io8 
THROUGH ASIA 
white poplars. But the day was not spent in idleness : I 
made a short excursion from camp, and carried out several 
scientific observations. The Isfairan brought down a 
volume of 280 cubic feet in the second. The temperature 
of the air at seven o’clock in the morning was 31°! Fahr. 
( — o°5 C.) ; maximum during the day 51°! Fahr. {io°6 C.). 
The boiling-point of water was at 2o6°3 Fahr. (95°7 C.) ; 
consequently the altitude above sea-level may be taken as 
4510 feet. 
In the hurry of my departure from Margelan I had 
forgotten one thing — namely, a watch-dog, to lie outside 
the yurt at nights. The oversight was made good in a 
curious way. On 25th February, whilst we were doing 
the next stage to Langar, an expansion of the valley 
26|- miles farther on, a big Kirghiz dog, yellow and long- 
haired, came and joined himself of his own accord to our 
troop. He followed us faithfully throughout the whole 
of the journey to Kashgar, and kept grim karaol (watch) 
outside the tent every night. He was christened Yollchi, 
or “ Him who was picked up on the road.” 
Immediately after leaving Austan, the track climbed 
steeply up the left side of the valley. The horses 
clambered up one after the other in a long string. Ere 
many minutes were passed, we had ascended so high 
that we could hear nothing of the brawling torrent below 
except a soft lisping murmur. The path was very tiring ; 
it wound in and out of the heaps of mountain detritus, 
squeezing itself through the narrow passages between 
them. Sometimes it skirted the edge of a terrace, which 
swunq- back round a side-glen. Sometimes it threaded its 
way between gigantic fragments of rock. Every now and 
again it ran steeply down the side of the valley, and for 
a little distance followed the bed of the stream ; then up 
it would suddenly mount again as abruptly as it had 
plunged down. 
The parallel ridges of the Alai were cleft transversely 
by the deep valley of the Isfairan, so that the ruptured 
ends abutted upon it en Echelon, like the side-wings of a 
stage-setting. The scenery was both wild and grand. 
