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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
COMMENTS ON THESE JOURNEYS. A—K—'S JOURNEY.
473
what would be called a mountainous region, for the hill ranges are usually far apart, and not 1,500 feet above the surrounding plains, and are well below the limits of perpetual snow in Tibet; occasionally, however, mountains are met with rising 5,000 to 10,000 feet above the plains, or 20,000 to 25,o00 above the sea-level, and these are covered with snow all the year round. In many parts the passing traveller sees nothing but plains around him up to the sky-line. The plains are coated with a short succulent grass, forming from May to August the softest of green carpets, and furnishing an abundance of pasture for the flocks and herds of the Tibetan nomads, and also for myriads of wild animals which roam over the entire region, but mostly congregate in the uninhabited northern portion.»
Walker emphasises the fact, that the highlands of Pamir are closely connected with the highlands of Tibet, and he concludes his observations in the following words: »Thus the entire region of elevation stretches over some 3o° of longitude, say 1,700 miles; its average breadth is about 300 miles, its average height probably exceeds 14,000 feet, and its area is about half-a-million square miles; it gives birth to the upper sources of most of the great rivers of Asia — the Oxus, the Indus, the Sutlej, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Salwin, the Mekong, the Yang-tszekiang, and the Hoang-ho ; and it constitutes the greatest protuberance that is known to exist on any part of the earth's surface.»*
In the course of the discussion which followed the reading of the paper by General Walker, from which I have just quoted, before the Royal Geographical Society, men so well versed in the geography of Asia as Sir Henry Rawlinson and Colonel Yule were lavish in their praises as to the value and significance of A—K—'s journey. Petermann's Mitteilungen likewise speaks highly of it, saying that, although A—K—'s determinations of altitude vary in several localities a good deal from those of Prschevalskij, Gill, and others, yet everywhere they confirm the impression which these explorers convey as to the regions traversed, and this applies especially to the plateau-land of northern Tibet, with the relatively insignificant parallel ranges of the Kwen-lun system.** On the other hand Prschevalskij criticises the Pundit's map rather severely, saying, »It is impossible to pass over in silence certain peculiarities of this map. It is published by the »Trigonometrical Branch, Survey of India,» and embodies the results of the Pundit's famous journey in 1879 — 82, together with numerous adjacent regions, and includes also the itineraries of other travellers. A considerable part of A—K—'s journey, namely from the spring of Niertschungu (on the other side of Tan-la), over the Tengelik in Tsajdam to the oasis of Sa-tscheo and from the lake of Toso-nor to the environs of the residence of Dsun-sasak, coincides principally with my own journey. The second improved edition of the map came out about a year after the publication of my Third yourney, and to it two maps were added, one showing the mountainous country of northern Tibet. If you compare that map with the map of the Pundit's itinerary, you will see that they are very different; whereas on the improved edition of his
* Four Years' . journeyings through Great Tibet, by one of the Trans-Himalayan Explorers of the Survey of India. By General J. T. Walker, in Proceedings of the Royal Geogr. Soc., vol. VII
(1885), pp. 65 ff.
** Peterm. Mitteil., XXXI (1885), p. 6.
Hedin, Tourney in Central Asia. IV.
6o
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