The plain surrounding the lake is both clayey and sandy 
with stones everywhere. In many hollows salt has crystal- 
lized out on the surface. Skeletons and wind-dried carcasses 
of scores of horses whiten the ground. There are great 
stretches where not a single plant is to be seen, but here 
and there groups of non-flowering cespitose grasses grow 
stiffly. Otherwise I saw only Sisymbrium Korolkowi and the 
ill-smelling Oxytropis tibetica which formed great sand-catching 
tufts, growing outward in circles and dying in the centre 
like fairy circles. 
The northern peninsula is composed of a gray, glisten- 
ing argillaceous slate, whose surface is rendered dark, al- 
most black, by disintegration. Fragments of this slate mixed 
with grayish yellow clay form the soil. In many places 
plant growth was absolutely lacking, one could search about 
for hundreds of mètres: without finding a plant, not even 
a lichen. However, after much wandering, 3 species, Ephedra 
Fedtschenkoi, Christolea crassifolia and Acantholimon diapen- 
sioides were revealed. The first is a creeper with long sub- 
terranean shoots and small clusters of slender green stems, 
the second forms fresh green tufts with many leaves and the 
third is a typical cushion plant; its cushions were up to 
1 mètre in diameter and so hard and firm as to be practically 
unyielding even when trod upon. Christolea and Acantholimon 
were common in the bed of a dried-out mountain stream in 
which the cushion plant formed natural steps. Ephedra was 
apparently best able to endure drought of the three. 
In the salt beds along the banks of Kara Kul, yellow 
Carex pseudofoelida and Polygonum pamiricum were growing 
in great masses. Algae and meter-long pieces of Potamogeton 
pamiricus were washed up on the beach. Gazing into the 
lake from above, the latter was seen forming dense forests 
of sea-weed on the bottom. 
The countries about Kisil Kul and Kara Kul are the most 
barren I have seen in Pamir. However, a few day’s journey 
further south the landscape sinks slightly and the vegetation 
3 
