and during the night, which I spent in a yurt set up for me by Akal Jan, it snowed heavily. Yurts are generally constructed with a large hole some two and a half feet in diameter in the top, to allow the smoke from the fire going out. On this occasion, when I woke in the morning I found the floor of the yurt covered with snow, which, when the fire had gone out, came in from the opening. It was now falling heavily outside, and. the whole country was covered with it, so the prospect for the exploration of the pass was not very promising.
However, I set out with two good men, leaving the rest of the party behind, and, marching through the snow, reached the summit of the pass at midday. The route was perfectly easy, so that we could ride the whole way to the summit. On the other side, however, the road could be seen running down a narrow gorge ; and beyond this there is a pass over a secondary range, which at this time of the year is impracticable. The mountains here seemed to be of no great height compared with the mountains to be seen further east. There is another pass called the Oprang Pass, up a side valley, which leads down a valley to the Oprang River at Shor-Bulak, thus forming an alternative route to that by the Kurbu Pass ; this road, however, is said to be very difficult and now out of use.
Ovis poli are said to abound in this part, and Bower had told me that he had shot six near the Khunjerab Pass ; but to-day it was snowing so heavily that nothing could be seen of them, and I only saw a few wolves, which prey upon these Ovis poli, and catch the old rams when their horns have become so heavy as to retard their progress.
While descending from the pass to the small camp which had been brought to the foot of it, the snow ceased, the wind dropped, the sun came out, and the whole air became glistening with shining particles. This is a very curious phenomenon. I had at first thought that it was the sun shining on minute particles of snow, but I soon found that no snow at all was
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