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
i
1
466
EXPLORERS' JOURNEYS IN HIGH TIBET.
quite as large as the Tsacha itself, and which comes from the east, empties into it ... From where we have camped we can see to the north a snow-covered range, the Dang la, I suppose. The nearer one gets to this great chain the worse the weather becomes. These mountains arrest the moisture-laden clouds coming from the south-east, hence the deluge of rain and the boggy state of this whole region during half the year. The Dang la and its continuation to the east mark the farthest point north to which the monsoons reach.
July I 7th. The last branch of the Tsacha was forded a few miles beyond camp, and after crossing a low range of soft, gravelly hills, we entered the basin of the Chang t'ang ch'u, which, coming from out the mountains to the north at a point far to the east of us, flows south as far as we could make out its course. Two large streams and a number of streamlets empty into it a little to the south of our line of march. The soil was everywhere boggy, the horses sunk into the soft gravel at every step, and we had to lead them most of the way ... The whole country through which we have travelled to-day is but a succession of pools and streams. • I never saw such a soaked and reeking region in my ' life.
July 18th. The storm of last night has turned the already muddy soil into a quagmire, and it took us all day to make about eight miles over a range of low hills and to ford the Chang t'ang river. At every step we took we sunk in the mud (a mixture of gravel and clay) up to our knees, and it was pitiable to see the poor mules tumbling down every few steps, unable to pull their tired legs out of the mire. Strange as it may appear, the muddiest spots in this region are always to be found on the hillsides, all of which are of gravel. About eight inches below the surface is water, which, for some reason I have not as yet worked out, but probably on account of a hard substratum of clay, does not drain off. Along the river-bottoms there is comparatively little mud; the ground there is sandy and firm.»*
After following for a few days longer the southern foot of the Tang-la, Rockhill on 2 I st July approached the road between Lhasa and Si-ning. My object in making these extensive extracts is to supplement my own account of eastern Tibet.
* W. W. Rockhill, Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet in 1891 and 1892, PP. 181-25o.
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