plan and objects of journey 21 
^ Jitmosphere is natural, and which find their 
^ O 'With inconceivable sureness of foot in places which 
^eem quite impassable. In regions which to all appearance 
a y barren, they are further able to find mosses 
^ 1C tens, which they lick from the rocks. The e.xpedi- 
t will require a caravan of fifteen yaks, and an escort 
SIX well-armed natives. 
According to Pievtsoff, the autumn is the best time 
^ travelling in Northern Tibet. The expedition 
and ^ to leave Leh in the middle of August, 
strike an east-south-easterly line towards the lake 
bv same direction as that taken 
qj- pundit Nain Singh in 1874. Somewhere north 
g engri-nor, in an uninhabited tract, I propose to 
disguised, and accompanied by one or two 
the°'^^'"^’ penetrate to Lhasa, returning 
g to the chief encampment at Tengri-nor. This 
^ niew at adventurous method of trying to enter the 
pita of Tibet I shall naturally not resort to unless 
favourable, and the reaching of Lhasa 
to prove of undoubted value in the interests 
T.j^^°S’'uphy. From Tengri -nor we shall strike through 
pr' ^^d endeavour to reach East Turkestan over the 
^^wen-lun Mountains ; the town of Cherchen would then 
our nearest goal. And there we ought to arrive in 
I^^bruary of next year. 
exchanging the yaks for camels, we shall proceed 
Wards through an entirely unknown part of the 
^esert of Gobi, until we reach the cour.se of the river 
desert there are no roads and no springs, 
of ^^*^*'e*'*! moving sand-hills. The inhabitants 
P K ^ oasis on its southern confines, however, told 
th ^ that in the winter it is possible to traverse 
•desert, for there are in that season occasional falls of 
m render it possible to procure water. It is 
intention to study the aspect of this desert and the 
movements of its sand-hills. 
Ord ^ follow the east bank of the Tarim, in 
to discover whether the river does or does not 
