RETURN JOURNEY. 
149 
miles farther, to a small lake at the foot of the hills. 
It was dark before the first of our party arrived at 
the second camp. On the way a storm of wind and 
snow-drift overtook us, and many of our followers did 
not turn up until next day, having to sleep wherever 
they could find a little shelter. The Karatag lake 
near which we encamped contained sweet water ; it 
was about half a mile across, and close under the 
mountains. In the morning I here caught a quail 
and a rail completely exhausted. I have no doubt 
they were crossing from Yarkand to Tibet, or perhaps 
to India. Next day we crossed a low pass, and the 
day after got to the Karakash river, which we fol- 
lowed to its source, through a desolate weird-looking 
valley. Our first camp in this valley was on a large 
open plain, ironically named by some former travel- 
lers Khush Maidan, which means " pleasant plain." 
One day, when our horses were completely exhausted, 
and we were eagerly looking out for patches of feed, 
snow fell to the depth of several inches and concealed 
all the grass, so that our horses had to starve, and on i 
our next march many of them fairly broke down, and 
we had to halt for two days. In some places the 
Karakash river was narrow, and fordable with diffi- 
culty, owing to the number of quicksands ; often there 
were high banks of ice on either side ; in other places 
the whole valley was filled with one sheet of ice 
extending for miles, and occasionally the river dis- 
appeared entirely in the sand. 
It is a curious circumstance that, with the thermo- 
meter always below the freezing point, the Karakash 
river should not have been entirely frozen up. We 
suffered intensely from the cold wind ; and notwitli- 
