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MOUNT KAJtLAS THE UPPER SATLAJ AND INDUS. 27
rivulet carrying to the Satlaj a sacred stream, for the Mansaraur the Manasa
Sarovara of Hindu legend is the " lake formed by the breath of Brahma."* Its
blue waters are frequented by thousands of swans, venerated as blissful beings.
The surrounding bluffs are dotted with the little houses of pilgrims, many of whom
do not fear to reside for months in these frightful solitudes. Those who die on
the way know that their ashes will be cast into this water, " the most hallowed in
the world," and this is in their eyes a supreme reward. The Ganges was formerly
said to rise in Lake Mansaraur, but Moorcroft has shown that its source is on the
southern slope of the Himalayas. Even at these elevations battles have been
fought, and in December, 1841, the Chinese here defeated the Dogras of Kashmir,
pursuing them as far as Leh in Little Tibet.
On emerging from Lake Rakus-tal, the Lanagu-lanka of the Tibetans, the
Satlaj (Sutradu, or Sutadru) occasionally runs dry towards the end of summer;
but lower down it is a permanent stream in the valley, 14,600 feet above the sea,
which i.s noted for its thermal waters. Here sulphurous vapours are emitted from
the ground ; and the same phenomenon is observed in many other parts of Tibet,
although there is nowhere any trace of volcanic rocks.
The general incline of the Upper Satlaj valley is scarcely perceptible within
Tibetan territory. Near the spot where the river is about to escape through the
Himalayan gorges towards the plains of India, the terraces on either bank maintain
an elevation of 14,600 feet above the sea, as at Lake Mansaraur, 180 miles farther
up. These terraces, which are of lacustrine origin, have been furrowed by the
stream to a depth of 1,300 and even 1,600 feet, without, however, reaching the
live rock forming the old bed of the lake. All the tributary torrents have, like
the Satlaj, to force a passage through the rocks and clays; and the whole district
has thus been cut up into vast gorges. In these gorges the few inhabitants of the
country have formed their temporary or permanent abodes. Thus Daba, the chief
" "
city
of the Satlaj valley in Tibet, occupies the sides of a ravine over 300 feet
deep, which has been cut through the rock by an affluent of the main stream. A
few two-storied stone houses, with their white fa9ades, contrast here and there with
the red escarpments and towards the ;
top of the town the quarter occupied by the
lamas forms a sort of citadel, itself overlooked by inaccessible rocky heights. A
solitary gate in the lower quarter gives ingress
to the inhabitants. In winter
Daba is completely abandoned ; the gorge is filled with snow, which covers all the
houses, and which in spring-time has to be cleared away, with the mud, rocks,
and other remains of avalanches that have accumulated during the cold season.
The debris which now fills up the old lake belongs to the tertiary and quaternary
epochs, and contains many fossils as well as the bones of some large vertebrates.
Thus a special fauna had time to be developed and disappear during the ages
occupied by the detritus in filling up the inland sea, which has escaped through
the gap in the Himalayas now affording an outlet to the Satlaj.
Several of the rivers rising north of the Gang-dis-ri were formerly said to be
According t) Moorcroft, Manasse Surilar meiins simply the Sacred Lake. It is the Tso-Mapang
of tho Tibetans.