“Because of the slow procession of the camels and the delay suffered when we lost our way, we only covered 25 km. (15.5 miles) in the night stage. After four hours’ rest we resumed our march and directed our steps toward the hills, called Kellehper and situated 20 km. (12.5 miles) from Bala-haus; they were plainly visible but positively seemed to take flight on our approach. I was somewhat ahead of the caravan and sat down at the foot of this sand-elevation; and never can I describe the feeling of weariness and of depression that I was unable to ward off as I looked into the ghastly solitude that engulfed me. Scattered clouds intercepted the rays of the sun, but the air was hot and heavy; the diffused light lent a monotonous and disconsolating hue to the greyish, burning surface of the desert; hardly a single variation of colour gave relief to the immense expanses that the vision embraced. The absolute immobility of every point in this mournful landscape, combined with the complete absence of any sound, produced an overwhelming depression of the spirit; one felt as set upon a place that had been struck inanimate for ever, a place to which organic life would never return safe through some terrible catastrophe of nature. One witnessed the beginning, so to speak, of the death-agony of our planet.” If a drying out has taken place in these regions,--which seems probable from Hedin’s observation that the water in a Tibet lake, Lakker-tso, formerly reached a 133 m. (435 ft.) higher level than at present,--such a process is nevertheless not so obvious here as in the salt inland lakes, for instance the Great Salt Lake in Utah, the Dead Sea, and the Caspian Sea, where the saltness has greatly increased due to evaporation. Concerning the Great Salt Lake we know that even at a comparatively late time it had a much wider extension than now. Its water contains 22 per cent. common salt besides other compounds. The Dead Sea holds 25 per cent. salt. A very variable percentage is to be found in the Caspian Sea. Near the mouth of the Volga it is of course low, only 0.15, and increases southward to 1.32 at the peninsula Apsheron and to 5.63 in the bay of Kaidak. In the gulf of Karaboghaz on the Asiatic side it reaches 28.5 per cent. It has been computed that this gulf receives annually from the inrushing waters of the Caspian Sea 350,000 tons of salt which is partly deposited on its shores and bottom.