Physiographic Observations Between the Syr Darya 
AND Lake Kara Kul, on the Pamir, in 1903. 
By Raphael W. Pumpelly. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE ROUTE. 
Fergana forms the southeastern extension of West Turkestan. Its southern 
half, the Pamir, is, so to speak, the corner stone between the Russian and English 
possessions and between China and Afghanistan. The district of Fergana is 
naturally divided into five parts. On the south is the high plateau of the Pamir, 
with its gra\- desert steppes and snow-clad mountain ranges, its dark lakes and 
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Fig. 81. — A Skeleton Map o( Fergana. 
its few long, crooked streams. Bordering this plateau on the nortli is the long, 
white, east-west range of the Trans-Alai, with the great snow fields and snake-like 
glaciers of its northern flank, abniptly ending in the broad green lawn of the Alai 
Valley. Separating this lawn from the lowland plains of tlie north is the complex 
mass of the Alai Mountains, with its irregular snow crest running east and west, 
but its northern flank broken into many flat-topped masses. Lastly are seen the 
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