Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/235

Rh between the mountain on one side, and the loose stony slopes of detritus, shed off from the glacier, on the other. This glacier is on the advance, together with all its detritus. This was obvious at once, from the covered scrub and upturned turf immediately in front; and the vast power with which it moved was well displayed at one place, where a hill of stones and earth projected out a little. This was rent a long way down, and was fast giving way before the advancing moraine. The thickness of the ice must have increased by from 60 to 80 feet, as the old camping spot of Punmah is now quite covered.

On the hill-sides were a few small shrubs of birch and juniper; clumps of the red rose grew close to the glacier. During the summer months the Yak are driven up to be grazed here and in the ravines about; they do not thrive in the villages lower down, where at times the heat is considerable, and where they are much teased by the flies. The half-breed between the Yak and the common cow, called Bzo, is a fine animal, and principally used for ploughing; these remain below. The cows of the Yak are not kept for their milk, the whole of which goes to the calves. The number of the pure breed is small, and nearly all are brought over from Yarkund. They are to be met with in all the high villages of Baltistan, but I never saw more than five or six together.

After passing the junction of the first considerable glacier from the left, called Dumūltèr, and which has its sources 8 miles up, our course lay over the uneven surface of ice and moraine, and after crossing this tributary, was again on terra firma, as far as the encamping spot of Chongnoltèr. The track lies so close to the steep slope of the transported blocks of the side moraine, that in spots there is considerable danger from the falling rocks. These are detached without any warning, and come tumbling down the incline; and we often had to make a hard run in order to pass ugly-looking slopes, where no footing could be obtained on the mountain-side. This camping spot is small: there was hardly room for the four tents; and the coolies found sleeping-places under the rocks around.

On the 6th I struck diagonally across the glacier towards the left bank, through as extraordinary a scene as the imagination could picture; it was the desolation of desolation. The lofty peaks above were cased in cloud, through the breaks in which their strange forms looked more gaunt and magnified in size. There was not a speck of green to relieve the great precipitous crags of grey and ochre. The surface of the glacier around us was either a succession of ridges more or less stony, or—when the lines of medial moraines disappeared—like a sea of frozen waves. Small pools of emerald-green water, with cliffs of ice, filled many of the hollows, while in some parts flowed streams of running water,