OCR Text |
Show Professor Mushketoff the Russian geologist and ? ?[lrauoff] visited the glacier of Zarafshan [one] of the greatest in Central Asia, last summer and were quite successful in their explorations. The lower extremity of the glacier, says professor Mushketoff, is at the height of 9,000 feet. The ?[Goitein] people who inhabit the upper valley of the Zarafshan have never ascended the glacier. They say that on the summit of it there are two great pillars of stone, between which the [traveler] must go, and that the pillars would certainly ?[crush, crunch] together if any one ventured into the icy ?[altitude]. A ?[unusual no team; or stream] than ?[8,500 or 3,500] feet long, runs under the glacier, being the bed of the Macon river. The temperature during the day was as high as 73, and during the night as low as 21°. On the fourth day the explorers reached the first water-shed, or rather the first ?[bed-shed]. The whole length of the glacier to this point was sixteen miles, the width being one mile. Six other glaciers each of which is greater that the greatest Alpine glaciers, fed the principal one. At the head of it there is a wide cirque opening to the east, and several peaks around it reach 20,000 feet. The descent on the other slope of the mountain ridge was far more steep and difficult than the ascent. The crevasses are numerous and the glacier has several great "ice-falls," the inclination of which is not less than 50 degrees. The explorers were compelled to make use of small anchors and to cut steps in the ice. |