lous, however, as is the perfection of this record of such long past times, there is much to be done before the full story can be deciphered.

"We are still ignorant of the position of the probably receding shoreline which must have marked the boundary between the northern landformed deposit and the southern subaqueous one. We have not yet discovered the ancient coast-line, which should be indicated by the passage of the land-formed ground moraine, or unconformable 'Glacial Conglomerate,' into the conformable 'Dwyka Conglomerate,' or subaqueous silt with its foreign boulders, laid down under quiet waters, south of the glacier front quite conformably on the Witteberg Quartzites. It is probable that sufficiently good outcrops exist along the western side of the Karroo to reveal this passage of unconformable 'Glacial Conglomerate' into the conformable 'Dwyka,' and thus mark the position of a portion at least of the ancient shore-line. To discover if such evidence is obtainable will be part of our work in the immediate future."

AMID THE SNOWS OF BALTISTAN.

By FANNY BULLOCK WORKMAN, F.R.S.G.S., M.R.A.S.

A PARTY, consisting of Dr. W. H. Workman, Mattia Zurbriggen, myself, and about fifty coolies and servants, left Serinagar, Kashmir, on July 1st, 1899, and passed by the upper Deosai route to Skardu and Shigar. Thence crossing the Skoro La (17,000 feet) in three marches, we reached Askole, in Braldu, at the foot of the Biafo, Punmah, and Baltora glaciers.

The Skoro La is one of the most beautiful and varied of the many mountain passes which we crossed during our two summers in high Asia. We were told at Skardu that it was still too early in the year to cross the Skoro La; but we had not much faith in the opinions of the valley people, and decided to open the pass for the season, if, indeed, it had not been crossed already.

Two or three hours' march from Shigar brought us to Askor Nullah, a village shaded with apricot-trees, at the opening of a wild ravine leading to the pass. A considerable time was lost here by our servants, and it was nearly ten o'clock before we succeeded in entering the ravine. The trail winds under high precipices, and sometimes climbs over the steep faces of adjacent rocks; and we had to ford the Askor torrent twelve times before reaching the base of the pass.

Askole has been aptly called "the world's end"; the name is given to seven villages scattered about the valley, each having its own lambardar or chief. The principal collection of huts, connected with the outer world only by a flimsy rope bridge and the trackless ice rivers towards Hunza and Turkestan, stands in the last dot of green on the ragged edge of a world of rock and snow. The bridge which spans the Braldu river, at a width of 270 feet, is one of the longest and most trying in the country.

In Shigar the Askole people are spoken of as Braldu men. The

Askole valley is in the province of Braldu, but the Braldu inhabitants are very similar to the Baltis, dressing like them, and, so far as we could learn, speaking the same language. They are of Tibetan origin though Mohammedan in religion; they are cheerful and garrulous, and are naturally good mountaineers, although, like the Kashmiri, they prefer to huddle round a camp fire and gossip all day.

We proposed to follow up the Biafo glacier for more than thirty miles to the Hispar pass; this was not a common undertaking for the Askole people, and three days had passed before the lambardars had assembled coolies and collected the necessary provisions. No European

had been there since Sir Martin Conway and his party had descended the glacier in 1892. The chiefs seemed to be all new men, and the only souvenir of the Conway party was Sir Martin's chit of reference, which was handed to us by Lumbardar Kinchin, who was to be chief of our band. He had not been with Sir Martin Conway, but he now owned the testimonial, and, as he spoke Hindustani, was to act as interpreter as well as leader of the men, He wore the cast-off coat of a Sahib, and carriel a cotton umbrella. He failed as a disciplinarian, but never lost his dignified demeanour.

We left Askole on the 16th of July. Two hours' march brought us to the beginning of the glacier, where all paths cease, and the tiresome moraine work common to all great glaciers begins. A recession of the

snout of the glacier has taken place in late years.

Colonel Godwin

Austen tells us that in 1861 the end abutted against the cliffs of the south side of the Askole valley; now, it only reaches the line of the north side. Zurbriggen, who was with the Conway party in 1892, also found great changes in the first twelve miles of our route; it had become much more heavily crevassed and broken into séracs, and consequently was more difficult to explore. We ascended the high lateral moraine at a point over a mile from the end of the glacier, thus shortening our distance and obtaining an early foothold on the ice. The march continued all day over great truncatêd séracs, divided by deep crevasses. The ice, though often very slippery, was generally concealed by a varied covering

of detritus of mud and sand. Boulders of granite, white quartz, sandstone, and shale lay all about, sometimes bridging the crevasses. We made fair headway; towards night we left the glacier, climbed to a high. alluvial terrace, and encamped at a height of 11,775 feet.

The next day, as we attacked the glacier, we foresaw hard and slow work giant honeycombed séracs rose as far as the eye could reach, and a light covering of new snow lay over ice and detritus. The crevasses were longer, wider, and seldom spanned by bridges. We sought for a passage not far from camp, but found none on that side; we then crossed to the centre and tried our fortune amid a reach of séracs rising like a huge white tongue fifty feet or more above our trail. We had to spend several hours cutting steps over and around them.

After losing much time we succeeded in bringing the coolies through, until we came upon two specially high séracs separated by a profound crevasse. On the side of one of these Zurbriggen had to cut a gallery fully thirty feet long. A number of the older coolies began to remonstrate and talk of returning; but a firm reply restored discipline. Owing to the projection of the icy walls, the coolies could not follow loaded, so that the loads had to be handed through the passage first. To accomplish this, Kinchin and our bearer were placed in the gallery to hand the packs-some of which weighed sixty pounds-to Zurbriggen, who stood at the most precarious point, with one leg across the crevasse and his foot braced against the opposite sérac; he passed them on to

two camp servants standing on a lower shelf. Last of all came two sheep, which were to serve as food; one was landed safely, the other, carelessly handled, slipped into the crevasse. Zurbriggen insisted that he should be lowered on a rope, and succeeded in recovering it unhurt.

We next reached a couloir, through which we pushed as fast as possible, but soon came to a flat ice surface where we were confronted with huge bridgeless crevasses which could not be jumped. As the weather was thickening, the day advanced, and the guide unable to find a passage, we decided to return to the old camp for the night. There we remained during the following day while Zurbriggen and Kinchin made a reconnaissance: at last a bridge was discovered near the point which we had left.