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LAKE PANG-KONG. 29
mean elevation of 13,500 feet, a valley, running parallel with the Indus, follows
the same general windings, turning first north-west, then heading westwards
through a mountain gorge, beyond which it resumes its normal north-westerly
course. A large portion of this valley is flooded, but the lake thus formed, which
resembles many inland Scandinavian fiords, alternately broadens and contracts with
the breadth of the bed and the projecting headlands. It has even been divided
into three basins at different levels by the detritus, or perhaps by the alluvia
washed down with the side streams. The upper lake takes the name of Noh,
from a neighbouring caravan station ; the central, 40 or 45 feet higher than the
lower, is the Tso-Mognalari, or " Fresh-water highland lake ;
is applied to the lower lake itself, . although
E ofG 78' 50'
Fig.
" and the same name
the lack of supplies has gradually
10. LAKE PANG-KONO.
So ile 1 : 1,600.000.
. 30 Miles.
changed it to a saline basin with 13 per 1,000 of salt, or about the same as in the
Black Sea ; but it also contains nearly as much sulphate of soda and magnesia as of
sea salt, so that the absolute proportion differs. The Anglo-Indian explorers have
called this lake the Pang-kong, from the Kashmir province of that name into which
its northern extremity penetrates. Watermarks and banks of fresh-water shells
show that it formerly rose '240 feet above its present mean level, which is 13,460
feet alx>ve the sea. Hence jt was twice as deep as at present, its extreme depth
being now 140 feet according to Trotter and Bittdulph, or 165 feet according to
H. Srhlagintweit. The total area of both lakes, estimated at 216 square miles, was
aNo more than double when tin: emissary descended to the Shayok through a valley
some; H miles lung, and through the Tankseh River. While gradually falling