46 
NARRATIVE, 
accompanying woodcut will give an idea of what these 
chortens are like. They are built of masonry and are 
often painted in gaudy colours, and vary 
in height from fifteen to thirty feet. 
In Ladak, where the Buddhist religion 
prevails, these structures are met with 
at every turn of the road, and near large 
monasteries they may often be counted 
by hundreds. The monastery at Shergul is a very 
small structure, perched as usual on a cliff high up 
above the village. There are said to be only half a 
dozen monks in it. 
On the return journey, in October, I here saw large 
flocks of the Yellow-billed choughfeeding on the fruit of 
the buckthorn, Hippopliae ; this bird was not nearly so 
common as the red-billed chough, and was much wilder. 
On the 27th June we marched to Karbu, eighteen 
miles. We followed yesterday's stream for four miles 
to Mulbeck, where there is a very picturesque monas- 
tery, on the very top of a rock about 200 feet high. 
A little beyond the village, and close to the road, 
there is a colossal image of Buddha, about twenty 
feet high, carved on a solitary rock, one side of which 
is almost entirely occupied by the image. A mile 
beyond this we commenced the ascent of the Namyika 
Pass, the highest point of which is about 12,000 feet 
above the sea; the ascent is about five miles long, 
and very gradual the whole way to the top, over 
undulating desert ground formed of clay and frag- 
ments of rock. About half-way to the top there is a 
spring of fresh water, where I shot some birds (desert 
larks) as they came to drink. 
Although the top of this pass was only 12,000 feet 
