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

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196

THE MOVEMENTS OF THE KtJVIDAN GLACIERS.

In 1869 SHAW also went down the same way. He saw one glacier protruding from a side valley, causing a difficult ford. About 3 miles lower down another glacier, Kichik Kumdan, blocked the way right across to the opposite rocks. Shaw crossed the glacier on foot, but had to send his ponies round by Murgo.

In the autumn of 1873 the members of the FORSYTH mission did not meet any great difficulties, for the Kichik Kumdan and Chong Kumdan did not block the valley completely. The travellers could pass through a narrow passage in water between ice and cliffs. They had not to pass over ice at all. The Chong Kumdan was easier to get past than the Kichik Kumdan.

In 1874, J. SCULLY travelled from Leh to Yarkand, vzrz Kardong, Tagar, Pana-

mik, Changlung, Sasser and Murgo. From his camp at Sasser, 15,224 feet high, and some 400 feet above the level of the Shayok river, he saw, in front, a range of high and barren rocky mountains forming the eastern side of the valley; >\to the left the course of the river can only he seen for a short distance where the Shayok valley seems to be blocked up by an enormous glacier called Kumdan.» I As he followed the Murgo and Kisil-unkur road, the Kumdan road had therefore, in the course of a year, been completely closed.

In 1889 and 1890 YOUNGHUSBAND travelled from Sasser to the Kara-korum pass along the Shayok.

In the end of October 1892 DUrREUIL DE RHINS and GRENARD passed the Kichik and Chong Kumdan. They had to ride in the water along the edge of the snouts, without crossing any ice.

In 1898 NOvITSKY passed this way. He knows only one glacier which he calls Chum Khumdan. He had no difficulty at all in passing, for he went on the right side of the river and had no ice to cross. There must have been a very strong advance in the following four years.

In April 1902 I travelled the way northwards, and could still pass, though

with some difficulty.2 Already the next year CROSBY and ANGINIEUR had to take the Murgo road so far as can be seen from their meagre reports. In December 1907 and in 1908 STEIN had to follow the Murgo road as the Kumdan road was closed. In 1905 even the Aktash glacier is reported to have advanced across the river-bed.

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I ~A Contribution to the Ornithology of Eastern Turkestan», in Stray Feathers, a Journal of Ornithology for India and its dependencies, Calcutta 1876, p. 41 et. seq.

2 » W e were now approaching the locality which we had been warned against in Shayok, as in some years rendering this route impassable. The most advanced frontal section of the Kichik Kumdan is pushed right across the glen until it encounters the precipitous rocky wall on the opposite or left side. Hence, in order to get past it, you have to climb partly over small, steep rocky heights and partly over a chaos of icy fragments, which have toppled down from the front of the glacier and form a veritable ice moraine, the separate pieces of which have become rounded on the outside through partial thawing. In some places they have cemented themselves together into a single compact mass, in which appear dark, gaping holes. At the time of our visit the true glacier front did not actually touch the opposite rocky wall. In consequence of the radiating heat, the melting of the ice was just

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