RECORDS OF THE JOURNEY
stony slope, we reached and crossed another arm, Chi-pu-tzu Jiang, of the same river and the journey up the pass continued along the slope of its left bank. For a mile or two we could see it winding at the bottom of the gorge until at last the covering of snow hid it from view. From the bridge there was a stretch of almost 3 miles up the snow-clad slope.
The ascent and the road are really longer, for I included our zigzagging and many other small detours in my calculations by reducing the time. The road is only steep for short stretches, but the stony ground and the long ascent tired the horses considerably. The pass with its traditional Kalmuk praying site lies between two fairly considerable mountains at 274° and 94°; the former in particular is high. In a SSW direction there is a long mountain that seems to be considerably higher than the nearest ones; at 358° and 24° two glaciers depend from its ridge. In the N between the mountains forming the gorge we had ridden through, we still caught a glimpse of the Tyenza käi plain and in the S the beginning of the deep hollow in the snow that we had to follow was visible. As far as we could see across the mountains everything was white. During the sixth month of the Chinese calendar (July) all the mountains except the high one in the SSW are said to be free from snow. The greater part of the granite walls of the mountains with their thousands of crevices are denuded. There is only a thin layer of earth here and there. The mountain peaks and slopes simply sparkle in the sun as though strewn with thousands of diamonds, while passing clouds cast a deep shadow over large fields of snow, and some peaks are already shrouded entirely by low-hanging grey clouds. The light was particularly puzzling to-day from dazzling sunshine to black shadow.
The road to the south is considerably rougher than the one to the north. After descending steeply for a few minutes over stony ground we reached the bed of a small river having its source in the pass in two arms. A few minutes later we came to a gorge with a water-channel on the right. The direction that had been due S, was now SE. The bottom of the river was excessively stony. The road took us from one steep bank to the other and constantly crossed the river bed. The ascents and descents were often very steep, not infrequently over smooth rocks along a narrow path. The gorge and the bottom of the river were broader than to the north of the pass. The vegetation was infinitely poorer. No signs of trees and only seldom very sparse grass. In character these gorges are very reminiscent of those I passed through on the journey to Muzart; although the latter are far grander, there are the same striking differences between the S and N sides of the chain of mountains. After riding 3 miles in a SE direction, during which we passed 3 gorges on the right and 2 on the left, the river turned south. We passed a couple of easy slopes, on which very low grass grew. On the left a gorge opened up with beautiful white-clad mountains in the background. 2 miles in a S direction, during which the road led at times along a narrow, breakneck path high up on a slippery slope, brought us to the Shiuza sarai that lies at another turn of the river to the SE.
On the left an appreciable gorge opens up here, called Miaoku after a temple that stood at the mouth of the gorge ages ago. The ruins consist of a rectangular stone heap with an empty space z 2 X 8 metres in the middle. Not far to the S of the sarai there is an upright block of stone, scarcely a metre in height and about o.6 m. in breadth with a slightly
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