1012 
THROUGH ASIA 
French traveller’s route only very imperfectly, I thought it 
must be the same. The boiling-point of the thermometer 
gave its altitude as 16,165 above sea-level. 
In the afternoon the weather was abominable, and pre- 
vented me from carrying out the excursion I had planned 
— namely to the mouth of the stream which entered the 
western extremity of the lake. It hailed and poured with 
rain all the afternoon, the landscape being enshrouded 
in a sort of autumn mist, so that we saw nothing of the 
large lake beside which we were encamped. Probably 
the heaviest downfalls occur in this region in the autumn. 
In the evening the rain ceased, the mist dispersed, the 
atmosphere became clear and transparent ; and the lake 
glistened like a mirror, reflecting the most beautiful inter- 
play of colour, whilst the Southern Mountains soared 
upwards like a steel-blue wall. 
The treacherous Taghliks, who ran away from camp 
No. VIII., were bound every night, and made to sleep 
under a thick felt rug which was spread over the maize 
sacks, for we should not have been surprised if at any 
time they had attempted to give us the slip again. Their 
leader now earnestly begged to be allowed to return home, 
and as we no longer needed him, his request was granted. 
1 was afraid he would not be able to travel all the long 
distance by himself; but he told me he intended to make 
his way to some gold-prospectors he knew of working 
on the northern flanks of the Arka-tagh. I gave him 
some money, and a sufficient supply of bread and flour to 
last him a fortnight, and moreover presented him with a 
donkey to carry his stores, and with this he was very well 
satisfied. The rest of the 1 aghliks preferred to go with 
us right through to Tsaidam, whence they proposed to 
return home over the Chimen-tagh or over Bokalik. As 
during the past few days their conduct had been quite 
exemplary, they were freed from their bonds at night, 
and for the future w'ere allowed to sleep in peace. 
On August 27th, when we started to continue our 
journey along the northern shore of the lake, the solitary 
r aghlik took his leave of us, and turned back along our 
