| | | 148 MY FIRST JOURNEY IN NORTH-EASTERN TIBET. had travelled as it were upon ice resting upon ooze, and when the frozen surface softened the animals went through; on one occasion one of the camels only just escaped »drowning» in the liquid mud. In a word, it was the same sort of region as on the mountain south of Camp XXIV. |
| | | After passing two small pools, we approached, northwards, a glen of peculiar formation. On the south its only boundary is a flat-topped ridge or swelling rising not more than 1 oo m. above the bottom of the glen. But the slopes leading down to the bottom are not only strewn with soft pieces of tuff, they are also so steep that it was only by dint of exercising the utmost care that we succeeded in getting the camels safely clown them. Nor does the floor of the glen itself fall evenly, but is broken. From the range of mountains which we had all day on our left (including the peak A 2) three brooks descend, which lower down run together into one. This, keeping constantly to the well-marked glen, flows towards the east-northeast, until it enters a small lake, which we saw about 10 km. off; this is oval in shape, its longer axis stretching east and west. North-east of the lake rises the gigantic snowy mass O I, which had long been within sight; from it too several brooks appeared to carry the water of the melting snow down to the same lake. The bottom of this glen is in part strewn with gravel, in part soft, and in the latter localities offers pretty good grazing, which attracts large herds of yaks; the grass appeared to be better sheltered than usual in this depression. On the north too the valley is bordered by a ridge, with a gap in it, through which access is gained to an exactly similar valley running parallel to the first one. Both valleys, compressed between the terraces, sink to the bottom at an angle of about 45°. The last-named escarpment is covered with a layer of tuff, 15 to 20 |
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