88 THE FIRST TIBETAN HUNTERS.
to a principal range of a red colour. The peaks to the N. 48° E. , N. 55° E. , and N. 600 E., probably belong to the same range. Between this range and us there are many other small ranges without snow, running, as it seems, chiefly N. W.—S. E. They are all red or violet in all possible tints, from light to dark red, and the beautiful colours give the same effect as the sun in the evening. To the N. N. E. is a depression surrounded by irregular ridges or ramifications. In this basin two white patches are visible. In the depression there is probably a little salt lake, though not visible from our route. At any rate all the watercourses we crossed during the middle section of the day's march meandered in the direction of that little basin which seemed to be smaller than others we had crossed. The landscape to the N. E. from the point where the panorama was taken, was one of unusual beauty and silent, solemn majesty.
To our right or at the west side of the basin, we had low hills the whole day which, however, at seasons seemed to attract a good deal of rain, to judge from a few rather deep-cut erosion beds. One of these came from a flat threshold from the S. E. side of which the ground slowly sloped down to a little valley, which soon became narrow as a gorge; this emerged nearly immediately in another with a gravelly bed and fairly deep erosion furrows. Here again was a Tibetan fireplace. It is directed to the E. S. E. and, after a few minutes, joins a somewhat larger watercourse than the two previous ones, bounded by very steep red hills of sand and fine gravel, covered with sparse grass. Here Camp LIV was pitched just above a spring of running water in the bed. The valley came from the S. W. but gradually turned more and more to the east.
The most interesting feature of this spot was the many human traces we found there. There was a fireplace, and three tent-places visible from the boulders arranged in squares, which had served as a protection for the tents. A fourth square of stones was so far unlike the others that the ground inside of it was dug out 1 m. below the exterior ground ; it had two narrow entrances and had obviously been covered by a tent. A fifth square was like the first-mentioned. Here a pair of discarded Tibetan boots was found. Higher up the valley my men found another place with some 15 stone squares. The place had been visited by gold-diggers last summer, as could be seen from the freshly opened sand mounds in and along the bed. Down the valley a regular human path was running. The region was called Laskin: as we were told later on. The chief difference between the constructions found here, and those of Camp XL VIII, consisted in the fact that the latter certainly were of older date and that they, as far as we could see, had nothing to do with gold-digging.
On November 61h our route goes 10.3 km. in a general S. E. direction, though at the same time describing nearly half a circle with its convexity to the N. E. Camp L V is 147 m. below Camp LIV, giving a fall of i : 70.
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