ACROSS THE SATSCHU-TSANGPO AND BACK AGAIN. 523
bottom of which, although consisting of nothing but sand and mud, without any gravel, was nevertheless hard. It is inclosed between steep hills of brick-red shades, built up of the disintegrated products of red sandstone and coarse conglomerate. The former, not far above the camp, dipped 24° towards the N. 5° W. Farther away the mountains rose on both sides into loftier masses, though these too consisted of softly rounded eminences without hard rock. The pass, which formed a flat threshold, rose to an altitude of 5 212 m. The prospect which unrolled itself from the top was not especially enlightening. There was no dominating latitudinal valley, nothing but a chaos of minor crests. The glen that descends westward from the pass has almost the same appearance as that on the east, and the two lie in
the same straight line. Here too we had the same brick-red hills. Farther on the glen became increasingly more like a cafion: at one point it was perfectly impassable and we were forced to make a short, but difficult, detour over the heights on its left, where the surface in all the eroded watercourses was soft and marshy. These heights commanded however an excellent view of the fantastic relief of that picturesque country. After that we once more travelled along the main glen, which was now joined from both sides by a great number of similar deep, narrow canon-like side-glens. The lower entrance of each of these yawned upon us like a dark gateway. At such places the hard rock crops out, namely red sandstone dipping 85° towards the S. I o° W. As the glen runs towards the west-north-west, or parallel with the strike, it is often particularly straight and affords a free outlook along its course; but when, later on, it inclines more to the west and west-south-west, it becomes at the same time more sinuous. Having got into this glen, we were like rats in a trap: it took us too far out of our course, and long we looked in vain for a suitable place by which to climb up the slopes on the right. We saw kulans
Fig. 39~. A TIBETAN LEADING TWO OF OUR PACK ANIMALS.
IIIFカラー高解像度
