LADAK, 
69 
Beyond Muglib I noticed a good deal of white 
gj^psum and slate. 
On the 14th July, leaving the Pangong lake, we 
marched ten miles northwards to Chdgra, along a small 
stream, which swarms with three or four species of fish, 
varying in length from four to eight inches. So 
numerous were the fish, that in the course of two 
hours we caught with a net about two hundred- . 
weight of them, to be salted and dried for future use. 
There is a little very poor cultivation along the banks 
of the stream, and very good pasturage ; but at 
Chdgra, which is about 15,500 feet above the sea, all 
cultivation ceases. The valley we passed through 
to-day is wide and shallow, with rounded gravelly 
hills on either side. It abounds with waterfowl — gulls, 
terns, and dippers — and in October there were thou- 
sands of the Tibetan sand-grouse {Syrliaptes tibetanus). 
Hares {Lepus tihetaniis of Waterhouse) were also 
plentiful ; not, as might have been expected, in the 
meadows near the stream, but out in the open gravelly 
plain, concealed behind stones, where there was hardly 
a trace of vegetation to be seen. They were also 
found on the next two marches, and again in the 
Karakash valley, about Balakchi. 
The Pangong lake, into which the Chdgra stream 
falls, is a very fine sheet of water without any outlet ; 
it is said to be about 100 miles long from east to 
west, and varies in breadth from two to ten miles — 
three miles is about the average. The water is re- 
markably clear, and intensely bitter to the taste ; 
it has a very deep blue colour, like all lakes in these 
high regions, and this colour is no doubt owing 
chiefly, if not entirely, to the reflection of the re- 
