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| 0401 |
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 |
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higher than 14,000 or 15,000 feet. Large glittering ex-
panses of salt in the centre marked dry lake beds. Our
guide pointed to a pass leading over this low range to the
head-waters of the Tun-huang river and called it P'in-ta-
fan (Dawan).
The whole view before us looked thoroughly Tibetan
in type, and I was by no means surprised when a wild ass
approached us to within 300 yards or so. A bitterly cold
north wind was blowing, suggestive of what the summer
breezes of these bleak uplands of northernmost Tibet are
like. The position of the Ta-kung-ch'a Pass gave us a
chance of sighting the southern slopes of the main range
for some distance. So I was able to convince myself that
the permanent snow-line here lay at an elevation of fully
18,000 or 19,000 feet, and thus even higher than on the
north side. It all helped to confirm the impression of the
scanty moisture received by this westernmost part of the
Nan-shan.
All the more gratified did I feel when, on the day after
moving from Ta-kung-ch'a eastward, while encamped at a
small spring called Su-chi-ch'tian, we experienced the first
rain which, according to Mongol testimony, these mountains
had received that summer. It was gentle, but sufficiently
steady to give one the feeling of being somewhere in the
Alps, and a little snow melting as it neared the ground
was thrown in as an extra. When the sky cleared in the
afternoon of July 10th and I could take a stroll round, the
effect on the vegetation seemed like magic. Where the
grass had before looked stunted and shrivelled, blades
were now sprouting rapidly. For the first time I noticed
hardy edelweiss showing in large clumps, and a few white
flowers resembling Podophyllum. It was such occasional
rain which accounted for the very thin but sufficiently
cohesive coat of vegetation clothing the lower slopes of
the range up to an elevation of about 11,000 feet, while
the absence of heavy rain or snow explained the fact that
it escaped denudation.
At this same camp we were joined at last by hired
camels sent up from the hill oasis of Ch'ang-ma. I was
thus able to let our own hardy beasts depart under Hassan
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813
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