expected a considerable rise to the snouts of the glaciers, but the valley is nearly horizontal for some 15 miles north-eastwards from the source — otherwise the lake could not have been formed without the help of a moraine-dam. At Camp 200 the height was 4,861 m. (15,944 feet), but this place is situated in the hills above the river, whereas Camp 201 iS an niveau with the Kubi lake.
The view is brilliant. To the south are the two magnificent glaciers of Ngoma-dingding and Absi with their lateral and randmoraines and their heaps of grey terminal moraines. Between them and at their sides the black j5roj5ylæa of the rocks rise above our heads, and still higher the summits further south like white tents. It would be hard to imagine more worthy surroundings for the source of the Brahmaputra. The several panoramas and the photos I took at different places will, together with my map, give a clearer view of the situation than any description in words. My object was only to fix definitely the situation of the source, and I had to leave the detailed glacial exploration to the future.
From Camp 201 in the Shapka region, the highest where nomads are accustomed to pitch their tents, we had still 8.5 km. or five miles to the very source, and this little bit was accomplished on 13th July. The road goes S.W., W., and W.N.W. To the right or north the hills rise more or less abruptly; they are a combination of solid material belonging to the ridge we had crossed in Tso-nitikargang, and moraines, which have been accumulated against the sides of the hills. Only the moraines are visible; they rise above each other, sometimes with steep slopes to both sides; it is a confusion of blocks, gravel and finer material, sometimes covered and hidden by eàrth and dust with some sparse vegetation. At a few places where material had rushed clown, the interior of the hills became visible and the moraine structure clear. No very great blocks are to be seen; the greatest measured about 8 cub. m., and at the very source was another perhaps somewhat greater.
At the foot of the moraine hills the bottom of the valley is level as before and consists chiefly of glacial clay. Tracks of wild yaks and kyangs were not rare. Several brooks come down from the hills from melting snowfields, forming pools and swamps, and continuing to the Kubi-tsangpo. These brooks are perfectly clear. The largest brook, 2 or 3 cub. m., formed a real delta with some ten branches spread over its fan. Even so late in the summer as in the middle of July the Kubi gets a considerable supply of water from the melting snow.
A river-branch with half clear greenish water finally forces us to turn W.N.W. the colour of this water proves that it comes chiefly from snow; it has cut out a real valley between the old high moraines to the north, and the present front-moraines. Some two or three hundred metres below the front, this branch joins the several brooks which rush out from under the snout. Of the latter, two are particularly large, namely the one along the right or southern side of the valley, and the one from the middle of the snout. In the brownish grey water of these branches
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