleyof Kashmir, 

 from the lowland of the Punjab. 



Lieut. Wood represented the Khoja Mohammed range as 

 extending from the great bend of the Oxus to the Kokcha or 

 river of Badakshan, and beyond that river in a south-westerly 

 direction, that is, nearly parallel with the Hindu Kush. We 

 shall consider its further extension presently. Similarly the 

 Lataband range must be regarded as extending all along the 

 Aralo Caspian plain from Kunduz to the Caspian Sea, and along 

 the south of that sea to the Armenian plateau. Like the southern 

 Himalaya it has its outer base in the great plain, but the inner 

 base, has so far only been made out at intervals, and is an object 

 that well deserves observation with reference to the existence of 

 natural facilities for lateral communication along the side of the 

 highland. 



In pursuing this interesting subject we have to point to two 

 well determined parallel lines already set out formingjrespectively 

 the great waterparting and the base in the plains. The water- 

 parting in question is formed in continuation of Karakorum 

 westward, (1) by Hindu Kush, between the Oxus and Indus 

 basins; (2) by Koh-i-Baba between the Oxus and Helmund 

 basins ; (3) by Siah Koh between the Murghab and Helmund 

 We will not pursue the culminating line further at present. A 

 succession or chain of lateral valleys follows we believe both 

 sides of this summit. On the north side we follow the Upper 



