Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 250 (Color Image)

0250	Among the Celestials : vol.1

208 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. VIII.

a way. By the next morning we had succeeded

in making a narrow pathway round the cliff.

The loads were first carried over this ; then

the ponies were carefully led along, till at last

the whole party was safely conveyed to the

other side of this formidable obstacle.

A short distance below, on the left bank of

the Yarkand River, we struck a tributary named

the Surakwat, up which led the route to the

Mustagh Pass, so we here left the valley of the

Yarkand River. For a few hundred yards

above the junction the Surakwat flows through

a very narrow gorge, which the stream fills up

completely, and through this gorge the guide

now led us, though I found, in 1889, that a

much better road led over the top. The

boulders over which the torrent dashed were

covered with ice, and it was cruel work taking

the ponies up. They were constantly slipping

and falling back, cutting their hocks and knees

to pieces. But we got them through without

accident, and emerged on to a wide plain,

evidently the bed of a lake, which must

have been formed by the rocky obstacle

we had passed through before the stream

had cut its way down to its present level

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