232 THE PANGONG TSO. 



On the second morning we reached the western end of 

 the Pangong tso (lake), when, on emerging from a long glen 

 flanked on the one side by steep stony slopes, on the other 

 by beetling cliffs of a yellowish hue,^ such a wonderful 

 prospect suddenly presented itself as. to amply repay any one 

 for the long toilsome journey which has to be undergone to 

 behold it. 



Beneath a cloudless sky, the deep sapphire blue of which 

 was rendered extraordinarily intense in the rippling waves 

 that reflected it, lay this salt-water lake, at an elevation of 

 14,000 feet, stretching away for about thirty miles of its 

 visible length, its width being about five or six. From its 

 shores of pale-yellow sand, on either side rose barren heights 

 — some of them streaked and capped with perpetual snow — 

 whose brilliant yet harmoniously blended colouring of every 

 tint except green baffles all description. Here and there 

 a pure white glacier lay between the ridges that stretched 

 down towards the water, and sometimes jutted into it in 

 fantastic -shaped promontories and bluffs, their successive 

 receding outlines growing more faint, until hardly distin- 

 guishable against the purplish -blue of the snow-crested 

 mountains that bounded our view of the lake, where it 

 takes a leftward turn for some twelve more miles. 



The strangely wild beauty of this scene was enhanced by 

 the extreme clearness of the air, which in Tibet renders sur- 

 rounding objects, and their black clear-cut shadows, almost 

 startlingly distinct, and distances most deceptive. A natural 

 consequence of so transparent an atmosphere is, that tlie 

 sun's rays strike through it with the most astonishing 

 power. Indeed, from the moment the sun appears over the 

 horizon it commences pitching into your face, and especially 

 your poor nose ; and even although these may be shaded from 



^ These tall cliffs were entirely formed of a rather friable kind of alabaster 

 or gypsum, as we found from the snow-white blocks of it, recently detached 

 from above, that had rolled down below, the yellow colour on the surface 

 being caused by the action of the weathey. 



