that side appeared to be pierced by the glen down which the river flows, and which afterwards runs diagonally across the latitudinal valley. At Camp XXXVII, which was situated at an altitude of 4968 m., the left terraced bank of the river was steep and distinctly marked; on the opposite or right side there was no terrace at all, but a very level stretch of steppe, with a thin sprinkling of miserable grass, yellow in colour, yet nevertheless not withered. The river ends in a moderately sized, elliptically shaped lake to the north-east of our camp. On its southern shore rises a minor ridge, and through a gap in it, by which the river makes its way, we
caught glimpses of the lake's blue waters. To judge from the somewhat considerable velocity, and the fact that the lake was situated about i o km. from the camp, I should infer that the former lies at an unusually low absolute altitude, and seeing that it is the terminal lake of a pretty extensive self-contained basin, I should also say that it contains salt-water. A short reconnaissance told us that there was relatively good grazing on its southern shore, but it lay too far out of our way for us to visit it.
We saw hard rock nowhere during this stage. The weather was as usual: during the night it had rained; in the afternoon there was hail, snow, and rain alternately, and sometimes they came down so violently that we had to stop, dismount, and crouch under the shelter of our cloaks. We spent the next twenty-four hours in the same place, and during that time it sometimes hailed also.
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