PEAK-BAGGING IN THE ALTAI 185 



enough to see several falls of rock in the course of 

 our journey, the only objection to which was, that 

 they added materially to the perils of climbing the 

 mountains. Instead of the Siberian climber looking 

 out for single stones, as he would in the Swiss Alps, 

 he runs the risk of a few thousand tons of the 

 mountain falling his way. 



The moraine is composed of two ridges, which are 

 from 200 to 250 feet higher than the glacier itself, 

 and there appeared to be rather more moraine than 

 glacier. Speaking from my own experience, I had 

 never seen so large a moraine. I have visited and 

 stumbled over many of those in the Alps, but none 

 of them can be compared in size to this one. Its 

 present length is 5 miles, but there are indications 

 that it cannot at one time have been less than 8 miles 

 long. In two places lakes have formed, dammed in 

 by the moraine, which were buried deep in snow. 

 There is very little vegetation near the lakes, and 

 what there is, is of the wildest description. Professor 

 Sapozhnikoff's map of the same locality only shows 

 one large lake and one small one, but his visit was 

 made in the summer. A Kalmuck who had accom- 

 panied us from the last settlement told us that large 

 quantities of animals of all kinds came down to 

 drink at the lake during the summer, and that it is a 

 splendid place for shooting, but that with the excep- 

 tion of one other Kalmuck Nimrod and himself no 

 one knew of its existence. There are high passes 

 on both sides of the glacier. My interest being 

 aroused by another glacier and one or two very 

 high passes, I decided to explore one of the valleys, 

 arranging to start on my expedition at three o'clock 

 on the morning after the arrival at our camping-place, 

 but I could not persuade the huntsman to accompany 

 me, on account of the thick haze which hung around 

 us and completely obscured our view of the peaks 



