202 KARANGHU-TAGH MOUNTAINS CH. XVII
these. The vista vanished rapidly, after disclosing also mighty falls of dark-coloured ice at several points of the glacier. Then the drizzling rain of the previous day enveloped us once more, and made us all eager for shelter.
In the course of the afternoon I received evidence of the effect produced by the day's reconnaissance on our yak-drivers and prospective coolies, most of whom had kept under shelter at the Kara-ois lower down. The demand, communicated through the Yüz-Bashi, for a few days' supply of dry yak-dung, the only available fuel, sufficed to drive them into a state of utter dismay. In a mass the excited crowd came to my tent to clamour for a speedy return. I had not had time to ask them their grievances when two young fellows threw themselves upon the Yüz-bashi and the Darogha, who had tried to reason with the men. In an instant the fighting couples were on the ground, while the rest of the Taghliks were preparing to join in the fray.
The shouting had brought up my own men, and with their help the much-battered victims of this onslaught were soon put on their legs again. I had just time to identify the aggressors, when the whole body moved away, threatening to decamp with their yaks. The prospect of being left here without transport, and soon also, perhaps, without fuel, was not exactly cheering. So I let the Yüz-bashi depart for the night, to try and bring his violent-tempered yet timorous Taghliks to reason. The conduct of the rest was to be forgiven if the two assailants, who had laid hand on the Darogha and their own head-man, were produced to receive due punishment thereafter at the Khotan Ya-mên.
The night was again a wet one ; but for a short time at daybreak the clouds cleared, and I could sight the snowy peaks above the main glacier southwards illuminated by the rising sun. Imposing as the spectacle was, it failed to give me the impression that I was facing here a part of the main range : the peaks seemed somehow too near and their heights scarcely great enough. But there was no time for closer observation before the curtain of mist again descended. Only the dark detritus wall of the great terminal moraine, about three-quarters of a mile broad, was visible between the foot of the flanking spurs when at 8 A.M. the
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