RETURN TO KASHGAR 
433 
evil repute. The incline from the west was not particu- 
larly steep ; but the snow was nearly sixteen inches deep. 
It was a curious pass ; the summit broad and dome- 
shaped, covered with a thin glacier tongue, over which 
we rode for a mile and a quarter. The adjacent moun- 
tains were relatively low ; those to the right (the south) 
entirely sheathed in ice, those to the north being either 
bare crystalline rocks of a black colour or sprinkled with 
thin patches of snow. The east side however was in- 
conceivably steep, consisting of a moraine littered with 
fairly large fragments of rock and layers of schist with 
sharp points and edges. There I found it advisable to 
walk, for the horses continually threatened to come down 
on their knees. Fortunately this time we had hired yaks 
to carry our baggage. By degrees the declivity became 
less steep, and we got clown to the valley of Merkeh 
without further incident, and encamped in a solitary 
yurt at an altitude of 1 1,780 feet. 
The following days we travelled at a good speed down 
towards the plains of East Turkestan. In the glens on 
the east side it was snowing steadily; and on October 13th 
there was a high wind into the bargain, so that we rode 
through driving snow the whole day. The stream that 
traversed the Merkeh valley, being augmented by a 
number of tributaries from a series of small side-glens, 
had excavated a deep channel through the conglomerate 
terraces, along which we were often obliged to ride. 
The bottom of the stream was encumbered with large 
fragments of gneiss and clay-slate. At Sughet (9890 feet), 
which derives its name from the willows that grow 
there, the tents were deeply embedded in the snow ; 
but the chief, Togda Mohammed Bai, had a friendly 
reception for us. 
On October 14th we marched to Chatt, the camp of 
Mohammed Togda Beg, chief of the Eastern Kirghiz. 
On the way thither we passed the Kara-tash-yilga, 
traversed by the stream that conies down from the pass 
of Kara-tash. The following day’s march took us over 
a .secondary pass, Gedyack-belez (13,040 feet), with a soft 
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