THE ARPALIK DAWAN. 57 



we left these behind, and got on to the same bare 

 rocky mountains that we were accustomed to see, 

 for about seven miles, until the ravine merged into 

 a larger valley that came from the west. Follow- 

 ing this for three miles, we arrived at a fort and 

 karaol called Egizarak Kurgaon. 1 



As we followed the river, which ran into nice 

 little nooks, I had spotted some fair-sized fish ; 

 so as soon as we had pitched camp, I up with 

 my rod and started off, and had a capital evening's 

 sport with an alder-fly, fishing it dry and catching 

 a lot, for they rose beautifully. 



Dauvergne had joined us on the line of march 

 again, and with him we found our faithless friend 

 Sultan Beg, near whose yurt he had pitched his 

 camp. He was off ahead of us in the morning. 

 We had a gradual ascent to the Arpalik Dawan, 

 about 10,000 feet, from the top of which, looking 

 north and west, appeared a massive range of 

 mountainous rock falling sheer down on every 

 side, too steep to support any soil or vegetation. 

 On descending we found a gigantic gorge with a 

 wall of rock rising on each side of us, and so pre- 

 cipitous that the sun was only visible for a very 

 short time in the valley. These gorges, our guide 



1 Kurgaon means fort. 



