90 WESTWARDS TO LADAK.
to west, even as the lake does, and the surrounding mountain-ranges. Nevertheless the same parallelism can to a certain extent be observed in the island, for the two swellings might be regarded as fragments of two ranges stretching east and west. The space that intervenes between them consists entirely of soft disintegrated material and gravel; except on the actual beach-line all the fine material has been washed away, leaving the coarse sand and gravel behind. Grass and hard scrub were fairly common, and yak-droppings bore witness to the island being visited in winter. Faunal life was represented by gulls, small birds, spiders, grasshoppers, flies, humble-bees, gnats, and mosquitoes, enticed out of their hiding-places by the mild, bright weather. In open localities on the northern shore of the lake we observed large flocks of sheep, herds of yaks, and troops of horses, and in several places the encampments of the nomads.
The same persistent gale, with perfectly bright sky, continued all the 22nd September, and made it impossible for us the proceed. Nor did the wind abate until 9 p. m. ; then however we crossed the middle of the lake to the second little island. Even from the highest outlook point on this island we were unable to form any idea as to how far the lake extended towards the west: it appeared to continue for a long way towards the S. 79° W., and beyond an isthmus in the same direction we observed a large sheet of water, though whether it was the extreme western part of the Tschargut-tso or an entirely fresh lake I could not make out. As it was night when we travelled from the one island to the other, it was impossible to note any details; a black outline showed where the girdle of encircling mountains ran, and we steered straight by the compass for the second little island. On the way I took the following soundings — 37.50, 35.80, 31.90, and 16.85; thus the lake-
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