Immediately beyond the wall is a very curious
freak of nature. The ice-field on the south here comes
down to a basin three hundred yards across, the lower
or northern end of which is banked up ; and the melting
of the ice has produced there a deep and almost clear
lake, the waters of which on one side lap up against
Tibetan prisoners taken at the Karo la.
the high glacier itself* The Tibetans, recognizing any
natural eccentricity as the predestined home of
devils, have taken the greatest pains, with little
pyramids of quartz and fluttering flags, to propitiate
* In the photogravure the whole of the farther wall is of ice, whether black or white
to the eye.
