THROUGH ASIA

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ...retain the heat more effectually. The ends of the tent-covering, which hung down all round, were folded in underneath the carpets and kept in place by the packingcases, thus shutting out all draughts, while the tent stood as firm as a rock even in a stiff gale. We were now travelling east-southeast across the slightly undulating plain. So far as we could see, the solid rock nowhere cropped out, though there were several low hills of gravel and sand. Immediately in front of us was an insignificant crest, on the left a spur of the Astun (Altyn)-tagh, and on the right another low range. The surface was so soft and loose that the horses sank in over the fetlocks, and so level that, had it not been for the small dry rain-channels, it would have been difficult to tell in which direction it sloped. To make it worse for the animals, it was damp from the snow. Then on the east came a series of level tablelands, backed by mountain-ridges in the far distance. The watercourses all inclined towards the west, until we came to a little lake about two hundred yards in diameter, probably one of the sources of the Kara-muran, though for the time being it was cut off from all connection with it. But the water-marks on its shore seemed to indicate that when the rains come it rises, and then sends off a current towards the west-northwest. The water was slightly saline, and the basin into which it was gathered had a white ring round it, about two feet above its then existing level. From that point we deviated towards the southeast, and struck up a small transverse glen that pierced the range on our right. There the black clay-slate once more predominated. Nevertheless the naked rocks were very rarely visible. All the hills were smothered under loose debris, sometimes...