270 PHYSIOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL-ASIAN DESERTS AND OASES. 
GREAT FEATURES OF THE HISSAR VALLEY. 
Hissar becomes of interest because of the extraordinary hydrography of its 
great valley. Opposite ancient Bactra a 15-mile wide strip of steppe sweeps up 
from the Oxus embayment into this valley, continuing northward up the Surkhan 
River as far as Karatagh, then bending due east into the wide open valley of Hissar. 
This portion of the valley-floor averages 2,500 feet in elevation, and is distinguished 
for its utter lack of a trunk-stream. It is, on the other hand, crossed by three 
tributaries, the Kanaka, Dushambeh, and Kafirnigan, converging to near the 
city of Hissar, where they break through the southern side and flow to the Oxus. 
The valley has a mixed population, divided 
between Usbeg camps and Tadjik villages. 
Throughout the old khanate it is famed for 
its wealth of pasture and the grace of its 
horses. The streams descending from the 
mountains north are diverted to irrigate a 
wide continuity of rice and grain-fields, while 
the silk woven in Karatagh and Hissar is 
prized throughout the cities of Central Asia. 
Ten days were spent in attempting to 
decipher the remarkable physiography of the 
Hissar valley. The more open part of the 
valley east from Karatagh is about 40 miles 
long and floored by a grass plain with an 
average width of 5 miles, but of irregular 
definition. On the northern side this plain is 
often bounded by a loess cliff, surmounted by 
a narrow belt of steppe rising north. From 
this it inclines transversely or southwards on 
a grade of about 20 feet to the mile, and 
sweeps up again to meet the mature topog- 
raphy of the southern side. The loess cliff 
varies up to 100 feet in height, and running 
along the northern side of the main valley 
truncates tributary spurs and tributary valleys 
in one plain; but is interrupted by the broad 
flood-plains of larger tributary valleys dissecting it; in general, it runs east and 
west, sometimes perfectly straight for several miles; sometimes gives way to a 
dissected deformation of the plain, and has the appearance of a recent fault-scarp. 
From near Dushambeh it runs straight east for 8 miles, dissected by local streams 
at rare intervals. 
The Hissar valley is all loess, except where crossed by the gravel flood-plains 
of the three larger streams. These streams cross in wide channels, beginning with 
a depth of about roo feet, decreasing till near the southern side, where flood-plains 

Fig. 447.—A Swimmer of Rapids, with an Inflated 
Goat-skin (Karategin). 
