TO FORT PAMIR AND BACK 397 
hollow space, in which a stone tablet bearing an inscription 
was originally inserted ; but it has been removed to St. 
Petersburg. 
We then continued our way westwards along the 
northern shore of the Yeshil-kul, over the vast gravel 
slopes, which have rolled down from the disintegrated 
hills above, and stretch down to the lake at an angle 
of thirty-three degrees. At this point the Alichur valley 
became so contracted that the lake was barely two miles 
across, while its length was as much as fourteen. The 
lake was undoubtedly very deep, for the water was a 
greenish blue colour, and had a temperature of Fahr. 
(18° C.), though it was not so limpid as the water of the 
Little Kara-kul. Its altitude was 12,460 feet. 
Several side-valleys, with streams flowing through them, 
reached the lake along both shores. The largest was 
known as Chong-marjanay ; and although its volume, at 
the time we saw it, was not more than 105 cubic feet 
in the second, it had nevertheless formed a delta that 
projected some distance into the lake. 
We halted on a small spit of low-lying land, Kamper- 
chick, close by the side of the lake, spreading out our felt 
carpets on the ground in a thick clump of bushes, which 
were already dry and bare of leaves. Having made tea 
and eaten a very simple supper, I jotted down the 
experiences of the day in my diary by the light of an 
enormous fire, which lighted up the whole neighbourhood ; 
then, having wrapped myself in my furs, I fell asleep to 
the monotonous murmur of the waves. 
On September 3rd and 4th we explored the western 
end of the Yeshil-kul, a particularly interesting spot. The 
south shore was overhung by a branch of the vast 
range of mountains which divides the Yeshil-kul from the 
country of Shugnan, and which bears in that region the 
common name of Kara-korum (the Black Stony Tract). 
Its summit, near the western end of the lake, where the 
river Ghunt issued, was covered with snow ; and we could 
even discern a rudimentary glacier, which in former times 
must have been very much larger, and together with its 
