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

HARBALLABH, THE OLD PUNDIT.

37

an irregular oval, I t miles from north to south, 15 miles from east to west. The water is »clear and well tasted». Grass is thrown upon its banks from the bottom. Lake Nlapang has a noble appearance, whether agitated or quiet. And he finishes his classic monograph with the words: »At what season this large basin is most full, I could not learn; but I apprehend this must be the driest season, as the greatest part of the water-courses which I saw were dry. But I found no appearance of water-mark above four feet higher than the present water line; which would be wholly insufficient to produce any overflow of its banks».

As a matter of fact he visited the lake during the beginning of the wet season. But as most of the rivers he saw were dry, the year must have been exceptionally poor in precipitation. '

On August 8th Moorcroft and Hearsay began their return journey to the west. They crossed a river running to the Rawanhrad or Rakas-tal, which had been dry on their way out, but now contained 2 feet of water. They marched a good distance to the north of Rakas-tal and therefore categorically deny the existence of any islands in the lake, which had formerly been reported to exist. The further description of the lake is fairly correct, but the representation on the map is wrong.

He thinks the lake consists of two legs and their divergence forms an angle. As to the issuing river he thinks he saw a stream issue out of it at the western side of this angle, which, as he supposed, communicated with many streams which form the Satlej : but this point he purposed to decide.

Alas! he could not go to the Rakas-tal on account of his fever. But he found out that many rivulets go from the Cailas or Kailas ridge to the lake and wrongly supposes that still more come from the south: he much regretted leaving unsettled the question of a branch of the Satudra proceeding from the Rakas-tal, but had to bow to the necessity of the case. He heard that the lake was four times as large as the Manasarovar, but could give no opinion of his own. The principal streams which rise in the Kailas, and disembogue, he found to be, I st, the Siva Ganga; 2nd, Gaurf Ganga; 3rd, Darchan Gadrah; 4th, Catyayani.

On August 13th he crosses the rivers going to the Tirtapuri river». Two of them were crossed on bridges and seem to have been rather swollen as he speaks of one of his yaks swimming over with his load on. Beyond Tirtapuri, on August 15th, he passes the entrance of a large river, supposed to issue from Rawanhrad, and at the same place another little stream also falls into the Tirtapuri river. »The stream resulting from this junction now takes the name of the Satudra.» In

a In 1907 the difference in height between the surface of the lake and the highest point of the issuing channel's bed was 2,263 meter or 7,42 feet. Thus MOORCROFT'S four feet prove that the surface anyhow stood much higher in 1812 than in 1907. And we can be absolutely sure that constant oscillations are going on from one year to the other and from one season to the other. In this way the level of the lake must be very sensitive, and it probably changes even from day to day by a fraction of a millimeter.