PHYSIOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS. 
127 
reacliiny the pass, and our horses were soon strugj^lino- tip the steep slope past 
countless skeletons of unlucky pack animals that had fallen in the effort. The 
clouds gathered .so rapidly that the pass, the elevation of which is 11,600 feet, was 
in a sea of mist when the summit was reached. On the southern side the snow 
Fig. 86.— Ak-Busa-Ga. 
was much deeper and the drifts so heavy that our guides had difficulty in remaining 
on the trail, but a short descent led us below the snow-line and down to Sari Tash, 
on the edge of the Great Alai Valley. There we halted for a day to rest the horses. 
The Alai Valle}', as it is first seen (fig. 87), looking across from the foothills at 
Sari Tash, is one vast expanse of smooth green lawn, abruptly bordered on the south 
by a magnificent wall of snow-clad inouutaius, and extending east and west nearly 
as far as the eye can reach. It is 75 miles long, averages 15 miles in width, lies 
Fig. 87. — Looking across the Alai Valley to the Trans-Alai Mountains. Taken from a peak north ol Sari Tash. 
10,000 feet above the sea, and is walled in by the Alai anil Trans-Alai mountains, 
two of the lofty ranges of the world. For nine moutlis of the year snow several 
feet thick lies upon it. Then it is void of humau habitation, and the wolves hunt 
undisputedly the wild sheep and ibex. By the beginning of July this snow has 
melted. Like magic the grass turns green, the poppies and buttercups bloom, the 
marmots come out to sun themselves and call in shrill notes to one another, and. 
