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

A short distance east of Tugu-gompa the almost uninterrupted narrow shore
lagoons begin again, separated from the lake by a mud-neck. This formation is
characteristic for the whole south and west shore.

The northernmost point on the façade of Tugu-gompa was, on August 3rd,
at a distance of 98.46 m. from the water-line of the lake. Beginning from the
shore the first 55 m. were occupied by lagoons and wet mud and clay; the next
10 m. are dry clay; then begins the fine gravel and finally the gravel wall or terrace
on the top of which the temple is built. The foot of the façade, at the western
corner, was now 6.30 m. above the surface of the lake. One Lama pretended that
18 years ago, or in 1889, the lake reached the very foot of the façade, a piece of
information which seems to be very unreliable.

On the section from Tugu to Camp 218 some changes take place. The lake
is deeper; about 5 m., only some 50 m. from the shore. The scree of gravel and
alluvia from Gurla goes down to the deepest parts of the lake. In the south one
sees where the solid rock comes to an end and the greyish scree from every deep-
cut valley and glacier passage in Gurla begins to spread and become broader and
less steep as it approaches the lake. On the way down all these screes melt to-
gether more or less. Two brooks are seen coming out in white rapids from
their rock valleys, but only one mouth is passed at the shore, being 11 m. broad
and carrying 1.07 cub. m. a second. The other brook disappears under the gravel
of the scree. In this way the Manasarovar receives a good deal of water that escapes
control. At such places where the ordinary belt of lagoons is developed, a great
number of springs appear in or just above the lagoons, which stand on clay and
mud. But at places where the gravel and sand of the scree dip into the lake, and
where no lagoons are developed, the springs appear from the bottom of the lake, as
can be clearly seen from the boat. Outside of the lagoons no such springs are
visible at the bottom. It seems probable that the water from melting snow and
glacier ice flows over the top of beds of glacial clay, and through the deposits of
gravel and sand which cover them and which are permeable. At places where the
underlying clay appears on dry land the springs will therefore reach the surface a
little above the shore, but where the scree dips into the lake they join the lake
directly, at some distance from the shore. One can easily prove that this is the case.
Making a hole with a stick through gravel or sand near the shore, one sees how it
immediately gets filled with water coming from the south and slowly streaming to the
lake on the top of the underlying clay. A more abundant spring near Camp 218
had a temperature of + 3.4° C. at the same time as the lake had 15° near the
shore, proving that the cold glacier water keeps its temperature beneath the gravel
on its way down.

Along some sections the 6 m. terrace reaches the very shore of the lake which
in such cases is deep directly outside of them. A short distance east of Camp 218,
the lagoons begin again and then continue northwards.