5i8 THE KARLIK TAGH 



was reached. Finally, the extremely broken nature of 

 the rock-country, which consisted of strata of flaky 

 slate flung up perpendicular to the ridge, and which 

 came away with every step, stopped us ; but not before 

 we had found the miniature — quarter-mile-long — glacier 

 at the foot of No. IX., and traces of old moraines extend- 

 ing as far as a mile and a half below. We failed to make 

 the ascent of the pinnacle, but the clinometer readings 

 were sufficiently consistent to made up for the loss of 

 a boiling-point reckoning, and we were not out to climb 

 untrodden peaks for the love of mountaineering. Should 

 a member of the Alpine Club ever chance to come this 

 way I recommend him to make a start on No. IX., for, 

 although not the highest point, it will try his skill and 

 give him a rare view of snows and deserts. 



From summits of 12,000 ft. and 13,000 ft., at the 

 eastern end of the Karlik Tagh, we enjoyed views 

 that fully repaid us for the expenditure of time and 

 for the extraordinary rough climbing entailed. From 

 these points of vantage, within sight of herds of ibex 

 and within call of the snow-cock, we looked out 

 over a region that seemed to embrace the whole of 

 desert Cathay, and it was easy to grasp its essential 

 features. Through narrow, deep-cut valleys, clothed 

 with larch and pine forest, opened up beautiful vistas 

 of the Gobi, for the Karlik Tagh has the character 

 of an island set in a wide sea, the views from its 

 summits being always terminated by the ocean-like 

 plain that lies around and washes up to its very foot- 

 hills. On a clear day in winter or early spring, before 

 the summer heat-haze begins to hide the distance, and 

 when no south wind, with its complement of "loess," 

 darkens the air, one can stand aloft on some pinnacle 



