OF EASTERN TURKESTAN. 45 
We crossed the river in boats and our baggage was conveyed 
in the same way, but all the horses and ponies had to swim 
over. Hares abound in the thick scrubby jungle about here 
and Chicore (Caccabis pallescens) can be heard calling near the 
hill. The blue Hill Pigeon, tolerably numerous; Sparrows 
(P. indicus), numerous; a few Carpodacus erythrinus ; and 
many White-rumped Magpies (Pica bactriana), dotted about. 
Near the river, Wagtails (Motacilla personata) and some Crag 
Martins (Cotyle rupestris) flying over head. 
Ath.— Tsatti to Taghar, Nubra Valley.—Got some hare shoot- 
ing to-day along the road, and the Chikore very plentiful. 
All the birds noted yesterday were again’ seen, (with 
the exception of the Mountain Finch, (J. hematopygia) 
and in addition a Redstart (2. rujiventris) anda Yellow Wag- 
tail (Budytes citreola). Along the first part of the road the 
evidences of the great cataclysm of the Shayok in 1841 were 
well marked ; the space between the two hill sides being one 
great expanse of sand and transported debris, without a trace of 
vegetation. The Nubra Valley seems to be a fine place for the 
study of what Mr. Drew calls “alluvial fans ;” I noticed one to 
our right, as we rode along, whose base must be over half a 
mile long. Before reaching our camp here we passed some 
remarkable sand ridges, looking like long waves at sea, 
which run across the valley ; their leeward surfaces were mi- 
nutely rippled, I suppose by a cross current of wind which 
blows down a side valley. Very pleasant weather; tempera- 
ture in the shade, this morning at eight o’clock, 56°. 
J interrupt my diary to explain that at this stage we had got 
into the Nubra valley in which we remained four days. Its bed 
is a gravelly plain of river alluvium from one to three miles in 
width along which the Nubra river runs down from the north to 
its junction with the Shayok at Tsatti. The elevation of the 
different villages in this valley, taking them in the order we 
reached them (7. e. proceeding northwards) is as follews:— 
Tsatti, 10,589; Taghar, 10,333 ; Panamick, 10,611; and Chang- 
lung (where we quitted the valley) 10,911. The district is very 
pretty and unusually fertile for Ladak. For nearly its whole 
lenoth there is a dense thicket of Buckthorn (/ippophae) scrub, 
and little swampy grass plains are abundant. ‘The villages are 
large and thriving, and there isa good deal of cultivation ; many 
willow and poplar trees grow about the villages and a few ele- 
agnus, walnut and other fruit trees. Tne sacred walls or Manés, 
Chortens and Gonpas*—are plentiful and seem to be kept in 
better repair than in any other part of Ladak which I saw. 
One prominent feature in Nubra I specially noted, viz., the 
* A Gonpa is a Buddhist monastery, 
