Page:Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet.djvu/37

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[Intr. Central Chain lead the drainage, for a distance of 150 miles, into the Aran river, which breaks through the Southern Hima- laya into Nepal. North of the Arun basin, and, like the Palti lake, encircled by spurs from the Central Eange, is the Chomto- dong lake, about 20 miles in length and 16 broad, and without an outlet. It is not shown on the map of D'Anville, and was, therefore, discovered by No. 9 in 1871. This lake is 14,700 feet above the sea. The main chain of the Central Eange towers over the Chomto-dong lake on its northern side, and is crossed by the Lagalung-la pass 16,000 feet above the sea, where the glacier ice is seen close to the road taken by travellers. Ac- cording to No. 9 this part of the region between the Central and Southern Kanges belongs to Sikkim, and the boundary between Sikkim and Tibet is on the Lagulung-la of the Central Kange. The Central Eange has also been crossed (by No. 9) by the Dango-la pass above the great Sakia monastery, and 28 miles east of the Lagalung-la. The western branch of the Aran flows from west to east through an extensive plain, be- tween the Central and Southern Eanges, called the Dingri^ Maidan, 13,900 feet above the sea, where there is a town of two hundred and fifty houses. The Dingri river is believed to rise' in a large lake, which is shown but not named on D'Anville's map, but which was heard of as the Dalgu-chu, 15,000 feet above the sea, by Colonel Montgomerie's explorers. It has never been visited. Still farther to the west the Central Chain is crossed by the Taku-la pass,^ which has never been explored ; the No-la pass, at a height 16,623 feet above the sea; and the Photu-la, at a height of 15,080 feet. The latter is just above the town of Loh-Mantang,^ a place of very considerable trade, and thousands of wild ponies find pasture on the slopes along the pass. In Eastern Nepal, farther west, the only pass with which » Tinkia of D'Anville. ^ Mustang (?).
 * To the north of the Chinese post of Jonka-jong.