TIBET AND PAMIRS-TSAIDAM 73 



those of the shores of the Kuku-nor are particularly 

 beautiful, and wild and tame yaks, wild and tame sheep, 

 wild asses, antelopes, and other animals, find here ample 

 food. 



Towards the south, the more sheltered plains occasion- 

 ally support orchards of fruit-trees, and cultivation be- 

 comes possible around Lhasa. This is due to its situation 

 and lower altitude, as well as to an increase in rainfall 

 and to more moderate winds. The north-western portion 

 is the driest, and is almost entirely destitute of plant-life : 

 the intervening ranges are bare and largely covered with 

 snow and ice. 



The Pamirs proper, though perhaps not so bleak as 

 north-western Tibet, display a similar vegetation. In 

 summer, the herds of the Kirgkiz nomads graze the 

 pastures of the alluvial tracts, but beyond these meadows 

 the porous glacial bottoms offer nothing but a rugged 

 carpet of dry, coarse grass-tufts or crawling bushes. 



Forests of conifers penetrate very far up the deep and 

 narrow valleys of Kashmir and Ladakh, which are 

 drained by the Indus. Beyond the forest limits, which 

 here oscillate about 12,000 feet, trees continue to within 

 a short distance of the glaciers themselves. They are 

 poplars, willows, and other low, small-leaved, summer- 

 green trees, which generally herald the approach of 

 villages and are, indeed, mostly planted, though clusters 

 of them may yet be found among rich meadows at the 

 bottom of alluvial sections of the valleys, where they 

 form delightful park-landscapes. Other meagre shrubs, 

 resembling brambles and brooms, now and then close into 

 a loose scrub, while the crawling and spreading juniper 

 may be strewn over the bare lower slopes. Long tracts of 

 these valleys have their flanks entirely denuded; bare 

 platforms, shelves of rubble and waste, or naked gorges 



