The nice, homely Highland weather lasted for several days which we devoted to a thorough examination of our surroundings. Almost without transition the great glacier rests its foremost point upon the alluvial plain (Figs, 100, 101). A fringe of low terminal moraine bears witness to the latest and most rapid stage of recession, which was the work of a season, for, as the natives say, there was ice a year ago where now the water is. After showering a hem of rubbish from its slippery sides the extreme tip melted back very quickly, leaving a round lake in the place it formerly occupied. This pond is fed by a fairly strong source from the glacier, the overflow escaping through a gap in front to the wash plain where it ultimately joins the Zarafshan. In the morning the terminal lake is almost dry, presenting a glistening surface of black, sandy mud, only covered with a foot or two of water during the heat of the day. Traced on the level plain this circular dam which measures about 120 feet across, is also conspicuous for its reddish colour against the grey of fluvial shingle. That the disorderly heaps of stones in front of us still form part of a glacier can only be seen from the shiny, black facets of dirty ice appearing here and there. An irregular wing of the frontal wall is sent out towards the left1 where it is breached by the main river. Its continuations flock together with other lines or mingle with the morainic deposits of the Yarkhich fan (Fig. 101).