358 THE TSO MORARI. 



lakes when rippled by wind, and as its water is not salt, there 

 is a certain amount of verdure here and there along its mar- 

 gin, and beside the streams that flow into it, which gives a 

 pleasing variety to its otherwise barren scenery. The sur- 

 rounding mountainous country is desolate to a degree, there 

 not being a human habitation within a radius of at least 40 

 miles of it, except the miserable little hamlet of Karzok, with 

 its small monastery situated on its western shore. The water, 

 to me, seemed perfectly good, although rather flat, so to speak, 

 to the taste ; but the Tartars have an objection to drinking 

 it. Although there is a large amount of drainage into the 

 lake, there is no visible outlet from it. This is a remarkable 

 fact ; and evaporation alone, one would suppose, could hardly 

 account for the disappearance of the constant and abundant 

 supply of water from the great quantity of melted snow 

 draining into it off the neighbouring mountains. 



On our way to Karzok along the shore of the lake, we got 

 numerous shots at wild geese of the bar-headed kind, and 

 as they had young goslings with them, I concluded they 

 bred in the vicinity. Fortunately the strong wind was blow- 

 ing shorewards, as most of them dropped on the water and 

 we had no dog to retrieve them. The old birds were dread- 

 fully tough, and even our Warren's cooking-pot failed to 

 extract much flavour from them when made into soup ; but 

 the goslings were much more palatable. 



Whilst at Karzok, we were surprised, late one evening, by 

 the advent of a solitary sportsman who had just come over 

 the Parang la into Tibet, with the intention, late in the season 

 as it was, of hunting in Changchenmo. He seemed to have 

 suffered pretty severely from the combined effects of cold, 

 wind, and sun on the pass, as his face was in rather a sorry 

 plight, being something like a raw beefsteak, and the deep 

 cracks on his lips and nose were profusely patched with bits 

 of sticking-plaster. The account he gave us of some hunting- 

 ground for napoo, on the south side of the Parang la, was so 



