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me to believe that at about one kos (2 miles) from Gulbâshem, by turning up a lateral ravine on the south, a journey of 3 kos would bring me to a very low and easy pass, with an almost imperceptible ascent, from the top of which we were to look down upon the Kârâtâgh plains; and the evening we were at Gulbâshem he pointed out a neighbouring spur, beyond which, be said, the road turned off. What then was my annoyance when the next day we did not reach the turning until after a long and difficult march of 13 miles up the Kârâkâsh River, and even then, according to his account, the pass was further off than he had stated it to be the day before. I was extremely vexed at thus partially losing a day, for my camp was so far behind (I having arranged for a short march hoping to get up to the pass and back before night) that there was no time to move it much further on that day, and I had to halt at the entrance of the valley leading to the pass. I had now only two days left in which to visit the pass and return to Shâhidnla, as it had been arranged that I should have to be there on the 20th so as to be ready to leave with Colonel Gordon on the 21st.
Starting early in the morning of the following day and quitting the Kârâkâsh River (at a point 12,500 feet above the sea), we went up a broad open ravine, running south for 2i miles, to a point where it divides into two branches of which we followed the eastern for about half a mile up a steepish ascent to a point where this also divides into two smaller ravines with a steep spur running down between them. These two ravines were bounded externally by precipitous banks several hundreds of feet in almost perpendicular height. There was apparently no practicable path along the lower portion of these defiles, but the road zigzags up the spur running down between them, and then follows the left hand one. The top of this first ascent was about 2,500 higher than our camp on the Karâkâsh River.
From the top of the zigzag, the road up which, though steep, was good and practicable for laden ponies, we reached a more open country and the road now followed a broad grassy ravine with a gentle but steady rise. I followed this for seven or eight miles rising to about 16,800 feet, and there was still a stretch apparently of several miles, of gently undulating ground in front. As it was getting late in the day, and there was no time for me to go further, I climbed up a hill from which I obtained a view of the water-shed. I sent on the Pundit (the one who had been accompanying Captain Biddulph, and whom I had brought back from Gulbâshem) with instructions to follow the ravine to the water-shed, and to go beyond and fix by intersection either the Kârâ.tâgh Lake or the hill at Tâmba camping ground between Kârâtâgh and Aktâgh, and, if possible, to return by Aktâgh and rejoin the Head-Quarters camp at Shâhidnla. He succeeded the following day in passing the crest which turned out to be not more than a couple of miles from where I had left him, and in fixing by intersections from a distance the position of the hill before alluded to ; but the guide having become seriously ill and no one else knowing the country, and the whole of the Kârâtâgh plain being several inches deep in snow, the Pundit was obliged to return yid Gulbâshem rejoining the camp after I had left with Colonel Gordon. 1 returned myself that same evening to my camp at Fotâsh in the Kârâkâsh River, not reaching it, however, till late at night and getting two or three falls on the road, which, although tolerably good by daylight, was in certain places, especially at the foot of the steep zigzag, by no means easy in the dark.
I do not think that this route is likely ever to come into general use, for although it is perhaps a better road than that between Shâhidûla and Kârâkorum Brangsa (viâ the Sugét Pass), yet it is much longer. From Shâhidnla to Brangsa the road viâ the Kâ.râkâsh is at least 15 miles longer than the one by the Suget Pass. Should, however, the road yid Kizil-jilga and Kârâtâgh come into frequent use, I believe the Fotâsh route might be employed with advantage, as there is very little difference in length of road, and grass and fire-wood are to be found in abundance all the way from Shâhidnla up the Kârâkâsh River, and for two miles up the (Fotâsh) ravine, after which there is plenty of grass all the way to the pass as well as any amount of Boortsee.* There were numerous tracks, on the higher
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