156 



ON THE "EOOF OF THE WOELD." 



"And when you leave this country and ride three days north-east 

 always among mountains, you get to such a height that 'tis said to be the 

 highest place in the world. . . . There are great numbers of all kinds of 

 wild beasts ; among others wild sheep of great size, whose horns are good 

 six palms in length. The plain is called Pamier, and you ride across it 

 for twelve days together, finding nothing but a desert without habitation 

 or any green thing. " YULE'S ' Marco Polo.' 



THERE is nothing which arouses quite the* same 

 sort of romantic interest as crossing a great divide. 

 A longing to know what is on the other side is an 

 instinct of which one is conscious when surmount- 

 ing even ordinary ranges ; and how much stronger 

 it becomes when the drop down the farther side 

 brings one to a new continent, only those who 

 have experienced it can realise. 



I had been marching for some days up the 

 Hunza Valley, a deep rift winding amidst some 

 of the highest mountains on earth, and had 

 arrived at the foot of one of the few passes which 

 cross the Mustagh range. On the morrow we 

 that is, I and my small party of porters and ser- 

 vants would leave the river system of India and 



