the rest of the Kirghiz, taking the cue from them, set upon the unfortunate Juma and beat him.
The other two Kirghiz headmen then came and apologized profusely to me, hoping that I was not displeased with them also, and the next morning, when we parted, they were very friendly and full of expressions of good-will.
On November 8 we crossed the Mintaka Pass ; the ascent for about a thousand feet is very steep, and near the top there was a considerable amount of recently fallen snow. Snow, indeed, was even now falling on the mountains all round continuously, but during our passage it remained clear, and though the snow was soft and we sank into it up to our knees, yet the yaks carried the baggage over without much real difficulty. The height is fourteen thousand four hundred feet, though the mountains near it must rise to fully twenty-two thousand feet. The descent is also steep, leading down a rocky zigzag on to the moraine of a glacier ; but, after passing over this for about a mile and a half, all difficulties are over, and the route descends a stream to Murkush. Here we met Kanjuti officials, sent by the chief to await our arrival, with twenty coolies to carry my baggage, and I was therefore able to despatch the Kirghiz with the yaks which had brought our baggage over the pass.
But the Kirghiz are not a race with many good qualities ; they are avaricious, grasping, and fickle, and I parted with them without regret, or any special desire to renew my acquaintance with them.
We were now safely on the southern side of the Indus watershed once more, and our explorations were over, for Colonel Lockhart's Mission, in 1886, had passed up the Hunza valley on their way to the Kilik Pass. But this valley we were now entering was full of interest, both as the abode of a primitive, little-known people, and from the grandeur of its scenery. As we marched down from Murkush, which was
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