Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 114 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0114	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

that this lake, situated within the political border of India, is known to the Wakhīs also by the
Turkī designation of Ak-kul, the ' White Lake '. It could clearly be observed that the lake, which
is considerably larger than appears from the map, owes its origin to the fact that a big glacier
near its eastern end once pushed its moraines from the south right across the valley.
Glaciers
below
Shuiyenj.
About eight miles from the pass, the valley contracts below the last grazing grounds of
Shuiyenj. Beyond this the track led past the snout of a large glacier on the south, which has
piled its ice against the rocky slopes opposite. The river thus blocked had cut its way in a big
tunnel below it (Fig. 53) ; this advance of the glacier beyond the river bed was said to have taken
place only two years before. Less than two miles farther down, the river bed, broad as it was here,
was completely blocked by a much larger glacier descending from the south, which had to be
traversed for a distance of about a mile and a half. What with the care needed in its crossing and
the difficult progress beyond, over boulder-strewn slopes on the right bank, it was long after
nightfall before we reached the small jungle-covered space known as Sokhta-robāt, which forms
a usual camping-place opposite the approach to the Khora-bohrt pass.⁴
Khora-
bohrt and
Irshad
passes.
Had it been possible for me to cross by this pass into the Lupsuk valley northward, which
drains into the Āb-i-Panja some distance below Bōzai-gumbaz, we could thence have reached
Hunza territory over the Irshad pass, leading like the Chillinji pass to the head of the Chapursan
valley. We might thus have been spared a very trying piece of mountaineering, and probably
a day's march as well. For both passes, about 15,000 and 16,000 feet respectively in height, are
clear of glacier ice and practicable during the summer and early autumn for laden animals, and
even longer for men on foot.⁵ But without the Amir's permission this passage, leading through
a forlorn alpine corner of easternmost Afghān territory, was closed to a servant of the Indian
Government. As it was, I had occasion to feel very grateful when, on proceeding on September 1st
down the Karambār river, I found a contingent of hardy Wakhī porters awaiting us at the point
where the snout of the big Chillinji glacier debouches into the river gorge (Fig. 52). Without
their timely arrival from the small settlement of Wakhī refugees lower down, as had been arranged
through the Gilgit Agency, farther progress would have been impossible. After ascending for
about four miles along the north edge of the glacier (Fig. 51) over old moraines thickly covered
with Juniper and other dwarf tree growth, we camped that night at an elevation of about 12,500 feet.
Ascent of
Chillinji
pass.
The ascent made on September 2 to the Chillinji pass proved a difficult piece of mountaineer-
ing. The snowy weather that had prevailed all through August had rendered the very steep snow
slopes to be climbed to the north-east of the glacier exceptionally trying. There were risks of
avalanches to be faced in the confined gully up which lay the final ascent of some two thousand
feet (Fig. 57), and the chance of some mishap was increased by the fact that the pass had not been
traversed by any one for a considerable number of years. Only one old man among the Wakhīs
sent with us had ever been across. It took eight hours of laborious climbing, mostly through
deep snow, before our party, numbering forty men in all, safely reached the col. Barometrical
observations indicated for it an elevation of 17,520 feet. The view that the pass offered over the
big glaciers filling the head of the Chapursan valley and along the ice-crowned range forming
the watershed on the north towards the Āb-i-Panja sources and the Tāgh-dumbāsh Pāmīr, was
grand and extensive. But the icy gale sweeping the exposed col made even a short rest difficult

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