National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 |
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CHAPTER VII
IN AFGHAN WAKHAN
THE night preceding our passage to the Oxus proved
bitterly cold, the minimum thermometer showing 5° Fahr.
So when on May 19th we started at 6 A.M. for the pass
under a specklessly clear sky the snow was hard frozen.
It was a delightful change to see the long string of
baggage animals move now over the glittering surface
without needing the track which had been ploughed by
them the day before with such efforts. But the growing in-
tensity of the sunshine, doubly felt by me with a face still
blistered from the Darkot, warned us to hasten on. By
7.30 A.M. we reached the level plain of the saddle where
in the summer the waters divide almost imperceptibly
between Indus and Oxus. Now the snow lay everywhere
to a depth of not less than five or six feet. The descent
for the first two or three miles was equally easy, though
in places one or other of the more heavily laden ponies
would break through where the snow covered small water-
courses (Fig. 23). But by 9 A.M. the surface had already
softened badly, and with the animals constantly floundering
the help of the fifteen sturdy Wakhis who had met us
on the saddle proved most welcome. It would have been
quite impossible to get the animals, even unladen, through
the snow-choked gorge into which the Baroghil drainage
passes farther down. So with a good deal of trouble
they were dragged up to the crest of a shale-covered side
spur where the snow had partially melted, while parties
of good-natured Wakhis carried up load after load.
It was a relief to sight at last at the bottom of a
small side valley the first bit of fairly dry ground with
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