Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 1.djvu/246

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SIBERIA

bottom of the Katún valley. As we rode towards the great peaks, and finally, leaving our horses, climbed up on the principal glacier, I saw how greatly we had underestimated distances, heights, and magnitudes, from the elevated

THE KATÚN RIVER.

position which we had previously occupied. The Katún River, which, from above, had looked like a narrow, dirty white ribbon that a child could step across, proved to be a 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 I had taken to be about three hundred