AMONG THE DESICCATED LAKES OF WESTERN TIBET. 243
other eminence in the neighbourhood. In the lowest part of the depression the old lake appeared to have extended towards the S. 68° W. There were here large numbers of kulans.
In the lowest part of the hollow the clay was leveller; the altitude reached 4824 m. In its north-western part the ascent is a good deal more appreciable, though no old beach-lines were observable on the slope. On our right, that is to the north, we passed quite close at hand an isolated butte the southern face of which is very steep. A vast number of watercourses run down at an acute angle towards a main watercourse, which proceeds N. 85° E. towards the centre of the depression. We now had big mountain swellings on both the north and the south of us, with a great many rocky spurs and offshoots branching off from them. Bushes were growing in those glens of the southern mountains that are protected against the western wind. We forded the main stream at the point where it picks up several torrents from the adjacent mountains. One of these comes from the N. 31° E., from the locality in which the peak 03 was visible. At the point of junction there was a small detached sheet of ice, the last surviving relic of some river. The entire region was so arid, that even so small a fragment of ice was looked upon as something quite exceptional. As usual we filled our sacks with ice. After ascending for another hour, we reached a flat threshold pass at an altitude of 5062 m. The ground in its vicinity is almost level, especially on the west side, where no slope is perceptible. Camp CXXX, where the boiling-point thermometer gave an altitude of 5060 m., was situated only a few hundred meters from the threshold, at the foot of the southern mountains. The latitudinal valley — the one containing the depression which I have just described — is at this point appreciably narrower. There was no water and the grazing was miserable. This district is called Jam-garavo.
At the first elbow that we passed at the beginning of the day's march dense, grey limestone cropped out at an angle of 23° towards the N. 73° E., the dip being very distinct. All the circumjacent mountains are streaked as it were with bands lying conformably with this; in fact this is the prevailing rock of that region.
After — 26.5° of frost we continued on the 19th November towards the west-north-west and west, the wind blowing from the latter quarter; in that direction the surface also sloped at first. Through the outlet of a large glen on the south we caught sight of a chaos of mountains and glens. It soon turned out that we were only descending into yet another little self-contained drainage-basin in the bottom of the latitudinal valley. It was paved with an expanse of perfectly level clay, then dry; though during the rainy season a little lake is formed in a hollow between two passes. The country round about is marshy, although then frozen as hard as a stone. Some springs, which also were frozen, had given rise to a couple of ice-sheets. The western pass was quite close at hand; its altitude was 5018 m. Thence the slope was more pronounced, though still very gradual. The main watercourse from this pass hugs the foot of the southern range and runs down to a level plain; the flank of the northern range is long and relatively gentle. On our right we passed a small free-standing red butte, with one of the usual sheepfolds constructed of stone on its eastern side. This little plain forms an exceedingly flat gathering-basin, in which all the brooks concentrate into one; this pierces the northern range, though
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