ASCENDING MUS-TAGH-ATA 
355 
such as may be seen at the bottom of the pier of a bridge 
in a river. On the left there was a broad, clean offshoot 
from the ice-sheet, but it was overpowered to such an 
extent by the bigger mass of the main glacier, that it 
was pressed in like a narrow wedge between it and 
the rocky mountain-arms. 
The ice groaned and cracked ; stones and boulders 
rattled down into the crevasses ; and there were glacier- 
tables on their pedestals. From every direction came 
the sound of trickling, dropping water. The surface 
of the ice was soft and rotten. Everything in fact 
tended to denote, that this glacier also was in a condition 
of great activity. 
As we were riding back down the mountain, we saw 
a couple of big grey wolves, which took to their heels 
among the moraines. The animals seemed to be very 
common in that region, and now and then were said to 
carry off a yak calf, so that Togda Bai Beg was right to 
guard his flocks with a pack of savage dogs. 
The same evening that chieftain prepared a little 
makeshift yurt, and other necessaries, for a two days’ 
ascent of Mus-tagh-ata, which we thought of trying again 
the next day, August nth. 
