CHAPTER VII. 



WE had now fairly entered Rupshu, a country the 

 description of which had always had a fascination 

 for me. It is the highest inhabited country in the 

 world, and "inhabited" means, in this case, by 

 nomadic dwellers in tents, as, with the exception of 

 the villages of Hanle (14,276 feet) and Karzok 

 (14,960 feet), both of which places consist of a 

 Gonpa, or Monastery, with a few huts collected 

 round the base of the spur on which this is built, 

 these vast wastes can claim no settled dwelling- 

 place. Rupshu proper lies to the south of the 

 Indus, and consists of a series of uplands and 

 valleys, which are nowhere lower than 14,000 feet 

 above the sea-level. These are interspersed between, 

 and traversed by, confused groups of mountains, 

 that for the most part rise to a height of something 

 over 20,000 feet, and appear to have no particular 

 watershed, though the natural tendency of the whole 

 district would be towards the Indus. 



In many cases these valleys drain into the large 

 brackish lakes, such as the Tso-Kar and Tso- 



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