A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



Conway's magnificent work on the country will be 

 acquainted. The latter mountain, Masherbrum, is 

 at the head of the Hushe Valley, and it is from its 

 magnificent glaciers that the Loongma, or river, of 

 the same name originates, its several streams pouring 

 down the many ravines into which the valley 

 branches at its upper end. 



Never shall I forget my first sight of this 

 glorious hill ; I had been feasting my eyes on the 

 lofty mountains which form the stupendous aisle of 

 the Hushe Nalah, and which, of a height from 

 15,000 to 20,000 feet, diminished amongst the 

 clouds in the distant perspective, when suddenly 

 through a rift in the mist, far, far above them 

 shone one glittering peak, seeming to reach almost 

 to the zenith. It produced in one a feeling which 

 can never be forgotten, but which it were better not 

 to try and describe. The range that bounds the 

 valley on the east side is composed of a succession 

 of fantastic crags and precipices that fairly took my 

 breath away as I inquired whether it was there 

 that we were going to pursue ibex, and I must 

 acknowledge to having experienced a feeling of 

 relief when I heard that they were too steep for 

 even a particle of herbage to grow upon them, and 

 that therefore there were no ibex there. These 

 crags appear to be of a dolomite formation, and in 

 places present the appearance of organ-pipes sur- 

 mounted by sharp pinnacles. On the west side of 



the valley the hills are less steep and are of the 



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