1 9 Gerard, ut su-
2 pra, 247.
3 T 1d. 245-247,
4 21d. 245,
5 3 Moorer, i. 264.
6 41d. ii. 513 As.”
7 Res, xviii., Ge-
8 Tard, 259.
9 5 Moorer. i, 484,
10 6 Jd. il, 47.
11 7 Gholaum Hyder
12 Khan, 177.
13 § i, 312.
14 94, 312,
15 6 LADAKH.
16 in consequence of which they are the principal and almost the only
17 beasts of burthen in many parts of Tibet.2 From the influence
18 of food ald climate, the goat, the yak, the deer, the dog, and
19 even the hese, acquire, under the ordinary hair, a wonderfully
20 fine and downy wool, which they lose when removed to more
21 luxuriant pastures, and climates of greater moisture and warmth.!
22 Men appear to be alone proof against this influence, “ being
23 denied all beard, while their black bushy heads seem to be
24 insensible to thermal’changes.”? This is the more remarkable, as
25 the lamas never wear any head-dress.
26 The rivers of Ladakh are the Indus, or Sin-Kha-bab, and
27 its feeders, the Shy Yok on the right side, on the left the
28 Zanskar river, and lower down the river of Dras. This last
29 receives a considerable feeder called the Pushkyum.5 The Spiti
30 river, as already mentioned, discharges itself into the Sutlej.
31 There are two small isolated systems of drainage, one in the
32 south-east, into Lake Chamoreril,4 the other in the north-east,
33 into Lake Pangkung. Both these are considerable pieces of
34 water: the former about fifty miles in circuit, and brackish, the
35 latter about twice that size, and extremely salt. Thog-ji Chenmo
36 is a small lake a few miles north-west of Chamoreril.6 These
37 lakes and streams are mentioned under their names in the alpha-
38 betical arrangement. The rivers receive numerous torrents,
39 generally during summer subject to regular diurnal increase, from
40 the heat of the sun in the daytime thawing the snow on the
41 neighbouring mountains. From this cause, a stream, quite in-
42 considerable in the morning, becomes often towards evening
43 rapid, deep, and powerful.
44 The scantiness of vegetation necessarily restricts the range of
45 animal life. The cargivorous quadrupeds are bears, leopards,
46 lynxes, ounces, wolves, foxes, and various musteline quadrupeds.”
47 The natives informed Moorcroft® that the mountains are infested
48 with a sort of tiger. This is probably the panther not uncommon
49 in Kashmir. According to Vigne, there are yaks in a state of
50 nature in the more secluded wilds, where also roams the kiang,
51 an equine quadruped, respecting the zoological character of
52 which Moorcroft ® leaves us more in the dark than might be
53 expected from his professional pursuits. He says “it is per-
54 haps more of an ass than a horse, but its ears are shorter, and
55 it is certainly not the gurkhor, or wild ass of Sindh.” These