TO FORT PAMIR AND BACK 401 
even the yaks could climb them. The conformation of 
the mountain was in that quarter extremely rugged ; in 
fact, it was a sheer wall, with craggy contours and 
irregular ridges and cols, and the glaciers were so short 
that they seldom emerged from between the arms of the 
mountain. Its lower slopes presented the characteristics 
of an ancient moraine - landscape, with cirques, ridges, 
erratic blocks, and pools ; and further on they gradually 
merged into the plains of Tagharma. The next two 
H 
KARA-KORUM, ON THE SOUTH OF MUS-TAGH-ATA 
fundamental rifts in the central mass of the mountain 
were called Kara-korum. They possessed no glaciers ; 
but the ancient moraines at their base were deeply 
excavated by running water, and the entire region was 
strewn with gigantic fragments of a beautiful grey gneiss 
and smaller pieces of crystalline schist ; among which a 
number of hares were hopping about. 
Finally we branched off to the north-east, entering the 
glen of the Tegherman-su. There we halted by the side 
of the brook, in a pleasant camping-ground among the 
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