| THE EASTERN WATER-PARTING PASS OF SHEMEN-TSO. 249 coming from a little glacier. To the W. N. W., the direction from which we had come, the view was magnificent, resembling a sea of wild red waves, mostly covered with snow, as the snow principally accumulates at the lee sides. Shenzen-tso was hidden by mountain shoulders and ramifications. The valley descending to the east, appeared nearly horizontal to the eye. The ground here consisted of fine gravel and coarse sand. As could be expected , the amount of snow was greater on this side of the pass, especially where tributaries from the left side had to be crossed, it was no easy task to march through the deep snow. In these high regions, there was no sign of life, neither animals nor vegetation. The country was absolutely barren. The bed of the main watercourse of the valley was shallow and follows the right or southern side. At the corner where the valley turns to the S. E., the living rock is grey and reddish coarse-grained granitite. From this place the valley, which hitherto has been fairly broad, becomes very narrow, and one has to march in the bed itself, which is full of gravel and blocks. Here the snow on the lee side of the mountains to the right or western side of the valley, lay accumulated in real drifts, as high as tents, and it was not easy to avoid the deepest passages. On the slopes of the left side, yellow moss began to appear. But there was no grass. Dung of wild yak occasionally was seen. It was pulverized and mixed with some meal and given the mules. Just above Camp CCCXXX, a little rudimentary glacier was seen on the western range. Strong and violent gusts of wind blew down from the N. W., like cascades, into the valley. This pass, which killed three of our fourteen animals, was one of the highest I had ever traversed. It is the eastern water-parting pass of the basin to Sliemen-tso, which, therefore, has a very considerable drainage area. The orographical structure and general morphology of western Tibet is, as we have seen, quite different from the relief forms in the eastern parts of the country. In the east it never happens that one finds transverse thresholds of such enormous height in the latitudinal valleys. One gets the impression that a kind of very broad meridional protuberances run across the whole country. On February z 6th, we continued down the valley to the S. E. for 7.4 km., descending 134 m. or to 5,42 2 m. which was the altitude of Camp CCCXXXI. The rate of fall was here i : 55, or considerably steeper than in the upper part of the valley. The minimum temperature was only —22.2°. The ground of the valley is covered with sharp-edged gravel and small blocks and boulders, the whole lot more or less hidden by snow, making marching tiresome and fatiguing. Sometimes the whole valley is snow-covered, and only occasionally, a stone breaks the white sheet. The erosion furrows are also hidden. The fresh snow, driven hither by the wind, is very loose, the older snow tough like parchment. By and by ice-sheets are crossed in the principal bed, though no springs are seen. The valley does not 32. iV. | | |
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