214 WESTWARDS TO LADAN.
eroded rivulets coming from the northern mountains and breaking through the terraces. On the north rose two dome-shaped protuberances, one on each side of the outlet of a transverse glen. Their names are said to be Jaruk-mena on the east and Jaruk-doma on the west. Close to us on the left there now appeared big expanses of gypsum, rising into mounds and pyramids, as beside the Lakor-tso, or forming — and this is here the commoner — platforms and terraced elevations like those beside the little salt lake west of Lakor-tso. The latter generally have quite level surfaces and gleam white like sugar or snow. On the space between our route and these level expanses there was a sprinkling of wretched grass, with springs breaking out in several places, some giving rise to little pools and marshes, others to tiny rivulets that soon dwindled away, though not before they had cut a path in a glen-like sort of trough between two gypsum expanses; through this hollow we again caught sight of the extreme eastern end of the Luma-ring-tso.
In the S. 38° W. rose a more conspicuous eminence belonging to the southern range. This was now more distant, but fairly massive and pierced by several short transverse glens. It was said to be known by the name of the Dembe-tsare and appeared to be divided into two parallel chains, of which the nearer one was darker and more irregular in outline, the farther one more compact and higher and of a light red colour.
After that we had on our left the last portion of the Luma-ring-tso. It turned out to be a very insignificant lake, hardly deserving in fact to be called a lake at all; for it cannot be more than 2 km. long and at the most ioo m. broad, and is drawn out east and west, this shape being prescribed by the conformation of the latitudinal valley. The main body of the lake lies on the northern side of a more extensive gypsum expanse, which has been exposed so recently that its surface is still innocent of the usual irregularities, being perfectly smooth. There were also said to be several open sheets of water in the southern part of the gypsum expanse, although we failed to see any. Possibly the water-level was then exceptionally low, whereas in the rainy season the lake will spread out and cover the whole of the level gypsum expanse.
Next we crossed over a pier-like spur, of the same appearance and material as the preceding; its extremity pointed towards the north-north-east and was about 6 m. high. It constitutes a projection from a table-topped bluff, a sort of low independent terrace between our route and the western part of the lake. At its northern foot were some small pools and marshes. A little bit farther west we passed yet another long, narrow platform-like elevation, with strand-terraces still discernible on its southern face. From the top of it we commanded an uninterrupted view of the next lake, the Tsolla-ring-tso, which is several times bigger than the Luma-ringtso, though still small. The two lakes are separated from one another by a flat isthmus, rising but little above the water and very marshy. To travel along it is impossible. During the rainy season this strip of land is said to grow continuously narrower, though our Tibetans could not remember that the two lakes ever joined and formed one sheet of water. Their statements prove however one thing at any rate, that during the rainy season the now exposed level gypsum expanses are inundated, for at the time we passed the water did not touch the isthmus, it only covered
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