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

me to believe that at about one kos (2 miles) from Gulbáshem, by turning up a lateral ravine on
the south, a journey of 3 kos would bring me to a very low and easy pass, with an almost
imperceptible ascent, from the top of which we were to look down upon the Kárátágh plains;
and the evening we were at Gulbáshem he pointed out a neighbouring spur, beyond which,
he said, the road turned off. What then was my annoyance when the next day we did not
reach the turning until after a long and difficult march of 13 miles up the Kárákásh River,
and even then, according to his account, the pass was further off than he had stated it to be
the day before. I was extremely vexed at thus partially losing a day, for my camp was so far
behind (I having arranged for a short march hoping to get up to the pass and back before
night) that there was no time to move it much further on that day, and I had to halt at the
entrance of the valley leading to the pass. I had now only two days left in which to visit
the pass and return to Sháhidúla, as it had been arranged that I should have to be there on
the 20th so as to be ready to leave with Colonel Gordon on the 21st.

Starting early in the morning of the following day and quitting the Kárákásh
River (at a point 12,500 feet above the sea), we went up a broad open ravine, running
south for 2½ miles, to a point where it divides into two branches of which we followed
the eastern for about half a mile up a steepish ascent to a point where this also divides into
two smaller ravines with a steep spur running down between them. These two ravines were
bounded externally by precipitous banks several hundreds of feet in almost perpendicular
height. There was apparently no practicable path along the lower portion of these defiles,
but the road zigzags up the spur running down between them, and then follows the left
hand one. The top of this first ascent was about 2,500 higher than our camp on the Kárá-
kásh River.

From the top of the zigzag, the road up which, though steep, was good and practi-
cable for laden ponies, we reached a more open country and the road now followed a broad
grassy ravine with a gentle but steady rise. I followed this for seven or eight miles rising to
about 16,800 feet, and there was still a stretch apparently of several miles, of gently
undulating ground in front. As it was getting late in the day, and there was no time
for me to go further, I climbed up a hill from which I obtained a view of the water-shed. I
sent on the Pundit (the one who had been accompanying Captain Biddulph, and whom I had
brought back from Gulbáshem) with instructions to follow the ravine to the water-shed, and
to go beyond and fix by intersection either the Kárátágh Lake or the hill at Támba camping
ground between Kárátágh and Aktágh, and, if possible, to return by Aktágh and rejoin the
Head-Quarters camp at Sháhidúla. He succeeded the following day in passing the crest which
turned out to be not more than a couple of miles from where I had left him, and in fixing by
intersections from a distance the position of the hill before alluded to; but the guide having
become seriously ill and no one else knowing the country, and the whole of the Kárátágh
plain being several inches deep in snow, the Pundit was obliged to return viâ Gulbáshem
rejoining the camp after I had left with Colonel Gordon. I returned myself that same evening
to my camp at Fotásh in the Kárákásh River, not reaching it, however, till late at night and
getting two or three falls on the road, which, although tolerably good by daylight, was in
certain places, especially at the foot of the steep zigzag, by no means easy in the dark.

I do not think that this route is likely ever to come into general use, for although
it is perhaps a better road than that between Sháhidúla and Kárákorum Brangsa (viâ the
Sugét Pass), yet it is much longer. From Sháhidúla to Brangsa the road viâ the Kárákásh
is at least 15 miles longer than the one by the Suget Pass. Should, however, the road
viâ Kizil-jilga and Kárátágh come into frequent use, I believe the Fotásh route might
be employed with advantage, as there is very little difference in length of road, and grass and
fire-wood are to be found in abundance all the way from Sháhidúla up the Kárákásh River,
and for two miles up the (Fotásh) ravine, after which there is plenty of grass all the way to
the pass as well as any amount of Boortsee.* There were numerous tracks, on the higher