rather glen, leaving a large ice-sheet on the right hand. A little bit farther down the whole of the glen floor, being level, was covered with similar sheets of ice; but the ice being rotten and rough on the surface, the camels were able to march without slipping, indeed they walked almost as securely as they do on sand. At first these ice-sheets were rather thin. Through the cracks and holes we saw the stream flowing on underneath, and I was amazed that such a thin crust was able to bear the weight of our camels. But lower down the ice was thicker, and we gradually found ourselves getting amid scenery that was as enchanting as it was interesting and uncommon. The ice-sheet upon which we were marching on the right side of the glen grew narrower and narrower, and finally stopped short, terminating in a blunted promontory. All the same the thickness did not decrease; but on the contrary the ice showed a steep front, as though it had suddenly broken off. The edges of the ice were at the best perpendicular, though generally they overhung and formed hollow arches, this being the result partly of the radiation of heat from the ground, partly of the erosive action of the water. At this point the ice was 1.97 m. thick. On the left side of the glen, there was another belt of ice of precisely the same thickness, and for as far as we could see down the glen it was unbroken, thus forming a peculiar and striking contrast to the dark ground and dark mountain-slopes. Between the two sheets of ice flowed the unfrozen river. As this glen now began to contract, it struck me that it was only a deep transverse glen through the range of foot-hills, and as I suspected it might prove troublesome and even a trying cul-de-sac, I resolved to send on a mounted scout to reconnoitre the road ahead. The next business was to get the camels and the rest of the caravan down from the top of the ice, for the prospect of retracing our steps all the way back on it was not attractive. Accordingly the men set to work with their axes and spades and chopped out a sloping path down to the bottom of the glen, and in order to prevent the animals from slipping they cut notches transversely across it and strewed it with sand. Meanwhile two of the men built up a high stone pyramid on the right-hand side of the glen, a fact which I again mention for the benefit of any European traveller who in the future may chance to stray to that remote spot. This 'sign-post», unless in the meantime it gets destroyed by an avalanche of stones or by any other forcible change, will serve to warn him not to proceed any farther down that glen.
Meanwhile we got the caravan safely down to the bottom, which consisted in part of hard, tightly packed gravel, in part of treacherous mud and sand. The stream flung itself backwards and forwards from one side to the other, sometimes in one united volume, sometimes divided into several arms. The broken sheet of ice on the right side of the glen soon reappeared, while we, crossing over the river repeatedly, marched on between two walls of glittering solid ice. In one place, but one only, the entire stream disappeared underneath the ice on the right side of the glen; otherwise it kept strictly to the middle of the channel, though continually washing one or other of the icy walls. Of the two the one on the left, notwithstanding that it was more exposed to the sun, was the thicker. The whole of the way we went, it was continuous and broad, whereas the sheet or bench of ice on the opposite side was narrower and broken; in several places; and through the gaps, which resembled more or less broad gateways, we were able to see the foot of the mountain-
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