A DANGEROUS ROAD. 219 



emerged on a moraine not far from the summit ; 

 and running across it, cut tlie path over the 

 glacier from the Tartar country on the other 

 side. That it was not too safe a road, the 

 remains of a man and the bleached bones and 

 broken saddle-trees of his two horses scattered 

 broadcast amongst snow and rocky debris, 

 bore painful testimony. Poor fellow ! he must 

 have been a Tartar I should think of the 

 richer classes, as the paper of his tobacco 

 which we found showed it to be of an ex- 

 pensive manufactured brand, and not the 

 rough native stuif smoked by the men of 

 Radcha. 



The greater part of the day was spent by 

 us wandering about along the ruinous paths 

 of former avalanches, among the highest of the 

 sterile snow-covered peaks, and in all places 

 where that wildest of earth's denizens, the 

 Caucasian ibex, was likely to be found ; but, 

 alas ! for our evil fate, other sportsmen had 



