THE GLACIERS OF MUS-TAGH-ATA 327 
When the weather eventually cleared, all the mountains 
re-appeared in a garb of dazzling white, and we were sur- 
rounded by a thorough winter landscape. The white 
mantle, however, did not reach down to the bottom of 
the Sarik-kol valley, because at this time of the year the 
snow changes to rain at a lower altitude. 
The weather being favourable on July 31st, we were 
able to start on our scramble over the Yam-bulak glacier. 
Its surface was perfectly white, being covered with soft. 
THE YAM-BULAK GLACIER AND ITS PORTAL IN JHE MUS-TAGH-ATA 
wet. Sticky snow. Small glacial streams, with a tem- 
perature of 3i°5 Fahr. (0^29 C.) rippled cheerily over the 
ice We struck a south-south-easterly line across the un- 
even ice- sheet towards the right-hand lateral moraine, 
which was from three to seven feet thick, and sent out lony 
crescent-shaped offshoots towards the central parts of the 
glacier. There were also a few small glacier- tables or ice- 
pillars 14 inches in height ; and a crevasse, 6 feet wide 
and 32 feet deep, which would have put an end to further 
advance, had it not hung so far over at the edges that we 
were able to get across it. The ice in its sides was of the 
