Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/238

34 one of the coolies at last found a way down a crevasse nearly filled with rocks, into which we went, and out of which we got on to a ridge, and thence to the ground below. Earlier in the day we should not have managed this, but now, fortunately, the stones had all become frozen to the surface, and afforded firm support to the feet. It was only with the last glimmer of twilight that we got off the ice. A little longer, and a night on the glacier, and without covering, would have been our portion; with the cold wind we should have been frostbitten to a certainty, and perhaps laid up for some time.

From the camping-ground of Skeenmŭng there is a stiffish ascent to a fine peak above, which we mounted on the 10th. From below it seemed quite near, and I imagined that we should accomplish it quickly, and return again, but I was terribly deceived. The first part of the way was good walking, but as soon as we got on the talus of angular rocks it became very laborious, several of the men became ill with bad headaches and lay down, and we did not reach the highest accessible point till 3 This I found was 18,342 feet. It was a lovely day, every mountain around stood clearly out in view, with all its features distinctly seen; but I was disappointed that neither peaks K 1 nor K 2 were visible. The view up the Nobŭndi Sobŭndi glacier, to the great plateau of ice whence it takes its rise, was grand in the extreme, as also downwards along its whole surface to Chongulter. From this station the two reaches of this broad ice-river are seen at once to the south-east: the pass over the Mustakh was in view at the end of another lateral glacier of vast proportions. The great peaks of Trans-Indus, 4 and 11, were visible beyond a level plain of snow, at an elevation of 22,000 feet. It is a vast sheet of ice, with only a few sharp points of rock sticking out here and there. Snowy ridges stretched away towards Yarkund. We returned to camp in the evening.

On the 11th, the weather being still clear, we started early for the direction of the Mustakh or Pass over the Karakorām Mountains into Yarkund. “Mus” is snow, and “takh” pass, in the Yarkundi language. Our path lay along the ridge of an ancient moraine, now grown over with grass, and showing the great thickness which the glacier at some former time must have had. We quitted this at the camping-ground of Tsokar, where are some small tarns of crystal water, which give the name to the spot. Thence we proceeded over the ice, which here becomes nearly free from moraine ridges, though the surface was difficult from being broken into hollows.

The last camping-place on the Mustakh glacier is at a spot called Chiring, which we reached about 3 ; the moraine here dwindles to a few scattered blocks on the surface of the ice. It