92 DIY FIRST JOURNEY IN NORTH-EASTERN TIBET.
stone; but it soon thawed, for it was of course merely a thin crust that froze. The footprints of the day before in the vicinity of the camp were then filled with small
frozen pools.
The direction of our march was dictated by the fall of the brook, and that was towards the south-east. Its bottom was tolerably firm, provided we kept to the water or the margins close beside it. On both sides were low hills, off which numerous brooks and rivulets gathered and entered the main river, which steadily inclined more and more towards the east. After picking up a large tributary from the north, the main river, then swollen to a stream of considerable dimensions, pierces the hills in a narrow gorge, through which we were unable to march; and finally it empties itself into the large lake in the next latitudinal valley. Being unable to proceed, we turned to the right, and ascended beside a smaller stream, that brought us to a col or low saddle (alt. 5,106 m.) in the ridge which had hitherto accompanied us on that side. Thence we obtained a grand panoramic view of the new latitudinal valley, which again is bordered on the south by yet another parallel range, crowned in the south-west by an imposing snowy, glaciated mountain-mass. Between the points S. 75° E. and S. 20° E. extended a large lake, and beyond it, in the S. 67° E., appeared yet another mass covered with snow-fields and glaciers, belonging presumably to the same range as the mountain-mass I have just mentioned. The new latitudinal valley is broad, and its bottom far leveller than the preceding similar valley. Seen from the west, its surface slopes slowly towards the lake, and down the middle of it runs a broad channel, with a stream divided into several arms. We saw no grazing anywhere beside the lake, though there was grass in the south-west beside the river.
The southern slope going down from the little col is very steep, and continued so until we reached a brook that flows towards the south-south-west, picking up several tributaries from both sides as it proceeds. Here sparse blades of grass began to make their appearance in places, generally on the slopes exposed to the south; but the only traces of animals we saw were those of antelopes. After a while we left the stream, which thereupon inclines towards the south-east and east-south-east, soon emerging from amongst the hills, where it forms a small lake, and then, flowing in several deltaic arms across the inundated alluvial flats, it empties itself into the lake, without, so far as we could see, first uniting with the principal stream in the valley. From that point we perceived the western end of the lake to the S. 37° E. In shape the lake appeared to be oval, and as usual was elongated from east to west, but its eastern end was too far off to be visible. On both north and south the mountain slopes approach tolerably close to the lake.
Keeping to the bottom of the slope, we then proceeded towards the southwest, and approached the left bank of the river at an acute angle. Towards its mouth there appeared to be marshes and swampy ground on both banks, which we could only avoid by travelling as we did. We crossed several brooks coming down from the range on the north, some of which were not altogether insignificant; all these joined the principal river. The terraced bank on the left of this stream was high and steep. The volume may have been some 8 to to cub.m. in the second, and was divided into half a dozen large and a number of small arms. Its bottom
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