TO THE KARAKORUM. 205 



no means inviting to travellers. We looked down a very 

 steep descent of rugged and sandy slopes, into a valley 

 of utter sterility up which we had to make our way. 

 Nor did near approach improve it ; for the heaps and 

 masses of stones, through which we had to scramble and 

 pick our way, were strewed with the skeletons of the 

 unfortunate horses that had succumbed to the terrible 

 difficulties of the road. Numbers of them lay bleaching 

 on either hand ; sometimes singly, and at others in dismal 

 groups of four or five, making this unattractive valley 

 horrid with their ugliness. 



"We stopped on the bare stones to breakfast, there 

 being nothing better in prospect, a stream dashing by to 

 the river flowing down the valley ; then, on through the 

 same wilderness of stones. I cannot think how they 

 came there in the positions and proportions they exhibit. 

 It appears as though the sides of the mountains had 

 been forced open, and torrents of rock and stone vomited 

 violently out, and hurled into the valley ; or that the 

 mountain peaks had been riven and shattered by some 

 tremendous shocks of earthquake, and toppling down 

 had spread their fragments all around. 



"We crossed the river by a bridge, and arrived at twelve 

 o'clock at a shepherd's encampment, our halting place, 

 close to a huge mass of ice and snow, filling the end of 

 the valley, miles in length. Some rough loose stone 

 enclosures constituted the abodes of men and cattle ; of 

 the former some half-dozen presented themselves and 

 salaam'd. The whole place was redolent of the strong 

 smell of goats. There appeared nothing whatever in 

 the vicinity to eat. All was wild desolation. 



I took 'shelter under a huge stone, the shikarries 

 putting up some wrappers on sticks to form a screen; 

 and but for the essence of billy-goat, so pungent as to 



