GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 143 



and the Oxus river to Kolab in Badakshan, to visit the shrines of 

 his ancestors and transact some business of his own, when he 

 learned from one of his friends that he might obtain employment 

 in geographical exploration in connexion with the Indian Survey 

 Department if he would volunteer his services and go through a 

 course of training. His services were readily accepted, as he was 

 a man of considerable intelligence and good education, so having 

 been put through a course of training under the veteran explorer 

 Pundit ISTain Sing, he started for his destination via Kashmir, Gilgit, 

 and Tasin, where he arrived on the 14th December 1878. At the 

 latter place he was detained on one excuse and another till 

 September 1879, when he was permitted to depart and proceeded 

 up the Darkot valley and over the Baroghil pass to Sarhad and 

 Ishkashim. At this point it was his intention to have proceeded 

 down the valley of the Panj or Oxus to Shignan and Darwaz, but 

 owing to the feud between the rulers of these two States he was 

 unable to reach Kolab by that road, and had to proceed via 

 Faizabad. His route from thence coincided partly with that of 

 the Havildar in 1874, but embraced a far larger area of new 

 ground. He ascended the Doaba Dara, a tributary of the Yakhsu, 

 to its source, and followed the great bend of the Upper Oxus or 

 Ab-i-Panjah river to Varv, where the Havildar had been turned 

 back, and where he too was stopped on the same plea, that of 

 hostilities between the people of Darwaz and their neighbours in 

 Shignan and Roshan. He then retraced his steps to the Dara 

 Imam, and crossing the Panjah ascended the table-land of Shiva, 

 a large expanse of country lying within the bend of the river, and 

 till then wholly unknown. This took him right across the central 

 regions of Badakshan, and enabled him to complete his survey of 



the upper course of the stream. M S also ascended the 



Bartang or Murghabi river to its source in the Sarez Pamir, a 

 distance of 100 miles. On his return he was laid up for five 

 months with rheumatism at Kila Bar Panjah, after which he 

 proceeded to explore the Shakh Dara valley, with the intention of 

 crossing into Wakhan over the intermediate ranges, but the passes 

 were found to be blocked with sand and impracticable, conse- 

 quently he retraced his steps and returned by way of the Ab-i- 

 Panjah to Ishkashim. He diverged from the route he had followed 

 on his outward journey to visit the Ghazkol lake, which lies at 

 the point of convergence of the Muztagh and Hindu Kush ranges, 

 and which some suppose to have a double outlet into the Ishkaman 

 and Mastuj rivers, and having determined its position he closed 



