Page:Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet (1879).djvu/24

Rh The eastern section of the Northern Range forms the natural northern boundary of Great Tibet; for although an extensive region farther north is included on the maps as part of Tibet, it is really inhahited by wandering, independent tribes, called Hor and Sok. Tibetan influence, so far as we yet: know, is here confined to the route to Rudok and the Thok Jalung gold’ | fields? and to a few monasteries in the mountains and on the banks of Lake Tengri-nor, although Tibetan sovereignty must be considered as extending to the Kuen-lun Mountains. 'This lofty region is almost entirely unknown to Europeans, except. _ through the Laisa surveys? It is drained by streams flowing: into a system of inland lakes, and its elevation above the sea has only been ascertained at three points, Mr. Johnson, in his journey to Khotan, entered the region of inland drainage by the _ Chang-chenmo pass, and found the height of the Lingtsi plain — to be 17,000 feet. The Pundit of 1867 found the gold mines of © Thok J alung, which are on this lofty plateau, to be 16,830 feet; and Colonel Montgomerie’s explorer of 1872 reached the shores _ of Lake Tengri-nor, and ascertained its height to be 15,000 feet above the sea. The great Northern Chain of the Himalayan system, called the Karakorum Range in its western section, ig here known as the Ninjinthangla or Nyenchhen-tang-la Moun- tains, and separates the inland system of lakes from the basin of the Brahmaputra. ‘To the westward it commences at the famous central peak or knot called Kailas* by the Hindus, and Gangri by the Tibetans, which is 22,000 feet above the sea.

are reported to contain a whole string — of gold fields, extending from the. meridian of Lhasa to that of Rudok, | survey. Halde, it is called Aentaisse,
 * The northern slopes of the range |
 * See p. xi for some account of this
 * On the map of D’Anyille, in Du