398 THROUGH ASIA 
moraines must have completely shut in the valley in that 
quarter. The Yeshil-kul vras thus formed in the same 
way as the Little Kara-kul. That is to say, it is the 
reservoir or collecting basin of the drainage of the Alichur 
valley, which afterwards passes out of it across, if I may 
so say, the moraine threshold ; then, under the name of 
the Ghunt, it cuts its way through a narrow glen, steep 
and wild, and finally joins the river Panj. The moraine 
was composed of huge blocks of granite, and was ex- 
cessively difficult to get across. I was at first astonished 
YESHIL-KUL, LOOKING SOUTH-EAST FROM ITS WESTERN END 
to find that the river Ghunt, which has the name of being 
as large as the Murghab, was but an inconsiderable stream, 
with a volume of scarcely more than 280 cubic feet of 
water in the second. But the mystery was soon explained: 
the greater portion of the current found its way under- 
neath the moraine, where it was plainly audible as it 
hurtled along. 
We returned to P'ort Pamir through the Alichur Pamirs 
and over the pass of Naisa-tash. There the report reached 
us, that Togdasin Beg had been punished with three 
hundred lashes on the bare back for not having informed 
Jan Darin, that I had crossed the frontier, and that the 
