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number of wild-fowl. He gathered all information he could get of the freezing and
breaking up of the Manasarovar. The winter was said to be very severe. The amount
of snow is not great, seldom one foot deep and the snow is powdery. During the
cold season the lake is at its lowest level, as no streams flow into it then, and it
is highest in June and July, when the snow melts.

To Moorcroft's assertion that there was no outlet from the lake, although
he heard there had formerly existed a communication between the Mapang and
Lanka, Gerard adds ¹ that the Manasarovar has always been reckoned by the Hindus
to be the source of the Sutlej, »although European geographers were of a different
opinion». Captain Webb believed that there was a considerable difference of level
between the two lakes, and that the superfluous water of the Manasarovar was
drained off by a subterraneous passage, and Gerard thought he was right.

As to the Pundit and Ladakis who positively asserted to Moorcroft that
they had seen the outlet, Gerard does not see the slightest reason to disbelieve
them and he wonders why Moorcroft did not set the matter at rest by sending for
and inquiring of the inhabitants.

For his own part he says: »My information is positive, that about 20 years
ago, a stream, which was rapid, and crossed by bridges, ran from it (Manasarovar)
into Rawun Rudd, but it has since dried up, and the Lamas who reside on the banks,
have an idea that a subterranean communication exists.» If his information is as true
as it is positive there should thus have been a channel in 1800. The natives, both
Chinese, Tibetan and Hindu, still believe in subterranean communications round the
lakes. Webb had been told of a hundred streams entering the Mapang and only one
going out of the lake. Colebrooke had concluded that, in so cold a climate the
evaporation could not be equivalent to the influx of water in the thawing season.
Gerard himself is persuaded that, as lakes without an outlet must be salt, there
was probably some drain for the waters of Mapang, either above or under ground,
for, from its being surrounded by stupendous mountains, it must receive nearly as
many rivulets as Rawun Rudd, and the stream that issues from this last lake is very
considerable in the hot weather; »besides, one of the rivers that run into Manasaro-
var, is stated to be of some size. This the people call the Sutluj, the most remote
source of which is said to be at a place named Chomik Tingdol, where a small
stream gushes rapidly out of the ground with a rumbling noise: the length of this
river is reckoned about 40 miles, and it passes through, or rather by expanding,
forms Goongeoo Lake, the Conghe of the Lamas. Goongeoo is called fifteen or
20 miles long by the course of the river, but very narrow.»

Gerard has got a really scientific grasp of the problem. The Manasarovar
is fresh so it must have an outlet. Both lakes receive many rivulets and so it is
no wonder that a considerable river goes out from the western lake. But when he