MOONLIGHT ON MUS-TAGH-ATA 375 
A grander camping - ground, however, I have never 
pitched tent on than the snow-clad slopes of this one 
of the loftiest mountains in the world, at whose foot the 
glacier-tongues, streams, and lakes were already wrapped 
in darkness, and on the edge, too, of one of the most 
fantastic of glaciers — a few steps to the south and we 
should have fallen down an abyss twelve hundred feet 
deep on to blue ice that sparkled as bright as steel. 
I had expected a picturesque sunset ; but that evening 
it was nothing- out of the common. 1 he .sun sank into 
THE RIGHT LATERAL MORAINE OF THE YAM-BULAK GLACIER, 
LOOKING EAST- SOUTH-EAST 
clouds illumined by a fiery yellow flare, which glowed for 
a long time after the sun had set, and threw up the moun- 
tains of the Pamirs in sharp relief. The whole Sarik-kol 
valley lay for some time in darkness, while the sun was 
still shedding its last rays over the top of Mus-tagh-ata. 
But soon even our camp was shrouded in cold, dark 
shades. The top of the mountain glittered for a moment 
like the ruddy crater of a volcano, and then the light of 
the day was swallowed up in endless space. 
