Beyond it lay the lines of eternal snow--ridges studded with dark rocks set in great banks of the white mantle that gleamed bright under the clear sunshine.

These were the eastern and highest branches of the Tannu Ola system.

We spent the night beneath this wood and began the passage of it in the morning.

At noon the guide began leading us by zigzags in and out but everywhere our trail was blocked by deep ravines, great jams of fallen trees and walls of rock caught in their mad tobogganings from the mountain top.

We struggled for several hours, wore out our horses and, all of a sudden, turned up at the place where we had made our last halt.