94 Notes on the Pangong lake district of Ladakh 



Fig. 2. 



[No. 2, 





This section proves great changes, and also, I think, that the lake 

 existed prior to, certainly during the latter part of, the great glacial 

 period in the Himalayas. Whether the scooping out of the depression 

 in which its waters lie, is due to glacial action in the first instance, 

 when this high region was (as is most probable) deeply overlaid by 

 ice and snow, is a hazardous question, and one rather problematical. 

 From the alternation of the beds of debris and finer deposits, we can 

 infer that there have been changes from milder and moister seasons 

 than at present exist, back to colder and drier ; during the first, beds 

 like No. 3 would have been deposited by the increased transporting 

 power that would have carried the materials further out into the lake ; 

 while, at the same time, the level of the waters would naturally have 

 been much higher. Its waters must then have generally held much 

 silt and mud in suspension to form the shell beds of above section. 

 At the present day, no deposit of any kind is taking place, save per- 

 haps near the debouchements of the Chushal, and the extreme western 

 tributaries. A closer inspection with some levelling would, I think, 

 somewhat clear up the mystery attached to the huge masses of 

 alluvial deposits seen in the valleys of all the great rivers of the 

 western Himalayas, from the Chang Chungmo and Leh, to Skardo 

 in the valley of Kurgyl and valley of Dras, and on both the Jhelunv 



