'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎90] (109/622)

90
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAYY.
the lapis lazuli rnines,^ returning to Jerm on the 26th of
December.
After an unsuccessful attempt to reach the ruby mines, Lieu
tenant Wood now applied himself, in spite of the remonstrances
and croakings of his native guide, a Tajik, to his journey to the
source of tiie Oxus. Proceeding up the valley of this river,
the mountains of Shakh Durah on their left, and those of
Chitral on their right, both rising to a vast height, their sum
mits crowned with perpetual snow, they reached the village of
Ishtrakh, in the midst of a heavy snow-storm. Having learned
here that the valley of the Oxus for some distance upwards was
uninhabited. Lieutenant Wood set off for Kundut, the capital
of Shah Turai's country, which was reached after a cold ride of
forty miles. Continuing their march, the party arrived at Kila
Panj, " Five Hillocks," where they crossed the Oxus, the cur
rent being three and a half miles per hour. The valley of the
Oxus may be said to terminate at Issar, 10,000 feet above the
sea, the main valley there dividing into two, one conducting to
Chitral, Gilgit, and Cashmere, the other across the table-land
of Pamir, to Yarkand. The question which of the two streams
led to the source of the Oxus was one of difficulty, and the
Kirghiz gave no satisfactory solution of the point. Wood, for
sufficient reasons, concluded the Pamir stream to be the larger.
He now had to encounter obstacles from the people who were
to guide and escort him, and was forced to throw himself upon
the honour of the Kirghiz, five of whom joined the party,
which set forward for the ravine of Sir-i-Kol. After suffering
much hardship from the intense cold, which caused some of the
escort to desert, at length, on the 19th of February, 1838,
Lieutenant Wood and his party stood upon the Bam-i-Duniah,
or "Roof of the World," as the Wakhanis name the Pamir
Plain. This honour Lieutenant Wood shares with Marco Polo,
the naval officer and the Venetian being the only two Euro
peans who have ever planted foot on that inhospitable spot.
Before him stretched a noble lake, then frozen, from the
western end of which issued the infant Oxus. He says, " The
lake is about fourteen miles long from east to west, by one
mile of average breadth ; on three sides it is bordered by swell
ing hills, which, on the south side, rise into mountains 3,500
feet above the lake, or 19,000 feet above the sea, and covered
with perpetual snow, whence the lake is supplied. The western
end is in lat. 37° 27' N., long. 70° 40' £.; its elevation,
measured by boiling water, is 15,600 feet. The temperature
# The deposit of lapis lazuli occurs in the valley of the Kokcha, where the
mountains are on both sides high and naked. The entrance to the mines is on
the face of the mountain, about 1,500 feet above the level of the stream. The
ruby mines, which Wood was unable to reach, are twenty miles from Ish-Kashm,
on the right bank of the Oxus, in a district called G-haran, which signifies
" caves " or " mines."