8 DESCRIPTION OF COUNTRY. 



rivers, which take their rise among the snows and glaciers of the Kara Koram, and other 

 lofty ranges. The line of perpetual snow is very high, being about 22,000 feet. Although 

 snow falls occasionally even in summer, it does not lie on the arid stony soil. Rain very 

 seldom falls, and the sky is generally cloudless during the summer months. 



Being thus exposed to the burning rays of the sun, the country appears almost a desert : 

 no trees, few bushes, and but little vegetation of any sort meet the eye ; but here and there 

 a tuft of some aromatic herb springs up among the stones and affords the only pasturage for 

 the wild animals. That want of moisture and not the sterility of the soil is the cause, is 

 clearly shown by the strip of bright green grass which always adorns the bank of any con- 

 stant stream, and by the fine crops which grow around the villages where artificial irrigation 

 is employed. 



No part of Thibet perhaps excels in wildness and desolation the valley of Chung 

 Chenmo. Here, on climbing to the top of one of the hills which immediately overlook the 

 valley, one's eye rests on nothing but ridge after ridge of red stony hills (usually smooth and 

 rounded, but here and there with craggy summits) stretching away in the distance till 

 the view is at last bounded by a chain of snow-capped peaks. Beneath lies the arid 

 valley, the stones and sand quivering in the blazing sunshine, causing a mirage which 

 distorts all distant objects in an extraordinary manner. On either side of the stream are 

 wide level flats richly clothed with a coarse grass, and a green plain also extends from the 

 hot sulphurous spring of Keum nearly to the banks of the river. These grassy flats are 

 the favorite feeding grounds of the Thibetan Antelope, and occasionally of the Yak. On 

 the gentle slopes of the hills on either side no traces of vegetation are at first apparent, 

 but on a narrower inspection some scanty tufts will be observed. 



A mile or two below the hot spring a tributary stream comes down from the valley of 

 Kyobrung : ascending this for about thirty miles one reaches its sources among the glaciers 

 which close the head of each of the little valleys, and there unite their streams to form the 

 main river. A greater scene of desolation cannot be conceived : cold grey rocks, ice, and snow 

 all piled up in the most fantastic manner in grand confu'sion ; not a trace of life, either animal 

 or vegetable ; not a sound to be heard except the trickling of the water, the occasional crack 

 of splitting ice, or rumble of falling stones. In the upper parts of the Kyobrung valley, 

 below the glaciers, there is still more grass than in Chung Chenmo ; but it is later in the season 

 before the snows are melted off it. 



Four or five marches south of Chung Chenmo one reaches the shores of the Pangong 

 Lake, or rather chain of lakes. This occupies a great valley of more than a hundred miles 

 in length, bounded on the southern side by high, rocky, snow-capped mountains, while the 

 hills which slope down to the water's edge on the northern shore are low and rounded. 

 They are of almost every hue — brown, red, purple, pink, orange, yellow, and grey ; and 

 when seen from the southern shore, reflected in the deep blue waters of the lake, form a 

 picture which, if produced on canvas, would probably be pronounced unreal by those who had 

 never seen the original. Owing to the wonderful clearness of the air every outline is as 

 sharp, every tint as vivid, at a distance of twenty miles, as if only a mile away. 



