322 



Selections. 



[NO. 8, NEW SERIES. 



one Chaprassi with his heavy baggage to Ladak, and he himself 

 with Mohammad Amin and some other followers went to Chusel 

 [near the Lake Tsomognalari, the great salt Lake of Pangkong.] 

 There he hired 60 porters and with them set out. 



After three days journey Munshi Mohammad Hassan of Peshaur 

 having taken a horse out of Mr. Schlagintweit's stable away at night 

 ran away and carried away with him his book of accounts. Mr. 

 Schlagintweit sent to search after him a man, named Rahiman, a 

 native of Balti, and lent him a horse to ride on ; but he also never 

 returned. Mr. Schlagintweit halted 3 days in the same uninhabi- 

 ted country and then taking Mohammad Amin and 2 natives of 

 Tibet went to discover the way. By means of a telescope he at 

 last found a way, and started with his baggage, but in reality we 

 missed the proper route, and after a weary journey came by the 

 side of two small lakes, the water in one of which was reddish, and 

 in the other greenish, but both bitter [saline,] so that all his fol- 

 lowers through despair began to lament and sigh to return. 



[The difficulties of travelling, here described, perfectly agree 

 with what we had to experience ourselves during our passage over 

 the chains of the Karakorum and the Kuenliien. We had to tra- 

 vel without any trace of a road, 21 days and had not met with one 

 man. In these great elevations, 15,000 to 18,000 E. feet, we found 

 no wood, extremely scarce food for our horses and scarcely drink- 

 able water in sufficient quantity.] 



Upon this Mr. Schlagintweit dismissed some Tibetans together 

 with one Chaprassi by name Murli. He then with myself, Moham- 

 mad Amin of Yarkand and his 3 followers, Gosht Mohammad 

 Khansamah and 2 Tibetans resumed his journey, and on his way 

 met with only a single house situated in a deserted tract of coun- 

 try from which the city of 'Elchi, the capital of Khotan, was dis- 

 tant by 3 days journey. 



On our going with Mr. Schlagintweit from Sultanpur to Yar- 

 kand. our way lay through an uninhabited country ; for our master 

 had selected a new route and marked it with stones as he went 

 along and drew a sketch of it. 



This was a way, which led straight to Yarkand, without passing 

 through Leh ; but with the exception of a few inhabited huts [on 



