National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

The water of the Uprang River began to rise at about 3 o'clock p. m.; at 9 o'clock it had some 10 cub. m. per second. The Hunserab was much bigger and proved to be not quite easy to cross. The temperature of the water in the rivers of course changes in the course of the day. In the Uprang-su it was 8.5° at 10 o'clock a. m.; 13.5° at 1 o'clock p. m.; and 6.1° at 9 o'clock p. m. The water also became more muddy towards the evening.

On August 2nd we continued our march to the S.S.W. and south up in the valley of Hunserab for 20.2 km. and camped in the valley of Ulutör at an altitude of 4,589 m., being an ascent of 367 m. and a rate of 1:55. The road sticks to the right or eastern bank of the river. Along the river there is a shevär or meadow called Räng, uninhabited, as is the whole valley. At the right or eastern side the tributary Terskei-lametuk enters, and at the left or western side Köngöi-lametuk. Both are comparatively large jilgas with considerable brooks, and in the background of both mighty, snow-covered ranges are seen. Glaciers are not visible in their upper parts, only eternal snow. They are to the greatest extent filled with korum or gravel, but have grazing-grounds in their lower parts. The limpid brook of Terskei-lametuk forms at its junction with the Hunserab a delta, the two largest branches of which are separated from each other by a rounded ridge.

The bed of the main river is broad, though only partly filled with water in its several branches. The whole bed is filled with rounded gravel. Ak-jilga is a large tributary valley from the S. E. with a considerable brook. A little farther on we leave to our right or in the west the main valley of Hunserab, and continue due south into the valley of Ulutör (= Ung-tur). After a while we reach a point where two valleys join, both with glaciers in the background; we follow the western one. In its upper part we pitched our camp.

The whole day's march had taken us through excellent grazing-grounds abundantly watered. Yaks and camels were often seen grazing. Wild sheep, wild goats and ular or mountain partridge were common. In every little valley there is a brook, and innumerable rills from melting snow flowed down across the undulated meadows, often making the ground soft and treacherous. The brooks from Terskei-lametuk and Ak-jilga had absolutely clear water, proving that they come exclusively from melting snow. Hunserab has muddy greyish water, proving that it is chiefly fed by glacier brooks. Opposite Ak-jilga, spongy ice-floes were seen in the Hunserab, and the Ulutör River was partly freezing during the night, though the minimum temperature was only a little below zero. A great part of the ice-floes, which obviously had come down from higher regions, did not disappear in the course of the day, though the temperature of the air was at 16.2° at 4 o'clock p. m.

At both sides of the Ulutör valley the mountain slopes are covered with detritus and grass, having steep, but rounded forms. Above them the hard living