316 WESTWARDS TO LADAK.
N. 24° E., broad and winding, but not very deeply incised. In its bottom were several belts of ice and frozen pools; it bore evidences however of carrying at times a very large volume of water. It rises in the big glen of Niagzu to the north, and possesses an extensive drainage-area. After rain the river swells to a considerable stream, and transports quantities of mud out into the lake. So far as I could see, no branch of this river joins the arm connecting the Tso-ngombo with the Panggong-tso. The Tibetans who were then encamped beside the ruins of Khurnak, draw such water as they need in winter from the bed of the Niagzu river.
After that we passed two frozen springs, and a third at the foot of the first cape that we doubled; but this was not frozen and its water had a temperature of 6.7°. Thus to the eastern part of the lake a not inconsiderable supply of water is contributed directly by springs, and it spreads itself out on the top of the salt water. By the next cape the northern wing of the triangular ice-sheet had thinned out to a point; though in the next bay we came to there was a thin film of ice, which undulated with the movement of the waves, the lake being then in commotion. We found similar thin films of ice in the next following bays; but the farther we advanced towards the west the smaller they grew, the water becoming at the same time salter, and at length the ice came to an end altogether. From one cape on the lee side a long narrow tongue of ice jutted out towards the north-east, a little distance out from the shore, and once or twice we observed patches of ice floating freely on the lake. The effect of these in moderating the violence of the waves was visible a long way to the lee. In a word, the lake is not quite exempt from freezing, but this is confined, at any rate in December, to its extreme eastern part. The salinity is slight: the sp. gr. at Camp CXLV was 1.0105.
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