Our road, after passing the ravine on the left, along which I suppose the discharge of the lake at its original level to have been effected, turned still more towards the north, and ascending an open valley to the right, crossed a low _col_, or pass, and descended into a small basin surrounded by hills, which was evidently at some former period the bed of a small lake, for it was filled with pure fine clay, in which, however, I could not observe any shells. From this plain we passed into another open valley, up which we ascended in a northerly direction for five or six miles, encamping where the mountains on both sides began to close in a circle. Throughout the day we had been gradually but very gently ascending, and the height of our encampment was probably about 16,500 feet. We were about two miles from the Tunglung pass, a depression in the range parallel to the Indus, the same ridge which we had crossed before descending to the salt lake. The axis of the range had been very near us on the right hand since we had crossed it on the 24th, and had sent down a succession of spurs, separated by wide valleys, along which we had been travelling. These separating ridges appeared usually to rise to an elevation of from one to two thousand feet above the nearly level valleys which lay at their bases, and were, though often rocky, less remarkably so than in many previous parts of our journey.
[Sidenote: ASCENT TOWARDS TUNGLUNG PASS. _September, 1847._]
The elevated country surrounding the sources of the Parang and Hanle rivers, and those of the more eastern branches of the Zanskar, as well as that encircling Lake Chumoreri, constitutes as near an approach to what Humboldt has denominated a knot (_noeud_) of mountains, as any part of the Himalaya which I have visited; not that I conceive there is any reason to suppose that we have in this part of the chain an intersection of two mountain masses of different ages, to which cause the distinguished geographer is disposed to assign those aggregations of mountains which he has so designated. There is, however, as indicated by the origin of so many considerable streams in a confined area, an extensive tract of highly elevated land, in which the valleys have a very gentle slope, while the surrounding mountains are not much elevated above them. The whole tract is nevertheless eminently mountainous, if contrasted, not with the still more rugged districts by which it is on every side surrounded, but with the hilly districts of less alpine countries.