TIBET. 
407 
or near the bank. The waters of the lake rise and fall very little, being 
supplied by a constant and unvarying source, neither augmented by 
the influx of any current, or diminished by any stream running from 
it. The lake, I was assured, is at least twenty miles in circumference, 
and, standing in a very bleak situation, is frozen for a great part of 
the year. The people employed in collecting these salts, are obliged 
to desist from their labour so early as October, on account of the ice. 
Tincal is used in Thibet for soldering, and to promote the fusion of 
gold and silver. Rock-salt is universally used for all domestic pur¬ 
poses, in Thibet, Boutan, and Naphaul. 
The thermometer at Tissoolumboo, during the month of October, was 
on an average, at eight o’clock in the morning, 38°; at noon,46°^ and 
at six o’clock in the evening, 42,°: the weather clear, cool, and pleasant, 
and the prevailing wind Was from the southward. During the month of 
November, we had frosts morning and evening ; a serene clear sky, not 
a cloud to be seen. The rays of the sun, passing through a medium so 
little obscured, had great influence. The thermometer was often below 
30° in the morning, and seldom above 38° at noon, in the shade," 
wind from the southward. 
Of the diseases of this country, the hrst that attracts our notice, as 
we approach the foot of the hills, is a glandular swelling in the throat, 
which is known to prevail in similar situations in some parts of 
Europe, and generally ascribed to an impregnation of the water from 
snow. The disease being common at the foot of the Alps, and con¬ 
fined to a tract of country near these mountains, has first given rise to 
the idea of its being occasioned by snow water. If a general view of 
