CHAPTER LXXXIV. 
LAKES WITHOUT END 
ROM camp No. XIX., where we rested a day, we 
saw in the south-east a magnificent pinnacled 
mountain-top, covered for two-thirds of its relative height 
with glittering snows. To that peak, which lifted its head 
far above all its neighbours, and like a lighthouse was 
visible from a very great distance, I gave the name of 
King Oscar Mountain. 
On the east of the camp was a large lake, its waters 
incomparably bitter, but showing the loveliest shades of 
colour ; whilst vast flocks of gulls rocked on its curling 
waves. It contained no islands ; but the delta of one of 
the small streams which emptied into it stretched out an 
arm a long way into the lake. As we skirted the northern 
shore, we were accompanied for above an hour by a herd 
of yaks ; but they took care to keep out of range. 
Curiously enough, a well-beaten track meandered along 
the lake-shore, as though it had been made by cattle 
and horsemen ; but the Taghliks asserted, that it was 
a path used by the wild yaks and asses, and the foot- 
prints and droppings along it bore out their judgment. 
Seeing that the wild yak abounded so plentifully in that 
region, and must surely die some time or other, I confess 
I was astonished we had not hitherto come across any 
skeleton. The first we saw were two skulls with some 
other bones bleached and crumbling, lying beside this 
lake. Perhaps when the yak becomes conscious of the 
approach of death, it hides itself in some lonely, inac- 
cessible retreat among the mountains or by the shores 
of some solitary lake, where the waves wash away its 
carcass. 
1039 
