70 MY FIRST JOURNEY IN NORTH-EASTERN TIBET.
gation of the range. It was only far away in the west that we were able to see that prolongation.
Upon leaving the right bank of the principal stream of the valley we ascended with the natural slope, which at first was very gentle; indeed the ground appeared to be quite level, but was nevertheless furrowed by a number of small dry torrents, all directed towards the north-west. The surface consisted of fine, yellow soil, and bore no vegetation except small thin, patches of moss. The only watercourse that contained water was one at Camp No. XIX, about i, io cub.m. This issued first from springs, which gave rise to a number of tiny rivulets, that ran together into a single channel, the bottom of which was strewn with gravel. The surface all around was clothed with grass, very short and thick and full of sap, the kind that the wild yak loves to sweep into his mouth with the horn-like processes of his tongue; but for horses and camels it is only poor provender. Here again argol (yak-dung) was especially abundant. During the day we saw wild yaks, as well as kulaus and antelopes, all either singly or in pairs. All day we found riding difficult, owing to the burrows of a species of earth-rat, and so numerous were they that there was not a single square yard without one or more. In one place we came across the trail of two men with 5 or 6 asses, probably hunters, for it is hardly likely that the gold-prospectors of Bukalik would choose this route.
In the parallel range which we had just crossed over hard rock was pretty rare, the only places where it cropped out being in the bottoms of the rain-water channels. In fact the range, at all events in this particular part of it, exhibits only soft, rounded outlines. Granite however appeared to predominate, partly of moderate-sized grain, partly coarse-grained like that at Camp No. XVIII. The first little secondary pass cut its way through a variety of fine crystalline rock. All the gravel-and-shingle de-
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