158 Henry H. Hoicorth — Elevation of Eastern Asia. 



Kashgar as being very saline. South-east of Taitma a large quantity 

 of pure salt in cubical crystals is collected, and he adds, " The fact 

 that there is such a large quantity of saline matter together with 

 salt swamps in the southern part seems to prove that the Jilga at 

 least, and probably niost of the others, had been washed out by the 

 sea, and that while others had gradually, though only partially, 

 drained off the saline matter, this one retained it, because it has at 

 present no outlet. It is in fact a dried-up saline lake, which at 

 some remote time was cut off from the sea of which it was a fiord " 

 (Report of a Mission to Yarkand, pp. 472-473). 



Eichthofen, speaking of this wide plain, says, " It is girt round 

 by a wide semicircular collar of mountains of the loftiest and 

 grandest charactei", often rising in ridges of 18,000 to 20,000 feet 

 in height, while the peaks shoot up to 25,000 and even 28,000 feet. 

 The basin which fills in the horse-shoe-shaped space inclosed by 

 these gigantic elevations, though deeply depressed below them, 

 stands at a height above the sea varying from 6000 feet at the 

 margin to about 2000 in the middle, and formed the bed of nn ancient 

 sea " (see " from Kulja to Lob Nor," by Prejevalsky, translated by 

 Morgan, p. 138). Speaking of the Tarim Elver, the same geologist 

 says : " The region through which it flows is highly charged with 

 salt, springs of sweet water are rare, and only appear on the border 

 of the mountains. Even in the high mountains the basins mostly 

 contain salt, and in many valleys of the Altyn tagh, at a height of 

 11,000 feet, Prejevalsky found the water brackish. The water of 

 the Tarim must therefore contain a larger proportion of salt than 

 any other of the larger rivers of the world ; and the unusual amount 

 of evaporation must have produced a very large deposit of steppe 

 salts of all kinds. The Chinese from ancient times have called the 

 Lob Nor the salt lake in contradistinction to many other salt lakes " 

 (id. p. 145). While Prejevalsky contests somewhat this evidence 

 about Lake Lob, or rather explains it, he speaks continually of the 

 saline character of the soil in the district he traversed. 



Turning to the extreme west of the great plateau, Henderson's 

 narrative of the journey from Lahore to Ladakh, p. 88, gives an 

 account of the Karakash river valley. He speaks of depressions in 

 the soil half full of brine, and some covered with a thick crust of 

 common salt. He adds that the water of the Karakash contains 

 salt, and Mr. Shaw told him that in winter it is like brine and 

 quite undrinkable, and that the whole vallejr abounds in saline 

 efflorescence [op. cit. pp. 88-89). Again, he speaks of the valley of 

 the Chang Chenmo River as being, in certain places, all covered with 

 saline efflorescence, and near the springs as smelling like decayed 

 seaweed {id. p. 73). In the neighbourhood of Lungdung, again, he 

 refers to efflorescence consisting of Epsom salts covering the plain, 

 and in some places to a depth of many feet. Where springs exist 

 they formed briny lakes, and clouds of salt are raised by the wind. 

 The Pangong lake is about a hundred miles long from East to 

 West. Each gallon of water contains 1000 grains of salt. And so 

 I miffht continue. 



