1885.] Major W. E. Gowan— 0/? tie " Pdmir:' 111 



and 43° 18' east longitude approximately. Its bed is about a mile 

 wide, covered with pebbles, and scoured by numerous channels, which 

 change from year to year. The banks are steep everywhere but 

 high only in the lower part of the Alai. The current is rapid but 

 smooth on account of the gradual fall in the level of the valley. The 

 water of the Kizil-Su is turbid and red but is not unwholesome, and it 

 becomes clear when allowed to settle. The tributaries of the Kizil-Su on 

 its right bank are few and small. Those on its south bank are larger and 

 more numerous. The Kizil-Su leaves the Alai as a river of great volume* 

 Below Karategin after being joined by the Muk-Su it receives the name 

 of Surkhab, but of its course here we have no trustworthy information, 

 since this mountain country has not yet been visited by a single European 

 traveller. In its lower course the name Surkhab is changed to Wakhsh. 

 The river then flows between the steep and rocky ranges of the Mir-Tag 

 and Hojankur with furious rapidity. In one of the narrowest parts of this 

 gorge, where the rooks appro0,ch each other to within a distance of 20 

 paces, the famous Pul-i-Sangi (or Stone bridge) has been erected on the 

 projecting crags. In the same place and along the bank of the river, a 

 road of extraordinary difficulty leads from Faizabad to Baljuan and 

 Kuliab. In many parts it has been hewn in steps out of the rocky and 

 steep sides of the crags above. After passing through a gorge dividing 

 the Khodja-mast and Tabakti ranges, the river comes out into the Kurgan- 

 Tube valley (the ancient State of Kholet). Bere the Wakhsh divides 

 into several arms which form marshy and low-lying swamps. 



The southern source of the Amu-Daria bears, as we have said, the 

 name Pianja (the Oxus). The Pianja is made up of two rivers, viz., the 

 southern called the Pianja, and the northern called the Murghab, which 

 in its upper course bears the name of Ak-Tash or Ak-Su. The Ak-S'u 

 issues from the lake of the Lesser Pamir. The latest circumstantial 

 information has been communicated by Trotter in the working of the 

 Forsyth Expedition. The river Pianja is formed by the junction of the 

 two Pamir tributaries of the Murghab. The course of the Pianja is 

 south-westerly, and the extent of it, as far as Wakhan, is 63 miles. Its 

 valley varies in width from 1 mile to a few hundred yards only. Beyond 

 Barshar, an abandoned settlement of considerable size, there enters the 

 Pianja from the east the Bogaz. Sixteen miles below Barshar are the 

 famous ruby mines. The valley near Barshar contracts to about one mile 

 in width. The stream is narrow but swift, being not more than 200 feet 

 across and its course an almost continuous succession of rapids. From 

 Kuguz-Parin the course of the Pianja lies through the Shighnan country, 

 which extends for a distance of 60 miles, i. e., as far as the Darband Tower 

 on the frontier of Roshan. In its passage through Shighnan, the Pianja 



