Roanoke Rapids herald., 1924-02-01

Piepared by the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington. d. CO
Continual reports from Moscow thar
the soviet government Is seeking to
become leader of Asatic peoples
arouse interest in Fergana, the coun-
try which was the Russian empires
deepest southeastern wedge driven into
Asia. country of deserts and cases,
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. Its northern fer
tile valleys and oases constituted the
heart of Russia's cotton producing
country; and its 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 1t 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 it lies just over the
mountain divide from that better
known land of towering peaks; so
close that a Titan-or Big Bertha. IL
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 1t Is as narrow as twenty miles.
The southern portion of Fergana
Is the Pamir, or, more properly, the
Pamirs. 1t has 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
tngs 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 1876 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-
tween 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 Unpeopled.
1t was found, when the observations
Of the various explorers wer. pieced
together, that the Pamirs made up an
almost unpeopled country of such
high altitude and severe climate that
1t could never be permanently in
habited. "Pamir" has been generally
accepted to mean valley at the foot
ing an area roughly $50 miles square.
are a series of these characteristic
valleys, their river-fed floors mountain
high when compared to the mountains
of most other lands, with snow
covered and glacier-clad peaks rising
The bottoms of practically all the
Pamirs are at least 1900 feet high
and some are over 1900.
Only few hundred Kirghiz nomads
wander over the region in summer,
living In their hemispherical felt tent
huts, and making for the lower coun-
try, whether. India, Afghanistan.
China or Russia. In the winter. For
nine months of the year mountains and
valleys alike are wrapped In Arctic
like cold, everything covered with
heavy blanket Of snow and ice.
Once imperial Russia got possession
of the Pamirs In 1898. she drew even
tighter about It the cloak Of secrecy
that Nature had all along maintained.
Yet 1t became known, though the re-
ports strained the credulity of British
explorers. that military roads were
traversing what had appeared to be
impossible terrain. They reached out
from the railroads Of northern Fer
CANA through gorges and over lofty
passes into the Pamirs.. and over them
It was not impossible to drag artillery
to the very threshold of British India.
Few persons other than trusted i'm
periallsts were permitted to traverse