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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
O41'HER PARALLEL RANGES OF NORTHERN TIBET. 565
of Arka-tagh IV is the loftiest of all. The principal thing however is that between 86° and 92° E. long. the ranges steadily increase in elevation from north to south, no one of them being higher than its neighbour on the south. The same conclusion is also shown very distinctly by the plate which I herewith append, giving profiles of all the meridional routes that I have mentioned.
We find the same uniformity again in both the absolute and relative mean altitudes in the latitudinal valleys. In their series the only exception is the Kumköl valley. In them the rises from north to south are as follows: —
171 M. 267 » 681 » 176 » 207 » 883 198 »
69
Thus the highest or most southerly of these latitudinal valleys lies 2238 m. higher than the lowest, namely the latitudinal valley between the Lower Astin-tagh and the Upper Astin-tagh. It is a striking fact that this difference of elevation in the valleys is almost precisely the same as the difference of elevation between the mean pass-altitudes of the highest and the lowest of the parallel ranges, which we ascertained to be 2234 m. In the three northernmost latitudinal valleys there is a moderate rise in elevation, namely 171 m. from the first to the second and 267 m. from the second to the third. Now this third valley is the Tschimen valley, the importance of which as an orographical boundary is also evident from the fact, that the difference in altitude between that valley and the valley nearest to it on the south, belonging to the system of transitional ranges, amounts to no less than 681 m. After that the rise is of less magnitude, amounting only to 176 m., but then the two latitudinal valleys which lie only that distance one above the other belong to identically the same orographical system.
In the next step that we take towards the south we encounter however an exception to the general law laid down, for the Kum-köl valley lies 207 m. lower than its nearest neighbour on the north. But the climb up out of the Kum-köl valley to the first latitudinal valley in the Arka-tagh system is all the stiffer, amounting to no less than 883 m. Yet this does but serve to emphasise the importance of the Kum-köl depression as a boundary between the transitional region and the region of the Tibetan highlands. After that the rise is again slighter. Just as we found the four Arka-tagh ranges running at pretty much the same elevation, so the differences of altitude between the three intermediate latitudinal valleys are not
particularly great.
The following table shows the depth of the nine successive latitudinal valleys in relation to the ranges that overlook them on each side. The first column shows the depth of the valley below the range on the north and the second column the
depth below the range on the south.
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