228 OVER THE KARA-KASH RANGES [CHAP. xIV.
grazing-grounds. Apart from a few willows and a bold snowy peak visible at the head of the valley, there was nothing to break the monotony of the dusty grey of the rocks and the little plain between them. But the sky showed the purest blue and the sun shone warmly. So the day passed pleasantly even in these surroundings.
It is lucky for historical geography that the name Nissa is not that of a locality further West. Else it could scarcely have escaped identification, at the hands of amateur antiquaries, with Nysa, the mythic residence of Dionysus in the Indian Caucasus, which Alexander too is supposed to have visited. It amused me to think of the flights of imagination that would be required in order to clothe these most barren of rocks with the vines sacred to the god whom the great conqueror flattered himself by imitating in his Indian conquest.
On the morning of November 1st I set out for the Brinjak Pass, which connects the Nissa Valley with the mountain defiles northward. As I was anxious to utilise the extensive view likely to be obtained from its height for a final survey of the head-waters of the Yurung-kash, I decided to camp as near as possible to the pass in order to secure plenty of time for the morrow's work. It was not easy to carry out this plan, as the steep rocky ravine in which the ascent lay was exceptionally narrow. But at last a point was reached about 12,800 feet high by aneroid, where the narrow bottom just left room for a couple ôf tents. So giving order to pitch the camp here, I climbed the steep ridge south of the ravine. My reconnaissance showed that a splendid survey station could be secured by ascending a high arête north-east of the pass. The piercing cold wind soon drove me down to my tent, which seen from above in the narrow gorge looked curiously like a stretched-out bat, the outer flaps touching the rocky slopes on either side. The interior did not give ease, for the steep slope allowed the use of neither table nor chair, and the camp-bed, too, could not be placed at an angle of less than 25°.
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