On the side of the desert the Altyn-tagh throws out spurs and branches separated from one another by narrow valleys,[1] a few of which attain an elevation of 11,000 feet above sea-level. The peaks shoot up about two or three thousand feet higher, and this is probably the elevation of the main axis of the range, the descent to the table-land on the south being doubtless shorter, as we gathered not only from the testimony of our guides, but also from the general characteristics of most of the mountain ranges of Central Asia.
Although we were unable, owing to deep winter which set in and want of time, to cross to the other side of the Altyn-tagh, and measure the altitudes to the south of it, there can be no doubt of the plateau on that side being at least 12,000 or 13,000 feet above sea-level. This, at all events, may be inferred from the enormous elevation of the valleys in the front terraces of the range. Our guides, who had often hunted on the other side of these mountains, informed us that by going south along an old road, after crossing the Altyn-tagh one arrives at a lofty plain, fifty versts wide, bounded by a range (twenty versts in width) having no specific name, and beyond this again another plain, forty versts wide, abounding in morasses fed by springs (sasi), and confined on the south by a huge snowy
- ↑ Ten versts long by four and five wide, and often less.
