1868.] Notes on the Pangong lake district of LadaLh. 97 



and follows that latitude as far as Noh, in longitude 79° 50'. The 

 mountains to the north-west of the first long reach are of no great 

 apparent elevation ; in July there was very little snow to be seen, 

 and only on the very highest portion, or the main range, which 

 nevertheless is from 18,000 to 19,500 feet high ; the highest peaks 

 being 20,000 ; but the level of the lake being 13,931 feet above the 

 sea, detracts considerably from their great altitude. The terminal 

 knobs of the spurs from the above range lie close on the edge of the 

 lake, rising to the height of 600 to 1,500 feet, generally terminat- 

 ing precipitously, and the lake I should imagine is excessive- 

 ly deep at such places. It would be a most interesting scientific 

 enquiry to sound with some portable kind of boat the depth of this 

 lake. To the south-west a high range runs parallel to the lake, 

 some of the peaks on which attain an altitude of 21,500 feet ; this range 

 terminates in a peak above and to the cast-south-east of Tankse, 

 which is 20,003. The above fine line of mountains, covered as they 

 are with perpetual snow, and their ravines terminating above in small 

 glaciers, form a fine boundary to this valley on the south. The 

 southern watershed follows the lake very closely as far as Ote. It 

 there extends further south, and between that place and Pal, several 

 very large lateral ravines descend into it, all with the usual broad, 

 dry, gravelly beds, the largest of these are the Algrong, Tengun, 

 Kiam-Snrpo Loombas, or valleys. On the northern shore, beyond the 

 very large valley of Chang Burmah, which finds its exit at the Ote 

 plain, there is another, the Dal-Loomba, that drains the considerable 

 tract of 150 square miles ; the silt carried down from this has narrowed 

 the lake very much, forming a low point jutting out into it, and has 

 contracted the waters to a quarter of a mile in breadth. Altogether 

 the mean breadth of the second lake, " Tso Nyak," or " middle 

 lake" is much less than the first or true " Pangong." 



Wherever a tributary ravine joins the shore, there is grass, scanty 

 as a rule, and of a very coarse kind. At Ote it is much' richer, 

 especially in the vicinity of the stream that unites the two lakes. On 

 both banks of the second lake, wood is found in plenty, growing 

 luxuriantly in places ; at Algrong and Numkum it formed a scrubby 

 jungle, but on the northern shore, at Silung, it was met with no 

 more, and the snly fuel was a stunted plant which throws out a good 



