512 EXPLORERS' JOURNEYS IN HIGH TIBET.
»In the 8th march from Thok Dauråkpa the Pundit encountered a lofty range of mountains which was crossed by a high but easy pass called Kilong, 18,170 feet above sea-level. This range runs southward and culminates in some enormous peaks known by the name of Tårgot Lhå, from which extends eastward a snowy range, numerous peaks in which were fixed by the Pundit, along a length of i 8o miles, up to where the range terminates in a mass of peaks called Gyåkharma, which also lie to the south of and very near the Pundit's road. The highest of these Gyåkharma peaks was ascertained by measurement to be 22,800 feet above sea-level ... This range is probably not the watershed between the basin of the Brahmapûtra and the lake country of Hor, for the Pundit was informed that to the south of the range, running parallel to it, is a large river, the Dumphu, or Hota Sangpo, which ultimately changes its course and flows northwards into the Kyåring Lake.»
»The Pundit is of opinion that the Dångrå Yum Cho, and the smaller lake of Tang Jung to the north, were formerly connected together in one vast expanse of water. The Dångrå Lake is even now so large, and the wind sometimes raises such violent waves, that the Pundit compares it to the ocean.»
»Thus far on his journey the Pundit states that a cart might be driven all the way from Noh without any repairs being made to the road; but in crossing the range which bounds on the east the Pembo country, the path was steep and difficult. There is an alternative road, however, lying to the north, by which it is said a cart (supposing there to be such a thing in the country) might easily travel from Thok Dauråkpa to the Namcho Lake without meeting a single obstacle en route. The country to the east of the Pembo district is of a precisely similar nature to what the Pundit had already passed through on the west. It is inhabited as far as the Namcho Lake by pastoral Changpa nomads, who live mostly on the produce of their flocks and herds.»
The following condensation by Trotter, based however upon the Pundit's itinerary, is especially interesting, and proves the perfect correctness of the conception which the Pundit formed thirty years ago of the general character of the Tibetan highlands. »The height of the plateau traversed appears to vary but little between 15,000 and 16,000 feet above the sea-level. The plain is, as a rule, confined between mountains which run parallel to the direction of the road, but a few transverse ridges of considerable elevation are crossed en route. The drainage all tends to the north, the streams from the snowy range to the south finding their way into numerous large lakes, which either lie in the sangs traversed by the Pundit, or are enclosed in similar sangs to the north. These lakes are the characteristic features of the country, and the Pundit may well be proud of the discovery and survey of such a numerous and extensive system. Of the whole series, extending from Noh to Lhasa, the only one that has hitherto been known to geographers is the Nam Cho or Tengri Nur of the extreme east, which, although its position with regard to Lhasa was approximately known, and was marked on the old Chinese maps, yet it is only within the last few years that its position and extent have been determined with anything like accuracy; this was done by another Pundit, a pupil of the veteran explorer whose discoveries I am now relating.
The largest of these newly-discovered lakes, the Dångrå Jum Cho, is about 45 miles in length, by 25 in breadth at its widest part; another large lake, the
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