Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 265 (Color Image)

0265	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. ix.] RECONNOITRING. 223

Mustagh, which cross the range. One, to the

east, that is to our left as we were ascending

the glacier, is known as the Old Mustagh Pass,

and was in use in former days, till the advance

of ice upon it made it so difficult that a new

one was sought for, and what is known as the

New Mustagh Pass, some ten miles farther

west along the range, had been discovered. It

was over this latter pass that the guides hoped

to conduct our party. They said that even

ponies had in former times been taken across

it by means of ropes and by making rough

bridges across the crevasses. No European

had crossed either of them, but Colonel Godwin-

Austen, in 1862, reached the southern foot of

the new pass in the course of his survey of

Baltistan. This New Mustagh Pass seemed

the more promising of the two, and I therefore

decided upon sending two men on the following

morning to reconnoitre it and report upon its

practicability.

At the first streak of daylight the recon-

noiterers set out, and the remainder of us after-

wards followed with the ponies along the route

which we had explored on the previous day.

\\Te took the ponies up the glacier without any

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