Photo, Olufsen
THE WAKHAN VALLEY
In the wider valleys, such as those at Langar Kisht and the Zung, the Panja divides into a number of arms. These small channels contain dangerous quicksands. The stream itself is black with mud, the river at this point being charged with a fertilising matter which, where deposited, is followed usually by a growth of luxuriant vegetation. The Pamir Daria similarly breaks up, but its channels are free from quicksand and the water carries little mud in suspension.[8] Between Langar Kisht and Ptuk there is a belt of vegetation. The banks are covered with grass; there are many willows, white poplars, and here and there impenetrable copses of camelthorn. Beyond Ptuk, the beneficent character of the river changes and in the valley between Semut and Shirtar the banks reflect a waste of sand dunes and patches of drift sand. The mud deposits of the main stream, too, appear to be exhausted at Ptuk, where there is a large intake of glacial water from a number of rapid streams which come down from the Hindu Kush. As if the moraines discharged their stones and gravel into these snow-fed torrents there exists at this point a stretch of river-bed, desolate and barren.
Photo, Olufsen
TYPE FROM WAKHAN
The mountains at Langar Kisht and Zung recede considerably on either side from the river and thus give room for a broad valley. But they come together immediately west of Kala Panja forming a narrow ravine through which the Panja can just pass. Beyond this gorge the valley expands to a breadth of several kilomètres and the river divides into arms dotted with little islands which are covered with thorny copses. After this lake-like extension the river, from the village of Shirtar down stream, consists of one channel which, here and there, widens out, making space for further inlets.
From Dersai to Nut the stream contracts to an average breadth of 25 mètres and dashes with such suppressed energy between the steep banks of its rocky bed that the boom of the tumbling waters echoes throughout the valley. From Dersai to Si Khanah the mountains run so close together, north and south, that in most places there is only room for the actual bed of the river, and it is only near the mouths of the small hill-side streams that a few hundred square yards of arable soil may be found. About 3 kilomètres west of Si Khanah there are a number of cataracts, and immediately south of Rang the sands, brought down by the stream, begin again to form into dunes. From Nut to Samchan, in the province of Ishkashim, the river valley becomes broader, the Panja dividing into several arms. The banks here are covered with thick copses, the haunt of the wild boar and the home of many birds; but in the province of Gharan, a few kilomètres to the north of Samchan, the valley of the Panja becomes a mere cleft in the mountains, the river retaining this form until it receives the waters of the Ghund at Charog. At Darband, on the boundary between Gharan and Ishkashim and before the meeting of the Ghund Daria with the Panja, the stream breaking down a number of cataracts tears through its narrow mountain passage and becomes a most imposing waterfall; indeed, from Darband almost to Charog the stream of the Panja rushing along its rocky bed is one vast foaming cataract which, dashing against the mountains, crushes everything that falls into its whirling eddies.