588 General Notes. [June, 
Asta.—The Lower Helmund—The valley of the Helmund, at 
the point where it was struck by the Afghan boundary commis- 
sion, below its junction with the Argandab, is narrow and limited 
by ranges of rolling clay or sandstone hills. Beyond these ridges 
rise other similar ridges, forming the dashés, or rolling plateaux 
of Southern Afghanistan. This desolate country is full of ruins. 
“ From Lundi to Kala Fateh,” writes Major Holdich, “ one rides 
through and over the relics of dead kingdoms. The remains of 
forts, of deep-cut irrigation canals, of pretentious habitations 
which might have been palaces * are the common fea- 
tures of the landscape. Broken pottery strews the ground some- 
times for miles ata time.” All are built of mud or sun-dried 
bricks. During the whole of its lower course until it disappears 
in a hamun or swamp, it receives no tributaries. About Nadali 
are innumerable mounds, some of which, though always bearing 
ruins on their summit, are clearly stratified, and are therefore 
thought to be natural. 
Discovery of the Sources of the Hoang-Ho—The proceedings 
of the Royal Geographical Society for March contain translations of 
two letters sent by Col. Prejevalsky to the /uvalide Russe. This 
intrepid traveler left Urga (a town in Northern Mongolia, situated 
on a branch of the Angora and south of the Irkutsk) on Nov. 8, 
1883, and soon reached the vast desert of Gobi, which measures 
2650 miles from east to west, and about 700 from north to south. 
The northern part of the desert is still a steppe region covered with 
excellent grass; but Central Gobi consists of perfectly bare flat 
spaces covered with pebbles and cut upat intervals by lone strati- 
fied ridges, while Southern Gobi is covered all over with quick- 
sands, the remains of shoals and dunes of the once wide Central 
Asian sea. Terrible frosts in winter, without snow, and almost 
tropical heat in summer, with frequent storms, characterize this 
barren, rainless, riverless region; yet every part of it is inhabited 
by Mongols. Crossing the Khurkhu ridge, forming the eastern 
edge of the Altai, the southern desert, or Alashan, was entered, 
and a stay was made at Din-yuan-in, where the Alashan range 
runs like a wall between the desert and the cultivated banks of 
the northern bend of the Yellow river. Crossing the Nan-shan 
range, part of the unbroken wall which stretches from the Upper 
“Hoang-ho to the Pamir, Col. Prejevalsky then entered Kan-su, 
and prepared to go in search of the hitherto undiscovered sources 
of the Hoang-ho. On his way he passed the plateau of Lake 
Koko-Nor, 10,800 feet above the sea; and then crossed the ridge 
of Burkhan-Buddha by a pass 15,700 feet above the sea. The 
circumference of Lake Koko-Nor is given as 16624 miles. Sixty- 
seven miles from the pass the sources of the Yellow river were 
reache wo streamlets, flowing from the south and west, out 
of the mountains scattered about the plateau, unite at an elevation 
i - of 13,600 feet. The infant river is fed by the numerous springs 
