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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
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498 EXPLORERS' JOURNEYS IN HIGH TIBET.
Bonvalot forded the Satschu-tsangpo. This river is identical with that to which he gives on his map the name of »Gde. Rivière (gelée)»; it is represented quite correctly as flowing towards the south-west. But the text, unfortunately, affords no information of value with regard to this river, nor do we learn even approximately how much water was flowing underneath its covering of ice.
About the salt lake of Burben-tso we are told: »Le Bourbentso est une vaste saline enveloppant un reste de lac, si l'on conclut de ce qu'on voit sur les rives. Au bas de la terrasse qui fut peut-être autrefois la berge où l'eau venait mourir, nous trouvons alignés les tas que de nombreux chameaux ont laissés là.» Here again, then, we have an instance of a lake that is drying up. The camel tracks along the shore were those of a caravan of Turguts.
Bonvalot describes in the following words his impression of the Tengri-nor and the mountain-range on its southern shore. »A nos pieds scintille un beau miroir d'argent, arrondi et prenant la forme ovale entre des falaises, à l'ouest, d'où descendent des promontoires qui découpent des golfes. Au sud-ouest, le lac tourne une colline et s'étend plus loin. Cette colline fait-elle partie d'une île ou d'une presqu'île? Nous ne pouvons le dire. Le Ningling Tanla attire plus longtemps nos regards. Cette chaîne développe devant nous son arête poudrée de neige et nous barre parfaitement l'horizon. On est surpris de la régularité — de l'altitude presque égale à l'oeil — de cette suite de cimes surmontant des contreforts qui s'abaissent vers le lac, bien alignés comme le pourraient être les tentes d'une armée ... A mesure qu'on avance vers le sud, le lac semble s'élargir et, grandir aussi dans la direction du sud-ouest, et, comme la brume nous empêche de voir sa fin, il prend l'immensité d'une mer sans rivage.»
From the Tengri-nor the journey was continued viâ Batang to Tonking.
Bonvalot describes in graphic terms the extraordinary uniformity of the Tibetan plateau, the never-ending succession of relatively low mountain-ranges that have to be crossed over, and the broad latitudinal valleys, with their dried up salt lakes, that intervene between them. From his description we get the impression that the amount of snow-fall in winter is not altogether so unimportant; the snow is dry and fine-grained, and the wind drives it like _flour along the ground. Bonvalot found at any rate more snow on the central Tibetan plateau than I found in western Tibet. Westerly winds predominate as at other seasons of the year and from his description they are often very violent. On the other hand he records that the nights were almost always still, which agrees with my own experience. It is in the winter that the transporting power of the wind is most active.
I will now proceed to give some extracts from Grenard's account of the important journey which he and Dutreuil de Rhins carried out in the years 1890-95• In 1892 he travelled from Kerija viâ Polu, Kerija-kotel (555o m.), the Jäschil-köl, the Sumdschi-tso, and the Panggong-tso to Leh, and returned over the Kara-korum pass. After leaving Polu they travelled in part over the same ground as Carey and Dalgleish before them. Subsequently Wellby also came into touch with their route. Grenard describes the north-west of the Tibetan high plateau as an excessively
Gabriel Bonvalot, De Paris au Tonkin à travers le Tibet Inconnu, pp. 17I-261.
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