AFGFfAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 179 



valley, is drained by the Upper Murghab, and this wild tract, 

 inhabited by the most lawless tribe of the Chahar Aimak (i.e., 

 Firuzkhuis) was entered by Sub-Surveyor Hira Sing in the autumn 

 of 18S5. He crossed over from the Korokh valley to the historic 

 old fort of "Naratu by the Zarmast pass, and from Naratu made his 

 way to the headquarters of one of the leading Firuzkhui chiefs 

 at Kadis. He then commenced a systematic survey of all the passes 

 crossing the Band-i-Turkestan and connecting Afghan Turkestan 

 with the Hari-Rud valley. The Band-i-Turkestan is a separate 

 mountain system from the Paropamisus, the connecting link between 

 the two on the east being an insignificant water-shed. Its con- 

 figuration is that of a series of approximately horizontal plateaux, 

 occasionally divided laterally by sheltered valleys, with passes dotted 

 at intervals along the main water-shed at a height of from 8,000 to 

 9,000 feet above sea-level. As a rule the mountains are thickly 

 covered with forests of juniper on the higher slopes, and an 

 abundant growth of pistachio lower down. 



The Firuzkhui country is divided into the following districts ; — 

 Kadis, Chakcharan, Sungar, Grharjistan,Kuchar, Bandar, Chaharsada, 

 Mak, and Murghabi (the extreme head of the river). One of the 

 Chakcharan daras called Dara-i-Khargosh or " hare's defile " was 

 graphically described by Arthur Conolly, who passed through it in 

 October 1840.* 



* Conolly's full journal appears to have been lost, but extracts are printed in the 

 Calcutta Review, Vol. XV. For 13 miles Conolly and his party journeyed between 

 perpendicular mountains of limestone, the defile running in acute zig-zags, which for 

 the most part were not more than 50 or 60 yards long, and having only breadth 

 enough for the path and for the brook, which the party were continually obliged to 

 cross. The height of the mountains made the horsemen look like pigmies as they 

 filed along their bases in the bed. Conolly remarks: "Take it all in all it is, T 

 " suppose, for its length as difficult a pass as exists. I have seen nothing like it 

 " except, some upper portions of the valley of the Ganges, in the Himalaya mountains, 

 " and its impregnability, according to Asiatic notions of warfare, fully warrants the 

 (i saying with which Eiinaks are said to have answered the threats of kings : 

 " ' Oppress us and we'll flee to the Hare's defile !' " 



The Calcutta Reviewer prefixes to his article the title of a work by Mr. E. Sterling 

 Bengal Civil Service, who journeyed in 1828 from Teheran to India. There is no 

 copy of this book in the India Office Library, but I remember seeing a copy some years 

 ago in the British Museum. I think, however, the author's name was spelt Stirling. 

 Mr. Stirling travelled by the northern route, crossing the Tejend and Murghab, 

 following part of the same road that Vambery and GrodekoH' did afterwards. The 

 geographical interest of the journey was slight, but it was curious as the first of a 

 series of journeys destined to open up Afghanistan to western research, 



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