PANGONG: A GLACIAL LAKE 605 



terminated by a rock-lip rising well above the present lake-level. 

 Otherwise there must exist at this point a gorge like that shown in 

 the heavily shaded portion of the section. Its depth must be equal 

 to at least the height of the lowest point of the section above the 

 lake, 35 feet, plus the depth of the lake which Drew (p. 323) gives as 

 142 feet, that is a total of 177 feet. Its width at the top cannot be 

 over 1 10 feet. Such a gorge is quite out of harmony with the topography 

 of the outlet valley and of the other valleys of the region, and there 

 is no reason to suppose that it exists. 



Furthermore, supposing for the moment that such a gorge existed, 

 it could scarcely have been dammed by the fan of the insignificant 

 little wet-weather stream at the divide. If there were no lake, the 

 outlet stream would be large and swift, for it would consist of 

 (i) the Lamle and Lukung brooks, each of which was large, even in 

 May before the flood season; (2) the stream at Ote from the upper 

 lakes, described by Rawling^ as a river 60 feet wide and 15 feet deep, 

 with a. current of i|- miles per hour; and (3) a host of minor streams. 

 It is almost safe to say categorically that, even if the climate were 

 d. ier than now, the floods from the whole Pangong basin, when 

 united into a single stream at the bottom of such an extremely deep, 

 narrow gorge, could not be dammed by the fan of a single tributary, 

 one of the smallest. This is shown by the condition of the old outlet 

 valley below the divide. On either side numerous tributary torrents 

 have formed fans as large as those at the divide; yet even the small 

 wet- weather torrent which here occupies the valley has succeeded in 

 keeping its channel open. To be sure, the stream has been caused to 

 aggrade behind each fan, and at Tso Tsear, 3 miles from the divide, 

 a small lake has actually been formed which overflows with every flood. 

 This, however, is where no water flows permanently and where the 

 drainage area is measured by tens instead of thousands of square miles. 

 Three miles below Tso Tsear, just above MugHb, the permanent 

 stream begins. Though small at first, probably not a tenth as 

 large as the supposed Pangong stream, it has had no difficulty in 

 keeping open a broad channel through fans as large as that at the 

 divide. In view of all the facts, it seems extremely improbable 



I C. G. Rawling, "Exploration of Western Tibet and Rudok, " Geographical 

 Journal, Vol. XXV, p. 428. 



