which means the Backbone Mountains or the Farther or Remoter Mountains. The erroneous spelling was due simply and solely to the inability of the Lopliks to pronounce r; in place to it they employ a scarcely audible j (1) sound. Pjevtsoff however, as well as all the other Russian travellers, for reasons that are readily understood, retained the name Prschevalskij Chain and placed the native name within parenthesis. The map of the Russian General Staff has however preferred a sort of arithmetical mean between my Arka and Pjevtsoff's Akka, and prints the word Arkka-tagh, thus showing an unnecessary degree of reverence for Pjevtsoff's double k. I am very sorry to have to erase Prschevalskij's honoured name for this great mountain-range, for it would have proved an imperishable memorial of his unwearied and deserving labours; but the name Arka-tagh is the more suitable, more especially as this range really does form the chief backbone of Asia. And the fact that the name is current in the region itself is sufficient to warrant its adoption. Seeing then that there does exist a native name, it would be foolish to give it another, quite as absurd as if a Mohammedan were to come and re-christen the Ural Mountains to Tokta Achun-tagh.
In this new latitudinal valley the peculiar Tibetan weather was more prominently in evidence than hitherto. The first evening there fell a pattering rain, and the next morning, the 2nd August, it was full winter, and the entire country was white with snow. It had been snowing since midnight, and only stopped at 9 a.m. By an optical illusion, the range to the south appeared very much less imposing than
Hedin, Tourney in Central Asia. III. to
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