AFGHAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 193 



paper*) to the Aksu or Murghabi river, which, he crossed on the way 

 to the Alichur Pamir, after crossing the Neza Tash pass (about 

 14,000 feet). Proceeding down the Alichur valley Mr. Elias passed 

 south of the Sasik and other small kuls in the neighbourhood, and 

 crossed the Kohitezek pass (about 14,000) into one of the head 

 streams of the Gund river. The Grund valley was then followed 

 down to its junction with the Panjah, nearly opposite Bar Panjah 

 fort. So far the journey had proved that the Aksu did not discharge 

 down the Grund valley as some maps represented, but as Mr. Elias 

 had to investigate this Aksu question (he had found it impossible to 

 follow it down from where he crossed it near Rangkul) he went 

 on at once from Bar Panjah (4th November) to ascend it as far as 

 possible from Kila Warnar. The track was found impassable for 

 anything like a caravan, or even a loaded pony. It was chiefly 

 climbing over pathways built along the side of the cliffs, of bits of 

 wood, willow twigs, &c. Mr. Elias succeeded in reaching as far 

 as the confluence of the Kudara (which turned out to lie much 

 further north than supposed) and then returned to Wamar. From 

 thence he descended the Panjah to the frontier of Darwaz, and then 

 returned to Bar Panjah. After a short stay there he ascended the 

 Panjah to Ishkashim, making an excursion to the Shiva lake 

 en route. This lake was an interesting spot. It turned out to be a 

 high mountain tarn (not a flat-bottomed lake like the Pamir lakes) 

 with an underground outlet into the Darmarokht stream, which 

 carried its waters " cascading " clown into the Panjah. The height 

 of the lake was 10,300 feet, and that of the Panjah at the confluence 

 about 6,800, the bee-line distance between the two being a little 

 over six miles. 



At Ishkashim, early in December, he came upon Lieutenant Wood's 

 route, and the work of several native explorers, so he there concluded 



* Proceedings of the R. Geographical Society for 1887, p. 69. Sir Henry Eawlinson's 

 short but interesting paper identifies this central Pamir track (which had also been 

 mentioned by Major Trotter in the appendix to Sir D. Forsyth's Yarkand Mission 

 Report, p. 457, Route XXVII.) as the famous trade route of antiquity, by -which 

 the caravans of Rome passed from Bactria along the " Vallis Coinedarum " to the 

 equally famous Stone Tower on the border of Chinese territory. Sir Henry proves 

 that it is in all probability the route followed by Hwen Thsang, and that the 

 Dragon lake, the holiest spot in the Buddhist cosmogony, can be none other than 

 the Rang- Kul lake, where the mythical legend of a dragon with a large luminous 

 diamond set in its forehead is still believed in by the Kirghiz inhabitants. Sir Henry 

 also points out that Mr. iS'ey Elias discovered traces on the Little Kara Kul and 

 the Yeshil Kul of the passage of the Chinese troops who in 1759 pursued the fugitive 

 Khojas as far as the latter point in their flight to Badakhshan. 

 i Y 203-U. N 



