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.4 |
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Citation Information
50
FROM CENTRAL TIBET TO LADAK.
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in the lake. But, seeing that the Naktsong-tso is perfectly fresh, and that one looks in vain for any sort of beach-line or marks of the lake ever having risen to a higher level, the lake must clearly possess an effluent of some kind. The most natural thing would be for that effluent to run into the Selling-tso, which is not only lower, but lies quite close to the Naktsong-tso. But no such effluent exists, at all events I came across none whilst making my way to Camp LXXIX; nor has Bower, who followed the whole of the southern shore of the Selling-tso, indicated that he found any connection between the two lakes either. There remains therefore the possibility that the Naktsong-tso discharges its waters to the south through a transverse glen that pierces the southern range and empties into some salt lake situated a good deal farther to the south. If that is the case, one would be inclined to suspect that the glen which I have mentioned is that by which the lake discharges. Unfortunately I was not able to solve this problem, not being able to do what I liked owing to the jealous watchfulness of the Tibetans. This question can only be solved by an examination of the country between the Sellingtso and the Kiaring-tso. It is, I admit, improbable that an efferent stream should be sufficiently powerful to force its way through the entire mountain-range which forms the dividing-wall between the latitudinal valley that contains the lakes Selling, Naktsong, and Tschargut, etc. and that in which are situated the Kiaringtso and several others; but it is possible that there may be a small salt lake immediately south of the Naktsong-tso, and in its basin the surplus waters of the Naktsong-tso will evaporate. There is yet another possibility, namely that the Naktsong-tso may be connected with the Selling-tso by a subterranean stream running north and this is the most probable of all.
The whole of the southern part of the Naktsong-tso is very shallow. The 2-meter curve runs a long way out from land; in fact, the lake-bottom forms on that side the continuation of the flat shore-plain which slopes imperceptibly towards the north. The colour of the water also was there more irregular, and exhibited a greater variety of shades, being dark green — underneath I suspect there were Alga — yellow, or a light dirty green — there I inferred the presence of sand, mud, and gravel. In the S. 70° E. there is a smaller lake of triangular shape, lying only a score of meters or so from the shore of the Naktsong-tso, and its colour showed that it was very shallow. In the S. 13° E. rose the vast domed, snowy peak which is the dominating feature of the entire region. Westwards our
view of this archipelagic scene was cut off by three ridges, modelled in bold relief, and each terminating eastwards in a promontory or projecting rocky headland.
The headland of the ridge farthest north screened the northern shore of the island,
or rather I ought to say peninsula, for it makes the Naktsong-tso closely resemble in shape the lake of Jamdok-tso south of Lhasa. The southernmost ridge does
not, properly speaking, form a headland, but immediately south of it a long, narrow
»pier» projects towards the south-east, lifting itself hardly at all above the surface of the water, and terminating in a pointed cape, which was then crowded with flocks
of gulls. From the opposite, southern shore a similar cape projects towards the north-west, so that the two between them cause the lake to contract to a relatively narrow sound, the depth in which in its shallowest part did not reach two meters.
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