Meanwhile we plunged into a labyrinth of small mountains and hills, the route we were following not only being very distinct, but showing evidences of having carried a lively traffic; for cairns of stones crowned the more prominent headlands and the more conspicuous hills. In and out amongst the hills wind a great number of small watercourses, all of which eventually join the main drainage channel that flows down from the east, for our latitudinal valley was now sloping upwards in that direction. This channel too makes its way to the great transverse glen recently mentioned. From the orographical point of view however we were still travelling in identically the same great latitudinal valley. But now the range which we had hitherto had on our left came to an end, by breaking up into the above-mentioned labyrinth of hills. Then, after crossing over yet other eroded watercourses and yet other spurs of the mountains, as also a large side-glen coming from the north, we approached the large watercourse that was advancing to meet us from the east. Although it is very shallow, this channel does not form a particularly conspicuous feature of the landscape; yet its great breadth, taken in conjunction with other indications, reveal the fact that sometimes it does carry a very considerable flood; nor need this be wondered at, for after rain and the melting of the snow it must be joined by a great number of tributaries flowing down off the higher parts of the Anambaruin-ula, the snow-capped summits of which were visible to the north. From the point where we struck the main watercourse, our direction was east-north-east, we travelling all the time in the broad bed of the channel. This, which is seldom margined by distinct erosion terraces, runs very much closer to the southern range than to the northern. The bed is hard and gravelly, and made an excellent path for travelling on. Its left or southern bank is overhung by quite a small butte, the northern face of which has been encroached upon to such an extent by the floods which roll down the main channel that it forms a precipitous wall. Here we came upon traces of a Mongol camp, namely large stones arranged in a circle to keep the canvas of a yurt taut and firm, with a horseshoe-shaped fireplace of loose stones in the middle. Not a very inviting camping-ground, for the neighbourhood is absolutely barren, except for very occasional scrubby japschan. However there were also traces of camels, horses, sheep, and cows; evidently some body of Mongols had halted there in summer whilst on their way to more luxuriant pasture-grounds up in the mountains. For there exists a belt of grazing on the rounded flanks of the Anambaruin-ula, just as there does on those of the Tschimen-tagh and numerous other ranges in Central Asia.
Once past the little butte, we had the whole of the broad latitudinal valley spread out before us; the ascent was exceedingly gentle. Over a stretch of a couple of hundred meters in the bottom of the main watercourse, there burst up a great number of springs, which give rise to a gigantic sheet of ice, its surface studded all over with a vast number of small ice-»papilla», none exceeding I m. in height. Each of these little pyramids marked a spring, and each originated in the same way as the »ice volcanoes» on the Mus-kol in the Pamir or those beside the springs at Teinirlik. The water forces its way out from underneath and forms thicker and thicker layers. Besides, cracks arise in the ice, and through these also the water trickles out and spreads over the surface. The clay around, then frozen as hard as
He d i n, Tourney in Central Asia. III. 43
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