i AN OASIS IN THE DESERT. 273 



I 



pink geranium. In the sterile wilds of Changchenmo, on 

 I damp spots, at an altitude of quite 17,000 feet, I sometimes 

 i found whole beds of a kind of polyanthus, with delicate pink 

 : flowers, and usually, strange to say, in places where there 

 j was scarcely a blade of any other vegetation to be seen. 

 Another curious fact I noticed was, that almost every weed 

 ! growing on these high wastes had a highly aromatic perfume. 



Another day's journey brought us to a spot called Ooti, a 

 few level acres of bright-green turf moistened by the snow- 

 drainage from the neighbouring heights, and thickly besprin- 

 kled with flowers, principally of a yellow hue. These poor 

 little Tibetan flowerets have so few places to flourish in, that 

 when they do find a favourable spot they seem to take every 

 advantage of it. Here we found the tents of one of the 

 Changchenmo sportsmen pitched. Their owner returned to 

 them late in the evening, bringing with him a fine buck goa 

 which he had killed on the bare undulating wilderness in the 

 neighbourhood of this little oasis. We clubbed dinners, and 

 sat up till a late hour comparing notes and recounting our 

 respective experiences. 



The following morning, as we traversed the desert tract 

 westward towards the Tso Morari, we saw one or two packs 

 of a large kind of pinnated sand-grouse, which, I was told, 

 frequent these bare uplands in considerable numbers at this 

 time of year. They were about the size of the large mi- 

 gratory sand-grouse found on the plains of India in winter, 

 but their plumage more resembled the smaller pinnated 

 variety. I found them very wild, and only got one long 

 shot, which fortunately brought down a bird. 



That evening we pitched our camp in a sheltered nook 

 near the southern end of the Tso Morari, which is 15,000 

 feet above sea-level, and almost, if not quite, the highest of 

 known lakes in the world. Although much smaller than 

 the Pangong tso, being only about 15 miles long by 5 or 6 

 broad, it has even a grander appearance, from the more pre- 

 cipitous nature of some of the adjacent mountains. It has 



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