142 GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 



S"wafc valley near its junction with the Panjkora, and then proceeded 

 up the former valley, making excursions up the principal lateral 

 glens on the right bank, until he reached Kolani in the Kohistan, 

 in which the sources of the river are situated. He then surveyed 

 the route leading over the water-shed into the Panjkora valley at 

 Lamuti, in order to connect his fresh explorations with the previous 

 ones, after which he returned to Kolam and ascended the Swat river 

 until he approached the water-parting of the range running east and 

 west, and separating the waters of the Grilgit river from the 

 streams to the south. He then crossed the Palesar pass into 

 the Kandia valley, one of the tributaries of the Indus, and worked 

 down to the latter river, where he joined on to his previous route, 

 and turned southwards, along a route running parallel with the 

 Indus river, but several miles to the west, crossing the whole of the 

 lateral valleys on the right bank of that river and acquiring much 

 supplementary information to add to his original survey. Finally 

 he crossed over the range to the right and closed his work on to the 

 line of his survey up the Swat valley. The journey was encompassed 

 with many hardships, and, lying through a country to which Europeans 

 have never penetrated, it was one of considerable interest. The 

 northernmost point reached was the Palesar pass across the great 

 water-shed separating the Yasin and Gilgit countries from Bashkar, 

 Darel, and Tangir, near to a point where the range turns to the 

 southward. It rises abruptly in great scarps from the very banks 

 of the Indus at Bunji, in the east, with an average height of from 

 16,000 to 19,000 feet as it approaches the Kunar valley. This 

 range is a very important geographical feature, for it separates the 

 rainless tracts of Gilgit, Hunza, and Tasin to the north from the 

 well-watered countries of Bashkar, Swat, &c. to the south. To the 

 north the vegetation is limited to a narrow belt of pines, cypresses, 

 and birch, while to the south the forests are described as magnificent 

 with a profusion of deodar. In another particular this mountain 

 range has an importance, for it forms broadly a great boundary line 

 between the adherents of the Shiah and Sunni religions. 



The general route-survey work accomplished by the Mullah fits in 

 fairly well with the peaks previously fixed by triangulation, and the 

 detailed narrative is a genuine story, told with touching simplicity, 

 of perils and privations faced and patiently surmounted. 



In 1877 M S , a native gentleman of the Muhammadan 



faith, and of much repute among his co-religionists, was about to 

 make a journey from Kashmir across the Hindu Kush mountains 



