OF EASTERN TURKESTAN, ot 
(Gallinago solitaria). Elevation of our camp at Kizil Ungur 
16,371 feet. 
14th.—Several inches of snow fell during the night and the 
minimum thermometer registered 17° F. Our road after 
leaving Kizi! Ungur lay at first along the usual gravel plain, 
and then through a gorge composed of coarse red breccia, where 
we found the little stream frozen on its surface. We emerged 
from this gorge into a wider stony ravine up which we went 
by an easy ascent, which however seemed to make the horses 
pant very much and laid a couple of our followers low with 
‘dam.’ 
At the top of the ascent a strange sight met our view, 
for we found ourselves on an immense undulating plain—the 
Depsang—which looked like the top of the world. ‘The plain 
was gravelly and seemed to slope gently eastwards towards 
some low hills in that direction ; northwards in front of us we 
saw a few irregular, flat topped—hillocks, they looked like 
—scattered about ; to the left, the clear blue sky appeared to 
be the only boundary of our plain; and to the south-west 
the distant tops of some fine snowy peaks peeped up above our 
level. I waited for my barometer at the highest part of the 
plain and while doing so had occasion to look back in the 
direction of the route by which we had come. A fine snowy 
range of mountains met my view, and looked quite continuous ; 
but, of course, this was a deceptive appearance, as we had 
passed through this apparent chain without crossing any pass, 
and without rising to a greater elevation than about 16,300 feet. 
These limestone mountains and peaks are probably, as Mr. 
Shaw says, the continuation of the Mustagh Range, but where 
is the Karakoram Range? The only thing, seen from the 
vantage ground of Depsang,, that looked like a range, we had 
passed through and left behind us, while the Karakoram Pass 
was distant about twenty-five miles from the Kizil Ungur 
edge of the plain. The altitude of the Depsang at the point 
where I read the barometer was 17,817 feet! From there the 
road lay across the plain, northwards ; the path being marked 
out by many carcases of dead horses lying on each side. 
The ride over the Depsang was along one, and abitterly cold 
wind blowing across made my nose feel very much like a lump of 
ice. There was no vegetation whatever on the plain, but I noticed 
some Ravens, a Hoopoe ( Upupa epops) Montifringilla hemato- 
pygia, and, near a little streamlet running eastwards, a Wag- 
tail (Motacilla personata). From the Depsang we descended 
into a wide sort of valley covered with bare gravel, and en- 
camped near ashallow stream running westwards, which is, 
in fact, the upper part of the Shayok River. Our camp here, 
