CHAPTER LXXXI. 
OVER THE ARKA-TAGH AT LAST 
T hus it was not until August 24th, that we had the 
satisfaction of crossing the Arka-tagh. As soon as 
Hamdan Bai convinced himself and us, that the little Hen 
really did lead to the summit of the range, we once more 
effected a start. The winding stream trickled along under- 
neath its icy crust ; the snow was hard and compact. The 
same slaty rocks as hitherto still predominated, but cropped 
out almost vertically. The approach to the pass was not 
particularly steep, and upon reaching the top we were at 
length gratified with the view towards the south which we 
had so longed to behold. But it was not Littledale’s pass. 
The pass by which he crossed the range was situated a 
few miles farther to the east. This Hamdan Bai was able 
to confirm by sufficient proof : Littledale’s men built a 
cairn of stones on the summit of the pass they crossed 
by, but there was no cairn on that by which we crossed. 
Probably the range can be surmounted in several places 
in the .neighbourhood, possibly at the head of each 
glen, for the pass by which we reached the other side 
was very little lower than the crest of the range itself. 
Although the snow lay in thin patches in the glens on 
both sides, there was none in the pass itself, and yet 
the absolute altitude was very considerable, amounting to 
18,180 feet. 
From the south-east right round to the south-west we 
had an uninterrupted view of almost boundless extent, 
only intercepted on the east and west by outliers of the 
main range. The southern face of the Arka-tagh was 
much steeper than the northern. We descended through 
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