The series of lakes in one and the same line of valley, but just separated from each other, the low & of which bears the name of Pangkong or Pangong, occupy a length of valley of 90 miles, from end to end of the Lake.
The neck of the Tsaka Pass is a point on the watershed between the two basins. From its summit there
ie an easy descent into a very gradually sloping valley, which, in less than 30 miles, leads to past the village of Chushal to the shores of the Pangkong Lake.
The hollow in which it liea, a valley cut through the mountains, not different from many parts of the valleys of other tributaries to the Indus and to be referred to the same origin as they, had its drainage flow out by Thaktse to the Shyok. Then came the damming of the waters of that valley by one or other of the fans which have been pointed out. The water rose in the valley and made a lake gradually increasing in height, probably equally with the increase of the fan, which by no means was made all at once. Doubtless the water flowed over between the end of the fan and the mountain opposite.
This over flow of the water very likely wore down the channel to some extent, and so the lake may have been partly drained again. Then, later, came a change of climate to a state drier than before, and a sinking and receding of the lake-waters to their present position, where they are enclosed by deposits which were laid down in the lake during its greater extension. It was at this stage that the water got salt The series of lakes in one and the same line of valley, but just separated from each other, the low& of which bears the name of Pangkong or Pangong, occupy a length of valley of 90 miles, from end to end of the Lake.
The upper part of Pangkong itself and the lake next above are known to us only through the explorations (made in 1863) of Major E H. Godwin-Austen, of the Q. T. Survey.
There is a somewhat narrow winding lake over 40 mile in length ; next (within the same valley) is a plain, three or four miles long, through which in a channel of water ; Pangkong is 40 mile in length and from two to nearly four miles in width ; its height above the sea is 13,980 feet. The valley leading down from the Tsaka Pass and Chushal debouch into that occupied by the lake at about the centre of this 40 miles, at which a point that, in spite of the great bend in its direction, a great length, up and down, is visible. What strikes the eye in coming first in view of this lake is the lovely colour of its waters; especially towards evening is it of the riches deep blue, over the whole expanse ; at morning time it is of a lighter but a very brilliant colour ; close to the shore, indeed, the water is both so limpid that the bottom can be seen far down and colorless, disturbed by the wind, at the rolling over of the waves before breaking, a beautiful sapphire that is seen in it.
In the eastern part, on both sides, high mountains bound the lake, whose bold spurs jut out in succession and, at last meeting, close in the view. These hills, like all those we have so long been amongst, are bare, showing nought but rock and loose stones ; they are of shaded of brown and yellow, only in the far distance is this earthy look modified by the tone which the atmosphere gives.
Assuredly for grandeur of aspect, for combination of fine formed mountains with the stretch of waters, and for the colour of the clear blue sky contrasting with the mountains, neither surpasses it ; and indeed, under some aspects, it is difficult to persuade oneself that it is not as beautiful as can be. The western part of the lake has, on its north-east side, hills like those The water of the lake is salt, with a slightly bitter taste ; reckoning by the taste, to be something less than half as salt as sea water, nearly half of which is common salt, and mostly sulfates of soda and magnesia, and chloride of potassium.
