THE EASTERN PANGGONG-TSO. 3,7
The configuration of the shore in the case of the Panggong-tso is the same as in the case of the Tso-ngombo, the only difference being that the mountains which border the former appear to he more massive and more compact, and the spurs they send out higher. Our journey beside the Panggong-tso necessitated our doubling one projecting rocky headland after another, these forming blunted peninsulas with bays between them; and at the base of each of these rocky headlands lies a scree of stones and gravel, which rendered our march difficult and slow. At the inner end of the bays the ground was generally soft and level; it is more frequently tinged with white than the soil beside the Tso-ngombo, saline deposits being of course the cause. We also observed lower shore-marks, a proof that the lake is shrinking; on the other hand the well-defined rampart beside the freshwater lake, which I attribute to the pressure of the ice in spring, was wanting beside this second lake: it was only in the east that we perceived a few rudimentary attempts at such a formation.
The Panggong-tso lies in the continuation of the Tso-ngombo's latitudinal valley, one of the biggest and most accentuated of all the latitudinal valleys that we encountered in the whole of "Tibet. In the light of the knowledge that we already possess as to the orography of the country, it is not possible to say with certainty where this great valley begins; but one thing it is pretty safe to say: it does not begin at the lake near Noh, but it stretches, I feel sure, a good long way to the east of that lake, or rather east-south-east. Here on the high plateau it is however less sharply defined and bounded by mountain-chains; anyway the mountains that shut it in are less considerable than those which hem in the two long lakes. On the plateau the valley appears moreover to divide into two more or less parallel valleys, one of which forms a continuation of that in which the lakes are situated, while the other is traversed by the Tsanger-schar. Other latitudinal valleys could, I have no doubt whatever, be found in western Tibet which are just as well defined as this one, and run parallel to it, but what makes this particular valley so noteworthy is the presence of the two long lakes, which so sharply and so distinctly mark its course. In one respect however this valley does appear to distinguish itself from its congeners, and that is in its relatively great depth. As we shall find presently, the Panggong-tso is 48 m. deep, and after its water has disappeared, this valley will be even deeper than all the others. Moreover the circumstance, that from time immemorial the road between Ladak and Tibet has always run beside these lakes, has made this valley better known even to Europeans than all others in western Tibet. There still remains however a good deal to do before we can venture to make safe deductions with regard to these matters. Captain Rawling's map contains some orographical features which appear rather strange. It is probable that here also the same parallelism obtains which governs the systems of the Himalaya and the Kara-korum, a parallelism in which the two lakes also participate.
Along their southern shores runs, as I have said, a path; it appears however to be difficult to travel along it, and, so far as could be judged from the distance, it is impossible for camels. Bushes grow not only on the shores of the bays, but also on the stony capes, and this on both sides of the lake, though on the north
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