Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 / Page 149 (Color Image)

0149	Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1

CHAPTER VII
IN AFGHAN WAKHAN

THE night preceding our passage to the Oxus proved

bitterly cold, the minimum thermometer showing 5° Fahr.

So when on May 19th we started at 6 A.M. for the pass

under a specklessly clear sky the snow was hard frozen.

It was a delightful change to see the long string of

baggage animals move now over the glittering surface

without needing the track which had been ploughed by

them the day before with such efforts. But the growing in-

tensity of the sunshine, doubly felt by me with a face still

blistered from the Darkot, warned us to hasten on. By

7.30 A.M. we reached the level plain of the saddle where

in the summer the waters divide almost imperceptibly

between Indus and Oxus. Now the snow lay everywhere

to a depth of not less than five or six feet. The descent

for the first two or three miles was equally easy, though

in places one or other of the more heavily laden ponies

would break through where the snow covered small water-

courses (Fig. 23). But by 9 A.M. the surface had already

softened badly, and with the animals constantly floundering

the help of the fifteen sturdy Wakhis who had met us

on the saddle proved most welcome. It would have been

quite impossible to get the animals, even unladen, through

the snow-choked gorge into which the Baroghil drainage

passes farther down. So with a good deal of trouble

they were dragged up to the crest of a shale-covered side

spur where the snow had partially melted, while parties

of good-natured Wakhis carried up load after load.

It was a relief to sight at last at the bottom of a

small side valley the first bit of fairly dry ground with

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