| S. E. down the valley until we reached a threshold of only a few meters height, consisting of reddish dense limestone. The view from this little ridge was most interesting and encouraging. To the east extended the typical plateau-land plain far away, and the mountains in this direction were not high and had rounded forms. Only to the north, snow-covered mountains were visible. To the E. S. E. , the plain or rather latitudinal valley, continued to the horizon which disappeared in the haze of the far distance, and to the S. E., I believed I could recognize the promontory at the base of which we had had our Can VIII. Between us and this corner, the great plain expands its surface. Now we had left the drainage area of Kara-kash behind us, and to the east and S. E. we had the Chang--tang proper. The difficult, accentuated country had been crossed with the loss of only six animals, and the country would now be more even and comfortable than hitherto. The animal life was still very rare. Only one lonely wild yak had been seen, and near Camp CCXCIX, a fox and four Pantholops antelopes. But the country is very desolate, the water scarce and the height enormous. However, from the little threshold we turned more and more N. N. E. with hills to our left and the great plain to our right. Water was now the most important question. After a while we saw in front of us an extensive sheet of ice. A shallow erosion bed was directed towards the ice which seemed to occupy a part of a very large alluvial depression. At the edge of the ice-sheet, a fresh spring of 4-0.6° came forth , forming a little frozen pool , north of which the big ice-sheet obviously was formed by other springs. Camp CCC at a height of 4,977 m., was pitched below the terrace of the watercourse. Some grass and fuel was found in a little valley to the east. Tracks of antelopes and kyangs, but no animals, were seen. A strong S. W. wind was blowing until noon, after which the air became foggy and a few snowflakes fell. The panorama sketched from Camp CCC was less instructive than the view from the little ridge. It is, however, shown on Pan. 389A and B, Tab. 68. The mountains to the N. W., north , N. E. and east are readily visible. The distant perspective of the latitudinal valley to the S. E. and E. S. E., is hidden by the very flat convexity of the nearest part of the great plain, above the horizontal line of which, only flat mountains show their cupola-shaped heads. The mountains to the S. W. are hidden by the small hills in the immediate vicinity of the camp. On 7anuary _Toth, we travelled 24.8 km E. S. E. and S. E., descending 6 I m. or to 4,916 m., which was the height at Camp CCCI, the rate of fall was I : 407. The minimum temperature was —23.0; during the night it snowed, but only the hills were white in the morning. The wind came from the south but early, before noon, it turned to S. W., as usual, and remained so the whole day. We cross the great plain diagonally, and the march is very monotonous. To the naked eye it seems | | |
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