Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/237

Rh Skeenmŭng is a capital spot for a camp in this wild country. Luxuriant grass grew along the banks of a small stream, flowing from an old moraine, and which lower down flows in under the main Punmah glacier. The spur above the camp went up with a gradual slope to the rocky peaks above, the favourite resort of the Ibex, as its name denotes.

On the morning of the 9th, I proceeded with four men up the main glacier, which comes down from the mountains to the north, and which is known by the curiously-sounding name of Nobŭndi Sobŭndi. The way was dreadfully rough as far as a spur known as Drenmŭng, and lay sometimes along the moraine, sometimes along the mountain-side. We passed the now dry bed of a lake 400 yards by 200, which had been formed by the pent-up waters of a side glacier, and which had been full 50 feet deep from the horizontal line its upper level had cut along the ice-cliff. Lying along the old line of its shore were some miniature icebergs, which had fallen from the glacier, been drifted away, and stranded where we saw them. Some of the blocks measured 15×18×10 feet. They were melting away, but had seemingly been there for some days. This same day we came across several broods of the gigantic Chicor, just able to fly, the old birds still with them. I shot three, and Mahomed, who got into a great state of excitement, caught two young birds that ran and hid under some stones. They are excellent eating, and were a welcome addition to our fare.

The view from Drenmŭng was magnificent. Two stupendous peaks rose up from opposite sides of the glacier to 23-24,000 feet, covered with snow from base to summit. To the right the glacier ran up some 8 miles, backed by other enormous peaks; to the left the Nobŭndi Sobŭndi glacier, with a breadth of 1 mile, stretched away 14 miles in a direct line, to where numberless other ice-streams meet to form it. The sun setting behind the line of snowy peaks in that direction, lit all up with a beautiful pink tint; whilst the rocks of the moraines, red, yellow, and green, heightened in colour by the wet, sparkled in the sunlight.

We now struck directly across the moraines for about half a mile till we reached the clear ice, which was traversed by numerous large streams, but with scarcely a single fissure. The streams, after running for some distance, and becoming very considerable, usually end in wells, down which the water falls with a roar. These wells seem to be of great depth. It was nearly dark when we again arrived opposite Skeenmŭng, and now arose the difficulty as to where we should find a place at which to get oft the ice, the side of which was a cliff upwards of 100 feet in height. After several unsuccessful attempts, with the darkness increasing, and all of us running here and there hunting about for a feasible spot,