THE NAKTSONG-TSO - EAST AND SOUTH.
range that is continuously covered with perpetual snow for any considerable distance. Even in the Arka-tagh, which carries relatively the heaviest burden of snow of all the Central Tibetan ranges, glacier-breeding swellings are very rare; they rise only here and there at wide intervals, while the crests of those parts of the ranges which intervene between these swellings are sometimes even quite free from snow. Nor are there in the interior of the plateau any ranges that bear continuous glaciers: such glaciated masses as do occur there rise above the plateau like disconnected islands. Probably one such glaciated mass was situated in the mountainous tracts between the Tschargut-tso and the Naktsong-tso on the one side and the Kiaring-tso and Mokju-tso on the other.
These are the first general impressions suggested by the sight of Naktsong-tso. Before I proceed to a more detailed description of the lake's topography I have only one short day's march to deal with, namely that to the point at which we turned back in this short burst to the south. Beyond Camp LXXVIII the country was open to the east. The surface rises first towards a very flat threshold, and afterwards sinks down to the shore of Selling-tso, which just there is quite close. Hence a very considerable part of the Selling-tso stretches out into that quarter, and according to the maps made by Bower and Littledale, who visited the southern and eastern sides of the lake, the Selling-tso is in point of area but little inferior to the Tengri-nor, and consequently is the second largest lake of Tibet. On the
Fig. 30. BURIAL OF ONE OF MY SERVANTS ON THE SHORE OF NAKTSONG-TSO, CAMP LXXVIII.
IIIF Color HighRes
