A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



salt lake in the foreground, surrounded by hills of 

 every shade of red, yellow, and other colours, backed 

 by the glittering snows against an azure sky, will 

 remember. Also, by the side of any fresh water 

 will be found the most vivid of bright green turf, 

 and this is often carpeted with brilliant wild flowers, 

 even though it may be but a yard or two in width, 

 and a sight like this, after travelling for many weary 

 hours across desolate wastes, loses nothing by the 

 contrast. Even the stony plains are not devoid of 

 colour, as the bits of rock and pebbles are of every 

 imaginable hue, and frequently powdered with 

 glittering mica, and might almost be said to rival 

 in colouring the flowers of more fertile countries. 

 The chief fascination of these regions, however, and 

 one which seems to affect even the most prosaic of 

 mortals, is the sense of freedom and boundless 

 space which one experiences as one gazes on these 

 vast solitudes of hilltop and plain ; a sort of feeling, 

 as one looks round, knowing that there is probably 

 no human being except one's own camp for many 

 (it may be hundreds) of miles in any direction, and 

 that the country, so to speak, belongs to oneself to 

 go where and how one likes, which once experienced 

 is never forgotten. 



The intensely dry and rarefied atmosphere of 

 these high regions is often found extremely trying 

 by those who are not accustomed to it, and a sick- 

 ness is experienced which usually takes the form 

 of intense headache or neuralgia, and giddiness, 



