DESERT. 
73 
90° F. All the ground round about is covered with 
saline efflorescence. The whole valley near the springs 
has a strong smell, like that of decaying seaweed. 
Near the springs I shot some plovers and a Brahminy 
duck [Casarca rutila). In October, several teal were 
observed here. I collected quantities of algse at 
the hot springs, some of which are new ; but with 
the exception of " Burtsi" (Eurotid), stunted Ephedra, 
Artemisia, and a Carex, which last, for the next ten 
days, was to do duty for grass as food for our animals, 
almost no flowering plants were seen. I do not 
know why " Burtsi" should be called " wild lavender" 
or the "lavender plant" by all Europeans who travel 
in these regions, unless it has been mistaken for a 
species of FerowsUa, which is common lower down in 
Ladak, and does somewhat resemble lavender when 
in flower. We now found it difiicult at times to keep 
to the proper route, for the valleys all looked very 
similar to one another. We were greatly assisted by 
small piles of stones, erected at every quarter of a 
mile or so by Dr. Cayley's men, who had preceded us. 
This is the way in which the route is usually marked 
out in these parts. Every traveller, when he comes 
to a point where the valley branches, erects a few 
piles of stones to show future travellers the route he 
has taken. At the place where we halted for the 
night, grass was said to exist, but it was some time 
before the uninitiated eye could discover anything 
deserving the name of grass, each plant of sedge 
[Car ex moorcro/tii) having only half a dozen leaves, 
more like bristles than anything else, and being 
separated from its next neighbour by a bare space of 
several feet. Few of our yaks with grain came up, 
