| any of his predecessors. Not only was he forced to return to the Lake of Treb, but he was not even allowed to go back by the shorter road via the Mangtsa-tso. On the 29th May he crossed over the pass of Lanak-la, on the boundary between Ladak and Tibet, which had been used five years before by Bower. The grazing was in general good ; anyway it was better than it was farther up on the highlands. Water was somewhat scarce. Over on the other side of the pass the travellers found themselves in a latitudinal valley, which, although it ran from southwest to north-east, nevertheless was of assistance to them. »Thus the actual finding of our way was not such a difficult undertaking as one might have expected. We could see the valley stretching far away to the east, and calculated that we had some days of clear sailing before us.» — The wind blew generally from the west or south-west. — »A strong wind was blowing from the south-west, enough to cut us in two, and as the skies clouded over pretty quickly, we had no chance of taking any observations.» Meanwhile the vegetation decreased again and the travellers got astray in a very barren region. Between camp No. i 8 and camp No. 19 they found »a large salt-water lake. There was but poor grass around, but a stream of good fresh water. Ahead of us, on all sides of the lake, the land appeared absolutely barren and arid, possibly on the southern side there might have been a little hidden grass .... By reason of the late snowstorm, the going along the edge of the lake was heavy in the extreme.... The land was barren and useless to a degree, with no chance of finding any fresh water or grass; the former difficulty was overcome by collecting some snow, and the latter by being extravagant with our bhoussa. The ground fell in terraces from the hills that rose up some distance from the lake, and was split up by several deep, narrow and harsh nullahs running into it.... As far as we could see, a barren salt land extended due east, and we were following a regular zone of salt country, and to get clear of this belt, it was advisable to strike north.... Early in the afternoon we came to a stretch of fairly good grazing, and in the sandy nullah close at hand, a foot or so beneath the surface, flowed unlimited water. Antelope were plentiful and tame around this spot. ...» North-east of the lake they crossed over a pass; and of the country which they found over on the other side of it Wellby says: »As soon as we had completed the descent we found a broad valley stretching east and west, apparently to eternity.» To a large freshwater lake, then completely frozen over, was given the name of Lake Lighten. There the grazing was good, and wild-geese, antelopes, and kulans were common. On the i 3th of June we camped by another salt lake. From the top of a pass we had been rewarded with a very fine view of it, for the water under a cloudless sky was of a wonderfully bright blue, backed as it was by massive snow mountains, but detestable when near for its uselessness. As we marched along its banks, the heat was intense, the maximum thermometer registering 105° in the sun, and although there was no fresh water to be seen, we found some by digging.... In a little nullah we found three stones, which from the way they were placed showed that they had been used for a fireplace, but not at any very recent date, more likely two or three years ago. This was the first sign of mankind since | |
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