298 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



old ruined watch-tower of Karnak. We had 

 been seeing mountains before us all day, seemingly 

 only a few miles distant, which I recognised as 

 being beyond the lake ; but distances in that 

 moistureless air are beyond belief deceiving, and 

 it was not till late in the evening that we heard 

 the welcome trumpeting of geese, saw patches 

 of green grass, and finally emerged on the lake 

 side, where we pitched our tents. The next 

 day I went a long way inland after Ovis ammon. 

 When I returned I found the " Alys " had under- 

 gone a transformation, for, not to speak of a new 

 coat of paint, a mast had been stepped and a 

 sail rigged up, with which to take advantage of 

 the morning east wind on our voyage homewards 

 an improvement not originally contemplated by 

 the makers. 



The Pangong Lake is a serpentine sheet of 

 water, 14,000 feet above sea-level. Of its eighty 

 or hundred miles of length, half is in Tibet 

 proper and the remaining westerly half in Ladak. 

 There are really two lakes, but these are connected 

 in the middle by a winding canal-like waterway, 

 opening here and there into lagoons, in most 

 parts not more than thirty feet across. The 

 eastern lake is fresh water, but in the western 

 the water is worse than salt bitter. Our camp 

 that night was a few miles to the east of the 



