PHYSIOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS. 1 29 
free from clouds, and tlie rose tints of sunrise were fading away from the snow- 
fields of Mount Kaufmanu. There was a long journey before us over Kizil-Art 
pass to Kara Kid. 
The trail follows along the edge of the Kizil-Art darya to the pass. The snow 
had melted to its perpetual line, leaving a few masses of white forking down into 
the ravines. The landscape was everj'where characterized by an extraordinary- 
richness of coloring, especially the deep red of bare g\psum rocks forking into the 
soft green of grassy slopes, and above them a deep-blue sk}-, broken here and there 
by silver)' clouds. Always cutting our view in twain was the deep valley of the 
ever-roaring torrent along which we rode. In places this valley narrowed to a 
canyon, and the trail led us above, where we looked down into depths from which 
the sound of roaring water could barely reach us. 
When about 12 versts from Bor Daba we sighted a flock of takkan (ibex) 
grazing on the thin grass of a side fan, and a little farther along, on a distant ridge, 
five Marco Polo sheep {Ovis poll), standing one behind the other, and clearly out- 
lined against the sky. Farther up the valley the green slopes gave way to barren 
red, streaked here and there with drifts of snow. On all sides rose massive spurs 
of deep red, sharply carved into parallel ravines running straight down the slopes 
and crested with dazzling snow outlined above against a sky of turquoise blue. 
At about II a. m. the caravan reached Kizil-Art pass, 13,721 feet above sea 
level (by recent Russian leveling), where we stopped to rest the animals. They had 
carried us 20 versts o\-er a rough trail and up 3,000 feet in four hours, and e\-en the 
strongest were panting hard from the rarefied atmosphere. Looking back we coidd 
see the deep valley out of which we had climbed. Its dark bottom seemed to 
reach a depth even greater in perspective than the height of the mountain above us. 
Here I left the caravan, and while it went on down to Kara Kul I climbed on 
foot the first peak to the west. This was an excellent position from which to 
compare the forms established by erosion on the north and south sides of the 
Trans-Alai crest. On the north the slopes began by sinking into broad amj^hi- 
theaters, and beyond fell rapidly into deep valleys and dark ravines, separated by 
high, irregular spurs of soft gypsum and sandstone. On the south, the Pamir side, 
there seemed to be no great descent ; long, straight spurs extended transversely from 
the main mass, and between them lay flat plains of gravel, starting in the cirques 
just below the crest and inclining gently toward the south. 
We had expected to find the region about Kara Kul like the Alai \'alle\-, green 
with grass ; in reality the two could hardly be more diflferent. From the high 
slopes of the pass, wet from melting snow, the trail led to a Avy steppe of gravel 
extending nearly as far as the eye could reach. In a few \-ersts the stream wander- 
ing on its surface dwindled away, leaving a drj' bed. One could perceive nothing 
living. Here and there projected piles of bowlders hollowed, pitted, and polished 
by the sand. All along the trail were the bleached bones and skeletons of pack 
animals that had probably died under loads. 
After a seemingly interminable ride along stony steppes, pa.st barren talus- 
shrouded mountains, and over large, incgular piles of moraine, the desert basin of 
