Altai Mountains

“ The same author notes the diminution of marks of ice-action on going eastward in the Alps; and the Altai Mountains far in Central Asia show no signs of having been largely glaciated. West of the Rocky Mountains, however, in the Sierra Nevada and the coast ranges further north, signs of extensive old glaciers again appear; all which phenomena are strikingly in accordance with the theory here advocated, of the absolute dependence of glaciation on abundant rainfall and elevated snow-condensers and accumulators. ”

“ It has been asserted that mountaineers are fairer than lowlanders in the same latitude. This is generally the case, but there are some striking exceptions to the rule. The natives of the Mexican plateaus are as brown as those of the coast, and the Aymaras and Quichuas of the Peruvian Andes are darker than the Yuracaras of the forests to the east. The inhabitants of the Altai Mountains are yellow; those of the plains of European Russia, at the same distance from the equator, white. ”

“ As you know, the highest peak of the Altai Mountains is 15,000 feet tall, high enough to be of help in rocket research. The capital city of the Tuvinian Autonomous Region is Kysyl Khoto. This city has only recently become involved in industrial activity. ”

“ If that is so there is no need for us to invoke the agency of meteorites in pitting the surface of the moon. South of the Altai Mountains you will see a singular collocation of ring plains and craters which somewhat resemble in their 202arrangement Theophilus and its neighbors. First comes a large sunken plain just above the mountains. In fact the Altai range constitutes the northwestern wall of this formation, which you may recognize by a conspicuous oval crater near its upper side. ”

“ The Pyrenees, on the western side of the Mare Nectaris, extend in a meridional direction for nearly 190 miles, and include a peak east of Guttemberg of nearly 12,000 feet, and are traversed in many places by fine valleys.
The Altai Mountains form a magnificent chain, 275 miles in length, commencing on the outer eastern slope of Piccolomini, and following a tolerably direct north-east course, with a few minor bendings, to the west side of Fermat, where they turn more towards the north, ultimately terminating about midway between Tacitus and Catherina. ”

“ Whereas the western Ek-tagh Altai rises above the snow-line and is destitute of timber, the eastern double ranges barely touch the snow-line and are clothed with thick forests up to an altitude of 6250 ft. The slopes of the constituent chains of the system are inhabited principally by nomad Kirghiz.
The north-western and northern slopes of the Sailughem mountains are extremely steep and very difficult of access. On this side lies the culminating summit of the range, the double-headed Byelukha (the Mont Blanc of the Altai) , whose summits reach 14,890 and 14,560 ft. ”

“ And, lastly, that the shyness and wildness of the breed is due to the fact of their never having been confined in small enclosures, where they would come into close contact with man."
The Linnean Society's Journal—Zoology—contains a paper, read last December, by Mr. H.J. Elwes, "On the Zoology and Botany of the Altai Mountains," the results of a journey made in that region last summer. Mr. Elwes remarks that the Altai Mountains are almost unknown to English naturalists, and practically less known to naturalists as a whole than many parts of Central Africa. ”

“ East of this is the great plateau of Tibet, 10,000 to 17,000 feet, bounded on the south by the mighty Himalayas, and on the north by the mountains of Kuen Lun. On the north the Pamir plateau is bounded by the Alai range, passing north-east into the Tian-Shan mountains, rising to 24,000 feet in Khan-tengri. Still [77] further north-east comes the Altai range, with an elevation of 9000 feet. East of Lake Baikal lie a series of ranges averaging 8000 feet in height, and passing into the Stanovoi range of eastern Siberia and the mountains of Kamchatka. ”

“ It is, however, where rivers issue through narrow defiles among mountains, that the identity of the strata on both sides is most easily recognised, and remarked at the same time with the greatest wonder. On observing the Potowmack, where it penetrates the ridge of the Allegany mountains, or the Irtish, as it issues from the defiles of Altai, there is no man, however - 105 - little addicted to geological speculations, who does not immediately acknowledge, that the mountain was once continued quite across the space in which the river now flows ”

“ Some geological investigators affirm that the table-land inclosed between the northern slopes of the Himalayas, the Kuenlun, the desert of Gobi—which is said to be older than the formation of the Himalayas—the Heavenly or Blue mountains, and the Altaï, was the first land which rose from the waters, and that therefore it was the first, and perhaps the only place in the north, where man appeared. ”

“ It then crosses a series of high, bare ridges running generally at right angles to the course of the Írtish, and finally descends, through another deep, precipitous ravine, into the valley of Ulbínsk, which it follows to Ust Kámenogórsk. The mountains which compose this spur, or outlying branch, of the Altái system are not high, but, as will be seen from the illustration on page 235, they are picturesque and effective in outlining and grouping, and are separated one from another by extremely beautiful valleys and ravines. ”

“ The snow-clad ranges (gooo to 10,000 ft.) of the Altai and Narym enter it in the S.E., stretching S. to Lake Zaisan. Another complex of mountains, Kalbin, rising 5000 and 6000 ft. above the sea, continues them towards the west. ”

“ The dark mountains rising purple to the snow, peak beyond peak of the Southern Alps soaring white against that wondrous blue—so close they seem, so attainable—it is hard to realize they are 10,000 feet above us. And between two mountain walls, filling a mighty gorge, winds down the Franz Josef glacier; an icy chaos of pinnacles and seracs, green-blue and glittering white against the purple-black crags of the gorge. But strangest of all is where the glacier and the forest meet, and the splendid scarlet of the ratas seems almost to touch the ice and snow. ”

“ The valley in the distance seems shut in by the Allalein glacier, which is approached amid the waterworn boulders strewn by the river in its hours of turbulence. The rounded rocks are now beautified with lichens, and scattered trees glimmer among the heaps. Nature heals herself. She feeds the glacier and planes the mountains down. She fuses the glacier and exposes the dead rocks. But instantly her energies are exerted to neutralise the desolation, clothing the crags with beauty, and sending the wandering wind in melody through the branches of the pines. ”

“ From above the rains and snows and winds are chiselling away its rocks and bearing them to the plains. In time the process of pushing up ceases; the process of grinding down goes on remorselessly, never pausing for a moment.
So the mountains are eternal only in the figurative sense. Actually their term of existence is strictly finite. Once the Australian Alps had their tremendous peaks, and hills of unmelting ice. To-day they have been ground down to below the line of perpetual snow, and along the gentle grades of the chief peak it is possible to drive a carriage to the very summit. ”

“ The stripes of the moraine bending along the glacier contribute to its beauty, and its deep seclusion gives it a peculiar charm. It seems a river so protected by its bounding mountains that no storm can ever reach it, and no billow disturb the perfect serenity of its rest. The sweep of the Aletsch glacier is also mighty as viewed from this point, and from no other could the Valais range seem more majestic. It is needless to say a word about the grandeur of the Dom, the Cervin, and the Weisshorn, all of which, and a great deal more, are commanded from the Sparrenhorn. ”

“ In the high alpine valleys, and on the elevated plateaus of the main range, snow falls to a great depth in winter; the short summer begins late; the streams that rise among the colossal peaks of the Great Altái are generally torrents and flow through deep, rugged, almost impassable gorges until they descend to the level of the foot-hills; and the mountain walls that separate neighboring valleys are so high, rocky, and precipitous, that crossing them on horseback is difficult and dangerous, even when they are free from snow. ”

“ In other words, more than half of the peasants who made a journey of fifteen hundred miles to the Altai came back simply because they could not satisfactorily establish themselves in the country where they had hoped to find more land and better conditions of life. ”

“ But, as some one says, on the Aletsch the boundary mountains form an insignificant cup-lip to the glacier itself, which, to my knowledge, may be compared to the same on the Plaine-Morte only. The Oberland peaks, which from Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen exhibit such a wonderful wealth of design, are comparatively tame from the basin of the Aletsch. When we think of the Jungfrau we always think of her as seen from the pastures of the Wengern Alp. Seen from the Aletsch she is not particularly striking. One’s whole attention is focussed on the broad, silent reaches of snow. ”

“ The geologist who rises to more general views connected with the interior of the earth, regards, not indeed the direction, but the relative height of the rocky ridges which we term mountain chains, as a phenomenon of so little import, that he would not be astonished if there should one day be discovered between the Himalaya and the Altai, summits which should surpass the Dhawaligiri and the Djawahir as much as these surpass the Chimborazo. ”

“ At the upper end of the valley the trail, rising high above the brook, has been cut from the mountain side. Here the tongue or snout of the Asulkan Glacier first comes in sight, partly buried in the piles of rock, mud, and boulders forming its terminal moraine, an accumulation borne down and deposited by the glacier through the course of ages. ”

“ I saw many sheets of the geological map of the Altai region, which has been a long time in preparation, and will require several years to complete. Every mountain, hill, brook, and valley is laid down by careful surveyors, and when the map is finished it will be one of the finest and best in the world. One corps is engaged in surveying and mapping while another explores and opens mines. ”

“ Along the south-western border of this division of Mongolia a gigantic border-ridge, the Ektagh (or Mongolian) Altai, runs in an E.S.E. direction from the Russian Altai to 99° E. and is probably continued even farther by the Artsa-bogdo, the Saikhat and other ranges as far as the northern loop of the Yellow river. The passes across the Ektagh Altai lie at altitudes of 10,000 ft. in the north-west and 9250 ft. in 93° 20′ E.; farther east they become much lower. But while its southern foot stands in the Dzungarian trench, i.e. at altitudes of 1550 ft. only near Lake Ulungur, and at 3000 ft. ”

“ The shores of the lake—reminding a visitor somewhat of the Swiss lake of Lucerne—rise almost sheer to over 6000 ft. and are too wild to accommodate a numerous population. From this lake issues the Biya, which joins the Katun at Biysk, and then meanders through the beautiful prairies of the north-west of the Altai. Farther north the Altai highlands are continued in the Kuznetsk district, which has a slightly different geological aspect, but still belongs to the Altai system. ”

“ Though not high, as heights go in the European Alps or in the Himalaya, they are imposing mountains. It is only within comparatively recent years that passes have been discovered between the lakes and the sounds; and although these passes do not lead the traveller beyond the sub-Alpine heights, they take him through scenery that is no less remarkable for its beauty than for its grandeur—a fitting introduction to those greater marvels in the heart of the Southern Alps. ”

“ The Northern face is brought out a little below the North-east shoulder and then turned back to meet the crest again, so that from the point of the shoulder a broad arête leads down to the North and is connected by a snow col at about 23,000 feet with a Northern wing of mountains which forms the right bank of the Rongbuk Glacier and to some extent masks the view of the lower parts of Everest. Nothing could be stronger than this arrangement and it is nowhere fantastic. We do not see jagged crests and a multitude of pinnacles, and beautiful as such ornament may be we do not miss it. ”

“ Next morning he gave me a large metal pot of honey and black currants mixed, as a present, and he drove me to Altaiskaya Stanista, the top of the Altai, himself.
[228] XVI
THE DECLARATION OF WAR IT is a fine mountain road from Medvedka to Altaiskaya, over mighty open upland where the great firs grasp the earth with talon-like roots. Here and there along the road are Kirghiz tombs enclosed by rude hurdles, reminding one of the palings of the maral gardens. ”

“ On the flanks of these mountains, and on the sub-Alpine ranges of hills or plains adjoining them, those appearances which have been so often alluded to, as distinguishing or accompanying the drift, between the 50th and 70th parallels of north latitude, suddenly reappear and assume, in a southern region, a truly arctic development. Where the Alps are highest, the largest erratic blocks have been sent forth; as, for example, from the regions of Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, into the adjoining parts of Switzerland and Italy ”