OVER THE ARA-TAGH AND THE KALTA-ALAGHAN.
The latitudinal valley in which we now encamped had, I was told, no other name except Kajir, a word generally used to indicate a broad and large valley, traversed by a shallow stream. In this case the stream is known as Kajir-darja. The present valley, which is situated between the Ara-tagh and the Tschimen-tagh, is
said to begin in the district of Kum-bulak, where it is separated from Kak-kija on the east by a low ridge or threshold. Later on we shall make a nearer acquaintance with the lower part of this latitudinal valley, which had brought us up another step nearer to the Tibetan plateau. Thus in the case of the Tschimen-tagh the excentric formation is still more pronounced than in the ranges that lie to the north of it. Its principal pass is situated only a few hundred meters from its southern foot,
Fig. 47. DESCENDING A STEEP SLOPE.
IIIF Color HighRes
