国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

34

WILLIAM MOORCROFT'S JOURNEY TO THE MANASAROVAR.

bank on the west shore of the Manasarovar than this, at least not during dry years. There was a salt pool in 1907 inside of this bank. South of it, Moorcroft saw a rock running into the lake, as is really the case. He ascended this hill, always in search of an outlet. He went up one hill after another and finally arrived at a small religious >;pile», his southernmost point. On his map this place is called Lama's house and cannot be anything but Gossul-gompa, 71/2 miles south of Chiu-gompa. His camp at Langbo-nan was 6','2 miles from Chiu-gompa, and thus he had gone 14 miles in 6 hours, which is not bad considering his fever. After having in vain looked out for an outlet with his telescope he returned in 7 hours. By reckoning the steps of his men he calculated the total distance, coming and going, at 27 miles.

Now the situation is as follows: he is searching for the presumed outlet in the south, but he had already crossed its bed at noon, without seeing it. He had undertaken his wandering along the lake especially in order to find the outlet, if there were any, and to definitely solve the problem. At every turn of his road he is examining the ground, but cannot find the slightest sign of a channel. There is nothing arousing his suspicion. And still, a minute after leaving Chiu-gompa, he crossed the bed ! At about nine o'clock in the evening he crossed it again on his way back, but then it was dark. He had some of his servants with him. They knew what he was searching for, but could not assist him in finding any outlet, although they knew that such a discovery would have pleased him.

On August 7th he again sent his young Pundit HAR DEO and another servant along the western shore, and on their return they stated that they had not found any appearance of a river issuing from the lake, or of any former bed of a river which had escaped from it. That is to say : the real former bed was crossed four times by several men, and probably not on exactly the same track, and none of them could see the dried up outlet of the lake.

And still, just for that reason, the puzzle is very simple. There was no issuing river in 1812. The lake was at a depression in its periodical pulsating of high level and low level, depending upon a periodicity of precipitation, which also influences all other lakes in Tibet as well as all the glaciers in the Himalayas, Karakorums and other mountains north of India. We may trace this periodicity in the retreats and advances of the snouts of the Ak-tash and Kumdan glaciers, in the more or less great difficulty in crossing certain passes in the winter, in the longer or shorter duration of the passes being closed by snow, in the duration and abundance of the monsoon, in the rains, famines, harvest etc. in India. All these and several other phenomena depend upon one and the same cause, whether it be a terrestrial or cosmic one, which is still unknown to us.

Under such circumstances it is superfluous to try and explain Moorcroft's observations in any other way. Dr. Longstaff makes the following suggestion:2

I On my map I make it 28 miles.

2 Geographical Journal April 1909, p. 426.