The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1924-02-13

= Prepared by tho National Geographic So
I ciety. Washington. D. c.
Continual reports from Moscow tina
the soviet government Is seeking t,
become leader of Asiatic peoples
! arouse interest In Fergana, the coun
try which was the Russian empire!
deepest southeastern wedge driven into
Asia, a country Of deserts and GASES
towering mountains and picturesque
valleys, where the territories of Rus
sian, Chinese and BritOn almost meet
Fergana, formerly Kokan, has
numerous bids to fame, but among
them two stand out. It's northern fer
tile valleys and GASES constituted the
heart Of RuSSiaS cotton producing
country; and it's borders south and
east marked the terminal moraine, so
to speak, Of the great Slav glacier
which had moved slowly down through
Asia, bringing its deposit of Russian
dominion and culture, until it hung
over both India and China.
The southern portion of Fergana is
sort of Russian Kashmir, with the
delightful vale left out-a country of
high but deep valleys and towering
peaks, bleak slopes and sparkling
lakes. 1t is, in fact, the reverse to
Kashmir's diverse in so far as the
more rugged portions of Kashmir are
concerned, for 1t lies just over the
mountain divide from that better
known land of towering peaks; so
close that Titan-or Big Bertha, If
one might be gotten there-might hurl
a missile from Russian to British terri
tory. Only narrow strip Of Afghan
land, reserved to Afghanistan because
of the long jealousy and diplomatic
struggle between Britain and the old
Russian empire, lies between. In
places it is as narrow as twenty miles.
The southern portion of Fergana
Is the Pamir, or, more properly, the
Pamirs. 1t has a Persian name also
that has intrigued the worlds interest,
Bom-i-Dunya, Roof of the World"
Toward the middle Of the Nineteenth
century, the Pamirs, to which scant
attention has been given before, be-
came the worlds mystery region. The
meager references to 1t in the writ |
ings of early Chinese Buddhist pill
grims were ferreted out, together with
those Of Marco Polo and other daunt-
less early travellers who had crossed
the forbidding region. Agents Of the
British Indian government were sent
on secret expeditions to survey the
area from Kashmir northward; and
after Russia absorbed the Khanate of
kOkan In 1875 and fell heir to its
claims to the northern Pamirs, Rus
sian explorers began to penetrate the
mystery region from the north. Thus
there was born the great rivalry be-
ween Russia and Britain in central
Asia which gave rise to mutual sus-
picions and almost led to acts of war
On several occasions.
Lofty Valleys Almost UnpeopIed.
1t was found, when the observations
If the various explorers were pieced
.ogether, that the Pamirs made up an
almost unpeopled country of such
high altitude and severe climate that
t could never be permanently In
labited. "Pamir" has been generally
accepted to mean "valley at the foot {
# mountains" and the Pamirs, cover
ng an area roughly $50 miles square, 1
ire series Of these characteristic
alleys, the II river-fed floors mountain +
Ugh when compared to the mountains
f most other lands, with snow t
overed and glacier-clad peaks rising
he bottoms of practically all the v
'anirs are at least 1900 feet high t
nd some are over 1900. t
Only few hundred Kirghiz nomads h
Tander over the region in summer, &
wing in their hemispherical felt tent
uts, and making for the lower coun- il
", whether, India, Afghanistan, p
lima or Russia, in the winter. For "
Inc months of the year mountains and a
alleys alike are wrapped In Arctic A
Ike cold, everything covered with
eavy blanket of snow and ice. Il
Once imperial Russia got possession 81
the Pamirs in 1893. she drew even IL
ghter about it the cloak of secrecy T
lat Nature had all along maintained.
ct it became known, though the re- Of
)rts strained the credulity of British b.
lplorers, that military roads were al
aversing what had appeared to be a
lpassable terrain. They reached out
ON the railroads of northern Fer in
ma through gorges and over lofty tn
asses into the Pamirs, and over them ly
was not impossible to drag artillery a.
the very threshold of British India. &C
ew persons other than trusted I'm to
'rialists were permitted to traverse th