FROM THE LAEN VALLEY TO NGANGTSE-TSO. 169
undrinkable ; in case of necessity it could perhaps be drunk in spite of its very disagreeable taste. On December 2 8th, the ice was 28 cm. thick at 1 oo paces from the shore, 26 cm. at 200 and 25.5 cm. at 3 0o paces. From these data and from the general morphology of the whole basin, the lake being everywhere surrounded by extensive flat plains, except to the south, one could understand that the Ngangtse-tso must be very shallow. Travelling between the Kyaring-tso and Dang-ra yurn-tso Nain Sing touched the northern shore of Ngangtse-tso, between the main lake and Marku-tso.
On December 29th, I moved down to the shore ; 7.8 km. S. S. E. The ground falls 71 m. or to 4,699 m., at a rate of 1 :1 10. From the springs of Camp XC VII, an ice ribbon stretches nearly 3 km. down, in the bed of the watercourse from the Laen valley. The bed continues winding down to the swampy ground on the shore. From the openings of several other neighbouring valleys, ice beds come out. Our valley opens out on a broad, slightly undulating plain. As the lake now lies before us, it looks rather big. Its eastern end is hardly visible at a distance of 22 km., whereas the western end cannot be seen, being 32 km. away ; only the mountains beyond can be seen. To the south the extensive white surface of the lake is bounded by mountains of no great height, as will be seen on Pan. 1 1 5A and 1 15 B, Tab. 21, from Camp XC VIII. On the same sketch we find the country very open to the S. 65° E. , which is explained by the existence of Lake Marchar-tso and the open country to the E. S. E. of it. Far away to the S. W. a high mountain mass is visible in the prolongation of the western part of the lake, probably the Targogangri. From here it seems rocky, wild and covered with very extensive snow-fields. North of it is the mysterious Dangra yule-tso hidden by the mountains to the west. To the N. N. W., the panorama shows the opening of the Laen valley and some other valleys coming from the mountains north of the lake.
The soil on the way to Camp XC VIII consists of sand and fine gravel, and there was better grass than we had seen for a long time. As this plain is exposed very much to the continual wind, the nomads prefer the more protected valleys during the winter. Having passed two old beach-lines some 4 m. high and more like walls sloping to both north and south, we reached a belt of swamps, with tussock-grass and ice-sheets between. Heaps of dung of tame yaks lay scattered about, and there were several fireplaces since the visits of nomads last summer. The grazing grounds must be very favourable during the hot season, directly exposed as they are to the sun. Then follows a lagoon covered with ice and six old beach-lines, three and three with an interval between ; they are rounded and about 1 m. high. So far as their direction is discernable, they are directed to the S. 7o° E. and N. 8o° W. Finally we pass several small lagoons on clay ground. At the lee side of the ninth beach wall about 3 m. high, we camped (Cam, XCVIII) 5 m. above the lake which is at 4,694 m.
22. IV.
IIIFカラー高解像度
