1848.] Narrative of a Journey to Cho Lagan, fyc. 161 



as the lake was also out of sight, perhaps a mile off, Barka must be 

 two or three miles above the shore, instead of close upon it, as the 

 foolish Byansis had asserted, and the same might be inferred from the 

 relative direction of the Lhassa road and the north-east shore of the 

 lake. Crossing the Barka river we continued, rather more southerly 

 perhaps, over ground still sandy but now remarkably flat and level, 

 with a straight dyke-like ridge some 100 feet high close above our left, 

 and the lake visible again on our right, perhaps J mile distant. This 

 continues without any variation whatever that I could see for six or 

 seven miles. 



5th October. — At 1% a. m. being at a safe distance from Barka and 

 all of us pretty well tired, we bivouacked for the rest of the night. 

 With a Baku and Chera for bedding I found it miserably cold, and 

 suffered great pain from my Lam (snow-boots) which were damp from 

 walking over wet ground and seemed to be nearly freezing on my feet. 

 I had kept them on, as I thought for warmth, but got no rest till I 

 divested myself of them. At sunrise, finding ourselves on very bare 

 ground with water distant and fuel scarce, we started again, in quest 

 of a better encamping place further on, aud one that would command 

 a full and close view of Manasarowar. The margin of Rakas Tal was 

 now a mile from our road, circling off to a headland, the north end of 

 the projecting rocky bank, which occupies the middle of the eastern 

 shore, as noticed from the opposite side. The ridge of high ground on 

 our left began to break into irregular hillocks. A mile on, we came to a 

 large stream 100 feet wide and 3 deep, running rapidly from east to west 

 through a well-defined channel : this was the outlet of Manasarowar. 

 It leaves that lake from the northern quarter of its western shore, and 

 winding through the isthmus of low undulating ground, for four miles 

 perhaps, falls into Rakas Tal in the bight formed by the projecting 

 headland above mentioned. Two or three miles to the eastward, we 

 saw the back of an odd looking eminence, in the face of which was 

 Ju Gumba, a Lama-shrine on the west bank of Manasarowar, and on 

 the north bank of the NiMs. I could see nothing of the Gumba it- 

 self. Having forded the river, the deepest we had yet crossed, we 

 ascended a little on to higher ground broken into easy undulations ; 

 course still south-easterly. Here we passed sundry pits said to be 

 the remains of extinct gold mines, the working of which was stopped 



Y 2 



