File:Ruins of desert Cathay - personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China (1912) (14779956961).jpg

Identifier: ruinsofdesertcat01stei (find matches)
Title: Ruins of desert Cathay : personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Stein, Aurel, Sir, 1862-1943 Archaeological Survey of India
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Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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aggage couldnot be sent off towards the Baroghil until 8 a.m., when thesun had melted the hard crust. The ponies and sparemen had been employed the day before to clear a trackthrough the soft snow covering the Rukang Pass to a depthof three to four feet. Yet in spite of this pioneering ittook more than three hours to get the baggage over thefour miles of otherwise easy slopes separating our VedinkotCamp from the open Maidan known as Baroghil-yailak,where the route for Wakhan strikes off from the mainvalley of the Mastuj river. Here, at an elevation ofsome I i,ooo feet, snow still covered the greater part of theeasy Pamir-like valley which during the summer formsa favourite grazing - ground for Wakhi shepherds fromSarhad. Pushing on to Chikmar-robat, one of their usual camp-ing grounds, we had no more than four miles of openvalley between us and the Baroghil saddle, that remark-able depression of the Hindukush range where the water-shed between Indus and Oxus drops to only 12,400 feet.
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cH.vi BELOW THE BAROGHIL 6i But the attempt to reach the saddle that day soon provedhopeless, as I had feared. The warmth of that brilliantly-clear day had made the snow so soft that after a mile or sowalking became most difficult even for men, while theladen animals stuck helplessly after a few hundred yards.There was nothing for it but to pitch camp at Chikmar-robat, and to try to open a track for the morrow by send-ing ahead all ponies unladen, with every available manthat could be spared. From the easy slope above our camping-place I enjoyeda glorious view of all the high peaks which flank the Darkot,and of the mighty ice streams descending from them (Fig.24). Chatiboi was visible in its full length, with theneedle-like Koyo-zum Peak rising behind its topmost nevebeds. The highest part of the glacier, known as Kalandar-ghum, and an object of Mastuji legend, has so steep a fallthat it looked from this distance almost like a huge frozencascade. The route to the Darkot lay mostly hid

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