180 



TO THE SHAYAK. 



28th July. We got off by 5 A.M., Phuttoo on the horse, 

 and Mooktoo, who complained of severe headache, on a 

 tattoo ridden yesterday by Abdoolah. The ascent of the 

 mountain was most arduous, the natural difficulties being 

 much increased by the difficulty of respiration. All 

 suffered much from this. The mountain being extremely 

 steep and rugged, the path necessarily running into innu- 

 merable zigzags to render the ascent at all practicable 

 was cumbered with sharp stones, as was the entire moun- 

 tain-side. Indeed, this is the characteristic of the range. 

 From summit to base these mountains are thickly covered 

 with fragments crumbled from their massive bodies, which 

 by the action of the weather, intense frosts, &c. are splin- 

 tered up and strewn with the debris, as though the stone 

 breakers had been busily at work all over the surface, not 

 leaving a square yard vacant. Many a time had I to 

 pause for breath ere the summit was reached ; and we 

 had some snow hard-frozen to cross, covering the whole 

 northern face of the mountain, at the base of which was 

 a small lake, formed by the melted snow filling a basin. 

 The descent was more abrupt than the ascent, but except 

 that the snow was hard and slippery, it was much easier 

 to accomplish. Heavy rain set in below, which was hail 

 and sleet above. I was glad to be out of that. 



"We met a train of laden yaks, the property of my 

 merchant friend of yesterday, whose name, by the way, 

 is Nassir Khan. A jolly, ruddy, round-faced young man, 

 quite plebeian-English in appearance, was in charge of 

 them ; and, in reply to queries from Abdool and myself, 

 he assured us that the yak and other game abounded 

 where Nassir Khan had told us. Joyfully commenting 

 on the coincidence of testimony we jogged on, and halted 

 at a stone shed, where by a fire smoking was a Yarkandi, 

 left behind to tend two of Nassir Khan's disabled horses. 



