■2ii EAST NEPAL. Chap. X. 



never contemplated. Considering how very short we were 

 of any food, and quite out of animal diet, I could not but 

 bitterly regret the want of a gnu, but consoled myself by 

 reflecting that the instruments were still more urgently 

 required to enable me to survey this extremely interesting 

 valley. As it was, the great beasts trotted off, and turned to 

 tantalise me by grazing within an easy stalking distance. 

 We saw several other flocks, of thirty to forty, during 

 the day, but never, either on this or any future occa- 

 sion, within shot. The Ovis Amnion of Pallas stands 

 from four to five feet high, and measures seven feet from 

 nose to tail ; it is quite a Tibetan animal, and is seldom seen 

 .below 14,000 feet, except when driven lower by snow; and 

 I have seen it as high as 18,000 feet. The same animal, I 

 believe, is found in Siberia, and is allied to the Big-horn of 

 North America. 



Soon after descending to the bed of the valley, which 

 is broad and open, we came on a second dry lake-bed, a 

 mile long, with shelving banks all round, heavily snowed 

 on the shaded side ; the river was divided into many arms, 

 and meandered over it, and a fine glacier-bound valley 

 opened into it from the south. There were no boulders on 

 its surface, which was pebbly, with tufts of grass and 

 creeping tamarisk. On the banks I observed much granite, 

 with large mica crystals, hornstone, tourmaline, and stratified 

 quartz, with granite veins parallel to the foliation or 

 lamination. 



A rather steep ascent of a mile, through a contracted part 

 of the valley, led to another and smaller lake-bed, a quarter 

 of a mile long and 100 yards broad, covered with patches of 

 snow, and having no lateral valley opening into it : it faced 

 the now stupendous masses of snow and ice which filled the 

 upper part of the Yangma valley. This lake-bed (elevation, 



