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0142 Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.4
Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.4 / Page 142 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000216
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98

WESTWARDS TO LADAK.

"There are various reasons why I assume that the lake which Bower calls Chargat Cho is identical with my Addan-tso. For one thing, on Bower's map the distance between the Chargat Cho and the Garing Cho (i. e. Selling-tso) is 55 km., whereas I found that the distance between the Selling-tso and the Tschargut-tso amounts to only 2 2 km., but the distance of 55 km. does agree excellently well with the distance between the Selling-tso and the Addan-tso. Further we are told about several rivers flowing clown towards the lake from the snowy mountains on the south and emptying especially at its south-west corner; and this agrees with what I myself and my scouts observed to be the case with regard to the Addantso, while there are no such rivers entering the Tschargut-tso. Again, Bower says nothing about a river issuing from the lake; on the contrary he represents the Chargat Cho and the Garing Cho as two quite independent basins, separated from one another by an isthmus. He speaks of there being an inconsiderable difference of elevation between the freshwater lake and the saltwater lake, but in this he is so far incorrect in that he makes the latter lie higher than the former. The altitude that he gives for the Chargat Cho (15,348 ft) agrees tolerably well with the elevation which I obtained for the Addan-tso, namely 1 5,12 5 ft. From all this it results that the two last-named lakes are identical, and that Bower did not see the real Tschargut-tso at all, but travelled on the south side of the mountains which stand on its southern shore. Similarly he was separated by mountains from the valley of the Jagju-rapga, and consequently could have no idea that any water connection existed between his Chargat Cho and Garing Cho. As his route ran from west to east, and back again the same way, there was nothing to bring him at any point into contact with the Jagju-rapga. The river which is shown on his map coming from the west, and emptying into the Garing Cho, is probably identical with my Alan-tsangpo.

Nevertheless — and this is the most important conclusion that can be drawn from the passages which I have quoted from Bower — we find that the Addan-tso really does receive a considerable quantity of water from the south. On the 9th October the biggest river contained, according to Bower, a less volume than on the 2nd September, though even then it was a noteworthy stream. His map shows five rivers entering the lake and all coming from the snowy mountains on the south; but, on the contrary, not a single one from the north, east, or north-west, and this again agrees perfectly with my own observations. In this respect the Addan-tso is like the Naktsong-tso, which likewise derives all its tributaries from the south, from the same latitudinal mountain-range. But in the Selling-tso the case is different: this lake receives its most important tributary from the north-east, but that tributary, the Satschu-tsangpo, originates in a vast mountainous region at a considerable distance away.

Trotter, on the strength of Nain Singh's wonderful journey, assigns to the Tschargut-tso a position and a rank that are altogether exaggerated. He says with regard to it:

»It appears that the drainage from nearly all these lakes finds its way either into the Chargut Cho, a large lake said to be twice the size of any with which we are as yet acquainted in these parts, or into the Ndk-chu-khd, or Hotå Sangpo, a large river which issues from the Chargut Cho and flows eastward. The southern