^Q Geographical Collections, 



eye but that of lakes ; group after group succeeds, until the farthest stretch 

 of vision is interrupted by a mountain chain covered with snow, from whose 

 declivities the waters flow into the Indus. 



On the 20th September, M. Gerard lost his way on the banks of a salt 

 lake, and passed the night in a sheep-fold without shelter or food. " The 

 next day," he says, " we were covered with snow, from which we despaired 

 of escaping until the sun should appear to melt it. We discovered the camp 

 in a pass at an elevation of 16,000 feet. Here my situation became more 

 alarming. I was confined to my bed, and all around me was snow ; on our 

 flanks and in front we were hedged in by enormous mountains, the lowest 

 plateau of which was Lake Chumorell, nearly 15,000 feet high. It is a 

 beautiful sheet of water, and we journeyed along its banks for nine hours. 

 Another lake was covered with wild-fowl, which screamed like sea birds on 

 the approach of a tempest. The borders of the lake were scattered over 

 with the black tents of Tatar shepherds, who wander from pasture to 

 pasture with their flocks. 



" I cannot conveive what they do during winter. In the day they have to 

 contend against a burning sun, and at night against a temperature which 

 varies from 7° to 18°, and sometimes 13° under the tents, at a height of 

 17,700 feet. We were often surrounded by wild horses ; but they would 

 never permit us to come so near as to catch them. They are of a singular 

 species between the mule and the ass, resembling the deer in their spotted 

 colour as well as their habits, for they spring from peak to peak with much 

 agility. I am inclined to consider them as a species of Zebra. The snow line 

 is often 20,000 feet at least ; to the northeast, however, we occasionally see 

 white summits of an incomprehensible size and height, at the contemplation 

 of which the imagination wanders, inspired by the indefinite nature of the 

 objects. I was within three days' journey of the Indus, and I shall always 

 regret the circumstances which prevented me from beholding this solitary 

 and inaccessible river. But I durst not quit the great route. I had hired 

 the men who carried our baggage ; and our stock of provisions, laid in for 

 twelve days, already began to be scanty." 



At one place, under the Chinese government, M. Gerard was closely 

 w^atched, and obliged to keep the house, which annoyed him very much, 

 as the ground was covered with fossils. At another place, lower down than 

 Ladak, he was more fortunate, and pursued his researches without any 

 difficulty. During his travels, he amassed together a magnificent collection 

 of shells, and specimens of the rocks which contain them, between the 

 elevations of 15,000 and 16,000 feet. His route, in descending the valley 

 of Speetee, was by no means devoid of interest : he visited many monasteries, 

 and was M'ell received, and treated with tea and beer. The situation of 

 the monastery of Ranum, from whence his letter is dated, appeared to him 

 delightful in comparison with the bleak and icy regions of Ladak : he was 

 surrounded by vines, and apple and other fruit trees. The heat was scorching 

 during the day, but the nights were very cold. — (Co/. Gov. Gaz.) JBull. 

 des Set. Geog. xxiii. 463. 



New Town in the Caucasus. — Last year, the Emperor of Russia gave his 

 sanction to a project of the ministerial committee of the mineral baths of 

 the Caucasus, to build a town which should be named Piatigorsk, and where 

 administration and courts of justice (except the ecclesiastical tribunal) for 

 the province of Georgia should be established. 



New Brunswick A correspondent mentions to us, that, with the excep- 

 tion of some slight accidents. Lieutenant Garden is making favourable 

 progress with his observations on the coast and in the interior of New 

 Brunswick, which he is conducting with a view to the rectification of the 

 maps. Lieutenant Garden was the companion of Captain Parry. 



