ii8 
THROUGH ASIA 
Nevertheless it is no unusual thing for the Tenghiz-bai 
pass to be closed during the last two or three weeks 
of February. In 1893 was only closed for ten days. 
In 1892 it was impassable for a period of two whole 
months. And in 1891 the depth of the snow was so 
great, though for a shorter period, that junipers twelve 
or thirteen feet high were completely buried from sight 
in the snowdrifts. 
February is the month in which avalanches fall and 
snowstorms rage with the greatest frequency. At that 
season the boldest Kirghiz hesitates to put foot inside 
the pass, unless the weather is perfectly still and serene. 
All the same, hardly a winter passes without a fatal 
mishap of some kind. The numerous skeletons of horses, 
and even of human beings, which litter the track, might 
serve as milestones during the summer months. 
The Kirghiz of the aul (tent-village) of Daraut-kurgan, 
in the valley of the Alai', told me a pathetic story of 
a man, who came to that place from Utch-kurgan 
early in the year 1893, in order to spend Ramadan (the 
Mohammedan month of fasting) with some friends. On 
the way home he was overtaken, on 23rd March, in the 
pass mentioned by a violent buran (snow-hurricane), and 
was forced to stay there four days and nights squatting 
on the ground, with no other protection than his sheepskin 
coat. His horse died. His provisions gave out. When 
the snowstorm ceased, he found the way blocked in both 
directions. Nevertheless he pushed on, and by dint of 
creeping, climbing, and wading came, after two days and 
two nights of terrible labour, to the district of Kara-kiya, 
where he fell in with some of his own countrymen, who 
took charge of him, and fed him and nursed him. As 
soon as he had recovered a little, he continued his journey 
to Utch-kurgan. But he died the very first night after 
getting home, overcome by the hardships and privations 
he had undergone. 
I was also told that a caravan of forty men was over- 
whelmed that same winter in the Terek-davan pass by 
an avalanche, and killed to the last man. 
