National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Southern Tibet : vol.9 |
JOURNEY IN SARIKOL, 1895.
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On July 24th we continued S. S. E., south and S. S. W. 24 km., rising 389 m. or to 3,748 m. at our camp in the Su-baski valley; being a rate of i : 62. Here I return to regions of Eastern Pamir which I had visited the summer before, 1894,
when studying the glaciers of the Mus-tagh-ata. As I have described my experiences on this mountain more in detail in my book Through Asia, I will here quickly
pass this region.
We travelled the ordinary road by Veri and the Ike - bel - su glacier, the moraines of which reach even the mouth of the Kuyunde valley, and are pierced in a deep gorge by the river. The brook from Basik-kul was now very insignificant. The water of this lake had a temperature of 18.s° at 1 o'clock, whilst Karakul had I5.I° two hours later and at 8° in the air. We passed between both lakes in rain and wind.
In the Usun-tal valley we had seen only one tent. South of Little Kara-kul there were several aids with numerous flocks. In spite of the rain the Su-baski brook was very small. Beyond the little fort of Su-baski we reached the aul of Togdasin Bek, now counting 5 tents. A tent-dweller told us that the weather had been rainy for ten days and that in the nights it had snowed. The mountains were
snowed over, as for instance Koch-korchu, Tur-bulung- and Kamßer-kisklak. The glacier brooks had dwindled and were frozen over higher up. The last winter had been very cold, but with little snow. A hard south wind had been constantly blowing. All high passes were now more or less covered with snow, as Kara-task, Merke,
Kok-moinak and Clzichekil. The Gez-darya was unusually low.
On July 2 5th we travelled along the whole western side of the Mus-tag k-ata
group. The first 16.7 km. took us S. W. and W. S. W. to Ulug-rabat-davan, 4,237 m. high, a rise of 489 m. and a rate of 1 : 34. From the pass we had 24.3 km. south
and S. S. E. to Gäjäk with an altitude of 3,499 m., or a fall of 738 m., being a rate of 1 :3 3
The whole Mus-tagh-ala was now covered with snow all the way down to the snouts of the glaciers, and there were hardly any black rocks visible in the snow
masses. At Kara-su-karaul two Chinese soldiers and eight Tajiks were stationed.
In the upper part of the Kara-su-jilga several Kirgiz tents were pitched. A brook comes down from this valley. The largest watercourse we passed was the one from
Kok-sel on the Mus-tag-h-ata which carried some 8 cub. m. per second. Passing
Korumde jilga and Kayinde-masar, we camped at the aul of Gäjäk where 4 tents were pitched.
Togdasin Bek calculated that 2 8o tents were under his jurisdiction, of which
7o were at Su-baski and Kara-kul; 45 tents at Kara-kul and Keng-skevär (or
-shvär) were said to be under a special bek, Alim Kul Bek. Mucki, Chaker-agil and Bulung-kul were believed to possess 7o tents together.
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