THE GORGE OE TENGHI-TAR 269 
side the stream. A little higher up the rock formation 
on the left hand was again conglomerates ; but on the 
right syenite, its surface so smoothly polished that I could 
not help fancying it had been worn away by water or 
glacial ice. Upon looking back, I perceived that the 
spur before mentioned was overtopped by a double-crested 
mountain, covered with perpetual snow. The Kirghiz 
called it Kara-yilga-bashi (the Head of the Black Valley). 
The portion of the glen above Tarning-bashi-moynak 
was called Tar-bashi (the Head of the Narrow Gorge), 
showing how sharply the Kirghiz are wont to discriminate 
between regions of dissimilar formation and character. 
By this we had nearly reached our camping-place for 
the night, Bulak-bashi (the Head of the Springs). The 
yuz-bashi (chieftain) of the place, an old beg, received 
us with the friendliest courtesy, and at once ordered a 
comfortable yurt to be got ready for our accommodation.- 
At this place I observed a very remarkable phenomenon 
in connection with the stream of Tar-bashi. When we 
arrived, its current was low, and perfectly limpid ; but 
at half-past three in the afternoon we suddenly heard 
a distant rumbling sound. The noise grew rapidly louder 
and louder. Then, foaming like a white surf-roller, down 
rushed the flood, born of the melted snow and ice in the 
higher altitudes, and of the recent rainfall in the lower. 
How lucky we had got through the gorge! Otherwise 
the whole caravan would infallibly have been swept away. 
But we only just cleared it in time! This was what the 
Kirghiz were anxious about at Charlung. 
Since leaving Ighiz-yar we had crossed over the broad, 
far-stretching easterly spurs of the Mus-tagh range — a 
confused jumble of crests, peaks, and intervening- valleys. 
From the valley ol Keng-kol we had crossed over into 
the glen of Charlung, and from the glen of Charlung 
into the glen of Pasrabat, climbing up and down two 
passes of relatively minor significance on the way. At 
the place where the Tenghi-tar, one of the head-feeders 
of the stream which descended the glen of Pasrabat, 
broke obliquely through the crystalline mountain-chain, 
