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

46

or Langa, and even close to that lake, it is stated to be thirty feet broad and oneand-a-quarter deep, in the dry season, and very rapid.»

As so many natives told him the same story about the river issuing from the lake one can hardly doubt that this was really the case in 1817 and 1818. The fact that the river, close to the lake, was 3o feet broad is, however, no proof, as this water may be carried down by one of the tributaries. But as the river is positively said to come out from Langak-tso, there seems to have been a gradual rise from 1812 to 1818.

Gerard goes on to say that already at »Thooling or Ling» the river is so broad that an iron chain bridge must be used. He found out that in »Chinese Tartary» the river was called Langzhing-Khampa for 200 miles, after which it is called Muksung and lower down Sampoo, Sangpoo, Sanpo or Zung-Tee. Still lower down, in Koonawur, it is called Sumudrung or the river. Near the capital of Busehur he found the name to be Sutroodra or Sutoodra, and finally Sutlej. The natives of Koonawur were found to use the names Sutlej and Sutoodra even up to its source.'

Gerard wished to proceed to the Manasarovar, but was stopped on the frontier by the Chinese. Orders had been issued from Lhasa that no Europeans should be admitted and in case they did not obey they would not be supplied with provisions. Even two pilgrims on their way to the sacred lake were stopped at Shipki as they were taken for Europeans in disguise. But Gerard found the natives communicative enough and was enabled to verify the accounts of the Manasarovar and the great rivers which he found to agree minutely.

Thus he was told it was an obligatory duty of the Lamas to perform the circuit of Mapang and Kangree or Kailas, the oftener the better. Some people used to walk round both lake and mountain once every year. The most religious used to walk round the lake seven times, which is a sacred number. The Manasarovar, called by the »Tartars» Mapang-Cho, is situated in a very bleak place, surrounded by arid gravelly mountains. There is parched grass and furze in the vicinity, but no wood; turf extends to the borders of the lake, and there are neither marshy grounds nor swamps. Its height he regards as a desideratum.

Gerard tried to get the altitude of the lake by the method of calculating he fall of the Satlej compared with the distance between known points. He arrives at 17,000 feet which he thinks may be rather too low than too high. And he supposes the Rakas-tal to be 200 feet lower than the Manasarovar, so much more »since a communication formerly existed between the two lakes». He knows there are Lamas and nuns living in houses all round the lake the whole year and finds it most likely to be the highest inhabited land on the face of the whole globe. The

THE BROTHERS GERARD.

I In 1821 Captain A. Gerard and Dr. J. G. Gerard made an important survey in the valley of the Setlej. )On the Valley of the Setlej River, in the Himalaya Mountains, from the Journal of Captain A. Gerard, with Remarks by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, Esq. Dir. R. A. S., Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. I. London 1827, P. 343 et sect.