130 THE PROVINCE OF LADAKH 



game hunter's ambition. Until he has shot his tiger in 

 the hot and steaming forests of the plains, and his Ovis 

 ammon at 15,000 feet above sea level, he considers that 

 he has not accomplished his manifest destiny. 



The natural boundaries of the province of Ladakh are 

 the Karakoram and Kuen-Luu on the north, with Chinese 

 Turkestan beyond ; the political frontier dividing it from 

 Tibet on the east ; the British districts of Spiti-Lahour 

 and the independent States of Chumba on the south ; 

 Kashmir and its sub-province, Baltistan, on the west. 

 Pioughly speaking, within these limits is contained an 

 extent of country two hundred miles in length and the 

 same in breadth, at an average valley elevation of 14,000 

 feet above the sea. The Indus, for nearly three hundred 

 miles of its course from S.E. to N.E., cuts the province 

 exactly in halves. Its principal tributary is the Shyok 

 river, which, after a most devious course of nearly two 

 hundred and fifty miles, falls into the Indus on the 

 western border. The Zanskar and Dras are minor 

 tributaries. 



The mountain ranges drained by the above water system 

 are the Karakoram barrier as to its southern slopes, whose 

 waters are collected by the Shyok ; the Gangri or Kailas 

 range, which starts from the Mansarowar lake in Tibet, 

 and ends in the angle which is formed by the junction of 

 the Shyok with the Indus. This remarkable range has a 

 length of four hundred miles, the greater portion of which, 

 almost in a straight line, runs along the right bank of the 

 Indus, dividing the Shyok and its tributaries from the 

 former. On the left bank of the river there is no well- 

 defined or continuous range comparable to the Kailas. On 

 the south-east are the great plateaux of Eupshii and their 

 lakes ; farther west are the steep and lofty mountains of 

 Zanskar; and beyond them the ranges enclosing the Sorii 



