A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA.. 



Moriri, which have no visible outlet, and are a 

 peculiar feature of the country. The general 

 appearance is one of vast stony plains, devoid of 

 any but the scantiest vegetation, surrounded by 

 rounded downs or hilltops, whose slopes are com- 

 posed of shale or detritus, above which rise preci- 

 pices and snowy peaks, while there are a few small 

 glaciers in places, in the hollows of these hills. The 

 perpetual snow-line in these regions is somewhere 

 about 20,000 feet in fact, the leading characteristic 

 of these exposed highlands is the absence of any 

 sign of moisture. To this add a burning sun by 

 day, and a dry, biting atmosphere which seems to 

 shrivel the skin, and which is intensified by a gale of 

 freezing wind which always springs up about midday 

 and blows till sunset, and you have a fair idea of 

 Rupshu and its climate during the summer months. 

 It freezes every night throughout the year. From 

 this description one would imagine that a more 

 bleak and inhospitable country could not exist, but, 

 curiously enough, such is not the case. 



There is one feature that particularly struck me. 

 On the plains of India, the deserts of Africa and 

 other barren regions, the glaring midday light 

 seems to take all the colour out of the landscape, 

 and reduce it to a study in strong black and white, 

 but here such is not the case. As the sun gets 

 higher the fantastic colouring seems to become 

 intensified, as anyone who can recall a midday 

 scene in Rupshu, with the brilliant blue of some 



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