IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
290 FROM KASHGAR TO ALICHUR PAMIR CH. XIX
a magnificent glacier some ten miles long descending from an ice-crowned spur to the south.
The descent, difficult throughout and in places impracticable for laden animals, led across a succession of precipitous spurs on the north close to where small glaciers overhang and
divide them. By the time we had reached easier ground overlooking the snout of the large glacier I felt duly impressed
with the fact that I had passed the great meridional mountain barrier, the ancient Imaos, dividing Ptolemy's `Inner' and `Outer Scythia', as it does now easternmost Iran from the westernmost marches of China's Central-Asian dominion. The same night, after a thirty-three miles' walk and ride, I reached the Kirghiz grazing-ground of Kun-tigmaz in the main valley below Moji. There I met Sir Percy and Miss Ella Sykes returning from the Taghdumbash Pamir, and next day in their camp enjoyed a happy day of reunion.
Five days of rapid travel then carried me along the northernmost of the Chinese Pamirs and up the gorge of
the westernmost feeder of the Kashgar river. When crossing the Kosh-bel pass at a height of some 13,800 feet on the way
to the latter I gained my first view of the great Trans-Alai range stretching east to west and rising to peaks of over 20,000 feet. While ascending the bed of the Markan-su, which sends its water towards Kashgar, we passed the unmarked Russian border. That night we were visited by a snow-storm
at a temperature well below freezing-point. Next day, on July 26, we reached the saddle of Kizil-art, where the mili-
tary road connecting the Russian posts on the Pamirs and along the Oxus with the province of Farghana crosses the Trans-Alai range at an elevation of about 14,000 feet.
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