360 
THROUGH ASIA 
have been precipitated into the crevasse, which grew 
narrower as it descended. 
A long delay ensued in consequence. The Kirghiz 
twisted ropes round the yak’s body and horns, and made 
them fast to the other yaks. Then both animals and men 
hauled as hard as they could, and the heavy beast was 
successfully hoisted up. A little farther on we nearly had 
a repetition of the same performance; only the yak stopped 
in time to save himself Next it was one of the men who 
went through, and remained hanging at his armpits. After 
that we thought it was about time to call a halt, and make 
a reconnaissance of the ice, which was crossed and re- 
crossed in every direction by pitfalls. 
We found that the ice-cap on which we were standing 
was chequered throughout by crevasses running in all 
directions, intersecting each other, and cutting off our 
advance on every side. Then, to make matters worse, we 
discovered a crevasse nine to twelve feet broad, and 
eighteen feet deep, and at the bottom of it great masses 
of snow were piled up. We peeped cautiously over the 
edge, and saw that the chasm extended in both directions 
like an enormous trench. Northwards it ran as far as the 
trough of the Chal-tumak glacier, and south-westwards to 
the foot of one of the highest of the ice-swellings. To 
get over it, or round it, seemed equally impossible ; so 
we stopped and held a council of war. 
The layer of snow which sheathed the ice-mantle was 
ten inches thick, and stretched across the crevasses like 
a tarpaulin. It was only across the broader chasms that 
it was cracked or had fallen in. Where the yaks broke 
through, they left gaping holes, which on our first looking 
into them appeared to be pitch dark. But when our eyes 
became used to the darkness, we saw that it was only a 
blue glimmer, and that the bottom of the chasm was 
buried in snow. The icy walls were of the clearest blue, 
and the glacier-water trickling down them froze into rows 
of long icicles hanging down the abyss. The deepest of 
these crevasses was twenty-two feet three inches deep. 
Evening was coming on, and I was again constrained to 
