National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

The two largest valleys situated on the northern side of Gurla are called
Namreldi ¹ and Sälung-urdu. Riding up from Camp 218 to the first-mentioned, one
has to cross some narrow belts of vegetation, and then the flat grey scree of gravel
from Sälung-urdu furrowed by now dry water-courses diverging towards the lake.
They prove that sometimes such powerful floods may come down from the mountain,
that they keep on the surface almost the whole way down. A road from Tugu-gompa
to Taklakar in Purang crosses the fan. Where this fan and that from Namreldi
come in contact with each other, a low wall of gravel is formed.

Reaching the foot of the mountain one has to cross a rock spur on the eastern
side of which one comes down into the Namreldi valley, a little above the point where
it leaves the mountain and opens out to the fall with its regular slope down to the
southern shore of the Manasarovar. The passage through which it goes out is as narrow
as a gate, almost filled with the water of the river. So far as one can see, the valley
is very narrow and wild; the snow-slopes of Gurla, which are so splendidly visible
from the lake, are now hidden by the nearest parts of the mountain.

At noon, on August 12th, the brook had here a breadth of 9.43 m., an aver-
age depth of 0.28 m., an average velocity of 1.16 m., and a volume of 2.86 cub. m.
Of this volume, as was found the day before, only 1.07 cub. m. reaches the lake on
the surface of the earth, though the two measurements cannot be compared, as the
Namreldi rises considerably towards evening. Its water is perfectly clear which seems
to indicate that it does not come direct from a glacier. At this place and on the little
spur west of it the rock is white and grey granite and gneiss-granite, dipping 29° N. 33° E.

For a distance of a few kilometers along the northern foot of Gurla, from Namreldi
to Sälung-urdu, there is nothing but blocks, gravel and sand, sometimes covered with
scanty vegetation. Everything is granite and gneiss. The Sälung-urdu comes from
a glacier visible from the lake. The water is full of glacial clay. The breadth of
this brook was 5 m., average depth 0.28 m., average velocity 1.29 m., and volume
1.81 cub. m. No superficial water reaches the lake. The brook had a temperature
of 3.2° C., almost the same as in the springs near Camp 218. Looking northward
to the lake one sees that the fans from these two valleys form convexities in the
shore-line, and probably the varying depths in the southern part of the lake depend
on the continuation and situation of these fans.

Following the shore northwards from Camp 218, we find the same long narrow
lagoons as before separated from the lake by a low mud wall. The open space
between the hills and the lagoons is very narrow. Inside of the lagoons is a bed of
dead algæ, then follows coarse sand and gravel rounded by the waves; on the slope
of the hills there is a terrace some 4 m. high and above it some vegetation of small
bushes. The lake is shallow at 50 to 80 m. from the shore and is here very muddy;
one sinks to the knees if walking near the lagoons.