142 
THROUGH ASIA 
that I was hampered with thick, heavy furs, which were 
a great impediment to freedom of movement. And even 
when the horse had made the leap in safety,^ and was 
wading through the ford, I only just escaped being seized 
with giddiness, for the river boiled and foamed about him, 
and raced along so swiftly as almost to lift the animal 
off his feet. Unless I had kept a firm hand on him, he 
would have been swept off the ford into deep water, where 
he would have lost foothold and been carried away by 
the current. Nevertheless it is generally in the summer 
that mishaps of that sort occur. 
Once over the Kizil-su, we struck obliquely across 
the valley towards the outer slopes of the Trans- Alai 
CROSSING THE KIZIL-SU 
Mountains, leaving the river behind us on the left. 
The ground was difficult travelling, owing to the great 
number of natural springs which gushed up in every 
direction. The water which oozed from them was partly 
frozen into huge cakes of ice ; and where the temperature 
was somewhat higher, it trickled away unfrozen under- 
neath the snow. This gave rise to soft, treacherous 
expanses of snowy brash, into which the horses sank 
at every step. From the character of the echo given by 
their hoof-beats we were able to tell what sort of surface 
was hidden underneath the snow. A dull, heavy sound 
meant hard frozen ground ; a clear metallic ring indicated 
firm ice ; whilst a muffled, hollow sound told us that we 
were riding over cakes or arches of ice. 
