LADAK. 
49 
the Tibetan language, we had not an opportunity of 
learning much regarding the people. 
On June 29th we marched from Lama Yuru to 
Nurla, twenty miles. The road for the first four 
miles descends rapidly down a narrow gorge, and at 
a little distance from the village it is seen that L^ma 
Yuru and all the cultivated land about it are situate 
on a mass of lacustrine deposit, consisting of very 
fine clay several hundred feet in depth. Throughout 
Ladak remains of these deposits are very extensive, 
and sometimes extend up to over 15,000 feet above 
the sea level ; which leads one to infer that at one 
time there was a great inland sea covering most of 
the country, or more probably a number of detached 
sheets of water, with the tops of the higher peaks 
and ranges forming islands in their midst. Enormous 
terminal moraines of former glaciers are still to be seen 
in the neighbourhood of Le, where there is now scarcely 
any snow. Most of the waters of Ladak have drained 
off to the sea, and the Himalayas prevent their return 
in the shape of clouds ; and I believe there is good 
evidence to show that, even within the memory of 
man, some of the lakes have been steadily and rapidly 
diminishing. 
At the bottom of the gorge we came to a 
stream flowing nearly due north, and for eight miles 
followed it through a very narrow rocky ravine, 
with precipices 500 to 1000 feet high on either side. 
About two miles above where this ravine opens into 
the Indus valley I noticed a vein of serpentine. The 
Indus, which here flows from east to west, is some- 
times called the Senge Tsangpo — i.e., Lion Eiver. 
The whole country hereabouts is almost devoid of 
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