PAMIRS, THE, ("roof of the world") the name given to that part of central Asia where the frontiers of Russia, China, and Afghanistan adjoin. It forms the nucleus of the central Asiatic highland system, uniting the Himalaya and the mountains of the Tian Shan range with the Hindukush, and is tra versed by a number of mountain ridges interspersed with broad valleys, the aver age altitude of the intervening table lands being 13,000 feet. It was tra versed by Marco Polo and in recent years has been visited and described by Lord Dunmore, Lord Curzon, Col. T. E. Gor don, Mons. Bonvolet, Maj. C. S. Cumber land, Captain Younghusband and Sven Hedin.
The term pamir implies a mountain valley of glacial formation. During the brief summer these valleys are strewn with patches of grass, which serve as pasturage for the herds of the nomadic Kirghiz, while for the rest of the year the whole of the pamirs are covered with snow. The pamirs contain much game.
The only population existing in the region are Kirghiz of the lowest type In 1895 the Russo-Afghan border line across the pamirs was settled by a con vention drawn up by an Anglo-Russian boundary commission. The Russian. Chinese frontier was not, however, af fected by this convention, the only under standing existing being that entered into between Russia and China in 1894, by which Russia undertook never to inter fere with that portion of the pamirs occupied by China. In 1899, however, the Russians manifested a desire to annex Sirikul, a province of the Kirghiz, and to break their treaty with China.
Their trade through the painirs is quite large and constantly growing.