An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

;212 TIBET.and I could plainly perceive they had no tails': my attendants allconfirmed this observation.This lake is frequented by great abundance of water-fowl, wildgeese,ducks, teal,and storks, which, on the approach of winter, taketheir flight to milder regions. Prodigious numbers of saurasses, thelargest species of the crane kind, are seen here at certain seasons of theyear, and they say, that any quantity of eggs may then be collectedthey are found deposited near the banks.I had several of these given to mc while I was at Tassisudon, during the\rains ;they were as large as a turkey's egg, and I remember being toldthat they came from this place ;but whether or not they were those ofthe sauras, Icannot venture to pronounce.The lake gradually narrowed, and from itsnorthern angle, sent offa small brook, which we crossed, over a very rude bridge. It tooka western direction, between hills that form a narrow defile, dischargingitself at the other extremity, into a much larger lake than thatwhich we had passed.Our little camp stood midway with respect to the lakes, in a narrowpass between rows of rocks, near the village Chaloo, twenty milesfrom Teuna, and not far from the brook. The situation was muchsheltered ; and in this confined valley I saw the first ground in Tibet,which was cultivated with success. It produced a dwarfish wheat, Ithink, of the Lammas kind ; this was now ripe, and falling beneaththe sickle.« This animal, I conceive to have been the Daman Israel, of Egypt, or Schafan, ofthe Hebrews.See Bruce.