of which exceeded one hundred and forty degrees, the highest point to which my thermometer reached. The occurrence of these hot springs is not at all infrequent in these parts.
In the Ash-kuman, Yarkhun, and Lutku valleys of Chitral there are similar springs, which are much used by the people, and are believed by them to contain valuable medicinal properties.
At one spot before reaching the Alichur Pamir, I counted seventy Ovis poli horns within a quarter of a mile. This, of course, was an unusually large number to meet with, but everywhere on the Pamirs these fine horns are seen lying about the valleys and hillsides. The Pamirs, as is well known, are the home of these magnificent Ovis poli sheep, as big as donkeys, with horns measuring frequently sixty inches, and in one known case seventy-three inches, round the curve. The animal stands over twelve hands in height, and the weight of the head alone, even when skinned, is over forty pounds.
The Alichur Pamir we found to be an open valley, from four to five miles in width, and bounded on either side by barren brown hills. At the time of our visit, grass at the head of the valley was very scanty ; but lower down towards Yeshilkul there were some good pasturages, and a few Kirghiz encamped by them. It was now our intention to visit a spot which has since become historic, and indeed was already historic, though its name had not before been known to the European world. This was Somatash. Mr. Ney Elias, who had travelled in this, as he has in almost every other part of Asia, though the record of most of his travels has never been published, had heard rumours of the existence of a stone. monument with an inscription on it erected on the shores of Lake Yeshil-kul (or Lake Yeshil, as one ought really to call it, the word kul itself meaning " lake "). My Kirghiz friends corroborated these rumours, and Macartney and I rode off from Bash Gumbaz to have a look at the stone. We had a
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