192 AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 



As tie road winds up amongst them and the flattened slopes of the 

 main -water-shed are gradually approached, their sterility and 

 barrenness recall that of the Tibetan passes. On the southern side 

 it is far different. Every valley leading down from the snow-bound 

 rivulets and lakelets of the broad water-shed into the valley of the 

 G-horband is a picture of fertile beauty, surpassing even the most 

 favoured spots of Alpine scenery. There were battlemented turrets 

 of ancient strongholds, perched insecurely on red clay and sandstone 

 cliffs, amid an endless succession of terraced hill sides, vineyards, and 

 yellow maize fields ; these again were backed by the deep purple 

 of the hills and broken into a cascade of colour by the marvellous 

 tints of autumn which spread over the surrounding trees. To the 

 British officers, Kabul and its well-remembered surroundings marked 

 the end of their geographical labours. 



In connexion with the work of the Afghan Boundary Commission 

 some important explorations of the Pamirs and Upper Oxus valley 

 were carried out by Mr. Ney Elias, CLE., of the Foreign Department 

 of the Government of India, already known for his adventurous 

 journey across Mongolia in 1872-73, for which he received the 

 gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. 



Mr. Elias started in September 1885 from Yarkand to cross over 

 by way of the Pamirs to Shignau. He left the plains at the 

 frontier village of Ighiz Yar, and took what is known as the 

 Karatask route, i.e., over a pass of that name (about 14,200 feet 

 in height) which leads over a range forming the water-parting 

 between the Guz river and the streams flowing to Yangi Hissar, &c. 

 The Guz was found to rise in snow fields to the south of the pass 

 and then to flow on between the great peak measured by Captain 

 Trotter, by theodolite angles from Kashgar, Yangi Hissar, &c, 

 and another great isolated peak to which Mr. Elias had to give the 

 name of Tagharma,* from the Pamir region at its base. The Kirghiz 

 nomads have no particular name for either ; but the Tagharma peak 

 is known over all those regions. It is probably the one seen by 

 Kostenko from near Great Karakul and called by him Mustagh Ata. 

 Close to the foot of the great Tagharma cone, and only three or four 

 miles north of the Guz, lies Little Karakul, through which flows a 

 stream into the Guz. From Little Karakul Mr. Elias proceeded 

 to Rangkul, and passed the " Lamp Rock " (see Sir H. Rawlinson's 



* Conf. Ezekiel, xxvii.. 14 (Lamentation for Tyrus), "They of the house of 

 Togannah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules." 



