70 FROM CENTRAL TIBET TO LADAK.
island were very soon sheeted with white. All this while the sun was shining on the country to the east, and it was there perfect summer weather, whereas we were in the midst of winter. We were paddling towards the north-east; but close to the surface of the earth the wind was blowing from the north-north-east, while the hail and snow clouds were drifting in the opposite direction. Owing to the height of the waves we had to keep pretty close to the shore. Up to a cape on which we landed in order to take a look round, we sounded the following depths, — 14.90, 18.53, 13.03, 8.75, 3.95, and 2.o m. This line of soundings is very excentric, and is far from being sufficient to warrant any conclusions as to the shape of the lake-bottom. All the same I have on the accompanying sketch-map ventured to prick out the courses of the isobathic curves such as from the relief of the adjacent shores and islands I should suppose them to run. The greatest depth, 18.53i lies off the steepest and most accentuated slope of the mountains, namely a short spur jutting out from the shore-range. Consequently there is every reason to suppose that this range, which is not indeed so steep or craggy as the cliffs that frown down, for example, from the southern side of the big island, descends directly to the maximum depth of the basin, and from that maximum depth the bottom rises slowly and uniformly towards the northern shore of the large island. Nevertheless I have no doubt that there is an even greater depth some distance beyond the line of our soundings, for in the western part of the lake we had obtained a sounding of 22.20 m.
Climbing a hill on the shore, I was able to get a general view over all that part of the lake and also took the bearings of several important points. The western extremity of the low island that we were approaching along the line of the diminishing soundings lay to the N. 7o° E., quite close at hand. In the case of this island too it was doubtful how far it really was an island or whether it was not rather a peninsula; on its low, softly rounded hills a troop of horses were grazing. In the S. 8 I° E. rose the peak L2 and in the S. 69° E. the mountain-mass M2, both these being on the east shore of the island. In the S. 57° E. appeared a smaller hilly island and the extreme southerly cape of the medium-sized flat island. Between the S. 54° E. and the S. 33° E. appeared a double island. This part of the lake is richer in islands than one would credit simply from seeing it from the northern and eastern shores, for all the outlines melt together, and the intervals between the islands resemble deep fjords. In the S. 28° E. we saw the eastern extremity of the big island, and in the S. 17° E. the outstanding dome-topped snowy mountain.
Leaving the promontory from which I took these bearings, we steered towards the north-east. The depths which we obtained were 1.98, 2.12, and 1.25 m. The water now assumed a light green colour. On the mainland, at the base of the hills, runs a rampart with grass. The boundary between the lake-basin across which we had been paddling and the basin that lies to the north of it is very sharply drawn, in that a couple of promontories jutting out, one from the mainland and the other from the moderate-sized island, nearly meet, leaving only a comparatively narrow passage between them. There the depth was only I to 2 decimeters, and even at the deepest spot our skiff scraped against the bottom. The horses which we saw on the island had evidently been driven across at this shallow ford, against which the waves were breaking in foam under the heavy »sea» that was on. This ridge, though
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