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
468 EXPLORERS' JOURNEYS IN HIGH TIBET.
(Camp XLIV) cannot have been anything else except the westward prolongation of this range, and that it continues farther towards the west-north-west, where we find it again in the immense swellings crossed over by Littledale and Dutreuil de Rhins. Later on I shall prove that it is an error to represent the interior of Tibet as a flat plateau country; on the contrary, that greatest upswelling on the earth is traversed by a countless number of mountain-ranges running parallel to one another, and situated between the Kwen-lun and the Himalaya. They form in fact a gigantic system of folded chains, in respect of their orientation recalling forcibly the Iranian folded system, the chains of which are likewise heaped up closest together in the west, whereas they spread out eastwards like a broom.
The regular parallelism of the ranges is quite as evident along the routes which Prschevalskij and Rockhill took in eastern Tibet as it is in those parts of the interior of Tibet which I and other travellers have journeyed through. The mountain-chains which reflect the vast folds into which the earth's crust has there been crumpled dictate the course which the principal rivers assume in the latitudinal valleys, as also the shape of the lakes, these being elongated from east to west. Along Rockhill's route however the Tschib-tschang-tso forms an exception to the rule, for its longer axis runs from north-east to south-west. What both Rockhill and Prschevalskij designated by the word »plain» is in most cases nothing but the broad, level latitudinal valleys, which however are frequently divided into several sections by minor chains running down their middle.
My itinerary from our headquarters Camp XLIV towards Lhasa appears to coincide in part with, or anyhow to be quite close to, some of Rockhill's stages, counting from the 4th July, and the point where he forded the Satschu-tsangpo on 6th July cannot be very far distant from the spot where I also forded it a month later, on the i st August. From his description the river would appear to be far smaller in the beginning of July than in the beginning of August; still even then it was so large that the crossing occasioned great difficulty. Nevertheless these conditions will of course vary from year to year; two observations are not sufficient to warrant us in saying, that as a general rule the rainfall in August is heavier than in July.
Rockhill is in error in making the Satschu-tsangpo empty into the problematical lake of Jirna-tso, instead of into the Selling-tso, which lies at least wo km. farther south-west. This fact was first shown by Dutreuil de Rhins, and I am now able to confirm the correctness of his observation, as Littledale had already done. The following note in Rockhill deserves quotation, although he is dealing with several little-known values, especially when we bear in mind the insufficiency of Bower's map.
»From Capt. Bower's map we learn that this important river has its source in about lat. 32° 45', long. E. 90°, at an altitude of about 16,000 feet. Where I left this river, not over thirty-five miles from its source, its altitude was approximately 15,400 feet above sea-level. It certainly does not flow as far south-east as Capt. Bower's map shows, and the snow peak, around the east side of which it is there made to flow, is quite a distance south of the river.»*
si is
*
Op. cit., P. 245.
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