In 1894, the explorer, geographer, geopolitical analyst-and future Viceroy of India, George Nathaniel Curzon, undertook a twelve hundred mile trek across the Pamirs. Over fifty-four days, averaging twenty-one miles a day, he rode across some of the most hostile terrain in Asia, breaking his journey only to stay over with the local chiefs and take the occasional pot shot at the famed Ovis Poli. Curzon's main objective in making this journey, was to see for himself that terrain from which the security of Britain's Indian empire could be breached, engage with the fiercely independent little kingdoms so strategically located at the gateway to the Indian Empire, and thus (hopefully) pre-empt Russian engagement with the same. His observations resulted in a monograph, meant to be one of a series on imperial defence. The work, which went unpublished owing to Curzon's assumption of the Viceroyalty of India, is crucial to an understanding of one of the most well known players of the Great Game, and to his frontier policy as Viceroy of India. It is here reproduced in its entirety, with attendant graphs and tables, and an introduction by Dhara Anjaria.