OVER THE ULLUG-ART PASS 671 
when the other three are snowed up. Ullug-art also is 
dangerous, and is not used unless the Ghez-daria is in 
flood and impassable. Under the most favourable circum- 
stances it is only practicable during two months in the 
year, from the middle of June to the middle of August. 
And throughout the entire twelvemonth enormous masses 
of snow lie heaped up in the pass. 
Upon leaving Upal we crossed a desolate steppe 
country, which rose by a slow and gradual incline towards 
A MERCHANT OP EAST TURKESTAN 
the entrance of the glen that gave access to the pass. 
But although the steppe was barren, it was trenched by 
several deep and wide ravines, the bottoms of which were 
green with fertile meadows, where sheep were grazin,^ in 
large numbers. Having traversed the steppe, we rode 
in between the grandiose columns of black and grey clay- 
slate which mark the entrance to the glen. The or inary 
poplar was common up to the end of our rst 
journey, though we only saw one solitary willow ; but 
after that tree vegetation ceased. The features of the 
glen were sharply marked ; a little brook of crystal water 
