In the narrow passages, where it ought to have borne best, it was generally weakest or else there was an open lane through the ice, caused' by the somewhat accelerated current. Yet even these places would, I feel certain, freeze later on in the winter.
At Bal also we were assailed by a furious tempest from the west. The minimum temperature gradually rose : during the preceding night it was, for example, only — i 3°.3.
December I st. Turning our faces towards the west, we left behind us the broad littoral plain of Bal, with its numerous glens, which there find their termination after pretty long courses through the mountains; at the same time we of course travelled away from the lake-side. To the south-west was a fairly big peak, which continued within sight all day. We crossed over three rather deep watercourses, pretty certainly arms of a delta, which however only carry water after rain or an active melting of the snows. The ground consisted of soft, fine matter, though it was hard and lumpy on the surface, being in fact saliferous schor, with dry japkak roots in it at intervals. A little north of our route the japkak was growing in a sharply defined zone.
Instead of following the shore of the lake we crossed a small, insignificant range by means of a convenient pass, and then ascended to a second small threshold pass by a glen that debouches upon the plain of Bal. From this a somewhat steeper declivity led us down into a fairly big glen, coming from the N. 42° W. and picking up a number of subsidiary glens from both sides. This glen finally terminates at a bay on the north side of the lake. On the inner circuit of the bay two strand-terraces were distinctly visible, the upper one at about 5 m., the lower one at about i i;12 m. Within the former was an expanse of yellow clay, consisting of sediment that had been washed down, though it was then perfectly dry (fig. 178).
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