surface inclined just as distinctly 70° towards the N. 1o° W. This rock possesses several systems of cleavage, and when broken to pieces fractures into small parallelepipeds. The material in the bottom of the valley was generally very finely divided, although the slopes were also in places strewn with gravel.
October 26th. The valley still continued to preserve the same characteristic features as before; it was monotonous and positively irksome to ride through these everlasting latitudinal valleys, where there is no change in the scenery to keep your interest alive. How much more instructive it would have been to have travelled from north to south, and to have found one's way across all these parallel chains, of the real conformation of which one gets only a slight and unsatisfactory idea by journeying along the latitudinal valleys ! But by then there was of course no other choice open to me. Our faces were set towards the west-north-west, towards Ladak, and all we had to do was to keep riding along the latitudinal valleys which run in that direction. Moreover our animals would not have been able to make any side-excursions; indeed it was merely a small fraction of the total number that succeeded in holding out to the end of the journey and reaching Ladak. Our road this day was as convenient as could be desired, being downhill all the way to the next camp. Upon reaching the spot where the glen of Amlung joins the valley from the south we had already got down to 4,640 m.; a little bit farther on we were at 4,606 m., and our camp at night stood at 4,573 m. As usual, this regular descent presaged the propinquity of a depression of far-reaching extent.
On our left, that is the south, we now had three parallel mountain-ranges, increasing in altitude successively towards the south, and being distinctly perceptible through the outlets of the transverse glens. At Amlung especially the triple arrangement was very plain to see. This glen starts on the northern flank of the range farthest south, on which small patches of snow were then showing here and there, and then it breaks through the other two ranges, forming a steep, wild gorge, into which perfectly dry tributaries enter from both sides; in fact, dry rivulets of this character are common in that neighbourhood. We did not discover any track leading up the Amlung glen, nor could we learn that there was reputed to be any; it is strange therefore that it bears a name. Possibly there are springs higher up near which the nomads may sometimes encamp.
On our right, that is to the north, we saw two ranges, likewise running close together, and in them the rock appeared to dip generally towards the north. These were of a reddish tinge, whereas the mountains in the south are of a darker colour. From the right comes a combination of latitudinal valley and transverse glen, known as Döjka. Its upper part is squeezed in between the two parallel ranges; then it divides and in two separate places cuts its way through the more southerly of the two ranges. In the angle between the transverse sections stands an isolated mountain butte. A very peculiar and unusual form of valley! From that point we observed to the S. 85° W. a crest that was more abundantly covered with snow; this is said to be the Janak, and is, I dare say, a portion of the main range of the southern mountain system. Then, in the locality called Rigong-somdo an energetically carved transverse glen bursts out of the nearest range on the south. Our latitudinal valley was there so narrow, that the transverse glen which I have
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