The San Francisco call., 1906-11-04

twisted twig ropes, the lowest for the
feet and the upper ones to be grasped
by the hands and arms. 1t was not a
pleasant sensation to swing there over
the growing currents and speculate on
what would happen should one or all
the ropes part, as has been known to
occur.
Askole has been called the end of tie
world, not inaptly, the designation
applying to seven villages scattered
through that remote valley.
The Biafo and Baltoro glaciers. for
exploring which Askole is the starting
point, are said to be the two largest
glaciers outside the Arctic regions. Our
plan was to follow up the former some
forty miles to its origin at Hispar Pass
and return to Askole. The only Euro
pean who ever crossed Hispar Pass was
Sir Martin Conway, in 1892.
Owing to the projections of ice the
coolies could not easily follow while
loaded. so II was necessary to bring
their loads through the passage first.
To do this two of the men stationed
themselves in the gallery and handed
the packs. some weighing sixty pounds,
TO the chief of the guides. whom we
had brought from Europe. who stood at
the most dangerous point with one
leg astride the crevasse and passed
them on to the coolies stationed on a
shelf below.
July 90 saw US al Boggy Camp. Is. $50
feet up. where we were all but routed
by flies. huge ones and reckless as
though they desired to make the most
of this one opportunity to form the ac-
quaintance of humanity. Their well
meant attentions met with rather an in
human reception, and the list OF the
slain was large. No prisoners were
taken. though compared with Jersey
mosquitoes they were as tigers to kit
tens.
over all was a vast silence broken at
intervals by the roar of avalanches and
deafening explosions caused by the
cracking Of the ice, the salutes of the
glacier to the peaks above. Now and
again a bowlder fell booming into the
valley, and then the tension of stiffness
in the ice world was resumed. No ar
ray of words can describe the utter
feeling of isolation there.
In Mystic Surroundings.
All the camping places on the Biafo.
as far as Ogre Camp. were milestones to
ever increasing grandeur, until it be-
came quite impossible to gaze in any
direction upon a commonplace outline
or into a banal vista. Most glaciers.
like most valleys and most persons,
have their prosaic points and seldom
reach an interesting climax. Not so
with this proud, toploftical region. It's
crevassed windings trend ever onward
toward greater environing beauty, till
they merge into a vast white pail or
lake where the bordering heights
spread out and join hands I'm a peerless
cirque OF weird ice towers fit to bivouac
the god spirits of Himalaya
From Ogre Camp upward it was nee
essary TO move with caution. With all
due care, however, we were ever in
snow or crevasses. and once l sank to
nay chin and came within an inch of
smothering. zurbriggen,- the guide, or
dered me TO pull on the rope and push
back with my feet--good advice when
there is anything to push against but
pushing against space In a bottornless
abyss accomplishes nothing. Finally,
and fortunately, they succeeded in
resrrrecting and reviving me, so that
the adventure was a low price to pay
for the magnificent scene one witnessed
three hours later when we made camp
for the night.
Amid those vast solitudes some faint
conception may be formed OF the mag
nitude and energy of the forces which
are slowly but surely changing the face
of nature. Sun, frost and moisture
contending among the mountain tops
split off immense fragments of hardest
rock. Gravity seizes them. They start.