camp we descended steeply to a brook that flows in a deep bed and gathers up the rivulets that issue from the mountains immediately to the west. It flows north-east to a small pool, which is probably connected with a moderate-sized lake lying farther north and stretching some 8 to I o km. east and west; and east of this again there is yet a third pool. A bay of the first lake pointing west is entered by a second deeply channelled stream. Between these lakes, pools, and brooks a whole series of very rounded, yet steep, hills extends from west-south-west to east-north-east. On the northern side of a second similar ridge lies an elongated pool, continued eastwards by a marshy tract, through which a brook flows. Its water was transparent and perfectly fresh, as indeed it is in all the apparently self-contained pools in this region. Here grew the last grass, for after that we saw not a single blade for a long distance to come. Nor did we discern here any traces of wild animals, except the usual little lizard.
Fig. I26. THE ISOLATED CONICAL MOUNT SEEN FROM CAMP LX TOWARDS THE N 72' W.
After that we ascended again, crossing an endless series of the most disagreeable cross between mountain and hill that I remember ever to have seen ; the sides sloped at an angle of 25° to 3o°, and in the course of a very few minutes the differences of elevation amounted to as much as Ioo m. It was impossible to determine where all these small rivulets, some of which were dry, while others carried water, eventually terminate, for in the very broken surface they soon became lost to sight. Possibly however they collect into some larger glen, that runs down to
Hedin, Tourney in Central Asia. III. 21
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