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

48

number of wild-fowl. He gathered all information he could get of the freezing and breaking up of the Manasarovar. The winter was said to be very severe. The amount of snow is not great, seldom one foot deep and the snow is powdery. During the cold season the lake is at its lowest level, as no streams flow into it- then, and it is highest in June and July, when the snow melts.

To Moorcroft's assertion that there was no outlet from the lake, although he heard there had formerly existed a communication between the Mapang and Lanka, Gerard adds I that the Manasarovar has always been reckoned by the Hindus to be the source of the Sutlej, »although European geographers were of a different opinion». Captain Webb believed that there was a considerable difference of level between the two lakes, and that the superfluous water of the Manasarovar was drained off by a subterraneous passage, and Gerard thought he was right.

As to the Pundit and Ladakis who positively asserted to Moorcroft that they had seen the outlet, Gerard does not see the slightest reason to disbelieve them and he wonders why Moorcroft did not set the matter at rest by sending for and inquiring of the inhabitants.

For his own part he says: »My information is positive, that about 20 years ago, a stream, which was rapid, and crossed by bridges, ran from it (Manasarovar) into Rawun Rudd, but it has since dried up, and the Lamas who reside on the banks, have an idea that a subterranean communication exists.» If his information is as true as it is positive there should thus have been a channel in i Soo. The natives, both Chinese, Tibetan and Hindu, still believe in subterranean communications round the lakes. Webb had been told of a hundred streams entering the Mapang and only one going out of the lake. Colebrooke had concluded that, in so cold a climate the evaporation could not be equivalent to the influx of water in the thawing season. Gerard himself is persuaded that, as lakes without an outlet must be salt, there was probably some drain for the waters of Mapang, either above or under ground, for, from its being surrounded by stupendous mountains, it must receive nearly as many rivulets as Rawun Rudd, and the stream that issues from this last lake is very considerable in the hot weather; »besides, one of the rivers that run into Manasarovar, is stated to be of some size. This the people call the Sutluj, the most remote source of which is said to be at a place named Chomik Tingdol, where a small stream gushes rapidly out of the ground with a rumbling noise : the length of this river is reckoned about 40 miles, and it passes through, or rather by expanding, forms Goongeoo Lake, the Conghe of the Lamas. Goongeoo is called fifteen or 20 miles long by the course of the river, but very narrow.»

Gerard has got a really scientific grasp of the problem. The Manasarovar is fresh so it must have an outlet. Both lakes receive many rivulets and so it is no wonder that a considerable river goes out from the western lake. But when he

THE BROTHERS GERARD.

I Op. cit. p. 138.