78 MY FIRST JOURNEY IN NORTH-EASTERN TIBET.
At length we reached a larger transverse glen, which promised to lead us up to a pass across the range, and accordingly we turned off south at right angles to the latitudinal valley. From the heights above this glen, before we descended into it, we enjoyed a wide and magnificent view of the latitudinal valley. A gentle murmur reached us from the great river, as it rolled its muddy waters westwards round the small islands of mud and gravel. To the N. 67° W. we observed, at a distance of about i o km., a sort of gateway between the ranges, through which the river continues its course, afterwards probably inclining more towards the north. The range we last crossed, which fences in this great latitudinal valley on the north, is probably pierced at some point by this river, unless the range itself comes entirely to an end and so leaves the river a free passage northwards to the Kum-köl-darja. Roborovskij's map at any rate seems to suggest that this is so. From our point of view however we failed to perceive any breach or gap in the range, which continued in a fairly level, unbroken crest as far west as we were able to see.
Some kilometers to the west there is a massive, mountain-complex of a yellow colour, with snow, whose northern slopes reach all the way down to the left bank of the main river. And south of this complex there is another latitudinal valley, which, with a fall towards the east, turns to the north and in the character of a transverse glen joins the latitudinal valley we had just left. Thus in its lower part it is parallel to the transverse glen we were following; it brings down with it a pretty large brook. In its lowest part our glen brushed past some small buttes; in fact the lowest of these forms the actual left bank of its brook. This was still in part impeded by large sheets of ice, round and under which the water made its way. Our transverse glen came down from the south-south-east and was especially straight; it too carried water. On the left, i. e. the west side, was a low, gentle, rounded ridge or crest, on the right a more distinct ridge, in part covered with snow. From the top of the crest on the left there descended a small brook from the south-west, but the country behind it, on the west and south-west, is shut in by snowy heights. We pitched Camp No. XXI at a bifurcation of the glen, and at an altitude of 4866 m. It rained and hailed heavily all the afternoon.
The rocks in the transverse glen consisted in part of black, soft schist, in part of hard crystalline schist, both dipping 49° towards the N. 5° E. Solid rock was more seldom within reach, but almost all the crests consisted of bare rock.
August 6th. In the morning the entire country was again buried under snow, but in the bottom of the glen the snow had in great part disappeared before noon. The ground in these regions is everywhere so saturated with moisture that it is vain to look for a patch of dry ground big enough to pitch a tent on.
The glen continued to ascend towards the south-south-east; above our camp the brook carried about i cub.m. of water and its channel was gravelly. Another glen that joined our glen at Camp No. XXI was traversed by a rather smaller brook. As we advanced, our brook grew smaller and smaller, for we passed several tiny tributaries on both sides. The glen is bordered by rounded crests. That on the right or eastern side of our glen forms the dividing line between the two glens, which meet at a sharp angle below. At first however it is so low that the snow-clad cliffs which rise on the right side of the eastern glen are visible above it.
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