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| 0113 |
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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plains to the north, had covered up these ancient terminal
moraines. On them alone at an elevation between 12,500
and 13,000 feet, where moisture seems to be less deficient
than elsewhere in these forbidding mountains, was the eye
refreshed by the sight of real green grass and a few alpine
flowers. The barrenness of the valleys lower down was great,
and the bleak steep slopes of rock or detritus plainly told the
story of rapidly progressing erosion. The perfect maze of
steeply serrated ridges and deep-cut gorges between them
which is to be found in parts of the outer slopes of the K'un-
lun strikingly illustrates how far this process has advanced
there (Fig. 2).
I have described elsewhere the difficulties encountered
in our search for an old route across the main K'un-lun
range by which communication with Ladak on the Indian
side of the high Tibetan plateaux was once maintained in
times of emergency. These difficulties were not entirely
those of Nature. They were caused quite as much also by
obstruction on the part of the small settlement of semi-
nomadic hillmen and select malefactors (Fig. 21) exiled from
Khotan who, counting probably less than two hundred souls,
form the only population in this desolate mountain region.
There seemed significance in its general name Karanghu-
tagh, 'the mountains of blinding darkness'.
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561
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571
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578
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