of the passes, so well known to me from beyond Kashmir, could be seen sitting, with seeming unconcern, on the little mounds over their holes.
At 11.30 a.m. I reached the pass, which seems to be only a slight depression in a broad transverse ridge connecting the
Murtagh-Ata massive with the so-called Sarikoli range, the eastern brim of the Russian Pamirs. The pass, a little over 14,000 feet above the sea, is marked by a stone heap, the traditional resting-place of some saint. Popular lore about mountain passes does not seem to differ much northwards of the great Himalayan watershed from what I know it to be on the other side. Heavy mist .on right and left prevented a view of the higher ranges, but just in front to the North I could look down into the open, flat valley which descends to Subashi and the Little Karakul Lake. I had not far advanced on the small spur over which the path leads steeply downwards, when icy-cold rain, mixed with snow, began to come down again. It was far heavier than before, and by the time I passed the first Aul (herdsmen's camp), called Igrikyök at the bottom of the hill amphitheatre, I felt nearly drenched. However, there was little hope of the weather getting better, and I therefore deemed it best to push on to Su-bashi (" Head of the Waters"), the Chinese post in the valley, where better shelter and supplies could be expected. In the drizzling rain I passed some half-decayed Kirghiz graveyards and a stone-built Gumbaz, evidently the remains of some older structure.
At last, by 2 p.m., the Chinese post came in view, and with heartfelt gratitude I greeted its shelter. Inside a neglected stone enclosure I found, besides a number of tumbledown buildings, a row of mud-built huts, representing the quarters of the garrison. The latter soon emerged in its full strength of eight men, and their commandant, a sort of corporal, hospitably invited me to his state-room. It was, in truth, a poor enough hovel, lighted by a hole in the roof which, closed on account of the rain, admitted only a dim
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