88 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



even be mountainous. Generally the horizon is bounded on all 

 sides by ranges of hills of variable height, and often these hills 

 inclose a trough-like valley from which it seems as if the water 

 must be puzzled to find its way out, if, indeed, it does so at all. 

 From the longer cross valleys of the often much-ramified ranges 

 a small stream may flow towards the lowest part of the basin and 

 end in a lake, whose salt-covered shores sparkle in the distance 

 as if the winter snow still lay upon them. Viewed from afar, 

 the hills look like lofty mountains, for on these vast plains the 

 eye loses its standard for estimating magnitude; and when the 

 rocks stand out above the surface and form domes and cones, sharp 

 peaks and jagged pinnacles on their summits, even the practised 

 observer is readily deceived. Of course there are some genuinely lofty 

 mountains, for, apart from those near the Chinese boundary, there 

 are others on the Kirghiz steppes, which even on close view lose little 

 of the impressiveness that the ruggedness of their peaks and slopes 

 gives them when seen from a. distance. The higher and more rami- 

 fied the mountains, the more numerous are the streams which they 

 send down to the lower grounds, and the larger are the lakes that 

 occupy the depressions at their base — basins which their feeders 

 are unable to fill, even though unable to find a way through the 

 surrounding banks. The more extensive, also, are the salt-steppes 

 around these lakes — salt because they have no outlet. But apart 

 from these variations, the characteristics of the steppes are uniform; 

 though the composition of the picture is often changed, its theme 

 remains the same. 



We should convey a false impression if we denied charm, or 

 even grandeur, to the scenery of the steppes. The North German 

 moorland is drearier, Brandenburg is more monotonous. In the 

 gently undulating plain the eye rests gratefully on the lakes which 

 fill all the deeper hollows; in the highlands or among the loftier 

 mountains the gleaming water-basins are a real ornament to the 

 landscape. It is true that the lake is, in most cases, though not 

 invariably, without the charm of surrounding verdure, often 

 without so much as a fringe of bushes. But, even when it lies 

 naked and bare, it brightens the steppes. For «the blue sky, 



