80 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



prevalent among the Moguls, the ocean will one day return 

 and establish its empire anew in Gobi. One is reminded 

 of the Chinese tradition of the bitter lake, in the interior 

 of Siberia, mentioned by me in another work. (Hum- 

 boldt, Asie Centrale, torn. ii. p. 141 ; Klaproth, Asia 

 Polyglotta, p. 232.) The valley or basin of Kashmeer, 

 so enthusiastically extolled by Bernier, and but too mo- 

 derately praised by Victor Jacquemont, has also given oc- 

 casion to great hypsometric exaggerations. By a careful 

 barometrical measurement, Jacquemont found the height 

 of the Wulur Lake in the valley of Kashmeer, not far 

 from the chief city Sirinagur, 836 toises, or 5346 Eng- 

 lish feet. Uncertain determinations by the boiling point 

 of water gave Baron Carl von Hiigel a result of 910, and 

 Lieutenant Cunningham only 790 toises. (Compare my Asie 

 Centrale, torn. iii. p. 310, with the Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, vol. x. 1841, p. 114.) Kashmeer, respect- 

 ing which, in Germany particularly, so much interest has been 

 felt, but the delightfulness of whose climate is considerably 

 impaired by four months of winter snow in the streets of 

 Sirinagur (Carl von Hiigel, Kaschmir, Bd. ii. S. 196), is not 

 situated, as is often supposed, upon the ridge of the Himalaya, 

 but is a true cauldron-shaped valley (Kesselthal, Caldera,) on 

 the southern declivity of those mountains. On the south- 

 west, where the rampart-like elevation of the Pir Panjal 

 separates it from the Punjaub, the snow-covered summits 

 are crowned, according to Vigne, with formations of 

 basalt and amygdaloid. The latter formation has received 

 from the natives the characteristic name of "schischak 



