4S6* A JOURNEY TO LAKE 



places pure and in others mixed with pebbles.- That on the water's 

 edge was bordered by a line of wrack grafs, mix^d with the quills and 

 feathers of the large grey wild goofe, which in large flocks of old ones 

 with young broods, haftened into the lake at my approach ; and 

 though 1 fired feveral times with buck mot, few took elf eft, from too 

 great diiiance. ' Thefe birds, from the numbers i law, and the quan- 

 tity of their dung, appear to frequent this lake m vail bodies,* 

 breed in the furroundin'g rocks, and find an agreeable and fafe afylum 

 when the f well of the rivers of Hindujian in the rains, and the inunda- 

 tion of the plains, conceal their ufual food. Many aquatic eagles 

 perched upon the Crags of rock; and feveral kinds of gulls fkimtned 

 along the fkirts of the water. An unufually large body of great black 

 .^gnats along the beach rendered walking troublefome from their aiming 

 to get into the nofe, mouth, and eyes: but, when the wind lulled, 

 which it did for half an hour, they flew along the furface of the water, 

 and became the prey of a kind of trout without fcales, which rofe at 

 them with extraordinary voracity, and with which the water feemed to 

 be literally alive. I hoped by rounding the N. W. corner to have had 

 fport by throwing ac-rofs the wind; but it then fuddenly chopped 

 about, and a.heavy furf beat upon the Weftern more. As the bank ap- 

 proached this angle, it declined to gentle elevations leading to inter- 

 rupted Table Land, and at its bafc was a large bay, from the bottom of 

 which rofe a pyramidical red rock, connected with a line of ridge of 

 high land to the higher flats to the North, and deep towards the South. 

 Upon this was the houfe of a Lama, and many Gelums, pitched in fili- 

 ations which produced a romantic effect, not a little heightened by 

 flreamers of various coloured cloth and hair, floating from hish poles 

 fixed on the corners and roofs of the houfes. Leaving this and divert- 



* From the known refoit of the gev goofe (th^fwan of HmJx posts) to this lake, the bird is called in 

 poetic language Mana/aucah « Jae, whofe abode is the Manafa lake.-iw,' Cojb, b, z, c, y. <v, 21, C. 



