A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



stones, and you do not notice them until they rise 

 with a loud clicking whirr, which continues while 

 they pursue a short flight, during which their wings, 

 of a dark blue colour with a band of a lighter shade 

 across them, are very visible, and which only ceases 

 as they fall and are again lost to sight amongst the 

 stones. 



From the summit of this Pass I got my first 

 glimpse of the famous Tso-Moriri. This lake is at 

 an altitude of about 15,000 feet, and there being no 

 visible outlet for its waters, must be kept to its level 



by evaporation ; 

 Macintyre says that 

 it is " almost, if not 

 quite, the highest of 

 known lakes in the 

 world." It is some 



SUNSET ON THE TSO-MOR.RI. 



and four or five wide, 



and is famed for the grandeur of its scenery. 

 It would be an impossibility to describe its beauty 

 (enhanced as it was on the day on which I travelled 

 along its banks, by the brilliancy of the weather) ; 

 indeed, as Drew says of another of the Ladakhi lakes, 

 " It is difficult to persuade one's self that it is not as 

 beautiful as can be." The water itself is of a most 

 lovely translucent blue, which admits of your seeing 

 the bottom quite clearly, and which seems to be a 

 peculiarity of these salt lakes, and when broken into 



ripples by the wind, the light shines through the 



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