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
OROGRAPI-IY OF TIIE TIBETAN HIGHLANDS.
575
South of this valley come the three ranges which I take to be the westward continuations of the Tang-la system. With the help of the known passes we are able to trace them through our defined area, wherein they appear to form three parallel crests of the same altitude, though each of them varies very much in elevation in its different parts. I will call them here Tang-la I, II, and III. The northernmost of these, Tang-la I, corresponds to Bonvalot's »Monts Dupleix» ; which name Grenard retains on his general orographical map, though he makes it curve southwards, and in that section places Littledale's pass of 5898 m., reducing its altitude however to 5600 m. To the westward continuation of the same range he gives the name of »Mts Dutreuil de Rhins», and links it on to the Aru-gangri and the ranges that run north of the Panggong-tso and the Indus. To the same prolonged range
Grenard likewise assigns the Kara-korum and the Kara-korum pass; and in this I fully agree with him, although certain particulars in the course given to these ranges on his map are doubtful. He has however done his best to interpolate in those regions in which our knowledge is defective. On the whole however he is undoubtedly right, and when I crossed over the lofty pass at 5462 m. altitude it struck me at once that the stupendous range in which that pass is situated really is a link between the Tang-la and the Kara-korum. Possibly too the detailed explorations of the future will prove that this great range or system of ranges, which stretches all the way across the Tibetan highlands, is to be regarded as the most imposing system of mountains not of Asia only, but of the whole earth, not even excepting the Arka-tagh. It is probable that, while the Arka-tagh may be said to be the backbone of the Kwen-lun system, this more southerly range forms the culminating ridge of the Tibetan high plateau.
With a little trouble you can however detect on Grenard's map three more or
less parallel Tang-la ranges. — (I) Mts Dutreuil de Rhins — Monts Dupleix; (2) Mts Henri d'Orléans — Mts Littledale ; (3) Monts Bonvalot. He however interweaves these ranges together in such a way that the Tang-la proper splits up into (1) and (2), while (3) divides into (2) and a more southerly range, to which he gives no name. This may possibly be the correct interpretation, although I have preferred to distinguish three parallel main ranges.
Tang-la I, corresponding to Monts Dupleix, possesses three known passes — in
the west that of Dutreuil de Rhins at 548o m ; then Littledale's at 5141 m., situated quite close to a peak measuring 5757 m. ; and Bonvalot's pass of 6000 m., which may pretty safely be set down as 600 m. too high. In order to reduce this last elevation to a more modest level, I will make use of Rockhill's altitude of 5024 m. of the 26th June, which lies directly along the prolongation of the range. This brings the mean pass-altitude down to 5411 m. I myself crossed over this range in a transverse glen, breached by the river that rises on a pass, at an altitude of 5462 m., in Tang-la II, which range I consider to be identical with the true main range of the "Tang-la.
In this range, Tang-la II, we have the following four altitudes: — that of Dutreuil de Rhins at 563o m., of Littledale at 5239 m., my own at 5462 m., and that of Bonvalot at 548o m., giving a mean value of 5453 m. Between these two ranges runs a latitudinal valley, of which we again possess four altitudes, namely
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