280 THE SURROUNDINGS OF TO.NGKA-TSO.
The landscape visible from this camp, is shown as Pan. 434A, B and c, Tab. 79. To the W. N. W. the horizon is formed by a straight line very slowly sloping from the base of the southern to the base of the northern mountains, being the more developed scree of the former and explaining the fact that the principal erosion furrow and the bed of red clay are situated nearer to the base of the northern hills. N. W., north, N. E. and E. N. E. is the considerable range of mountains bordering the valley to the north. Eastwards is the prolongation of the latter, containing Tongka-iso, and at a greater distance, the mountains closing the view in this direction. The rest of the panorama the whole way to the W. S. W., shows the southern mountains. To the S. 40° E., was a conical snow-covered peak, higher than all other mountains in sight.
On March 16th, we travelled 7.6 km. S. E. at a distance of 2 or 3 km. from the shore. Camp CCCLV had a height of 4,507 m., about the same as the previous camp. The temperature was down at —18.9°. The wind continued the whole night. At 6 o'clock a. m. it was nearly calm. The sky was thickly overclouded the whole day. At 8 o'clock a. m. the S. W. wind began again, not very strong. White clouds of salt dust were whirling on the shores of the lake.
We marched across the plain in the direction of the mountains, where, south of the lake, a large valley seemed to open from the south. The ground consists of hard gravel and is nearly barren. We cross a series of these deep-cut small furrows which contain snow and are a hindrance to our progress. Their terraces are, as a rule, vertical and in them one sees the stratification of the filling of the latitudinal valley, consisting of coarse sand and fine gravel. In a ravine I o m. broad and 3.5 m. deep, we pitched Camp CCCL V In this bed we found snow, fuel and some wind-driven grass. Kyangs and antelopes were numerous in the region and one wolf was seen. Not far from the camp, two tents were pitched, inhabited by two men, one woman and a child. They said they came from Nakchu. They called the region Tong-ka, and the lake, Tongka-tso. Three different roads were said to lead from here to the Serj5un lain or »Road of the gold-chief», which is about the same as the one followed by Littledale in 1895 and by me in 1901. Marching S. W., one could reach this road in three days; to the S. E. it would take 6 or 7 days and only once tents would be found. To the east they reckoned 15 days to a region called Seleb on the road to A akchu. To the boundary of Naktsang, they reckoned 18 days.
Pan. 435A, B and c, Tab. 8o, taken from Camp CCCL V completes the impression given by the one from the previous camp. It shows the northern mountains, the lake, the distant hills bordering the lake to the east, and the southern ranges, at the very base of which the camp was pitched. To the S. 47° E. is the entrance of the valley by which we turned south.
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