| But even such circumstances could easily be read from a map containing all necessary information. The yaks we had bought from the nomads saved the situation, and it may be a question of whether the best . plan would not be, for a thorough exploration of High Tibet, to use yaks, flesh-eating Tibetan ponies and Tibetan nomads as guides. An expedition of this kind would move very slowly, but it would be nearly independent of the climate and other hardships of the journey. From Cam, LXX we proceed S. S. E. through the very narrow, wild and picturesque valley that has cut its gorge through the sometimes nearly perpendicular, limestone rocks. The erosion bed in its bottom is meandering and filled with gravel, but on its sides, the left or the right, there is always space enough for the road, which here is only one single path. The ice of Camp LXX soon ceases and no more appears lower down. The rock, grey dense limestone as before, projects from both sides and presents a picturesque scenery of a kind that is rather rare on these great levelled altitudes. Very often fireplaces are passed, which mark the camps of gold-diggers and salt-caravans and other people and date from seasons of the year when water is to be had everywhere in the gorge. The valley opens up gradually and becomes broader; at its right side there are now soft rounded hills, between which a spring was found. At a short distance from there, the country was quite open and we had an excellent view of the region. From a little hill, I sketched Pan. 76A and 76B, Tab. i 2. It shows to the N. 24° W. the opening of the narrow valley in which we had come down. To the north and N. E. it shows the mountain group that had separated the first half of the day's march from the great valley we had followed for three days. From E. N. E. to S. E. we see a new lake larger than the previous ones ever since Gomo-tsaka. East of the lake bed and the whole way around to S. W. there were moderate, rounded mountains. Already here one got the impression of having a large tectonic valley to the S. E., a valley stretching S. W.—N. E., and joining the large valley we had followed, just at the place where the new lake was situated. To the E. N. E. the country was open and low, and in this direction the new large valley seemed to continue. All the mountains in the neighbourhood were coloured in different red and pink tints. The lake dominates the landscape with its dazzling white surface. Only where the shore was nearest to us, a little bit of open water could be seen. At the shore, terraces and ridges of fine white dust or gypsum were seen. It was easy to see that it was a dying lake of the same kind as I have described in western Tibet, for instance : Lakor-tso. From the observation point we continued down a desiccation terrace, on the slope of which we found a vzani-riçmo of the kind which are so common in Ladak, though only 3 m. in length and 1 m. broad and .0.2 m. high. Most of the stones were round or flat and only a few were slabs of schist. The usual inscription was well and carefully carried out and painted in red and green. It was surprising to | | |
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