48 THROUGH HUNZA [CHAP. III.
The march of June 24th brought me first to the huge Batur glacier, some three miles above Pasu. Probably over twenty-four miles long, it fills completely a large side valley which descends from the north-west, and unlike the glaciers previously passed, it advances its frozen walls down to the riverbed. They are covered for miles up the valley with an extraordinary mass of detritus, and thanks to this thick crust of
VIEW TO NORTH-EAST OF PASU VILLAGE.
rock and shingle the crossing of the glacier was comparatively easy. All the same it took me nearly an hour to scramble across the mile and half of the glacier, and the slippery ground delayed the coolies still longer. There are years when masses of ice pushed down from the unexplored upper reach of the glacier make the crossing far more difficult even for men, and altogether close the route for animals. It is in view of such obstacles, which no skill of the engineer can ever
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