1889.] I GET RID OF THE PONIES. 267
only the lesser glaciers are met with on the higher slopes. The mountain-sides are perfectly bare, and only the scantiest scrub is found in the valley bottoms.
Akal Jan, a Kirghiz who belonged to the Tagh-dum-bash Pamir, but whom I had met at Shahidula, while we were. exploring the passes, had gone to his home on the Pamir and collected camels and yaks, which he now of his own accord brought to Chong Jangal. He was also the bearer of a letter from Lieutenant Bower, who, with Major Cumberland, had made his way on to the Tagh-dum-bash Pamir by way of Shahidula, Kugiar, and Sarikol. In this letter was the information that Captain Grombtchevsky, the well-known Russian traveller, who had in the previous year found his way intoHunza, was now travelling towards Ladak, and would probably meet me on the way. Being anxious to see Lieutenant Bower,. I despatched an urgent message to him to try and meet me at Tashkurgan, and set out from Chong Jangal on October 2 r, descending the Yarkand River towards the Tagh-dum-bash Pamir.
We saw many signs of cultivation, and were told by the Kirghiz that down to about forty years ago this valley was well populated, and that even now Kirghiz from the Tagh-dumbash occasionally cultivate some of the ground in the side valleys, where they are well hidden in case of Kanjuti raids. Trees, too, are here met with, and in the Uruk valley there are still a few apricot trees.
The ponies had now become completely knocked up, and although the road here is good, even the unladen animals could not keep up with the loaded camels. The camels and yaks which Akal Jan had brought were sufficient to carry the whole of our baggage, so I discharged the ponies and sent them back to Ladak. Working at high altitudes among these mountains, where the road is always difficult, and grass at the camping-grounds very scarce, it is impossible to keep ponies going
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