IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.3 |
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Citation Information
A TIBETAN LAKE-LAND.
tai
saw glancing like mirrors by the hundred in whichever direction we looked. It is only exceptionally that two of them are connected together by means of a tiny sound or a hollow with treacherous boggy ground. Round the pools that are not steep-sided, the ground is excessively marshy, and we took very good care not to approach too close to them. This flat country stretches between two main ranges of mountains, namely on the north that which runs along the north side of the two freshwater lakes, and appears to be continued east by some tolerably low, rounded heights. The southern range, so far as we were able to see, likewise consists of rounded heights. Amongst its first foot-hills are an innumerable quantity of small pools, with beautifully clear water, i/2 m. deep, and fed by springs; each was surrounded by a carpet of luscious green grass. On the south of them is a depression containing some larger pools. From the eastern end of the largest of these, an oblong sheet of water, issues a small brook, flowing in a deep, narrow bed, and emptying itself into a smaller pool in the neighbourhood. Here again marshes and sheets of water abound in every direction. The country that we traversed during the rest of the day consisted of a chaos of pools, hills, and small brooks. We formed Camp XL (alt. 492o m.) beside one of the larger brooks, which, after traversing several pools, falls into a lake that we saw to the north-east. This brook contained fish fry of the same species as that in the freshwater lakes.
From that point the slopes of the mountains
run up to the main range that I have mentioned.
The latitudinal valley which stretches between this~~~~~~~
»,~~Yta~tnNN \\ \\N\~IIIIIIIIIIn4/gHHlfNlury//p,InII111NgiN;Ÿil~~~~~\~\
range and its northern vis-a-vis is unlike those we ~;;,, ,,,,~~,~
have already dealt with. For one thing it is `""` '" ~ /~ "~ ' ' ~~°"° ""' -,
g consider -
From
I 41111P i llllrr;, `l~J!/ rva
ably broader, forming in fact a gigantic mulde-like W. 4,Q~„u,A~~; ~~
expansion. The strike of the northern range is not e,l,,,» ..,,,Iai,,,I„/~11i0,•r„
so strictly due east and west as that of the preceding ranges, but it makes an elbow pointing north, into
which the eastern lake thrusts its north-going bay. Here too all the mountains are red; more particularly is this true of the great isolated group O', which was mantled with some smaller snow-fields. We only saw hard rock in a single place, namely on the northern shore of the largest pool, where the red sandstone cropped out at 27° to the N. 35° E. Gravelly débris of the same rock was quite common all day, especially in the vicinity of the hills.
Fig. 102.
, ~
~
Fig. 103.
The distinguishing characteristics of this entire region are the extraordinary abundance of water, and the fact that it forms, not running brooks, but stationary expanses or sheets. Very often these are arranged in chains or rows, and are connected together either on the surface or by underground communications. It must not
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