ASCENDING MUS-TAGH-ATA 361 
beat a retreat ; for it would have been useless to wait till 
the next day, and then try to find another passage. It 
was plainly impossible to venture upon an ascent of 
Mus-tagh-ata from this side without special appliances, 
which were not at our disposal. Above us towered the 
loftiest summit of the mountain, and down its precipitous 
sides glided the eternal ice, streaming in part to the 
collecting-basin of the glacier ; and where the declivities 
were convex and the ice-mantle was checked by the relief 
of the underlying ground, it built itself up into veritable 
terraces, walls, towers, and solid blocks of enormous 
dimensions. To get past these seemed, so far as we 
could judge from the spot where we stood, altog'ether 
beyond the. reach of human power. 
Our first two ascents up beside the right wall of the 
Yam-bulak glacier had taken us over incomparably more 
favourable ground ; we determined to try that route once 
more before we finally abandoned the project as hopeless. 
We had only reached an altitude of 18,500 feet, it is true; 
but as a set-off, the trip had been attended with important 
cartographical results. We had got a splendid insight 
into the disposition of the higher regions — the cylindrical 
shape of the mountain, and its covering of ice, which is 
so difficult of interpretation, and of the relation of the 
ice-mantle to the several glaciers. The latter, which are 
in reality colossal ice-streams, looked like insignificant 
white bands from that altitude, of no magnitude at all in 
comparison with the stupendous volume of the ice-mantle. 
On Sunday, August 1 2th, we rested ; and, as was my 
wont, I read the Bible lessons for the day during the quiet 
forenoon, and afterwards studied Heim’s Gletscherkimde. 
The weather was anything but inviting for an excursion. 
The atmosphere was thick ; it was blowing hard ; and the 
mountains were wreathed in thick clouds. All my men 
were away on leave, having been invited to a festivity of 
some kind by Togda Bai Beg. Only Yolldash and I 
were at home, enjoying our rest, which never was more 
delightful than when the weather was bad, and the wind 
whistled and howled among the rocks outside. I never 
