260 



HA RD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE-GOS SIP. 



this work than the two botanists with whose names it 

 is franked. A good deal of Dr. Prior's philological 

 web-spinning is absent from the derivations here 

 given, all of which are characterised rather by shrewd 

 common sense, and an intimate knowledge of dialects 

 and the modes of thought of the peasantry, than by 

 philological learning. This will be a most valuable 

 and useful work to the botanical student. 



GEOLOGY. 



Adventures of a Geologist. — The geologists of 

 England, "who live at home at ease," know little of 

 the perils under which some of their brethren of the 

 hammer pursue their arduous studies in other coun- 

 tries. The following letter from a young, but already 

 well-known and promising geologist, Mr. R. Lydek- 

 ker, B.A., who is engaged as palreontolgist on the 

 geological survey of India, will give some idea of 

 the duties which fall to the lot of Indian geologists : — 

 Le/i, Laddk, Aug. 2, 1879 : ~ " * returned yesterday 

 from my trip to the Chinese frontier, near the Pan- 

 gong Lake, after a very rough and somewhat disagree- 

 able time. We were at an elevation of over 14,000 

 feet the whole time, and had to cross five passes close 

 on 19,000. Living so long at such an elevation, is of 

 course extremely trying ; I could not sleep at night, 

 and when I did doze off, soon woke up choking for 

 breath. The sun in the day was terrible in its power, 

 and has burnt the skin off my face ; so that I am 

 bleeding every minute, and have to keep it covered 

 with butter. At night we had hard frosts when at 

 the height of over 16,000 feet. This alternation of 

 temperature gave me fever. We could not halt, as 

 we should have been starved, and I had to do three 

 twenty-five mile marches in a fever, when I could 

 scarcely sit in the saddle, and yet, owing to the 

 badness of the roads, was obliged to walk a great 

 part of the way. To add to my misfortunes my cook 

 also fell ill, and I had great difficulty in getting him 

 along. I am, of course, a good deal knocked up 

 after such a rough time, and very thin, but I am 

 going to rest here for four or five days, which will, I 

 hope, pick me up, and then I start for Simla, which 

 I hope to reach early in October. At the end of the 

 Pangong Lake I tried to cross over into Chinese 

 Tibet, but was stopped by a party of Chinese soldiers, 

 who threatened to seize my baggage, and I was 

 obliged to make very significant signs with my 

 revolver before they let go. The Pangong Lake is 

 most lovely ; it is about sixty miles in length — half 

 of which is in Chinese ' territory, and consequently 

 inaccessible. The water is of the clearest blue, 

 highly impregnated with borax, which makes it unfit 

 to drink. Imagine this, bordered by a beach of most 

 dazzling white sand, and the whole surrounded by 

 towering mountains of all shades of blue, red, and 

 purple. Not a sign of life in the water — which forms 



a veritable dead sea — and not a blade of grass on the 

 hills. Most of the country we passed through was 

 totally uninhabited, and was indeed a "howling 

 wilderness." Here and there, where there occur 

 more or less green " oases" of grass, we came upon 

 encampments of Nomad Tartars, with their curious 

 dome-shaped black felt tents. Around these grassy 

 patches there were generally large colonies of the 

 yellow marmot, which set up a prodigious squeaking 

 and squealing at our approach, and soon dived down 

 into their burrows. Occasionally we found large 

 numbers of the blue- tailed Tibetan hare, which made 

 a pleasant addition to our larder. On the sandy 

 plains we here and there came across droves of wild 

 asses, which trotted round our caravan in distant 

 circles, snorting and braying, and making mine and 

 the Havildar's pony very restive. The Tibetan wild 

 ass is a handsome animal, standing about 14*2, 

 generally of a chestnut colour, with a stripe on the 

 back and shoulder of a darker tint. In the Chang- 

 Cheumo (Great Plain) valley, which runs parallel 

 with the Pangong Lake, though separated by a lofty 

 mountain range, there occur wide grassy plains ; on 

 these plains there are numbers of the magnificent 

 Tibetan antelope (Pantholofis Hodgsonii), with their 

 long straight horns, which form has given rise (in all 

 probability) to the legend of the unicorn. The animals 

 stand as high as a large donkey, and have a deep red 

 coat. The two mornings I halted in the Chang- 

 Cheumo I saw heads of twelve or thirteen within a 

 quarter of a mile of my tent. Unfortunately there 

 was not cover for a cockroach on the plain, and 

 though I several times tried to get near them on hands 

 and knees, I was unable to get within 500 yards of 

 them, and bagging them was accordingly out of the 

 question, especially as my " Westley Richards" is 

 only sighted up to 200 yards, point blank. I was, 

 therefore obliged to turn my back on these splendid 

 animals, as well as on the Chang-Cheumo Valley, 

 neither of which I shall probably ever see again. The 

 animals only inhabit that part of Kashmir territory, 

 though common enough in inaccessible Chinese Tibet. 

 Occasionally on our route, we met parties of Tartar 

 traders coming from Chinese Tibet, with borax. All 

 this borax is carried on the backs of large sheep and 

 goats. Each animal carries a long bag loaded with 

 about 5 lbs. at each end, and tied across its back. 

 At night, all the sheep are tied up to a long string, 

 like cavalry horses at a picket. The advantage of 

 this mode of transport is, that sheep and goats get 

 their own living, in the most barren regions. My 

 own baggage was carried on yaks (the hairy cattle of 

 Tibet) ; these beasts carry large loads, and can go up 

 to any elevation. The only difficulty with them is, 

 that they must have grass, for they will not eat grain. 

 This sometimes gave us considerable trouble, as we 

 found the yaks had broken loose, and we spent 

 several hours in sending out exploring parties in search 

 of them, with the result that we did not get under 



