124 
THROUGH ASIA 
leisurely pace down into the region where the head-streams 
of the latter river have their origin. The descent on this 
side was every bit as steep as the ascent had been up the 
northern face. The path was smothered under innumer- 
able landslips and avalanches. Some of them had carried 
down with them in their fall vast quantities of earth and 
dSris ; so that we did not perceive them until the horses 
suddenly dropped up to the girth in the soft and treacher- 
ous ground. I measured one of the largest of these 
avalanches, which had fallen the day before. It was a 
quarter of a mile across and had a depth of nearly seventy 
feet. The Kirghiz were not slow to congratulate one 
another upon having so fortunately escaped its clutches. 
The Pfiofantic ice-slides rush down the mountain-side with 
such overwhelming force and momentum, that, under the 
enormous pressure, their lower strata or under-surface 
become converted into ice, and anything living which 
should have the misfortune to be buried under it would 
be literally frozen fast in the middle of a block of ice 
as hard and as vitreous as glass. Once clasped in that 
icy embrace, a man would be hopelessly doomed. But 
in all probability the unhappy wretch who was thus 
swept away would be stunned by the fall, and would 
freeze to death before his consciousness returned. 
Thoroughly exhausted by the exertions of the day, we 
halted in a little side-glen called Shiman. Here the snow 
was several feet deep, and the Kirghiz were obliged to 
clear a space before they could get the tent erected. We 
passed the night hemmed in by a high breastwork of 
snow. 
The next day we continued our march down the glen of 
the Daraut-kurgan. Every ten minutes or so we forded 
the stream, which raced along under arches and bridges of 
snow. Each time we did so, the horses were obliged to 
leap down the perpendicular bank of ice into the water, 
and then leap up again on the opposite side. Every time 
they did this, I was in a fever of anxiety lest any mishap 
should befall the animals which carried the ammunition and 
the photographic apparatus. However everything passed 
