Volcanoes of Central Asia. 235 



covered with perpetual snow, on the Kura I'oad, on the banks 

 of the Ele at Aksu, nearly half-way between the warm springs 

 of Arashan to the north of Kanjeilao, a Chinese station, and 

 the advanced post of Tamga-tash. 



The western prolongation of the Teen-shan or M ooz-tag, as 

 the editors of the Memoirs of Sultan Baber called it by pre- 



to the south, after quitting the former, the view extends over a vast space 

 covered with snow, which in winter is very deep. In summer, on the top of 

 the ice, snow and marshy places are found. Men and cattle follow the wind- 

 ing paths at the side of the mountain. Whoever is so imprudent as to ven- 

 ture upon this sea of snow is irrecoverably lost. After traversing upwards of 

 twenty fe, you reach the glacier, where neither sand, trees, nor grass can be 

 seen : the most terrifying objects are the gigantic rocks formed of masses 

 of ice heaped upon one another. When the eye dwells upon the intervals 

 which separate these masses of ice, a gloomy chasm appears, into which the 

 light never penetrates. The sound of the water rushing beneath the ice re- 

 sembles the report of thunder. Carcasses of camels and horses are scattered 

 here and there. In order to facilitate the passage, steps have been cut in 

 the ice, to ascend and descend, but they are so slippery that they are ex- 

 tremely dangerous. Too frequentl}' travellers find their graves in these pre- 

 cipices. Men and cattle walk in file, trembling with alarm, in these inhos- 

 pitable tracts. If night surprise the traveller, he must seek shelter under a 

 large stone ; if the night hajipen to be calm, very pleasing smaids are heard, 

 like those of several instruments combined; it is tlie echo which repeats the 

 cracking noise produced by the breaking ice. The road, which is pursued 

 the day before, is not always that which it is convenient to fbllow the next 

 day. At a distance, to the west, a mountain, which has been hitherto inac- 

 cessible, displays its steep and icy summits. The halting-place of Tamga- 

 tash is eighty fe from this place. A river, called Moossur Gol, rushes with 

 frightful impetuosity from the edges of the ice, flows to the south-east, and 

 joins the Erghew, which falls into lake Lob. Four days' journey to the 

 south of Tamga-tash, is an arid plain, which does not produce the smallest 

 plant. At eighty or ninety le further otF, gigantic rocks still recur. The 

 commandant of Ushi sends every year one of his officers with oblations to 

 this glacier. The formula of the prayer recited on this occasion is trans- 

 mitted from Peking by the Tribunal of Rites. Ice is found along the whole 

 crest of the Teen-shan, if it is traversed lengthwise: but, on the contrary, 

 if it is crossed from north to south, that is in its width, ice is found only in 

 a space of a few le. Every morning ten men ai-e employed in the pass of 

 Mussar-tag, in cutting steps for ascending and descending ; in the afternoon 

 the sun has either melted them or rendered them extremely slippery. Some- 

 times the ice gives way under the feet of the travellers, and they are in- 

 gulfed, without a hope of ever seeing day-light again. The Mohamedans 

 of Little Bucharia sacrifice a ram previous to traversing these mountains. 

 Snow falls there throughout the year: it never rains. — Klapkoth. 



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