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0276 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 / Page 276 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000234
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grow well in years when a sufficient snowfall on the mountains
around assures irrigation.
The elevation of Omsha, together with the change in the
weather, made itself felt by a truly cold night. On the morn-
ing of the 29th of October the thermometer at 7 a.m. showed
only 17° F. But the sky was of dazzling clearness, and in
the crisp mountain air the cold had an almost exhilarating
effect. After a pleasant march of two hours we reached the
right bank of the Yurung-kash, close to Terek-aghzi. Instead
of the previous route, I now followed the path by the river-
side. It crosses the Yurung-kash about two miles below the
above junction, and then winds along the precipitous cliffs of
the left bank for another three miles. The ups and downs
over slopes of loose conglomerate were very fatiguing, but the
picturesque views of the wild river-gorge amply made up for
this. At one point the river has cut its way through walls of
solid rock, scarcely 50 feet apart, for a distance of several
hundred yards. Elsewhere the vehemence of floods has
excavated yawning caverns from the huge alluvial fans. Not
far from the point where the Kash Valley from Karanghu-tagh
joins this gorge, the path led over a succession of rocky ledges
of remarkable steepness. The ascent indeed looked like a
huge flight of stairs built by nature along the brink of a pre-
cipice more than 500 feet high. The yaks climbed it with
astonishing surefootedness, but it was uncomfortable to look
down on the track over which they had carried us.