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bank of Mānasarowar . . . Having forded the river, the deepest we had yet crossed, we ascended
a little on to higher ground . . .»

Going south-east he reached Cho Māpān. The figure of Māpān is, as stated
by Moorcroft, an oblong with the corners so much rounded off as to approach an
oval, the longer diameter lying east and west: 15 miles in length, 11 miles in breadth,
45 in circumference at the water's edge; 4—6 days for the pilgrims' wandering round
the lake. To the east he found a distant view precluded by hills; only the Gāngri
range to the north and the Nipāl Himālaya to the south were to be seen.

»The view which I have obtained of Mānasarowar confirmed my belief of the accounts
of native informants which all agree in stating that the lake has no other affluents than a few
unimportant streams rising close by in the surrounding mountains, and but one effluent, that
communicating with Rākas Tāl, which we crossed this morning. The two lakes are placed to-
gether in a basin, girt about by an enceinte of hill and mountain, from which the only exit
appears to be at the north-western extremity opening into the valley of Lajandāk.»

As Strachey never visited the eastern shore of the lake, he could not get any
impressions at all of the size of the affluents from the east. From his route along
the western shore they cannot, of course, be seen at all. But the information he
received from the natives was right, although the Tage-tsangpo is not inconsider-
able when compared with the rest.

The seemingly extraordinary difference between his own and Moorcroft's ob-
servations on the effluence, he tries to explain in the following way: »The outlet of
Māpān leaves the lake from the northern quarter of the west side. I was much
puzzled to account for Moorcroft's failure to find the mouth of so large a stream as
that we forded this morning, till at last I heard on good authority, that the entrance
of the channel is completely closed by a large bar of sand and gravel, continuous
with the shore of the lake, and the effluent water runs through this in a copious
stream.» He quotes Moorcroft who searched in vain at Ju-Gumba, with the outlet
immediately under the S.W. side of it concealed merely by the bank upon the
edge of the bay. His opinion of Moorcroft's reliability is not favourable. He thinks
it was a pity that Moorcroft did not get the company of some intelligent Hunia, who
would have explained all such matters as this, and have removed many other doubts
and errors in the course of his explorations. Moorcroft was sufficiently intelligent
himself not to need any explanations of Hunias. His narrative was the first reliable
and one of the most conscientious ever written on the hydrography of these lakes.
And, as shown above, he also quotes the opinion of the natives.

Henry Strachey reckons 3 or 4 permanent affluents of Māpān. First, a stream,
rising in two branches from the Gāngri (Kailas) mountains, and flowing into the
lake at the eastern quarter of its north side; the second also from the Gāngri range,
a few miles farther east, entering the lake at the north-east corner: at the very same
point is the mouth of the third stream, which rises in Hortol. The presence of
these three streams accounts, as Strachey found, for the greater verdure which he