241 



THE LAPCHAK. 



LET the reader imagine himself transported far 

 away to the Tibetan borderland beyond Kashmir. 

 Here India has imperceptibly merged into Chinese 

 Tartary. The white-crested billow-like sierras of 

 the Hindu Kush have subsided into the heaving 

 swell of the great Chang, and the most elevated 

 region in the world is reached, where the lowest 

 valleys are lifted higher above the earth's mean 

 surface than the summits of the loftiest mountains 

 in Europe. 



In a wide sandy plain, forming a trough amid 

 these mountains, lies a lake of deep blue water. 

 The margin of the lake glistens white with incrust- 

 ations of the salts with which the water is impreg- 

 nated ; and far away in the distance, where the 

 blue can no longer be seen, a white line waver- 

 ing in the mirage, and seemingly lifted up in 

 the dry quivering air, marks its extent. The 

 echoless silence of very high regions hangs over 

 all, only broken at intervals by the melancholy 



Q 



