Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1880 — The Glacier of Zarafshan. [ARTICLE]

The Glacier of Zarafshan.

Professor Mushketoff, the Russian geologist, and M. Ivanhoff visited the glacier of Zarafehan, one of the greatest in Central Asia, last summer, and were quite successful in their explorations. The lower extremity of the glacier, says Prof. (Mushketoff, is at the hight of 9,000 feet. The Galtoha 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 traveller must go, and that the pillars would certainly crush together if anyone ventured into the icy solitude. A tunnel. no lees than 8,500 feet long, runs under the glacier, being the bed of the Macha river. The temperature during the day was as high as 72 degrees, and during the night as low as 24 defc grees. On the fourth day the explorers reached the first watershed, or rather the first iceshed. The whole length of the glacier to this point was 16 miles, the width being one mile. Six other glacier, each of which is greater than the greatest Alpine gla clers, 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 dis-

flcult than the ascent. The crevasses are numerous and the glacier has several great “ice-falls,” tne inclination of which is no less than 50 degrees. The explorers were compelled to make use of small anchors and to cut steps in the ice.