82 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



sected by mountain groups, undoubtedly belonging to wholly 

 distinct systems of elevation. There are, properly speaking, 

 very few plains ; the most considerable are those between 

 Gertop, Daba, Schang-thung (Shepherd's Plain) the native 

 country of the Shawl-goat, and Schipke (1634 toises, 10,450 

 English feet) ; those round Ladak, which have an elevation 

 of 2100 toises, or 13430 English feet, and must not be 

 confounded with the depression in which the town is 

 situated; and lastly, the plateau of the Sacred Lakes 

 Manasa and Ravanahrada (probably 2345 toises), which 

 was visited so early as 1625 by Pater Antonio de Andrada. 

 Other parts are entirely filled with crowded mountainous 

 elevations, " rising," as a recent traveller expresses it, " like 

 the waves of a vast ocean." Along the rivers, the Indus, the 

 Sutlej, and the Yaru-dzangbo-tschu which was formerly 

 regarded as identical with the Brahma-putra, points have 

 been measured which are only between 1050 and 1400 

 toises (671 i and 8952 English feet) above the level of the 

 sea ; so also with respect to the Thibetian villages of Pangi, 

 Kunawur, Kelu, and Murung. (Humboldt, Asie Centrale, 

 T. iii. p. 281-325.) From many carefully collected mea- 

 surements of elevation I think I may conclude that the plateau 

 of Thibet, between 73 and 85 E. long., does not reach a 

 mean height of 1800 toises (11510 English feet); this is 

 hardly equal to the height of the fertile plain of Caxamarca 

 in Peru, and is 211 and 337 toises (1350 and 2154 English 

 feet) less than the height of the plateau of Titicaca, and the 

 street pavement of the Upper Town of Potosi (2137 toises, 

 13,665 English feet). 



