HILL Y ARK AND. 
89 
kash river contains salt — and the whole valley abounds 
in saline efflorescence.* 
Next morning, July 31st, we marched seventeen 
miles down the stream. At 1 p.m. the thermometer, 
Tinder an awning, was at 66° F., and a minimum self- 
registering thermometer, placed in the open all night, 
fell to 25° F., but there was hardly any ice on the 
water. When returning along the Upper Karakash, 
in September, it was remarkable that the river was 
never completely frozen, although the thermometer 
was every night nearly at zero, and during the day 
was never above the freezing point in the shade. 
The Karakash, in the parts where it flowed in a 
single stream, was seldom less than thirty to forty yards 
wide and was fordable pretty easily early in the day. 
I tried roughly to estimate the rate of the current, by 
throwing in pieces of stick and finding the time these 
took to float a measured distance. The average of 
a great many trials gave three to three and a half 
miles an hour as the rate of flow ; and this is probably 
nearly the rate for fifty miles. The river rapidly 
increased in size as we proceeded, owing to the 
number of large streams which join it, and after to- 
day we always had some little difficulty in fording 
it, even at 10 a.m. at the widest parts. By the 
middle of September, when we returned, it had fallen 
so much as to be easily fordable everywhere. The 
lower Karakash skirts the southern base of the Kuen 
Lun range, the higher peaks of which rise to over 
24,000 feet. They are covered with perpetual snow 
* Mr. Shaw informs me that in winter the water of the Karakash river is like 
brine, and quite undrinkable. 
