18G8.] Notes on the Pangong lake district of Zadakh. 113 



extended to the pass ; the line of watershed being so broad, that it was 

 difficult to assign its exact position. This high wide valley parted 

 north and south, in the first direction to the Ororotze La, 18,050 feet, 

 only used by shepherds when taking flocks to graze in the lower 

 courses of the Chang Chungmo river. 



The scenery here was grand and very striking from its novel nature. 

 On the broad high plateau are three small lakes, from which flows 

 away a stream bordered with bright green grass, running parallel to 

 slopes of talus backed by mountains over 20,000, culminating in peak 

 Shayok (No. 2) 21,000 feet. These mountains rise very abruptly and 

 send down a row of glaciers that end in moraines upon the plain of 

 the Koh Loomba. The sides of this mountain mass are rugged in the 

 extreme, and topped with perpetual snow. Shayok (No. 2) throws 

 down a mass of ice covered with moraine debris, which abuts upon 

 the river itself. From the foot of this glacier, I hardly ever saw a 

 grander sight than the steep falls of rock and ice of 3,500 feet in a 

 horizontal distance of only three miles to the highest point. This 

 portion of the Pangong mountains is well worth the visit of a traveller. 

 At the time of my visit the increasing cold had driven the shepherds 

 with their flocks and herds from the higher grounds, and we found 

 some families at Montol, from which place there is a path over the 

 mountains to Muglib. I followed the Koh Loomba valley down towards 

 the lake, where it ends in a narrow gorge opening out into a consider- 

 able broad expanse of open ground, on which are scattered some small 

 hamlets containing only three or four families each, viz., Phobrang, 

 Yurgo, Tublang, and last of all, where the stream debouches into the 

 plain of the Pangong itself, is Lookoong. Coming down the defile 

 upon Yurgo, is a very peculiar and striking peak overhanging the road. 

 Its high rounded point is called by the natives " Chomo Kong Go," 

 or the " Woman's Head," it having some resemblance to the shock 

 head of a Tibetan belle. 



Lookoong is situated about two miles from the spot where the 

 waters of the Koh Loomba join the lake ; this distance is covered 

 with sand, white and glaring to the eyes, and the sides of the ravine 

 are cut down about 12 feet, forming a cliff of that height on either 

 side. I did not see any fish here, the body of water in the stream, 

 though much reduced from the quantity that rises at its sources, 



