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0183 Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.3
Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.3 / Page 183 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000216
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A TIBETAN LAKE-LAND.

I2I

was even good. This pool is entered by a freshwater stream, whereas the water in the lake is salt. The reading of the areometer was however only 1.021; the salinity was therefore merely a trifle as compared with that in the large salt lake described in the last chapter. The reason of the difference between these two neighbouring lakes, both of them situated in self-contained drainage-basins, may be that, while the former is actually and absolutely a terminal basin, the bottom of which is impermeably cemented with concentrated salt, and the only way the lake is able to discharge a single drop of water is through evaporation, the salt lake at Camp XXXV (alt. 4854 m.) gets rid of its water, partly by evaporation, partly by means of a subterranean emissary. But since the amount which evaporates is greater than that which finds its way out through the emissary, the water that remains must in process of time assume, however slightly, a trace of salinity.

Only once did we come across hard rock, and that was immediately south of Camp XXXIV, namely a reddish grey sandstone, soft, powdery, and greatly weathered, dipping at an angle of 82° towards the S. i 5° E. I should have hesitated to call it 'hard' rock at all, were it not that all the country round about was edged in and seamed with very low ridges and swellings, all parallel to one another. Beyond that we only saw loose blocks and gravelly débris, partly of a conglomerate, partly of a hard, finely crystalline, blue-black variety of rock. Otherwise the country consists entirely of finely

comminuted material.

Hedin, Tourney in Central Asia. III.

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Fig. 89. CAMP XXXV AND SHORE REGION ON THE SALT-LAKE.