the east should be called an island or a peninsula. And the uncertainty is still further deepened, when it is remembered, that the southern deltaic arm does sometimes carry water still; for at such times that land becomes, at any rate temporarily, entirely surrounded by water on all sides, and only becomes joined to the mainland when the southern deltaic arm ceases to flow. If so disposed, you may equally well call it a peninsula; for it can be reached by a land-route, by merely wading across an insignificant branch of the river.
Accordingly we paddled the rest of the way to Camp LXXXI with mountains on both north and south of us. On the northern shore of the lake stands, as I have said, a mountain-range, which though per se unimportant, is nevertheless distinctly outlined, with a steep southern flank, the reason of this being that the rocks dip towards the north or north-west, possibly also the former glacier may have exercised pressure upon the southern base of the mountain-range. The next range on the south rises on the northern side of the big island, and presents a longer and gentler slope of soft earthy strata covered with grass, through which small knobs of hard rock protrude here and there. It is this orographical structure which leads me to think that our route, although running nearer to the northern shore of the lake, nevertheless took us over the greatest depths. From the point where we obtained the sounding I2.°6 m. the bay on which stood Camp LXXVIII bore N. 84° E., and the summit L2 bore N. 87° E., while to the S. 88° E. appeared one of the smaller islands, as well as the peak M2 on the eastern shore, and the northernmost cape of the big insular land was seen to the S. 69° E.
Meanwhile we paddled on towards the N. 6o° E. and at length approached a headland on the northern shore. In the later part of the afternoon we encountered quite a crisp headwind; had it not been for this, I intended to have steered straight across this basin of the lake to the smaller island in the east. Close to the shore behind us, where the sun was touching the horizon, the water was dark green and the lake vegetation stood out clearly and distinctly as if seen through plate-glass; but shortly after the sun set the lake turned a dark blue. The shore on which Camp LXXXI was pitched consisted of gravelly sand and fine gravel, with a thin sprinkling of very thin grass; but a number of stones, arranged in a square, no doubt round a small tent, proved that the spot had been visited by nomads or hunters. At the distance of a couple of meters from the water's edge ran a low and insignificant rampart, formed by the beat of the waves and the pressure of ice; this had nothing whatever to do with any conceivable changes of level in the lake. Also along the face of the hard rock that plunges straight down into the lake at the fjord-like passage, I observed, C/2 /2 dm. above the then water-level, a very distinct mark, which was undoubtedly caused by ice. Yet it is not at all impossible, that the level of the Naktsong-tso does oscillate slightly in consequence of the varying amounts of rainfall at different seasons and the varying supplies of water which the rivers consequently contribute to it.
The last portion of our paddle towards Camp LXXXI enabled me therefore to establish the fact, that the lake is annular in shape, and presents in general a highly peculiar and unusual appearance. It belongs to a type of lake very different from those which we had hitherto encountered. The lakes we came across on the
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