the latter, and it led us west-south-west over gently rising ground. The range that borders this valley on the south is of fair size. In one place it is low, and there a transverse glen leads up to a convenient pass, whence one of my scouts observed a fresh latitudinal valley to the south, running parallel with the one in which we then were, and with a perfectly level floor. The scouts saw only one tent, but nothing of the temple.
On the slopes close to our left we still continued to observe strand-ramparts, very distinctly marked, and we observed them moreover on the slopes that are relatively more exposed to the west. But in point of development these could not in any way be compared with the abrasion-terraces which we had seen on the eastern shore of the Lakor-tso. The reason of this is, quite naturally, that here in the west they have not the full sweep of the lake beating upon them, but only a small portion of it is at the mercy of the wind; hence the beat of the waves is quite insignificant. All the same, it has been sufficiently powerful to give rise to terraces, and these possess sufficient powers of resistance to have prevented their own complete destruction. The ascent increases in steepness all the way from the point where the terraces cease, and where the lowest of them dies away into the flat shelving at the bottom of the valley, and we then marched at elevations higher than the 133 m. curve. Consequently we saw no more strand-ramparts or beach-lines. There were none perceptible on the eastern face of the bluff that we next travelled round in a north-westerly direction; hence that side of the bluff has been completely sheltered.
The latitudinal valley continues to stretch towards the north-west and grows narrower. Its floor is hard and comfortable for marching on, with but little grass or none; nevertheless there were great numbers of kulans. The big range on the
IIIF Color HighRes
