Kurram Valley

“ Among the various tracts of border territory that have recently been opened up and brought under the influence of civilization by the frontier policy of the Indian Government, none is fairer or more promising than the Upper Kurram Valley, on the lower waters of which river Bannu, the headquarters of the Afghan Medical Mission, is situate. ”

“ Some parts of the valley have the reputation of being unhealthy, for the same reason as Bannu, but there are few more fertile spots along the Afghan Border than the Kurram.” The valley is about sixty miles long and in some parts not more than ten miles broad; it is bounded on the west by Afghanistan, on the east by the country of the Chamkannis, Zaimukhts and Orakzais, on the south by Waziristan, while on the north Kurram is separated from the country of the Shinwaris by the Safed Koh Range. “Dark pine forests cover the lower ranges, and naked cliffs and snowy peaks rise high above them. ”

“ The valley is narrow, and there is little room for cultivation. The trees are few and stunted, and the general appearance of the country is of low hills and broken nullahs, where the usual ‘palosa,’ bera, seneta and mazarai form a thin scrub jungle. Upper Kurram, on the other hand, is wider, and the mountains containing it are more imposing. There is a good deal of cultivation; the villages are larger and far more prosperous looking, and are built chiefly of mud. The more important ones have from eight to ten fortified towers, and are besides protected by high loop-holed walls. ”

“ The Kurram expedition of 1856 under Brigadier Chamberlain. The Turis on the first annexation of the Kohat district by the British had given much trouble. They had repeatedly leagued with other tribes to harry the Miranzai valley, harbouring fugitives, encouraging resistance, and frequently attacking Bangash and Khattak villages in the Kohat district. Accordingly in 1856 a British force of 4896 troops traversed their country, and the tribe entered into engagements for future good conduct. ”

“ It is beyond the Sulphur Country you must go to find the Valley of Silent Men, straight through that gap between the North and the South Nahanni. That is the way you must go if you should ever find it, Jeems, for otherwise you would have to come down from Dawson or up from Skagway, and the country is so great that you would never come upon it in a thousand years. The police will not find you there. You will always be safe. Perhaps I shall tell you more before the Brigade comes. But that is all tonight. ”

“ The second, or Thull-Kuram-Kabul, route, was taken by General Roberts in 1878-9. It extends from Thull, one of the frontier posts already mentioned, some forty miles into the Kuram valley, and then inclining towards the west leads to the Kuram fort (Mohammed Azim's) , a walled quadrangular fortress with flanking towers at an elevation of 6,000 feet. The Kuram valley is, up to this point, well cultivated and productive; wood, water, and forage abound. Winter only lasts with any severity for six weeks, and the Spring and Autumn are delightful. ”

“ Father Malcolm and father Donald have never found but one trail to this side of the mountains, and I have been over it three times—to Dawson. But the Watcher's back is on those things. Sometimes I imagine it was he who built those great ramparts through which few men come. He wants this valley alone. And so do I. Alone—with you, and with my people."
Kent drew her close in his arms. "When you are stronger," he whispered, "we will go over that hidden trail together, past the Watcher, toward Dawson. For it must be that over there—we will find—a missioner—" He paused.
"Please go on, Jeems." ”

“ The village of Kurrum consisted of a single fort and a large collection of mat huts, all grouped together, situated close to the shore. The maritime plain consisted of sandy-brown soil, very uninteresting, with scarcely any vegetation growing on it, and was here only about half a mile broad. The hills in the background were very insignificant, not half so high as any I had seen, and were dull and brown, like those one sees when travelling down the Red Sea. The people say that in their recesses and ravines acacias and other gum-trees grow as they do elsewhere. ”

“ A little after midnight the moon rose over the mountains and bathed the valley in a beautiful light.
As the moon cleared herself from the summits of the range and her rays fell upon the line of paling camp-fires of the Indians, my field-glass revealed the fact that the raiders had departed. Ponies and riders were gone. In the whole length and breadth of the Great Valley not a living being was in sight outside the limit of our encampment. ”

“ On the hills around a considerable number of sheep were seen grazing; but the natives did not care about selling these which, indeed, belonged for the most part, not to the Turis--the tribe which inhabit the valley--but to nomad Ghilzais who, like the Swiss shepherds, move about with their charges among the mountains, wherever fodder is to be obtained.
Khuram valley, itself, is bare and monotonous. With the exception of fruit trees planted round the villages, scarce a tree is to be found ”

“ Kurho was aware of the new weapon; it made his own people uneasy and restless; such a thing at loose in the valley could only spell threat to all peoples! But, if it was to be, then what the tribe of Gor-wah devised Kurho's tribe would also devise. They would devise more and better!
Otah listened, growled in anger. "Kurho says this? Kurho, who has boasted that he will take the whole valley?" Then he paused and considered sensibly. "Mai-ak, take answer. You will say that we go in peace. Say that never do we intend to cross the river. ”

“ They would have gone back at once, but they had no food and no horses. Foot by foot, in the weeks that followed, DeBar described the way to the hidden valley, until at last MacDonald knew that he could go to it as straight as an eagle to its nest. When they reached Tête Jaune he came to me. And I promised to go with him, Ladygray—back to the Valley of Gold. He calls it that; but I—I think of it as The Valley of Silent Men. It is not the gold, but the cavern with the soft white floor that is calling us."
In her saddle Joanne had straightened. ”

“ Just before we left, the commodore gave a grand picnic to all the officers at the Grande Curral, when I had the luck of accompanying the party that went from our ship, a piece of good fortune shared by Mick, my chum.
This Curral, a name which means, I’m told, in the Spanish language a ‘sheepfold,’ is an immense valley, completely surrounded by hills, that lies a few miles to the north-west of Funchal, the capital of the island.
The hills encircling the natural plateau of the Curral are literally perpendicular, being in no part less than a thousand feet high ”

“ Beyond it the scenery became very wild, and the rocks and mountains highly coloured and snow-patched, and after ascending along the side of a stream and up a causewayed sort of stair past the reservoir which supplies Kashan with water, we entered the rising valley of Kuhrūd, where the snow came nearly down to the road, and every slope was terraced and every level cultivated, and young wheat was springing and fruit orchards 233 flourished, with green sward under the branches, and great poplars in picturesque groups towered above the lower woods. ”

“ About half a mile from Buramula we obtain the first view of the Vale of Kashmir, but not an extensive one, as it is obstructed on either side by low hills. However, what is seen is very pretty. A large level plain traversed by a broad smooth river which has now lost its tortuous zig-zag course and bounded by the everlasting snows covering the main backbone of the Himalayas. At the head of the valley stands the quaint looking town of Baramula surrounded by hills on all sides but one, embowered in trees and intersected by the Jhelum, across which there is a good wooden bridge. ”

“ The spurs of the Zawa Ghar Range are steep and rugged for about six to seven miles; as they run southward they fall away, and form a succession of small plateaux, intersected by ravines, 4000 to 5000 feet in elevation. Across these runs the route from Torawari, in Upper Miranzai, to Balish Khel, near the junction of the Kharmana River with the Kurram—a route formerly used by kafilas. The drainage divides into three parts—one running westward into the Kharmana and Kurram, near Balish Khel and Sadda; a second, collecting below Chinarak, forms the Sangroba, which falls into the Kurram near Thal ”

“ As you drive to the farther end of the Valley, you become aware that you are approaching nearer and nearer to mountain walls, and ere long you are literally against a barrier, all the way from a thousand to three or four thousand feet in height. Anyone who would leave the Yosemite by other than the entrance on the Valley level at its one end must climb. Camp Curry has the great advantage of being located in the closed end of the valley and thus very near to many of the mountain trails. ”

“ Though all the ordinary passes are in continual use by natives, it is still possible to make one’s way backwards and forwards across the range by quite unknown ways. Such a trip I took in 1896, with Karbir as guide. We climbed two little points above the Bichala Valley of Manoor, and had intended to stay there and do more. But the wandering spirit seized me, and away we went over the range to the top of the Droua Valley to a grass alp known as Tōd Gali, my idea being to find my way over to the lakelet of Saifal Maluk in a side valley draining into Kaghan river. ”

“ It thus passes over comparatively level land in the valley between that range and the Kuh Djupahr, the track turning here sharply to the north-east, in which direction, when we get to the highest point of the track (5,980 feet) one and a half farsakhs from Baghih, we can almost discern Kerman in the distance. Except to the north-west we have high mountains all round, the highest being the Djupahr to the south-east, and of which we now get a most lovely view, and also of the whole Kerman plain with its innumerable semi-spherical sand-hills. ”

“ Gradually as we advanced into the valley, through which the brook Kedron, when there is any water in it, flows into the Dead Sea, the scenery became more and more savage, the rocks more precipitous, and the valley narrowed into a deep gorge, the path being sometimes among the broken stones in the bed of the stream, and sometimes rising high above it on narrow ledges of rock. ”

“ The valley of Currency Creek is not, however, the same as those I have already described in other parts of the colony; it is prettily wooded and grassy, but continues narrow for some distance after you have entered it; a small running stream, with a rocky bed, occupying the centre of the valley, which ultimately escapes from the hills by a kind of gorge, and discharges itself into an arm of the Goolwa. The extent of good land in Currency Creek is not very great, and is bounded both to the north and south by barren scrub. ”

“ This Kirrind valley must be fully twenty miles long by from two to five broad, but there was only one village inhabited and two in ruins. As we floundered along in the snow with our jaded animals, two well-armed men on fine horses met and joined us, sent by the Agha Abdul Rahim, son of the British agent at Kirmanshah, whose guests we are to be. Following them was a taktrawan or litter for me, a wooden box with two side doors, four feet high, six feet long, and three feet wide. At each end are long shafts, and between each pair of shafts a superb mule, and each mule has a man to lead him. ”

“ I soon found that I was not either to be silent or to have the conversation all to myself, for the young people laughed and chatted away, and I found myself comparing descriptions of the Curragh as it was in the seventies, when we used to lie in bed in the huts and watch the marking at the butts through the cracks in the walls, with the Curragh of to-day when the last of the Crimean wooden huts are about to disappear. ”

“ Even more wonderful was this valley than the one into which Bruce and Langdon had ridden a few hours before. From range to range it was a good two miles in width, and in the opposite directions it stretched away in a great rolling panorama of gold and green and black. From where Thor stood it was like an immense park. Green slopes reached almost to the summits of the mountains, and to a point halfway up these slopes—the last timber-line—clumps of spruce and balsam trees were scattered over the green as if set there by the hands of men. ”

“ Khurbet Suleikhat is some 300 feet above the plain, and among the foot-hills, in such a way that it overlooks the valley, while the road running north and south along the valley passes nearly a mile to the west of it. A watchman from a tower could see to the north a considerable distance, also clear across the valley to the west, and down the valley to the south a long stretch, nearly or quite to the point where the Jabbok and the Jordan unite, at the foot of Kurn Surtabeh. ”

“ On the slopes of the valley, which are from two hundred to six hundred feet long and rather steep, the timber still continues, poplar and some spruce, but once the bench land is reached there are some large openings, and hay meadows to be found. When the railway reaches McMurray, there is no doubt that a large agricultural settlement will take possession of this beautiful valley.”
Mr. Crean writes in his report:—“The valley of Clearwater river would, in my opinion, be a magnificent cattle range, and should be a farming country. There are large open prairies, and the grass is splendid. ”