visible. It is certainly one of the most important ranges of the Kwen-lun System, and it has, in this region, been surveyed chiefly by M. A. Stein. On the other or northern side of it, Keriya-daria and Yurung-kash have their sources. The N. E., E. N. E. and eastern continuation of this range is unknown.
The only explorers who had visited the region where I now was moving were Wellby and Malcolm in 1896 and Rawling in 1903. To avoid their itineraries, I kept 14 or 15 km. N. W. of them. Fifteen kilometers south of my Camp XXXI, was the point where the routes of Wellby and Rawling separated. From there Wellby continued N. E. and E. N. E. while Rawling turned eastward to his Lake Markham, which the whole time lay out of sight from my route.
On October 6th the march goes N. E. and E. N. E. for 14.6 km. and the downward slope of the valley is here 62 m., as Camp XXXII is at a height of 4,877 m. , the rate is thus as 1 :235. Our route follows the main valley which here is only some 400 m. broad and bounded by low rounded hills. This valley is a perfect Eldorado for northern Tibet. The ground, consisting of sand and fine sparse gravel, is everywhere covered with excellent grass, better than anywhere ever since Muglib ; there is an abundance of fuel in the form of the ordinary low, highland plants with hard, wooden stems. There is water everywhere, sometimes running in the bed of the main brook, sometimes forming pools covered with ice 3 cm. thick. From both sides, more especially from the northern, small tributary brooks come down, most of them now frozen or forming extended thin ice-sheets. Where these brooks are formed of springs their ice-sheets would continue to grow bigger in the course of the winter. At several places in the valley flocks of antelopes were seen. The principal bed in the middle of the valley is meandering in soft rounded bends from one side to the other between erosion terraces I or 2 m. high. Farther on, two more tributaries entered from the left side. Their brooks were open, but became changed into ice as soon as they reached the bed of the main brook.
A little beyond halfway, the narrow valley comes to an end, and the brook flows out in a plain, which, at several kilometers distance north and south is bounded by hills of moderate size. One has the feeling that beyond those to the north and N. W. there must be a latitudinal valley which is again bounded on the north by the chief range with the snow-fields which we had seen a few days earlier. If such a latitudinal valley exists it must be parallel to the one followed by Wellby, and may perhaps be the western continuation of the one I followed in 1896. This question has to be settled by future exploration.
Some broad and shallow erosion beds without water and ice were crossed before we reached Camp XXXII at the left side of the main brook, where grass and fuel was plentiful, and a pool of ice-covered water stood at the base of the left erosion terrace. The wind that began to blow in the afternoon was of a cyclonic
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