cll. xv CLIMB ABOVE KASHKUL GLACIER 185
a permanent cover of snow or ice, and thus are left exposed to the effects of extreme variations of temperature. In curious contrast to the eastern slope of the same spur where we subsequently found plentiful small detritus, the decomposition of the rock had not advanced here further than to produce cyclopean blocks. The greater frequency of rapid variations of temperature on the side which is heated by the morning sun, may perhaps supply the explanation.
It was a hot climb before we escaladed the top, some 1200 feet above our starting-place on the glacier edge, and the Taghliks who accompanied us, carrying plane-table, theodolite boxes, etc., were with difficulty induced to come on. Once on the crest, the ascent towards the spire-like culminating points of the spur promised to be easier. But we soon found that this arête was nothing but a succession of huge fissured rocks quite impracticable in a straight line or from the west, and providing gymnastic exercise of a trying sort even on their more accessible slope. For an hour and a half we clambered along them, refreshed only by the grand view of the snowy peaks both to the east and west. When at last we drew near to the point where the first great rock-pinnacle rose above the crest of the spur, it became evident that to scale it with our instruments was wholly impossible for the men. The east and west faces seemed almost vertical, and the narrow couloirs running more or less in the direction of the crest were not only extremely steep but, in addition, rendered unsafe by falling stones which the melting of the ice or snow in the higher fissures was loosening. So we were obliged to fix the plane-table on the highest accessible part of the grat (Fig. 58). The aneroid showed its height to be close on i5,000 feet.
To the south-west there lay before us the grand amphitheatre of steep ice-crowned ridges and névé-filled valleys which contribute to the Kashkul Glacier. Westwards we commanded a view of the less high but equally rugged side range trending to the north, which sends down the drainage of its own separate glaciers to meet the stream fed by the former. In continuation of a very striking snowy pyramid,
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