St. Landry democrat., 1888-10-20
A DANGEROUS TRIP.
Descending Mountain, Expecting Every
Moment to Be Dashed to Death.

Descending a Mountain, Expecting Every
Moment to Be Dashed to Death.
After looking at the mountains for
half an hour we turned our attention
to the valley of the Katun beneath us,
with the view to ascertaining whether
it would be possible to get down into
it and reach the foot of the main gla-
cier, which gave birth to the Katun
river. Mr.. Frost declared the descent
to be utterly impracticable, and almost
lost patience with me because l insist
ed upon the guides trying it. "Any
body can see," he said, ''that this slope
ends in big precipice; and even if we
get our horses down there, we never
can get them up again. 1t is foolish
to think OF such thing" / had
seen enough, however, of Kirghis
horses to feel great confidence
in their climbing abilities; and
although the descent did look very
dangerous, / was by no means satisfied
that it was utterly impracticable.
While we were discussing the question
our guide was making a bold and
practical attempt to solve it. We
could no longer see him from where
we stood, but every now and then a
stone or small bowlder, dislodged by
his horses feet, would leap suddenly
into sight three hundred or four hun
bred feet below us, and go crashing
down the mountain side, clearing two
hundred feet at every bound, and
finally dashing itself to pieces against
the rocks at the bottom, with noise
like the distant rafting discharge of
musketry. Our guide was evidently
making progress. In a few moments
he came into sight on a bold, rocky
buttress about six hundred feet below
us, and shouted cheerfully: 'Come
on! This is nothing! You could get
down here with a telega" Inasmuch
as one could hardly look down there
without getting dizzy, this
was rather a hyperbolical state
ment of the possibilities of
the case; but it had the
effect OF silencing Mr. Frost, who took
his horse by the bride and followed
me down the mountain in cautious zig
gags, while ! kept as nearly as could
in the track of our leader. At the but
tress the guide frightened my forward
and after saddle girths until my horse
groaned and grunted a protest, and |
climbed again into the saddle. 1t
seemed to me safer, on the whole, to
ride down than to try to walk down
leading my horse, since in the latter
case he was constantly sliding upon
me, or dislodging loose stones which
threatened to knock my legs from under
me and launch me into space like a
proiectile from a catapult. The first
hundred feet of the descent were very
bad. It was almost impossible to keep
in the saddle on account of the steep
ness of the incline, and once | just
escaped being pitched over my horses
head at the end of one of his short
slides. We finally reached a very steep,
but grassy, slope like the side of
titantic embankment, down which we
zig-zagged, with much discomfort but
without any danger, to the bottom of
the Katun valley. AS we rode toward
the great peaks, and finally, leaving
our hafaH@ climbed on the principal
glacier. saw how greatly we had I'M
Aefestn ated distances, heights and
magni hdes from the elevated position
NshichI we had previously occupied.
Fir Katun river, which from above
had looked like narrow, dirty white
ribbon that child could step across,
proved to be torrent thirty or forty
feet wide, with a current almost deep
and strong enough to sweep away a
horse and rider. The main glacier,
which had taken to be about three
hundred feet wide, proved to have
width of more than half a mile. -
George Keaaasass. IN Century.
An authority estimates that since
1919 ~, u, ,rea.,t {, n fhic ca,1ntpu from,