3-065-603 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Yarkund Mission: mules and baggage-train going over the Grim (Sanjoo) Pass, 1874. Scene from '...the journey of Mr. Douglas Forsyth and his party from India across the Himalayas and Karakorum mountains...the Sanjoo or 'grim' pass [was] the last obstacle on the road to Yarkund...Our route lay for some miles down the valley of the Karakash...we were...shut in by precipices that terminated in knife-like ridges far above our heads, allowing but one short hour of mid-day sunshine, and justifying in their wildness the term 'grim' applied to this region...The passage of goods and baggage across the pass is from this point conducted by the Kirghiz tribes...the yak (kutas) being the only animal that can carry loads with safety up the steep ascent...The whole line of route...was now an ice-path...it needed but an overbalance to tumble each suffering quadruped down a frozen slip to the valley below. In real difficulty the Kirghiz proved admirable workers...of one hundred mules, five were killed on the spot and three died from after-effects. One unfortunate mule fell from below our feet headlong to one of the lower windings of the zigzag, and, with neck still unbroken, struggled up the steep ascent, only to fall once more and leave his carcass below...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.