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

CROSSING THE HIMALAYA INTO SOUTH-WESTERN TIBET.

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Himalaya. Below the junction the river is called Chu-garb. After having received another tributary it runs nearly parallel to the course of the Sutlej. This river Chu-

garh falls into the Tirthåpûri branch of the Sutlej. He corrects Moorcroft's mistake about the Tirthåpûri branch.'

Strachey found that the little lake near Gyanima occasionally gives off its surplus water into the Chu-gårh. Farther on rises a range of hills concealing the bed of the Tirthåpûri Sutlej. During the rainy season the Chu-gårh was found to be a very considerable stream, sometimes unfordable, and perhaps even equal to the Tirthåpûri river. IIt is the furthest eastward of the large feeders which the Sutlej receives from the Indian Himalaya, and may be considered as one of the main sources of that river. He is of course perfectly correct in regarding the Chugar

as one of the sources of the Satlej, although the river cannot be called the principal source, as will be proved in a later chapter.

Strachey observed the curious fact that some of the sources of the Satlej and Karnali were situated very near each other and divided only by an almost level plain. One could walk in an hour from the one to the other without ascending or descending more than 500 feet. He finds a similar case regarding the source of the Gartok Indus, which he also knows as Biphu-kula, and the Nlisar Sutlej, which are separated only by the comparatively low pass of Jilkwa-la, 2 and he thinks a third example could be found Nvith the Jahnavi above Nilang, the main source of the Ganges, yet unexplored by Englishmen

Continuing his journey from Låmå-Choktan he went due east to ChujiaTol. The name of the Gurla was Momonangli in Tibetan, and he estimates the mountain at 23,500 feet.3 The Himalaya, seen from the northern side, was found to exhibit a much more gradual and flatter general declivity, with smoother and rounder slopes than the vast rocky walls of the southern face, and still he is right in observing that the Himalaya terminates generally abruptly in the table-land and the transition is well defined, as he thinks also the climate to be. As a rule he finds the climate of the plateau land to be dry and a snowfall of three days at Gartok

was considered a most unusual circumstance.

Vid Amlang and Jungbwa-Tol he approaches Rakas-tae. The following im-

portant passages should be quoted in full:

»I had determined to begin with Rakas Tal, because it was less known than Manasarowar, though geographically more interesting, as being suspected of communication with the Sutlej; being no resort either for pilgrimage or for Bhôtia traffic, the western Lake has been

1 »Moorcroft noticed the debouchment cast from the route on the opposite bank of the Sutlej (15th August 1812) but erroneously supposed the stream to come from Rakas Tal, and Hearsay's map has made the same mistake, inconsistently with Moorcroft's own previous observation at Tirthåpttri (31st July), to the effect that the Tirthapûri branch of the river came from Rakas Tal, which it does

to some partial extent.» (Strachey.) Jerko-la, 16,200 feet.

3 Colonel Burrard gives it as 25,355 feet. — A Sketch of the Geography etc. Part I, p. 3.