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
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| IO2 WESTWARDS TO LADAK. | f | |||||
| tso by a latitudinal valley north of the lake, and through the districts of Churmi and Dähling. The next mountain-range to the north was called, they were told, Jeru-dschandsching. September 25th. The narrow latitudinal valley which we had followed debouched at Camp LXXXVIII into a very broad latitudinal valley, and in this we continued our journey towards the west. The day was raw and cold, and nearly all day half a gale blew from the west, the sky being everywhere hung with heavy blue-black clouds, though they discharged merely a slight drizzle once or twice; of the sun there was not a glimpse to be seen. We were speedily to discover that winter was already making its approach with rapid strides. The rainy season had come to an end, and was succeeded by the period of constant westerly winds, which after a couple of breaks increased steadily in both duration and strength. We were thus travelling under peculiar and not very favourable conditions. For the thorough exploration of a country it is above all indispensable that the explorer should enjoy perfect freedom of action and not be hampered by the annoying attentions of troops of Tibetan mounted men. Another equally indispensable condition is, that he should have a strong and mobile caravan, and not one greatly reduced in both numbers and strength, such as mine was then. We were, it is true, to be soon supplied with Tibetan yaks, which came to carry our baggage; but our escort had received stringent orders from Lhasa, and were not to be induced to turn aside to either right or left. Last, but not least, there is a limit even to the traveller's own endurance, and we had already been travelling so long on those stupendous altitudes, that we literally were quite unable to face any fatigue that was not absolutely unavoidable. For these reasons during the greater part of the way to Ladak I had to keep faithfully to the latitudinal valleys, which of course entails a one-sided and monotonous view of the region traversed. All the same I still continued my mapping on the same minute lines as hitherto, and by means of this long itinerary I obtained an especially accurate and valuable general idea of that part of Tibet and of the character of the latitudinal valleys in the central parts of the country, just as in i 896 I acquired a similar fair grasp of the character of the latitudinal valleys of northern Tibet. And even though the orography was monotonous, yet the work which I thus carried out, under extremely difficult circumstances, will find its right place as soon as the country to the north and to the south of my route has been explored with equal minuteness, and when my latitudinal valleys have been crossed at several points and been compared with their neighbours to north and south. I did, it is true, come at several points into contact with Little- dale's route; but, notwithstanding that I endeavoured to avoid it as far as possible, I do not think that any real harm has been done, for in point of accuracy Little- dale's map leaves much to be desired. In the majority of cases it was difficult to identify the points where our routes intersected; but whenever they did intersect I will for the future call attention to the fact. Meanwhile we were marching along the great open latitudinal valley, the mean breadth of which would be about 3o km. On the north it is bounded by a short, but imposing, snowy range, though the greater part of its snow appeared to have fallen recently, and consequently had not lain there all the summer. Below | |||||||
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