ASCENDING MUS-TAGH-ATA 
357 
what this perpetual scrambling was going to lead to. 
By this arrangement it was not even necessary for me 
to goad the yak, an occupation which in itself is very 
exhausting, and 1 could sit quietly with my hands in 
my pockets, only taking them out every now and again 
to look at the aneroids. The needles of these instru- 
ments had very little peace during the days we were 
vainly trying to scale the “ Ice Mountains’ Father.” 
Our little caravan struggled leisurely zigzag up the 
mountain-side, which terminated in a long level ridge on 
the left side of the Chal-tumak glacier. The yaks grunted 
and panted, and their blue tongues hung out of their 
mouths dripping. 
The ridge was the same gravel -covered backbone we 
had reached on August gth, and we took our first rest at 
the point where we halted then. Immediately south of 
this, the ice-mantle threw out a projection with steep walls, 
and at its base the fallen pieces melted together into a 
sheet of ice. By one o’clock we had reached the altitude 
of 17,000 feet above the level of the sea. Here the snow 
lay in scanty patches in the crevices ; it was only in the 
larger depressions, and in the clefts at the edge of the 
gorge, that it was heaped up in any considerable quantity. 
It was soft, sticky snow, which melted in the sun, and the 
ground was consequently wet where it had lain. The 
naked ridge finally tapered off and disappeared under the 
ice-mantle. The latter was not broken off abruptly, but 
was quite thin at the edge, so that we had no difficulty 
in getting upon it, and was covered with a thin layer of 
snow, which the yaks occasionally slipped through. But we 
soon got on deeper snow ; and then they went as steadily 
as they had gone before over the gravel and ddbris. 
Suddenly we heard a deafening crash and roar from the 
right-hand rocky wall on the other side of the Chal-tumak 
glacier. It was an avalanche which had slipped from the 
ice-mantle. Large blocks of blue ice were hurled from 
the edge, clashing together, and crumbling into fine white 
powder as they struck against the outjutting rocks ; then 
they fell like flour upon the surface of the main glacier. 
