108 Notes on the Pangong lake district of LadaJch. [No. 2, 



courses met the eye to the north-east, backed by some high mountains, 

 whose loftier peaks were covered with snow, and threw down some 

 small glaciers. To the south the great tributary of the Pangong, the 

 Mipal valley could be followed for many miles, high rugged angular 

 mountains bounding it on every side. It was very, very cold, and I 

 could scarcely do my work, or hold the pencil, the clouds were gather- 

 ing up fast ; and before I left the peak it had begun to sleet, I got 

 under the lea of the ridge for breakfast and made a brew of tea in the 

 boiling point thermometer pot, of which I gave a tot all round to the 

 Blurts, and then descended on the western side into the valley below ; 

 by skirting the hill sides down into the ravines and over spurs, we 

 reached by evening the Kiting Gang La, 17,259 feet, on the boundary 

 of the Kashmir and Rudok territory. At this pass are stationed 

 throughout the summer months a guard of a few Rudok men,— these 

 we now met,— and who got a dose of chaff from my Tankse coolies, for 

 thus being taken in rear, but they were very good humoured, and said 

 that they were now off for their homes, and left that day with their 

 ponies, black tent, tea churn, &c. We saw a good many antelope during 

 the day. Near the pass was a great thickness of the conglomerates, 

 sandstones, and coarse shales, seen in the Indus valley, which formation 

 it is most curious to find having so wide an extension in this direction. 

 This opens out a wide field for geological speculation. The south-west 

 wind was bitterly cold all the afternoon, and in the tents, though they 

 were in a somewhat sheltered ravine, it was very cold all night. The 

 next morning we proceeded down the ravine to the north, which was 

 grassy for some way. The coolie's who had gone on with the break- 

 fast things came upon seven wild yaks, who went off down the valley 

 and were not seen again ; they are, I believe, very wary ; great numbers 

 are to be seen here later in the season, when they are driven out^ of 

 their higher haunts by snow into these lower grazing grounds, which 

 were covered with their traces. They occupy this part of the country 

 from about the end of October until March, the larger number roaming 

 away into the high plains on the north, though some remain through- 

 out the year in the neighbourhood of the Pangong, but I do not think 

 are met with south of it. About half way down, the ravine narrows 

 very considerably, and a mass of rock quite detached rises in the 

 centre of the valley, a narrow gorge to the west being the direct road 



