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At the beginning of the day's march these crossings came close together.
41. Before we reached the glen of Ochur-terek on the right we had already forded the
river eleven times. Between Akas-aghis and the place just mentioned I recorded the following names: — Alka-tasch, a side-glen from the left; Turumduk, a side-glen from the right; Buschlang, another from the left, up which we ascended a little way and then returned to the main glen; at its outlet is a stone hut. Down this glen a dark-brown torrent was churning its way. It is near this point that the main glen is called Ochur-terek. At Mollah Baj-kija we forded the river for the twelfth time, the crossing being very difficult and risky, owing to the fact of the stream being concentrated into a single deep channel, shut in by gravel-and-shingle terraces, 15 m. high and for the most part perpendicular, though a steep path runs up and then down to the water's edge. Another side-glen from the right is Kurughas; in its upper part are jajlaks or grazing-grounds. All these side-glens were traversed by torrents, often of pretty large size, and the colour of their water indicated that they descend to the main stream more rapidly than the main stream itself does; indeed the latter was steadily rising again in consequence of all these successive augmentations.
Before we reached Kendis we forded the river yet three times more. At Kara-kija there exists a steep pathway over the rocks on the left which horses could use, though camels have to cross over the stream twice. After having cut its way through these cliffs, which consist for the most part of mica-schist, the glen again widens out. From the left debouches the large side-glen of Telve-tschuke, with a considerable torrent; while a similar glen, Jätim jilgha, opens out on the right. After we passed Kovoghane-jilghasi on the left, the glen grew very much more open, the mountains receded; but the entire country was shrouded in the dust-haze, the light faint, the sun not visible at all, but we could not very reasonably complain of the heat. Kirk-umöj, or as others pronounced it Kirk-omöngö, is the name both of a village in the main glen and of a side-glen that enters from the left. On the right bank of the river stands a Kena'eng, or guest-house. Soon after that the first bagghs or orchards, with poplars and willows, made their appearance, the trees being then dight in all the glory of their fresh spring greenery. Above that point the only vegetation that the glen could boast of consisted of balghun and other
r. thorny bushes, scrub, and grass. The farther we descended the thicker and the more
luxuriant grew the grass.
The glen inclines to the north-north-east, and we forded the river yet three times more. A right-hand side-glen is called Atschik. Here we kept all the time to the right of the river, having the foot of the mountains close to our right hand. The last side-glen from the right bears the name of Tevet-jilgha, and its almost black-brown torrent may easily have carried 5 cub.m. in the second: it was the largest contribution that the main stream received all day, the next largest being that of the torrent of Telve-tschuke. The former, the torrent of Tevet-jilgha, was rushing down with unbridled fury and was anything but easy to cross over, especially as its channel was very deep. The glen still continued to widen out, at the same time that the mountains not only receded more and more but also grew simultaneously lower and lower. The last side-glen on the left is Jigdelik-khas; it
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