DESERTS. 265 
KARATEGIN AND HISSAR. 
The highlands of northeastern Bokhara are portioned between Karategin 
and Hissar, two remote provinces still surviving as feudal tributaries of the ancient 
khanate. Ethnographically, this is a region of high valley oases similar to those 
of the Zerafshan, remarkably isolated, and preservative of a distinct type of man, 
the Galcha, still speaking a relatively pure Aryan dialect—rare survivals of a 
primitive sedentary stock, elsewhere diluted or exterminated by the nomads. 
Physiographically, it is an important portion of the Oxus drainage system, which, 
in Quaternary time alone, has enacted a series of both hydrographic and topo- 
graphic changes of astounding magnitude. 


a 
Fig. 442.—The Kizil Su where it leaves the Alai Valley. 
KARATEGIN AS SHAPED BY THE KIZIL SU. 
The Kizil Su now follows a course of three physiographic divisions: (1) The 
Alai valley, (2) the valley of Karategin (Katta Kara Muk to Obu-garm), (3) 
the Vaksh valley (Obu-garm to the Oxus). We have studied the Alai valley 
as a basin, and as a whole it is a basin from which but a small proportion of the 
materials of its Quaternary erosion can have escaped; but in the western half 
there begin alluvial terraces flanking the Kizil Su flood-plain and gaining height 
toward the outlet. At a point 12 miles east of Katta Kara Muk, the old floor 
narrows rather abruptly from a width of 8 miles to about 1 mile and the valley 
becomes of normal aspect. And at Katta Kara Muk, where the true outlet canyon 
begins, there are three terrace-levels, respectively 70, 100, 200, and 300 feet above 
stream and continuing up the tributaries. There can be no question as to their 
