Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/233

Rh the only trees to be seen. Some older and larger than the rest, surrounded by a wall, and called the “Bagh,” were assigned to me, under which to pitch my tents. Save M. A. Schlagintweit (afterwards killed in Yarkund), I was the only European that had ever been seen there, and my arrival was an event in this remote spot.

The weather cleared in the evening. The next morning broke without a cloud, and an early hour saw our large camp of 66 men getting under weigh. Leaving the village, we passed out between two small guard-towers, substantially built of stone and timber, and which served in former days as a defence against the people of Nagayr. About 2 miles on, where the path leads along the face of a cliff washed by the river below, there is another tower, with a steep and difficult approach. On the exposed side twenty men might hold a large force in check. They told me here that the Nagayr men once surprised and carried off the guard by ascending the mountain above and taking the tower in rear. For guides I had two good Shikaries, men who knew the country well, and who had been into Yarkund.

About noon we reached the foot of the immense glacier of Biafo, which terminates at an elevation of 10,145 feet. Its broad belt of ice and moraine, stretching right across the plain for more than a mile and a half, completely hides the river which flows beneath it, the terminal portion of the glacier abutting against the cliffs on the opposite side of the valley. Two rivers issue, one on the extreme right, the other on the left. I took that on the right, which comes rushing out of an enormous cavern, at a short distance from which we mounted the glacier, up steep masses of large débris and slopes of ice. On reaching the more level portion of the glacier, no trigonometrical points being visible, it was necessary to climb a high spur to the west. By 2·30 we had gained a point 2500 feet above the glacier, and whence we had a good view of it, but as it trended a little to the north-west, it was hid for the greater part of its length. From this station several known peaks showed their heads, which enabled me to carry on my work with good accuracy.

That night’s camp was on a sandy plain, which was covered with wild currant and dwarf juniper bushes, and only a little rill trickling from the glacier separated us from it. The night was frosty. The way near the junction of the Braldoh and Biaho rivers was difficult for about 2 miles, there being hardly room in some places for the feet. After rounding a point the river turns to the north, and, the track descending to it, there is fairish walking, over sand and boulders, but here and there small branches of the river have to be forded. Onwards from this the river narrows, and we frequently had to take to the water, as we came abreast of each lateral ravine, the streams down which were now in full force, having their sources in