AND CHARACTER OF NORTHERN TIBET. 183 



devoid of veg-etation. Here and there a tuft of grass 

 or a patch of grey Hchen may be seen covering a 

 foot or two of the surface, which in many parts is 

 coated with an efflorescence of salt as white as the 

 driven snow, and seamed in all parts by deep 

 furrows caused by the violent and constant tempests. 

 It is only in those spots where springs rise to the 

 surface that verdure and an approach to grass-land 

 may be seen. But even these oases bear the death- 

 like stamp of the surrounding desert. The grass is 

 all of one kind of Graminet^} half a foot high, as 

 hard as wire, and so parched by the wind that it 

 crackles like straw under foot and falls to powder." 



The exhaustion consequent on the enormous 

 elevation affects the strongest man. A short march, 

 or even the ascent of a slight eminence, produces 

 languor, giddiness, trembling of the hands and feet, 

 and vomiting. Argols burn so badly owing to the 

 want of oxygen in the air that it is difficult to light 

 a fire, and water boils at sixty degrees Fahrenheit 

 below boiling point at sea-level. 



The climate, too, is in complete harmony with 

 the sterility of these wilds. The winter is bitterly 

 cold and tempestuous ; the gales in spring are ac- 

 companied by hailstorms ; the summer rains are also 

 mingled with large hailstones ; and it is in autumn 

 alone that the weather becomes clear, still, and 



^ As rare exceptions, some of the order of Composito' may be seen. 



' As a proof of the hardness of the turf in the grassy parts of these 

 deserts, I may mention that our camels often spiked their feet till the 

 blood flowed, notwithstanding the thick soles with which they are pro- 

 tected. 



