156 MR. We B. HEMSLEY ON THE 
and the name Bulak Baschi is the nearest on the map, but he 
mentions that their camping-place had no special name. They 
proceeded in a south-easterly direction, crossing the thirty- 
sixth parallel in about 87° 30’, and their route then lay between 
the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth parallels to about 93° 30’. From 
this point they took a northward course, reaching 36° 40' in the 
ninety-fourth meridian, and then eastward, skirting the salt 
desert of Tsaidam, to about 96° 30'.. Again northward to Kurlik 
Nor (37° 15’) and then eastward to Koko Nor (100°) and onward 
to Sining, Kalgan, and Peking, where they arrived in March 
1897. Dr. Hedin suffered the same hardships and disasters as 
our other travellers in these inhospitable regions. Indeed, in 
many respects, their several narratives are much alike. In 
February 1898, Dr. Hedin, who was awarded the Founders 
Medal for that year, read an account of his travels before the 
Royal Geographical Society of London, and it was published in 
the ‘ Geographical Journal’ (xi. 1898), from which we extract as 
follows :— 
“The landscape is very desolate, and when the average height 
reaches 16,000 ft. it is clear that vegetation must be scanty. 
I collected all the plants we found. They had, as a rule, 
rather fleshy and downy leaves lying close to the ground in 
order to protect themselves from the wind and frost. The poor 
pasturage which was now and then found was so scattered and 
bitter, that the animals would not have eaten it if they had not 
been driven to it by hunger. The ground is, however, generally 
perfectly bare, and the weathering products which have washed 
down into the central parts of the basins without outlet have, 
in the course of time, been disintegrated into very fine particles, 
so that sand and gravel are very scarce. Since the ground is 
damp as a result of dew and rain, it becomes soft, and the animals 
frequently sank a foot deep. Only the lake shores, along which 
we frequently travelled, were suitable for our march. ‘The cold 
was not at all great, and in the daytime one could ride without a 
cloak, on account of the strong insolation. At night the ten- 
perature seldom sank under 14° Fahr. The worst of all was the 
wind and hail. With the regularity of clockwork the west wind 
came every day at one o’clock and swooped down on the plateau 
with intense fury. 
“From the Arka Tag pass we saw, far to the south, a great 
chain of mountains with perpetual snow-fields and shining tops- 
