"The Wakhjir Pass, only some 12
miles to the south-west of Koek-toeroek, connects the Taghdumbash Pamir
and the Sarikol Valleys with the head-waters of the Oxus.
So I was glad
that the short halt, which was unavoidable for survey purposes, permitted
me to move a light camp close to the summit of the Wakhjir Pass (circ.
16,200 feet). On the following day, 2nd July, I visited the head of
Ab-i-Panja Valley, near the great glaciers which Lord Curzon first
demonstrated to be the true source of the River Oxus. It was a strange
sensation for me in this desolate mountain waste to know that I had reached
at last the eastern threshold of that distant region, including Bactria and
the Upper Oxus Valley, which as a field of exploration had attracted me
long before I set foot in India. Notwithstanding its great elevation, the
Wakhjir Pass and its approaches both from west and east are comparatively
easy. Comparing the topographical facts with Hiuen-Tsiang's account in the
Si yu-ki, I am led to conclude that the route followed by the great
Chinese Pilgrim, when travelling about A.D. 649 from Badakshan towards
Khotan, through 'the valley of Po-mi-lo (Pamir)' into Sarikol, actually
traversed this Pass."
Dr. Stein adds in his notes to me that "Marco Polo's description of the
forty days' journey to the E.N.E. of Vokhan as through tracts of
wilderness can well be appreciated by any one who has passed through the
Pamir Region, in the direction of the valleys W. and N. of Muztagh Ata.
After leaving Tashkurghan and Tagharma, where there is some precarious
cultivation, there is no local produce to be obtained until the oasis of
Tashmalik is reached in the open Kashgar plains.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 1063 of 1350
Words from 285043 to 285346
of 370046
