242 OVER THE KARA-KASH RANGES [CHAP. xiv.
the only point in the neighbourhood sufficiently elevated for a second triangulation station, and at the same time accessible with instruments.
In order to reach it I started on the morning of the 9th of November back into the arid range southwards by the valley which leads towards the Kunat Pass. Against all expectation this valley proved fairly open for a distance of about nine miles. Then it contracted to a narrow gorge at a point known as Kuchkach-bulaki, where a little stream of brackish water trickled down between the rocks, covering the bottom with a saline deposit that looked like ice. The .cliffs on either side grew higher and wilder as we advanced up the ravine, and I began to doubt whether after all a practicable way would offer out of this maze of contorted rocks to the high ridge I had sighted from Ulughat. It was getting dark by 4 p.m. when the highest point was reached to which ponies could advance.
But to niy relief there rose on the left a steep slope of detritus, much like that leading to Ulughat, and evidently the hoped for route to the Kanruk-kuz ridge. Camp was pitched in the narrow ravine, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet by aneroid. I took it as a lucky omen that just there I carne upon a little party from Nissa, who had crossed the Kunat Pass with four yaks and were now waiting for the flora• that was to be brought up to them from Khotan. The yaks had tasted no water for the last two days, but were all the same fit to help us.
The next day's climb proved a stiff one. The - ridge which I had singled out for our station was close on 3,000 feet above our camp, and the slope was exceptionally steep. But the yaks carried us safely over the most trying part of the ascent, and when after three hours the top was reached, Ram Singh as well as myself was ready to set to work at once. The view was in some directions more extensive even than that from Ulughat. But the sky was less clear, and from the first I noticed an ominous haze that made me hurry on the
IIIFカラー高解像度
