| open latitudinal valleys the rain and snow fail to fall for some days, then the wind does, it is true, obtain an opportunity to sweep the powdery material away off the ground; but as this falls soon afterwards in some moist place, it does not amount to more than a local transportation of no great moment — it is in fact one of the factors which help to fill up the self-contained basins and render them flatter and flatter. June 28th. Upon leaving Camp XXIV we directed our march towards the south-west, leaving on the right the small hills which have four pools at their southern foot. On the left we had the ridge or slopes of the foothills that belong to the range which we had crossed over a year ago. It was my intention to keep to the west of the meridional route of the year before, for the latter had taken us through such an unfavourable country. After a while we reached the lake-shore, and in its strip of hard gravel-strewn strand had the most excellent track for marching on. Here too there were several small lagoons, entirely cut off from the lake. But we soon left the lake side and proceeded to ascend the slope of the flat ridge that rises to the south, obtaining from it, as soon as we got high enough, a splendid view of the western blunted end of the lake. The ice glittered white as snow in the sunshine, but striped here and there by bands of sky-blue open water. There are hills and ridges too on its western shore; nor are lagoons wanting either. We made our way up to the pass (alt. 5080 m.) in the little ridge by means of a short, but rather steep, glen with a moist bottom, and with small sand-dunes on both sides. The descent south-westwards from the rounded pass is very gentle, in consequence of the dip which the rocks make towards the south. The country hereabouts was broken, the eroded watercourses making their way southwards by shallow glens amongst the ridges into small pools. Then the next lake came into sight; it was round in shape and rather small. We followed its eastern shore towards the south-south-east, the gravel there being beaten hard. The whole of the lake was sheeted with ice, soft and white as snow, and without an opening in it, though here and there it had long cracks across it. The ice-sheet, having begun to break away from the sides, had been driven by the wind towards the eastern end of the lake, the pressure of the ice building up a ridge one or two feet high; but the ridge was so soft and lay so near to the surface of the water that it would assuredly be destroyed by the waves when the tempests began to blow. Here too there were pools and lagoons close to the lake side, with a number of wild-geese in them. Camp XXV will be found at the south-east corner of the lake, at an altitude of 498o m. Consequently this lake lies rather higher than the last one, and as its water was virtually fresh to the palate, one is naturally inclined to suppose that it has some subterranean effluent. Nevertheless a closer examination showed that the thawing of the ice then in progress was deceptive, for upon our obtaining a specimen of the water out of the only bay there was, the areometer gave a sp.gr. of 1.0033 at a temperature of 3.8°. In the summer, when all the ice has melted and the water is more thoroughly intermingled, and when the evaporation from the surface becomes increasingly greater, the salinity will pretty certainly be progressively greater too. Close to our camp two shallow bays were formed by a peninsula and a low-lying island. The only open water was in these two bays, some ice-sheets He din, Journey in Central Asia. III. 56 | |
IIIFカラー高解像度
