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0723 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / Page 723 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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CH. XCIII ALONG PRECIPITOUS CLIFFS   453

hours to clear the first two miles in this wonderful gorge above our crossing.

Then after passing a small waterfall the track, though very steep and rocky, presented less danger. On our left across the gorge there was a succession of perfectly wall-like spurs with deep chasms between ; but in front of us there showed at last long rounded ridges of detritus. As we ascended towards these the frowning spur above us assumed fantastic shapes of towers and huge battlemented walls. Decomposition had created here a striking pendant to the ` T'ang prince's town ' above Uch-Turfan. The Zailik men at once recognized the ` Kone-shahr ' I pointed out to them, and the sight at once set their ` treasure-seeking ' imagination in motion. How could they doubt that I had really come to this forbidding mountain region in order to search for hidden riches ?

At last we emerged on broad detritus slopes, the four and a half miles from camp having taken us some nine hours of toil. Very soon it became evident that we were moving across the huge terminal moraines, now buried under detritus, of what must once have been a perfect mantle of ice descending from a big spur of over 2 1,000 feet. Then we passed within less than a mile the end of a still extant glacier flanked by huge moraines. How grateful we felt for the easy going which the bare sodden ground of this fan provided ! We had now reached an elevation of about 15,500 feet, and the rarity of the air was more noticeable.

Under the heavy grey clouds which all day had treated us to showers of snow and sleet, it was soon getting dusk ; but this made the mighty panorama in black and white still more impressive. Fresh snow streaked all the less steep slopes, while to the south the peaks and glaciers rose in unblemished white splendour. But the precipitous rock-walls of the great gorge through which the Yurungkash has carved its passage loomed in blackness. It seemed as if we had left behind us the dark gate of that wild maze of deep-cut inaccessible valleys, and entered a land of barren downs set amidst ice-clad ranges, the fringe of true Tibet. At last we found shelter for the