17б ASCENT OF BURKHAN BUDDHA. 



the Yangtse-kiang, and considerably beyond these 

 to the Tang-la mountains, which in all probability 

 are even higher than the Burkhan Buddha. 



The ascent from the foot to the chief axis of the 

 range is about twenty miles, ^ rising by a gentle 

 incline until within a short distance of the summit 

 (15,300 feet), where it becomes steeper. The nearest 

 peak, and also the highest in the whole range '-^ (if we 

 may believe the Mongols), also bearing the name of 

 Burkhan Buddha, rises 16,300 feet above sea-level, 

 and 7,500 above the Tsaidam plain. 



Yet notwithstanding its great height, the Burkhan 

 Buddha does not attain the limit of perpetual snow ; 

 even when we crossed in the beginning of December 

 there was but a slight covering, a few inches in 

 depth, on the northern slopes of the highest summits 

 and of the axis of the range itself, and on our return 

 march, early in spring, we saw no snow of the pre- 

 vious year unmelted, even in those gorges well 

 sheltered from the sun. 



This phenomenon is explained by the circum- 

 stance that, although at a great elevation above the 

 sea, these mountains rise very slightly above the ex- 

 posed plains to their south, and the currents of wind 

 passing over the surface of the latter, after they 

 have been thoroughly warmed by the summer sun, 



' Between the foot of the mountains and the salt marshes of Tsai- 

 dam there is an intervening strip, ten miles wide, of sloping gravelly 

 ground, completely devoid of vegetation and dotted with boulders. 



^ This is hardly correct, 1 think ; some of the other peaks arc 

 higher than the one I measured, although perhaps only a few hundred 

 feet. 



