1058 
THROUGH ASIA 
September 22nd. Our next stage, to camp No. 
XXXII., was fourteen and a half miles. The ground 
was the most difficult we had encountered for a long time, 
consisting for half the way of undulating hills, very much 
broken, and trenched by gullies and ravines. For some 
distance how'ever we followed a yak track, which kept 
at about the same level, although at the cost of innumer- 
able windinirs and zitrzairsjinus backwards and forwards. 
The yak, it seems, prefers to make detours rather than 
constantly go up and down. The hills stood close to the 
lake shore, and were the northern outliers of a large chain 
which shut in the lake on the south, and which had 
hitherto hidden its water from our sight. Hour after 
hour we rode on towards the west, and yet there was no 
getting round the lake. We regretted not having chosen 
the southern shore. Nevertheless we kept pushing on, 
impelled by the faint hope, that at the western extremity 
of the lake there might be a glen leading up to a con- 
venient pass over the Arka-tagh. But the farther we 
advanced towards the west, the lower sank the hills, until 
at last we were able to ride close along the margin of the 
water on perfectly level ground. Between us and the 
lake there was however a chain of freshwater lagoons, 
each fed by a mountain-stream, and having some invisible 
connection with the lake. 
In addition to the hills, and now the innumerable small 
brooks, about eleven o’clock the weather took a disagree- 
able turn. The sky darkened in every quarter, and a 
hailstorm of unparalleled violence burst over the lake. 
The clouds drove towards us out of the east like a solid 
black wall, accompanied by fierce hissings and whinings, 
like the sound of steam escaping from the boiler of a 
locomotive. The surface of the lake turned dark grey. 
The mountains on the shore became lost in the haze ; 
louder and louder waxed the roar of the storm. We could 
see and we could hear how the drops of wmter splashed up 
with a perceptible hiss as the hailstones thrashed the 
dead smooth surface of the lake. The hail came down in 
blinding showers ; but finally passed over into snow and 
