glen. This gradually deepened. The country, when seen from the west, appeared to be tolerably level, but no sooner did we dip down into an eroded channel than we found ourselves at the bottom of it, and before we knew where we were, behold we were surrounded on all sides by soft, capricious heights.
The old road became lost to sight in just about the locality where the glen turns to the south-east, and it seemed to me that since the glen forced us to go in the wrong direction, we ought to turn back and accompany the old road. Nevertheless I sent out scouts down the glen from Camp CVI (alt. 302I m.), and they reported that a little farther on we could get round the north-east angle of the detached mountain-mass, and then continue towards the north-east. At the spot where we pitched camp, we discovered to our great amazement a salt spring, the water trickling away in a tiny rill and forming thin, but sufficient, sheets of ice. Thus the Akato-tagh is not without its springs any more than the Kuruk-tagh is. The areometer gave a sp. gr. of 1.0125 and the water, at the point where it trickled out of the ground, had a temperature of + 2.5°. Excellent kamisch was growing round the spring, although in such small quantity that it was barely sufficient to satisfy the caravan. On the right side of the glen we found also a thicket of boçhana bushes, some of which, being withered, afforded excellent fuel.
IIIF Color HighRes
