184 SIBERIA 



of an inch deep. There were no marks of the 

 progress of the glacier on the other side of the stones. 

 The mountains on both sides are composed of 

 granite, and are entirely without vegetation above the 

 level of the glaciers. From these, huge blocks of 

 rock had fallen. The only crystallised granite 

 mountain is Belukha, yet thousands of enormous 

 boulders were scattered abroad six miles from that 

 mountain. Judging from the character of the glacier 

 and the boulders I should assume that the mountain 

 was at one time quite twice its present height. Most 

 of these mountains appear to have been split in 

 half quite recently by some powerful natural agency. 

 One proof of this was the extreme softness of the 

 rock, which had tumbled from the peaks and had 

 sharp edges which did not show the slightest wear 

 by ordinary denudation. Some of the rocks were 

 so soft that I could break them by dropping them a 

 yard. ' i | I - ? 



The Katunskie-Belki group forms a circle, the 

 principal peaks of which have an average height of 

 14,000 feet. In the centre of this circle, there are 

 three mountain ridges, branching north and south, 

 which, at a distance, have the appearance of three enor- 

 mous fins. It was these fin-shaped mountains which 

 appeared to be split in two. A Swiss Alpine climber 

 soon learns that even the mountains crumble and in 

 some cases are just like a pile of loose stones, and 

 this is still more apparent in these Siberian moun- 

 tains. The highest point of the glacier on the north 

 side of the Belukha is at an elevation of 12,000 feet, 

 and the rocks which shed their boulders upon it 

 tower some 2,000 to 3,000 feet above, barren and 

 desolate almost beyond conception. 



There had been the heaviest fall of rock from a 

 peak on the right side of the glacier, which appeared 

 to have occurred very recently, and we were fortunate 



