THE GLACIERS OF MUS-TAGH-ATA 323 
with great activity. The sound of trickling, dripping 
water was audible in all directions among the boulders and 
stones, in the crevasses, and in small pools on the surface 
of the ice. The glaciers rumbled and cracked ; every 
now and again we heard the ringing echo of smaller 
boulders and gravel falling into the gaping fissures, and 
in the distance the rushing sound of the glacial torrents, 
which, now that the sun was high, were fed abundantly 
from every side. The material brought down from the 
mountain consisted for the most part of the same grey 
gneiss which we had previously observed down by the 
lakes. Gigantic blocks such as those that lay beside 
Bassyk-kul were, however, absent. The smaller frag- 
ments of stone, by reason of their greater power of 
absorbing heat, had sunk down in holes in the ice, and 
lay at the bottom in a little pool of water. The larger 
blocks, on the other hand, protected the underlying ice 
from melting, and therefore formed glacier tables resting 
on low platforms of ice. 
A glance northwards, that is to say, down the glacier, 
showed us, to the left, the grey masses of the lateral 
moraine, with only occasional glimpses of the ice showincr 
through ; to the right the white corrugated surface of the 
naked g'laciers, with the two medial moraines gradually 
merging into one, the biggest I saw on the Mus-tagh-ata ; 
and in the background the deep depression which marked 
the continuing line of the glacier, and through which, 
probably the Gorumdeh formerly streamed to the Ike- 
bel-su glacier, although the old terminal moraine has been 
entirely swept away by the glacier-stream. 
Lastly we went down to a place near the tongue of the 
glacier, which was split into two portions by a small lake 
of clear water. The highest altitude we reached on the 
glacier was 14,700 feet above sea-level. 
1 o the south was the vast or root of the glacier, a 
gathering basin into which the snow slid down from the 
surrounding precipices, leaving step-like platforms behind it. 
On July 29th we again broke up camp and got under 
way for a new base of operations, namely, a spot more 
