[Sidenote: HANLE RIVER. _September, 1847._]
The width of the valley varied from one to three miles. The stream was very winding, crossing from side to side, and often pressing the road close to the spurs of the range on the left. The range on this side was principally clay-slate, with occasional outbreaks of trap, which had in many places converted the stratified rock into a hard red or green jasper. From the immediate proximity of the igneous rock the stratified masses were very much contorted, and no regular dip was observable.
Saline efflorescence occurred everywhere in great quantity in the vicinity of the stream; as a consequence, Chenopodiaceous plants were more than usually abundant, and I collected at least three species of that family which I had not previously observed. The banks of the stream were everywhere bordered by a belt of green herbage, more or less broad, in which the usual species of _Ranunculus_, _Gentiana_, _Pedicularis_, _Juncus_, _Cyperaceæ_, and grasses were common. _Glaux maritima_ also occurred abundantly. Two other European plants were found in the swamps along the course of the river, which were very interesting as a proof of the extremely European nature of the flora: these were _Hippuris vulgaris_ and _Limosella lacustris_. Towards the end of the day's journey, _Caragana versicolor_ (_Dama_) became very common, covering a large extent of surface, and growing to a much greater size than I had ever before seen, with an upright stem nearly six feet in height. I could scarcely persuade myself that the species was the same as the little depressed shrubs which grew on the passes further south. Two species of _Myricaria_, both of which I had seen in Piti, also reappeared during the day, so that we were evidently approaching a lower level and more genial climate.
Banks of alluvial conglomerate occurred on the sides of the valley, in the spaces between the projecting spurs of the range on the left hand, on the latter part of the day. The beds were distinctly stratified and very sandy, more or less full of rounded stones, and often passing into pure sand, which was interstratified with the coarser beds. The day was very cloudy and threatening, and a few drops of rain fell for the first time since the 29th of August, the weather during the whole of that interval having been brilliant and quite dry. We encamped eleven miles from Hanle, on a gravelly plain close to the river.