IIIFカラー高解像度
国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
| |||||||||
|
| IIIFカラー高解像度 |
| Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.3 | |
| 1899-1902年の中央アジア旅行における科学的成果 : vol.3 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
引用情報
TO THE GREAT NAMELESS RANGE.
473
it came direct from the immense dome-shaped snowy mass on the south. It approached the spot where we were from the S. 33° E. and proceeded on towards the N. 24° W.,
and was clearly bound for the lake that lay to the north, although we were not able to observe this directly and de visu. Probably the river beside which we pitched
Camp XXXVII effects a junction with this main stream, though this too I was unable to ascertain with certainty ; possibly again they enter the lake separately at different points on the south. Almost the whole of the volume was flowing in the western half of the channel, and on that side the hills descend steeply to it, whereas the right bank is flat — exactly the same as in the case of the river at Camp XXXVII. In the right half of the channel there were only a couple of the smaller arms. A short distance below the point of crossing all the arms appeared to converge together into a single bed. In the distance we saw how a smaller tributary, formed by the recently mentioned springs, joined the main stream. The bottom of the river was hard throughout and nowhere yielding; in fact, it consisted of fine gravel. Had the whole of the flood been collected into one stream, we should probably have had great difficulty in getting across it. During the afternoon, after the thaw-water of the morning reached it, it would certainly grow bigger.
Above the place where we forded it, we saw a herd of 75 wild yaks on the hills on the left bank. Kulans, antelopes, hares, and hawks also appeared in this locality, and after we encamped bears and wolves.
We now ascended slowly towards the east-south-east, marching on a flattened ridge towards a snow-capped mountain-mass, which had no connection with the southern range. We gradually approached the left bank of a river which issues from a glen cut through this mass. The stream flows towards the north-west and appears to make for the lake in the latitudinal valley, so that this lake is richer in affluents than any of those we had hitherto come across, with the possible exception of the lower Kum-köl. This is to be attributed in no slight degree to the fact that the drainage-area around the lake is so extensive, and above all to the circumstance that it is situated in the vicinity of such a great mountain-range, which, in respect of both relative and absolute altitude, is very much higher than any other range in that part of the interior of Tibet, and which consequently is in a position to arrest a considerably greater amount of atmospheric moisture than its neighbours. The precipitation which it thus arrests forms extensive firn areas, quite sufficient, as we shall see presently, to give origin to glaciers. Then, when the short summer sets in, these expanses of snow and ice begin to melt, and it is their thaw-water which gives rise to the three large rivers that we crossed over between Camp XXXVII and Camp XXXVIII, and of which the middle one is incomparably the biggest. We found an exact parallel to these circumstances on the northern side of the Arka-tagh ; there several big rivers flow down from the snow fields and ice-fields of the range into the depression of Kum-köl. In the case of both ranges, of this new chain as well as of the Arka-tagh, one readily observes that the volumes of water which stream down the northern slope are far more copious than those which pour down the southern versant. Nor do the relations of relative altitude on the opposite sides of each range appear to exercise any at all noteworthy influence. Precisely the same circumstances exist in the Himalayas, where the gigantic streams of the Indus and the Brahma-
He d i n, Tourney in Central Asia. III. 6o
~
~
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019
National Institute of Informatics（国立情報学研究所）
and
The Toyo Bunko（東洋文庫）. All Rights Reserved.
本ウェブサイトに掲載するデジタル文化資源の無断転載は固くお断りいたします。