the Baroghil group over the main Hindu Kush watershed. The
Ashkuman is headed by the Gazar and Kora Bohrt passes, leading
to the valley of the Ab-i-Punja; and the Hunza by the Kilik and
Mintaka, the connecting links between the Taghdumbash Pamir
and the Gilgit basin. They are all about the same height—15,000 ft.
All are passable at certain times of the year to small parties, and all
are uncertain. In no case do they present insuperable difficulties
in themselves, glaciers and snow-fields and mountain staircases
being common to all; but the gorges and precipices which distinguish
the approaches to them from the south, the slippery sides of
shelving spurs whose feet are washed by raging torrents, the perpetual
weary monotony of ascent and descent over successive ridges
multiplying the gradient indefinitely—these form the real obstacles
blocking the way to these northern passes.
Gilgit Station.—The pretty little station of Gilgit (4890 ft. above sea) spreads itself in terraces above the right bank of the river nearly opposite the opening leading to Hunza, almost nestling under the cliffs of the Hindu Koh, which separates it on the south from the savage mountain wilderness of Darel and Kohistan. It includes a residency for the British political officer, with about half a dozen homes for the accommodation of officials, barracks suitable for a battalion of Kashmir troops, and a hospital. Evidences of Buddhist occupation are not wanting in Gilgit, though they are few and unimportant. Such as they are, they appear to prove that Gilgit was once a Buddhist centre, and that the old Buddhist route between Gilgit and the Peshawar plain passed through the gorges and clefts of the unexplored Darel valley to Thakot under the northern spurs of the Black Mountain.
Connexion with India.—The Gilgit river joins the Indus a few miles above the little post of Bunji, where an excellent suspension bridge spans the river. The valley is low and hot, and the scenery between Gilgit and Bunji is monotonous; but the road is now maintained in excellent condition. A little below Bunji the Astor river joins the Indus from the south-east, and this deep pine-clad valley indicates the continuation of the highroad from Gilgit to Kashmir via the Tragbal and Burzil passes. Another well-known route connecting Gilgit with the Abbottabad frontier of the Punjab lies across the Babusar pass (13,000 ft.), linking the lovely Hazara valley of Kaghan to Chilas; Chilas (4150 ft.) being on the Indus, some 50 m. below Bunji. This is a more direct connexion between Gilgit and the plains of the Punjab than that afforded by the Kashmir route via Gurais and Astor, which latter route involves two considerable passes—the Tragbal (11,400) and the Burzil (13,500); but the intervening strip of absolutely independent territory (independent alike of Kashmir and the Punjab), which includes the hills bordering the road from the Babusar pass to Chilas, renders it a risky route for travellers unprotected by a military escort. Like the Kashmir route, it is now defined by a good military road.
History.—The Dards are located by Ptolemy with surprising accuracy (Daradae) on the west of the Upper Indus, beyond the head-waters of the Swat river (Soastus), and north of the Gandarae, i.e. the Gandharis, who occupied Peshawar and the country north of it. The Dardas and Chinas also appear in many of the old Pauranic lists of peoples, the latter probably representing the Shin branch of the Dards. This region was traversed by two of the Chinese pilgrims of the early centuries of our era, who have left records of their journeys, viz. Fahien, coming from the north, c. 400, and Hsüan Tsang, ascending from Swat, c. 631. The latter says: “Perilous were the roads, and dark the gorges. Sometimes the pilgrim had to pass by loose cords, sometimes by light stretched iron chains. Here there were ledges hanging in mid-air; there flying bridges across abysses; elsewhere paths cut with the chisel, or footings to climb by.” Yet even in these inaccessible regions were found great convents, and miraculous images of Buddha. How old the name of Gilgit is we do not know, but it occurs in the writings of the great Mahommedan savant al-Biruni, in his notices of Indian geography. Speaking of Kashmir, he says: “Leaving the ravine by which you enter Kashmir and entering the plateau, then you have for a march of two more days on your left the mountains of Bolor and Shamilan, Turkish tribes who are called Bhattavaryan. Their king has the title Bhatta-Shah. Their towns are Gilgit, Aswira and Shiltash, and their language is the Turkish. Kashmir suffers much from their inroads” (Trs. Sachau, i. 207). There are difficult matters for discussion here. It is impossible to say what ground the writer had for calling the people Turks. But it is curious that the Shins say they are all of the same race as the Moguls of India, whatever they may mean by that. Gilgit, as far back as tradition goes, was ruled by rajas of a family called Trakane. When this family became extinct the valley was desolated by successive invasions of neighbouring rajas, and in the 20 or 30 years ending with 1842 there had been five dynastic revolutions. The most prominent character in the history was a certain Gaur Rahman or Gauhar Aman, chief of Yasin, a cruel savage and man-seller, of whom many evil deeds are told. Being remonstrated with for selling a mullah, he said, “Why not? The Koran, the word of God, is sold; why not sell the expounder thereof?” The Sikhs entered Gilgit about 1842, and kept a garrison there. When Kashmir was made over to Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu in 1846, by Lord Hardinge, the Gilgit claims were transferred with it. And when a commission was sent to lay down boundaries of the tracts made over, Mr Vans Agnew (afterwards murdered at Multan) and Lieut. Ralph Young of the Engineers visited Gilgit, the first Englishmen who did so. The Dogras (Gulab Singh’s race) had much ado to hold their ground, and in 1852 a catastrophe occurred, parallel on a smaller scale to that of the English troops at Kabul. Nearly 2000 men of theirs were exterminated by Gaur Rahman and a combination of the Dards; only one person, a soldier’s wife, escaped, and the Dogras were driven away for eight years. Gulab Singh would not again cross the Indus, but after his death (in 1857) Maharaja Ranbir Singh longed to recover lost prestige. In 1860 he sent a force into Gilgit. Gaur Rahman just then died, and there was little resistance. The Dogras after that took Yasin twice, but did not hold it. They also, in 1866, invaded Darel, one of the most secluded Dard states, to the south of the Gilgit basin, but withdrew again. In 1889, in order to guard against the advance of Russia, the British government, acting as the suzerain power of Kashmir, established the Gilgit agency; in 1901, on the formation of the North-West Frontier province, the rearrangement was made as stated above.
Authorities.—Biddulph, The Tribes of the Hindu Kush (Calcutta, 1880); W. Lawrence, The Kashmir Valley (London, 1895); Tanner, “Our Present Knowledge of the Himalaya,” Proc. R.G.S. vol. xiii., 1891; Durand, Making a Frontier (London, 1899); Report of Lockhart’s Mission (Calcutta, 1886); E. F. Knight, Where Three Empires Meet (London, 1892); F. Younghusband, “Journeys in the Pamirs and Adjacent Countries,” Proc. R.G.S. vol. xiv., 1892; Curzon, “Pamirs,” Jour. R.G.S. vol. viii., 1896; Leitnér, Dardistan (1877). (T. H. H.*)
GILL, JOHN (1697–1771), English Nonconformist divine,
was born at Kettering, Northamptonshire. His parents were
poor and he owed his education chiefly to his own perseverance.
In November 1716 he was baptized and began to preach at
Higham Ferrers and Kettering, until the beginning of 1719,
when he became pastor of the Baptist congregation at Horsleydown
in Southwark. There he continued till 1757, when he
removed to a chapel near London Bridge. From 1729 to 1756
he was Wednesday evening lecturer in Great Eastcheap. In 1748
he received the degree of D.D. from the university of Aberdeen.
He died at Camberwell on the 14th of October 1771. Gill was
a great Hebrew scholar, and in his theology a sturdy Calvinist.
His principal works are Exposition of the Song of Solomon (1728); The Prophecies of the Old Testament respecting the Messiah (1728); The Doctrine of the Trinity (1731); The Cause of God and Truth (4 vols., 1731); Exposition of the Bible, in 10 vols. (1746–1766), in preparing which he formed a large collection of Hebrew and Rabbinical books and MSS.; The Antiquity of the Hebrew Language—Letters, Vowel Points, and Accents (1767); A Body of Doctrinal Divinity (1767); A Body of Practical Divinity (1770); and Sermons and Tracts, with a memoir of his life (1773). An edition of his Exposition of the Bible appeared in 1816 with a memoir by John Rippon, which has also appeared separately.
GILL. (1) One of the branchiae which form the breathing apparatus of fishes and other animals that live in the water. The word is also applied to the branchiae of some kinds of worm and arachnids, and by transference to objects resembling the branchiae of fishes, such as the wattles of a fowl, or the radiating films on the under side of fungi. The word is of obscure origin. Danish has giaelle, and Swedish gäl with the same meaning. The root which appears in “yawn,” “chasm,” has been suggested. If this be correct, the word will be in origin the same as “gill,” often spelled “ghyll,” meaning a glen or ravine, common in northern English dialects and also in Kent and Surrey. The g in both these words is hard. (2) A liquid measure usually holding
