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

244

RYDER, RAWLING, SANDBERG AND OTHERS.

the precaution to say only : i »The sources of the Yeru Tsangpo have not been visited as yet, though they have been pretty-accurately located», by which he can only mean MONTGOMERIE's co-ordinates for the place, which take us back to Tamlung-la, Sir THOMAS HOLDICH holds the other view, for he talks of »the upper Brahmaputra at its source on the Marium La (1 5,500) — the meridional water parting between the Indus and the Brahmaputra.»2 This view was not altered by Ryder's journey, which is quoted in the work.3

Then comes Ryder's admirable survey. We shall have to return to his map

here below. In the text he only says: 4 »We now (from Tradum) followed the river valley for a week or so, always in the same large plains, until we could see the watershed range ahead of us, from the valleys of which innumerable streams issue to form the Tsangpo, the largest coming from a snowy range to the south-west.» Beyond the Maryum La (16,900 feet) he adds: »We had now finished with the Tsangpo, having surveyed it from Shigatse to its source.»

Even this description is not quite clear. It practically gives the same as Nain

Sing, except that the main source should be on the Tamlung-la. One gets the impression that the source is regarded as situated on the Maryum-la, and so Holdich's view is quite easy to understand. But Ryder adds an important observation, namely, that amongst the innumerable streams forming the Tsangpo the largest comes from a snowy range to the S.W. It is true that Nain Sing had already seen this range and understood that its glaciers supplied the river with the greatest part of its water. But Ryder precised the question by talking especially of one large stream, which cannot have been any other than the Kubi-tsangpo.

On the same occasion RAWLING says: 5 »This proved to be our last day

amongst the plains of the Brahmaputra, for all that now remained of the great river were numerous channels, which in the rainy season drained the neighbouring hills. The main tributary lay to the south, and obviously terminated in a similar manner.» It is not clear what he means by this termination in a similar manner. But he clearly calls the large stream from the south a tributary. And this is wrong for what he calls the »main tributary, is in reality the Brahmaputra itself.

The question: which »channel» is the main river and where is the source? was thus by no means settled.6

Ryder has, however, clearly pointed out his standpoint in a very sympathetic article, which he wrote after our personal meeting at Simla, in September 1908.7

Z

il

2

3

4

Gartok.»

5

6

uses the

7

The exploration of Tibet, etc. Calcutta, London 1904, p. 4.

Tibet, The Mysterious, London 1904, p. 39.

Ibidem p. 296.

»Exploration and survey with the Tibet frontier commission, and from Gyangtse to Simla via,

Geographical Journal, Vol. XXVI. Oct. 1905, p. 387.

The Great Plateau, London 1905, p. 242.

In a review, Geographical Journal, Vol. XXVII, Febr. 1906, p. 189, a signature F. E. Y.

same term as Ryder's about the survey »up the Brahmaputra to its source.»

Geographical Journal, Vol. XXXII, Dec. 1908, p. 587.