in 1900 from our survey station above the Brinjak Pass had been impressive in spite of the distance, and the successful triangulation subsequently carried out had shown that among the many imposing peaks rising above them there was at least one exceeding the height of 23,000 feet. For us down in the valley this high peak was now hidden from view by a satellite of about 20,000 feet rising just in front. But even without the photographic panorama in my hands it would have been easy to locate its position by the exceptional length of the glaciers which we soon found descending from that direction to the head of the valley.
It was delightful to ride over the grassy slopes with which a thick mantle of loess, showing in places rounded down-like forms, had covered up these ancient moraines. After all the barrenness of sand and crumbling rock I had passed through for months, I felt myself carried back now almost to the Alpine plateaus of my beloved Kashmir Margs. The glaciers descending from the huge amphitheatre of snowy peaks and ridges drew nearer and nearer, and at last we had to pitch camp on a fine grassy spur known as Kashkul, just opposite to the snout of a big glacier, at an elevation of some 13,300 feet. Its terminal wall of dark ice rose at least 15o feet above the boulder-strewn slope on which the glacier finally deposits its detritus. Enormous masses of rock débris completely covered the crest and sides of the glacier. Yet big ice-falls and gaping crevasses of great size disclosed the mighty stream of ice which carries them downwards. All through the afternoon and evening I could hear the rumble of the boulders sliding down over the ice-wall at the snout and sides as the sun loosened the grip of the surface ice. Louder still and continuous was the roar of the ice-fed streams which leaped down the slopes all round our ridge.
It was an Alpine camping-ground such as I could scarcely hope to find again in these forbidding mountains. So I was doubly glad to be caught just here by a big and long-expected mail bag carried up with no small trouble from Khotan, and to be able to use a day's halt, needed anyhow on account of survey observations, for its disposal in such cheerful surroundings. With this Dak had come the
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