The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XVI, No. 6 [‎377r] (106/232)

THE MONTHLY RECORD.
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their ways of life, and the numbers of the population in Shugnan, etc. The position
we occupied in the valley of the Kharokh offered many conveniences, and if at
some future time we should have to maintain a garrison in Shugnan, and to erect
a fortified position there, this place should undoubtedly be chosen.
About 3 miles lower down the Panj, on the left bank of this river, stands the
fortress Kala-i-Bar-Panja, the capital of Shugnan, which is also known as Ak-
kurgan on account of the white (ak) cliff on which the fortress walls stand. These
walls, as also the greater part of the interior of the fortress, can be easily seen from
the right side of the river, as they stand within rifle-shot of the mountains. This
latter fact nullifies the importance of Kala-i-Bar-Panja as a strategic position.
On the right (Russian) side of the Panj are about fourteen kishlags. The
whole country is rather densely populated, and the inhabitants are fairly well-to-do.
The climate is so mild that even vines grow here, and are cultivated by the Tajiks.
A nearer acquaintance with the Tajiks, and the study of their customs and manners,
■forces us to sympathize with this persecuted nation, which has gone through so
many trials. Indeed, it is a wonder how it is they have not disappeared from the
face of the earth. In far-off times this nation turned their eyes towards the north,
•to the Russians, and waited patiently for the occasion when they might become
subjects of the great white Tsar, and thus free themselves from the persecution of
the Afghans. This desire to be under Russian government, which was one of the
principal reasons why the Afghans persecuted them, did not weaken as time went
on, notwithstanding that their hopes were not soon realized. With the appearance
of the Russians on the borders of Shugnan in 1894, it seemed that the end of
•their miseries had come, but fate has once more mocked their hopes, for, as we
• could not gain permission to leave even a small garrison to winter in Shugnan, we
had to return. This we did via the Gfund valley on September 15, followed by a
great number of Tajiks and their families. The latter were forced to migrate in
•anticipation of revengeful reprisals from the Afghans, which would undoubtedly
follow their having extended such a friendly welcome to us.
The general character of the road in the Gund river valley is the same as in the
Shakh-Dara river valley, but the river is impassable, and the inhabitants have
therefore been obliged to erect bridges in several places. Our detachment soon
arrived at the summit of Koi-Tezek and re-entered the inhospitable Pamir, and on
September 24 reached again the Pamirsky Post from which it had started.
THE MONTHLY RECORD.
EUROPE.
The River System of North Wales. —An attempt has lately been made, in
an article contributed by Mr. Philip Lake to the Geological Magazine (May and
June, 1900), to elucidate the origin of the river system of North Wales, on the
lines so successfully followed by Mr. Marr in reference to the English Lake District.
The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. begins by a study of Bala lake (sounded by him in 1899) in its relation
to the neighbouring valleys, showing that the discharge of the lake into the Dee
is not what the general topography of the district would lead us to expect. The
lake lies, in fact, not in the valley of the upper Dee, but in the well-defined valley
which runs north-east from Barmouth to the town of Bala, and is shut off from the
vale of Edeyrnion (the Dee valley between Llandderfel and Corwen) by a ridge of
hills traversed by the gorge in which the Dee now flows. That the drainage of
.the district once flowed continuously from north-east to south-west, past the site
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