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

SURROUNDINGS OF THE RAKAS-TAL.

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pendicular fluviatile terraces prove that sometimes a good deal of rain water flog, s clown from the southern mountains. At the time of my visit it contained only a little brook from a spring, surrounded by good grass. 'West of this valley is another pass, higher than the first and with a cairn on its top; it cuts off one or two promontories.

At the westernmost corner of the lake two more considerable valleys open out into a little sandy plain, which probably has been covered with water at a period when the Satlej emerged from the north-western corner of the Rakas-tal. Black stripes of dead algae in the sand show how the lake has gradually subsided. The little plain is crossed by a water-course, 3m. deep and from 10 to 20m. broad, now only containing stagnant pools of water.

From camp 228 the western shore turns off north-eastwards. A comparatively large peninsula is cut off; it has a perfectly isolated hill which has probably at one time been an island. The shore plain is broader than at the eastern side, the ground is sand and clay with some grass and steppe-vegetation. A wall of fine hard gravel crosses a part of the plain and points to the N.E., just as another formation of the same kind situated at the western side of the entrance to the narrow part of the lake. The only difference is that the former is now situated on dry land, though it must have been formed in water, by winds and waves. The long narrow gravel pier which projects from the shore is situated N.E. of a sharp mountain corner, and therefore has no doubt been formed by the sand and fine gravel which, is swept along the foot of the mountains out into the lake by the prevailing S.W. wind. This pier is broader at its base, and ends with a hook turned northwards.

At this place the rocks fall steeply, almost perpendicularly, towards the lake. First we come across mica-quartzite in 54°S.2o°W. and a little farther north limestone in 57°S.35°W. and 58°S.Io°W. There is no shore plain here; the gravel scree at the foot of the rocks falls steep and narrow to the lake. The mountains are red, in sharp contrast to the green lake and blue sky.

Beyond the pier the shore plain becomes broader again. The shore line runs fairly straight northwards without capes and bays. The ground is covered with wind-blown sand. At some places small flat blocks, 1 or 2dm. in diameter, lie upon pedestals of sand like glacier-tables, this being the work of the hard, almost constant wind. Around Camp 2 24 much sand has been heaped, even forming dunes, which, at a cape north of Camp 2 24, fall steep into the lake ; from their crests a rain of sand is blown out into the lake.

On two lines between Camps 223, 2 24 and 225 I could sound the depth, and found at the northern line a maximum of 16.6, and on the southern 28.3, showing that the lake becomes deeper from north to south, like the NIanasarovar, and as could be expected from its configuration and its surroundings.

At the northern section of the western shore some springs rise from the ground, which at certain patches is swampy and treacherous. Crossing the depres-