78 HENRY STRACHEY.
bank of Månasarowar ... Having forded the river, the deepest we had yet crossed, we ascended a little on to higher ground .
Going south-east he reached Cho Mapan. The figure of Mapan is, as stated by Moorcroft, an oblong with the corners so much rounded off as to approach an oval, the longer diameter lying east and west : 15 miles in length, I 1 miles in breadth, 45 in circumference at the water's edge; 4-6 days for the pilgrims' wandering round the lake. To the east he found a distant view precluded by hills; only the Gangri range to the north and the Nipal Himalaya to the south were to be seen.
»The view which I have obtained of Månasarowar confirmed my belief of the accounts of native informants which all agree in stating that the lake has no other affluents than a few unimportant streams rising close by in the surrounding mountains, and but one effluent, that communicating with Rakas Tal, which we crossed this morning. The two lakes are placed together in a basin, girt about by an enceinte of hill and mountain, from which the only exit appears to be at the north-western extremity opening into the valley of Lajandåk.)
As Strachey never visited the eastern shore of the lake, he could not get any impressions at all of the size of the affluents from the east. From his route along the western shore they cannot, of course, be seen at all. But the information he received from the natives was right, although the Tage-tsangpo is not inconsiderable when compared with the rest.
The seemingly extraordinary difference between his own and Moorcroft's observations on the effluence, he tries to explain in the following way: »The outlet of Mapan leaves the lake from the northern quarter of the west side. I was much puzzled to account for Moorcroft's failure to find the mouth of so large a stream as that we forded this morning, till at last I heard on good authority, that the entrance of the channel is completely closed by a large bar of sand and gravel, continuous with the shore of the lake, and the effluent water runs through this in a copious stream.» He quotes Moorcroft who searched in vain at Ju-Gumba, with the outlet immediately under the S.W. side of it concealed merely by the bank upon the edge of the bay. His opinion of Moorcroft's reliability is not favourable. He thinks it was a pity that Moorcroft did not get the company of some intelligent Hunia, who would have explained all such matters as this, and have removed many other doubts and errors in the course of his explorations. Moorcroft was sufficiently intelligent himself not to need any explanations of Hunias. His narrative was the first reliable and one of the most conscientious ever written on the hydrography of these lakes. And, as shown above, he also quotes the opinion of the natives.
Henry Strachey reckons 3 or 4 permanent affluents of Mapan. First, a stream, rising in two branches from the Gångri (Kailas) mountains, and flowing into the lake at the eastern quarter of its north side; the second also from the Gångri range, a few miles farther east, entering the lake at the north-east corner: at the very same point is the mouth of the third stream, which rises in Hortol. The presence of these three streams accounts, as Strachey found, for the greater verdure which he
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