374 THE PILGRIMS' ROAD AROUND THE KAILAS.
surprising, magnificent. The western mountain wall is in two stories with a terrace platform between. Sometimes narrow, deep-cut side valleys open out to the main valley and have tremendous screes at their mouths. The left mountain wall is uninterrupted and has gigantic screes at its base. Sometimes vertical black bands are seen along the cliffs as if ink had been streaming there; they are the steep furrows of rainwater.
A little higher up, the rocks at the left or eastern side of the valley assume curious forms, reminding one of frozen cascades and waterfalls. Here the rock seems to be granite, for there is no stratification. The valley becomes narrow; blocks are abundant. At both sides jets of water from melting snow come down, the one to our right certainly 2 50 m. high; it is pulverized in the wind, forming a white veil, but the water again joins partly to form a jet reaching the bottom of the valley. All around the rocks are dark from the continuous spray.
A short distance N. E. of Nyandi the Kailas becomes hidden by nearer cliffs. Then it appears again like on the sketch, p. 212 (to the right in the upper row), Vol. II. The side valleys more and more assume the form of regular canons. This is the most picturesque and fascinating region I have ever seen in Tibet. A natural stone-bridge is seen across a gorge with perpendicular sides, some 5o m. above its bottom. The road is very bad, covered as it is with gravel falling down from the mountains every year. In a new opening between the rocks, the Kailas is again visible, less imposing in this foreshortened perspective. Its vertical sides below the peak are striped black and white, rock and snow alternating.
Before reaching the junction with the tributaries Chamo-lung-chu or Chamolungchen coming in from the N. 70° W., we behold to the S. 50° W. a very considerable and picturesque snow-covered peak. In the background of the last-mentioned tributary, snow-covered mountains are also seen. They must be the same as those visible on several of my panoramas, for instance, the coloured one p. 153, Vol. II, and the coloured view in this chapter.
The next valley, from N. 5° W., is called Dunglung and the junction of the three valleys, Dunglung-do. Here two tents were pitched, and nomads were herding their flocks of sheep. Seen from this side, the Kailas resembles a tetrahedron on the top of a socle with very steep sides, q. Pan. 319, Tab. 57. Pan. 317, Tab. 57, is taken some distance higher up the valley, always showing the tetrahedron; this form appears in a still higher degree from the S. 34° W., as on the frontispiece in Vol. I. Small bridges are built across the two tributaries. Yaks and sheep are grazing in the valley, which here is broader than before.
Then the peak again disappears for a while, hidden by wild rocks in front of it. There are masses of granite blocks, but no more canons. The surfaces are
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