| | | | | | | | range in the middle, this being not seldom capped with snow. Here again it is fair to assume that this mountain-system constitutes the dividing-line between the self-contained drainage-basins of the central plateau and the regions south and southwest of them, which drain into the ocean — the sources and head-streams of the Indus lying towards the west and those of the Brahmaputra or Tsangpo towards the east. The region is however too little known for it to be possible to generalise regarding it with anything like certainty. There still remains a wide interval between on the one hand the region that has been visited by Nain Singh, Littledale, Deasy, and myself and on the other hand those more southern parts of the Tibetan plateau which have been visited by several English travellers, Strachey and others, of whom the last are Ryder and Rawling. It is possible that the mountain-system in question does not form a sharply demarcated boundary, but it may also perhaps embrace a succession of basins with lakes more or less self-contained. All the same it seems to me that the mountain-system is most probably a true dividing-line between the self-contained drainage-area and the southern peripheral area. Anyway these mountains served continually as an immovable hindrance to our view towards the south; on the other hand we were able on several occasions to cast a glance across the highland region to the north through gaps in the mountainous barrier. One thing is at all events certain, that a vast upswelling of the earth's crust separates those parts of Tibet which we traversed from the region of the Indus and the Tsangpo. We made our way down from the second pass by a shallow transverse glen, passing close on our right hand some minor bluffs with a reddish tinge, at the foot of which were one or two of the usual circular stone walls, pointing to a permanent encampment. During the past few days we had seen several such sheepfolds; thus it is pretty clear that this region is visited in summer by not a few nomads, though in winter they proceed farther south with their flocks and herds. This brought us out into the big latitudinal valley, with two buttes in its middle, one small, the other of medium size, and both detached. On the south are wild mountains gapped by transverse glens running towards the north. The surface is hard and level, and we crossed over several dry watercourses. In one of these, in which were some small withered bushes, we pitched Camp CXXXI, at an altitude of 4845 m. There was no water, but we fetched ice from the foot of the great range which towers up in the south at the distance of a couple of kilometers, and culminates in lofty peaks to the S. 12° E. and S. 12° W. During this stage the rock consisted almost everywhere of the usual limestone, dipping at several different angles. In an isolated hill near Camp CXXXI we came across black clay-slate, dipping 8° towards the S. i 2° E. |
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