PEAK-BAGGING IN THE ALTAI 181 



one another and on the ground. iWe had constantly 

 to push the branches out of our faces, and some- 

 times the man following wpuld get a slash across 

 the face if he did not keep his hand up to catch the 

 branch. 



After rounding the slopes of a mountain we 

 emerged out of the forest to the left, and eventually 

 reached the banks of the River Yarlow, a tributary 

 of the Akkem. We selected a suitable elevated spot 

 at the base of a mountain, and in close proximity 

 to a forest, where we thought we would be protected 

 from the wind and find a sufficiency of dry wood 

 to enable us to maintain a good fire, on which our 

 lives (depended, as the tent would only hold two of 

 us and the hunters or ourselves would have to sleep 

 in the open. 



On Professor Sapozhnikoff's map, which is the 

 only one of this district, there is a River Yarlow. We 

 found where this river evidently flowed in the summer, 

 but it was quite dry, and, judging by the stones 

 forming the bed, it is only a fairly large mountain 

 stream, which had evidently been dry a long time, 

 as there was no frozen water in any part of it. This 

 appears to me to prove that the mountain tops and 

 glaciers must freeze suddenly, or that it is very 

 much colder there than in the valleys, or the whole 

 stream would have frozen ; as it was, we found the 

 river quite dry, owing to the intense frost. This river 

 takes its source in the east of the Katunskie-Belki 

 range, and, in the summer time, is, according to 

 Professor Sapozhnikoff, a fast-flowing stream. By 

 all appearances there is a glacier near the source, 

 which remains to be explored. 



.We had been on the road two days since leaving 

 Katunda, fourteen hours of which had been spent 

 in travelling through dense forests. It was on the 

 second evening that we encamped, at 5.30 p.m., 



