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
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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mmadju the risk of packages getting left behind inthe snow would have been serious. As long as our track skirted the steep slopes lookingsouth near the debouchure of the Wakhjir stream, therewas danger from possible avalanches ; but this grewless after we could take, about 10 a.m., to the deepand almost flat snow-beds filling the broadening valleyas it gently rises towards the pass. Pushing aheadwith the two Ram Singhs and a couple of Wakhis, whocarried the precious cameras, I struggled through thesnow in which we often sank waist-deep. Grateful was Ifor the light mist which settled after mid-day, and some-what relieved the intense glare which added pain to thistoil. At last towards 2 p.m. we gained the flat expanse ofsnow marking the top of the Wakhjir. My hypsometricalreadings of 1900 had given a height of about 16,200 feetfor the watershed; but how deep this now lay buriedunder snow it was impossible to determine. Even thehigh glacier tongue with beautiful stalactites of the purest
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cH.viii ON THE SNOW-BURIED WAKHJIR 85 ice, which I had then observed within a few hundred yardsnorth of the pass, was now completely effaced. Only thetop of one huge boulder emerged from this deep snowmantle, and on it we few were glad to crouch for a shortrest. Nothing impressed me more with the toil these longhours of ascent had cost us than the subdued whining of* Dash, my inseparable little companion. For him, withhis irrepressible young fox - terrier spirits, the monthshard travelling from the Swat border had seemed so farbut an enjoyable outing. Nor were snow slopes anynovelty for him ; for had he not two years earlier whenquite a young puppy by his delight of romping on thesnow - beds of the Kaghan mountains earned his full-fledged Turki title of *Kar-dash Beg (Sir Snow-Friend), which I bestowed upon him for his incognitoon prospective Central-Asian travels ? Now he was eagerto huddle up under the lap of my fur coat, and to forgetall the stress of this day in a short nap. When

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