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

ACROSS THE VAKJIR PASS TO CHAKMAKTIN-KUL.

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Approaching the Vakjir Pass the valley assumes the form of a trough with soft ground, full of swamps, small pools, moss and grass, and small brooks and rills coming down from the sides, especially from the south. To the left (south) a fine glacier-tongue becomes visible; it has a large end-moraine and two brooks. The ascent is not steep. Gradually one reaches the pass, the eastern part of which forms a nearly level platform. Here is a little oblong lake of greenish, ice-cold water, from which a little brook flows Na E. in its stony bed.

Leaving the lake, or rather pool, to our right we continue S. W. and have to our left a second glacier-tongue, broader than the first. From its N. E. corner a brook comes out, giving rise to the oblong pool and before its outflow in it forms a flat delta of hard fine deposits. A little higher up along this brook there is a gravelly wall, probably an old moraine, crossing the bed of the next brook, which, therefore, forms another pool, smaller than the first mentioned. Here is the real source of the Taghdumbash-daYya.

   The formation of small lakes on the very top of high passes is a comparatively   ÍI~
common phenomenon. On Hujzserab we had seen swamps, probably the rests of

   old lakes or pools, dammed up by the moraines of the neighbouring glaciers. On   11
Ogri-art there is said to be a pool, and I met the same phenomenon on many of the Tibetan passes.

A very short distance S. W. of the pools we rise to the saddle of the Vakjir Pass proper, a very easy, vaulted protuberance. Granite blocks and gravel are common, and living rock at some distance.

The ground is, as usual on the high passes, wet from melting snow and ice. At the right or northern side, there is another glacier. The snouts seem to end about I o or 2 0 m. above the pass. From the northern glacier the water flows to the S. W. to the Panj, and this therefore is one of the sources of the Amu-daYya. Here is the Tagadumóash par preférance. We are standing at the very »Head of the Mountains». To the east every drop of water runs to Taglzdzimòash-daYya, Raskan-daYya, Yarkanddarya, Tarim and Loß-nor; to the west to the Panj, Arno-daYya and Lake Aral. The Indian water-parting is not far to the south.

From the pass the view is magnificent in all directions. The road down to the S. W. is at its beginning uncomfortable, as it passes amongst blocks of moderate and large size. Here and there are small stone pyramids by which the track is marked in snowdrifts and in mist. Then the slope becomes steep for a shorter stretch where gravelly and soft grassy ground alternate.

To our left a splendid perspective opens; a considerable glacier fed from three snow accumulations or »Firnmulden». It has a well developed medial moraine turning to its right side. From its snout several brooks flow down, forming a dark grey river in the valley filled with glacial clay, the finest material ground beneath the