Photo, Olufsen
THE VALLEY OF THE OXUS
If we take the upper stream and follow it from its source in the glaciers which lie below the Wakh-jir Pass, it will be found that in its immediate descent from this field, but without taking its name from the adjacent pass, the waters of the Amu Daria in their higher reaches are styled the Panja. This title extends along the Upper Oxus until, at Bozai Gumbaz, it is joined by the first contribution from the Nicholas glaciers. This affluent is described indifferently by the name Burgutai, Little Pamir Daria and Kuntai-su; a little before the meeting of the Burgutai with the Panja this stream divides east and west, the eastern arm passing into the channel of the Ak-su above Lake Chakmaktin so that the Burgutai stream feeds equally the Ak-su and Ab-i-Panja rivers. The Burgutai is narrow, shallow and inconstant; from its start to its junction with the Panja it possesses a course of only ten miles and is solely of interest as indicating one of the tributaries which go to swell the volume of the Oxus. Below Bozai Gumbaz the stream which rises in the Wakh-jir glaciers bears the five names Ab-i-Wakhan, Wakh-jir, Sarhad, Wakh-su and Ab-i-Panja, the several variations of the name Panja.
The fall of the Panja from its source to its junction with the Sarhad has been estimated at 1247 mètres in 75 kilomètres. It will be gathered, accordingly, that it is a very rapid stream until it reaches the Sarhad. At Bozai Gumbaz and for a short distance along the Wakhan valley, the river slackens until, turning northwards beyond Ishkashim, it recovers and tumbles swiftly forward. Before leaving the Wakhan valley it receives, on the right bank, the stream which flows through Lake Victoria and is known incorrectly as Ab-i-Panja and correctly as Pamir Daria. At one time, in consequence of Wood’s error, it was confounded with the head-waters of the Oxus. Neither in volume, length, nor through the possession of any requisite characteristic can the Pamir Daria be accounted the parent stream[7]. This river describes from its source in the glacial fields of Mount Nicholas a fall of 153 mètres over the first 20 kilomètres of its course. From Lake Victoria proper to Mazar-tepe, where the Khargosh river flows into it, the Pamir Daria falls 285 mètres in 40 kilomètres. From Mazar-tepe to Langar Kisht, where it unites with the waters of the Panja, Ab-i-Panja or Ab-i-Wakhan, there is a further fall of 831 mètres in 60 kilomètres. From Langar Kisht to Rang the fall is 327 mètres in 100 kilomètres, the pace of the river in this stretch of the Wakhan valley being comparatively sluggish. From Rang, which is a little east of Ishkashim, to Khorok in Shignan there is a perceptible increase in the current of the river, its mean fall being 702 mètres in 100 kilomètres.
The Panja in its passage through the Wakhan valley presents a number of interesting contrasts. In its higher reaches at first a tumbling mountain torrent, it becomes between Semut which is below Langar Kisht and Shirtar, a slow, lifeless stream, so nerveless and placid that it ceases to carry in its current the masses of suspended matter which hitherto have been swept along with it. At Langar Kisht, the junction of the Pamir Daria with the Panja, there is a deposit of broken rocks and smooth water-borne stones which have been brought down from the glaciers. The wide area, covered by these quantities of débris and detritus from the upper valleys, makes the banks and bed of the river resemble a deserted beach, where human life seldom enters and vegetation does not flourish. In places where deposits of sand have been left by the stream, the wind has whipped the loose surfaces into small dunes; in other directions large tracts of this drift sand have been covered by tamarisk; elsewhere there is no vegetation and the tamarisk has not appeared. In mid-summer, when the river diminishes and high winds blow through the gorge, the scattered patches of sand left by the stream are caught up by the gales and swept in clouds of fine dust across the fields beyond.
Photo, Olufsen
BESIDE THE OXUS