of fact, been entirely abandoned. This was demolished,
and we moved on past Kang-ma and past the famous
hot springs by the side of the road to Lamda, where
the night was, spent. These hot springs have evidently
been far more numerous in the past than they now
are, and the whole of the eastern side of the valley is
Kang-ma ; to the right, the road to Lhasa through Nyeru and Ra-lung ; straight on, the road
to Gyantse.
banked up with the deposits held in solution" by The
warm bubbling water. Quiet little geysers rise each
from a basin at the top of a small conical hill which
they have themselves made in the course of many years.
Beside the road there are two springs now running.
The first is not perceptibly warm; I think the temperature
at about noon was found to be 76° Fahr. ; the
second, a much more vigorous fountain, was, when I
tested it on my return journey, a good deal over blood-
heat,* and a considerable growth of vivid green weed
flourishes in the warmth and wetness it provides.
Beyond Lamda, Red Idol Gorge awaited us.
Red Idol Gorge is a peculiar feature— perhaps the
Kang-ma,
most peculiar feature— of the road between Phari and
Gyantse. Turner in 1784 noted the curious turn which
the river here makes in his map, but otherwise makes
very little reference either to it or to any other
natural feature of the road. Short as it is, however,
his description is good enough. We came at length
* I had no thermometer with me, but judging from the heat of a similar bath, I
should say that it was about io8°.