the predominating tint of the scenery is a fiery red, especially south of the pass. It is very probable that this range is identical with that which Grenard calls Montagnes Rouges du Sud, a name that is fully justified when applied to a range so strongly coloured as this is; besides, it is of great service as a guide to other travellers. The red matter, which is no doubt derived from red sandstone and clay-slates, is extremely finely sifted, as fine in fact as the »dustiest» powder. It was a good thing for us that it was dry; had it been moist, the country would have been almost impassable. On the southern side of the pass the fiery red sandstone and hard fine-grained conglomerate crop out and show a distinct bedding, though they alternate with black schists. Very often snowy white gypsum peeps up through the red disintegrated material, with or without crystals, though generally it stands out in the form of big knobs and bosses, more or less dissected out as it were.
July 2nd. Instead of following towards the east-south-east the river which flowed past our camp, and which would have brought us too near to our route of the year before, we turned off towards the south-west, and crossed over broken country with an exceedingly gentle upward slope. The view southwards was impeded by a minor range stretching from north-east to south-west. Between this range and our route were a series of pools of moderate size. The first, which lay immediately south of Camp XXVIII, is the largest, and is entered by a little brook that originates on the southern side of the great snowy mass. After crossing over a flat, unnoticeable water-divide, we approached the little range on our left. The ground there slopes to the south-west, towards ' a little round lake, in which some ice still survived in a westerly and relatively more sheltered bay. The water was perfectly fresh and clear. At our approach five wild-geese swam out from the eastern shore. The altitude was 5172 m. above sea-level. Although the grazing was wretched to a degree, we saw some orongo antelopes. South of the lake there are again two pools; but after that the country once more ascends gently towards the south-west in a broad glen, shut in on the north by a small crest. On the north too the great snowy mass towers up above the range which we had crossed over the day before. Immediately south of it, and quite close to the main range, there is another parallel range, with three dominating dome-shaped eminences, of a brick-red colour and free from snow; this is cleft by a couple of deeply cut glens, through which the thaw-water flows down off the snow-cap of the great mountain-mass. Thus the range is here double, unless indeed the southern range ought not rather to be considered as entirely secondary to the main range.
It turned out that we might have chosen a far easier route from the heights above down to the middle of the next latitudinal valley, had we only struck south from Camp XXVIII, and then gone south-west. Instead of that, we were now travelling south-west, and after that went south-south-east; this brought us however into more unfavourable country. The range which obstructed our passage southwards was much too steep for the camels, and they had to be led a considerable way round. I myself climbed over the top; but the southern slope was extraordinarily steep, and thickly strewn with detritus and flakes of red sandstone. In a glen at its southern foot we again found a little grazing, while on its right-hand (i. e. western) terraced bank we discovered some rudimentary dunes. This side-glen
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