ASCENDING MUS-TAGH-ATA 359 
out in both directions. Sometimes we crossed them on 
snow-bridges ; in other places the yaks stepped across 
them without difficulty. The Kirghiz declared, that for 
safety’s sake we had better follow the track of the kiyick ; 
and we did so. The bridges along their track sometimes 
held ; but as often as not the yaks went through, for 
although the snow had supported the light weight of the 
swift-footed wild goats, it was not strong enough to bear 
the solid burden of the yak. 
Farther on we spent a whole hour in getting over a part 
of the ice which was terribly cut up by transverse crevasses, 
and where we had several nasty fells in consequence. As 
usual, we had the yaks to thank that matters went as well 
as they did. When a yak put his forelegs through the 
deceptive snow and fell into a hidden crevasse, he care- 
fully lodged his muzzle on the other side, and so scrambled 
up again. 
The ice was now covered with a layer of snow eight 
inches deep ; but it soon increased to fifteen and twenty 
inches, so that the animals had hard work to shuffle and 
wade through the hindering drifts ; on the other hand, 
the crevasses were less frequent. Then for a long time 
the “going” was better. The ice-mantle seemed to be 
evenly rounded off above us ; but we hoped to find a 
passage between the lofty ice- swellings, with their blue 
glistening edges and snow-sheathed surfaces. 
In several places the ice-mantle bulged up into bosses 
and hills, and we went from the one to the other. We 
were just on the comparatively level summit of one of 
these upswellings, when Mollah Islam’s yak, which was 
being led by Its owner at the head of the procession, 
suddenly disappeared, with the exception of its hind legs 
and horns, and the teresken faggots. These still remained 
visible above the snow. The animal had fallen into a 
crevasse a yard wide, which had been completely snowed 
over, and was suspended over a yawning abyss in the ice. 
There it lay grunting and puffing like a creature doomed ; 
but by its immovability it showed that it fully realized the 
dano;er it was in. If it had moved ever so little, it would 
o 
