Across the Roof of the World. 



led down a chute between two perpendicular ledges of rock it 

 was a little difficult but the caravan could have negotiated it 

 with assistance. I scarcely liked leaving them to the care of 

 Giyani and Rahim, but the former said he could manage 

 alright so I did not worry. 



I went on till noon, and then halted to await the arrival of 

 the ponies, but as they did not put in an appearance by 5 o'clock, 

 I turned back a couple of miles, and met them coming down the 

 valley, they having had a very hard time up hill and down dale 

 over a rough path. 



Apparently the guide knew nothing of the country, and had 

 advised the upward road through mortal fear of the one through 

 the ravine. I moved on and camped, in a dip in the 

 undulating ground on the right bank. The valley here widened 

 to half a mile, the left bank rising in grass-grown ridges, the 

 right having low rolling hills bordering the undulating ground. 



It was very swampy and sodden, and infested with large 

 numbers of horse flies whose bite caused the ponies much misery. 

 The altitude of this camp was 8,500 feet, the air being cool and 

 pleasant, and after sundown and the disappearance of the flies, 

 was really quite enjoyable. I was away again the next morning 

 at 7 o'clock down the valley which gradually broadened to 

 three-quarters of a mile, the rich grass giving it the aspect of 

 meadow land. 



Seven miles took me to the end of this valley which 

 debouched on to a wide grassy plain, some twenty miles wide, with 

 snow-covered mountains to north and south. This was the 

 Great Yulduz Valley, famed for the grass and the pasturage it 

 affords to countless herds of horses and cattle of the Kalmuks, 

 who migrate here during the summer. Its length is about 

 thirty miles, and the average breadth twenty, but towards the 

 west it increases to some twenty-five miles. To the south, on 

 the slopes bordering the valley below the Thian Shan, the ground 

 is damp and marshy, the central part of the plain towards the 

 €ast being the same, but in the portion where I later on camped 



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