National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

20

In another four days they intended to wander down to eng--s vär, and later on to

Kara-kul and Sari-kol. Sometimes they visit the regions south of Tur-bulung-davan.

There is no direct road from Tur-bulung to the upper part of Tegerman-su at

the S. E. side of Mus-lagh-ala. Between the two valleys is a very high and ice-

covered pass and some small glaciers. Between Kok-sel and Sar-agil, a glacier on

the southern side of Mus-lagh-ala, everything was ice and snow. Obviously a

mighty ridge stretches to the east from the Mus-lagh-ala group. I was told that

travellers from Tur-bulung to Cliicheklik had no other practicable road than via'

the Merke valley, Yam-buaak-davan and Yam-bulak jilg a. The Yam-6ulak-davan

was said to be flat, but gravelly.

At Tuy-bulung the winter is very cold and there is much snow and hard

wind. Bears, wolves and foxes live in the mountains; there are Ovis Poli, wild goats and snow pheasants.

From Tur-bulung I made an excursion of 9 km. to the south up through the

Kara-,ilga. At its right or eastern side are two small hanging glaciers. The valley is comparatively broad and easy. In its upper parts two flocks of wild sheep were

grazing; they fled southwards in the direction of Chicheklik. In the midst of the

valley flows the brook from the Kara-jilga Glacier, which is fed from two sources. Above it and at the sides are snow and ice-covered peaks and ridges, and probably the »Firnmulde» from which it comes is in connection with the great snow and ice-masses of

the Mus-/agli-ala. The surface of the Kara jilga Glacier is -quite black with moraines.

At the point where we turned back to Tur-bulung, the altitude was 4,645 m. The ascent was, therefore, 328 m. and the rate as i : 27.

October 12th we travelled S. E., east and N. E. across the Merke-bel to Merke.

From Tur-bulung we had 16 km. to the pass where the altitude is 5,198 m.; the ascent is therefore 881 m. at a rate of i :18.2: from the pass we had 18 km. to Merke, where the altitude is 3,593 m., or a descent of no less than 1,605 m. in a few hours, and at a rate of I:I I.2.

In the upper region of the Tur-6ulung- valley there are very good grazing-

grounds to which the Kirgiz of Merke and Keng-shvär drive their sheep in summer. The uppermost part of the valley is troughshaped and here the brooks have cut down their furrows deep in the ground. Before reaching so far we had left to the south

the left tributaries Teke yeilak (pron. yeilau), Kara-jilga, described above and the

little valley leading to Tur-bulung--davan.

On gravelly slopes we rode eastwards up through the trough which at an earlier period had been filled by ice and where now only gigantic old moraines were left.

The whole pass of Merke-bel and both its western and eastern slopes consist of enormous moraines. Of the old glacier which has brought down the material, only a small rest is left on the southern side of the pass.

THE THIRD CROSSING OF THE KASHGAR RANGE.