IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.4 |
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Citation Information
Ir
AMONG THE DESICCATED LAKES OF WESTERN TIBET. 241
the bed of the stream, but the grazing was miserable. There were hundreds of kökmcks, and we saw two or three wolves.
At the entrance to the narrow glen the rock was limestone, dipping 73° towards the S. 68° E. At the beginning of the ice-sheet the same rock lay at 24° to the N. 40° W., the strata being very distinct in flakes and tabular masses. The little peak near our camp consisted of dark crystalline limestone, though also of a porphyritic rock, dark, and clearly belonging to a vein the continuation of which could be traced in darker bands to the south-south-west and north-north-east. The greater part of the gravel with which the watercourses of this region are filled consists of crystalline limestone. The rocky ridges stretch from north-west to south-east, or from west-north-west to east-south-east, and are elongated and thrust upwards, as if pressure had been applied at their sides. When seen from the south, they resemble long drawn-out ridges, but when you observe them from the west-north-west or east-south-east, they have the appearance of solitary snags or pinnacles rising above the underlying clay foundation. The accompanying photograph (fig. 136) gives an illustration of them. This particular elevation, when looked at towards the S. 64° E., has the appearance of a pinnacle with vertical sides.
November 18th. After a still night and 24° (C.) of frost the wind got up; then it stopped for an hour or two, but at noon set in again. It came from the north-west. Quite unusually, the sky was half covered with white clouds, which were massed more thickly around the snowy peaks on both sides of our valley; in fact in one or two places they actually appeared to be discharging snow.
From Camp CXXIX, in the district called Barik-mar-tavo, we travelled towards the north-west, making for the outlet of a big glen, formed of two main branches, one coming from the south-west, the other from the south. At the head of both these were vast mountain-masses. After the union of all these glens, the principal glen, deep but narrow, runs towards the north and north-north-east. Its bed is gravelly, and has deep erosion terraces on both sides, that on the right being frequently divided into several steps or platforms. The western promontory of the range that rises north of Camp CXXIX is sharply and energetically outlined, and the range itself is shaped like the little ridges that I have mentioned, its crest being as it were forced upwards by pressure at the sides. The same outlines characterise also the range on the south. At the foot of one of these we observed traces of an encampment. Between the mountains on that side are several small glens, all opening out upon the main glen. Towards the S. 78° E. we commanded an extensive view across a bigger glen, backed by high mountains, particularly on the south, and debouching upon the main glen north of the point of union already alluded to. It runs in part parallel to the latitudinal valley which we had hitherto followed. Generally the scenery is picturesque and attractive because of its bold outlines and
the magnificent scale of its architecture.
The united glen, which is a transverse glen, is quite short, and soon trends away again towards the north-west, and finally debouches upon open country. On the right, that is on the north, there rises a vast mountainous mass, exhibiting various shades of light red, pink, and yellow; on the left of the outlet of the glen the mountains are lower, though in places still rocky. The united main watercourse
Iledi n, Journey in Central Asia. IV. 31
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