easy to control the information given, and to find out that the same names were always given to the same objects by all three guides if questioned separately. Later on the Mukchung-simo proved to be, not a double peak, but a prismatic ridge. To the right of it, south-westwards, was a distant peak called Gave-ting. To the W.S.W. and W. are several other peaks and some considerable glaciers, amongst them Chemayundung-pu, the cradle of the river of the same name. N. 72° W. is a black peak, Dugri, visible from the road to Tage-tsangpo.
The bottom of the valley and the whole foreground of the landscape is dominated by the heavy grey rapids of the Kubi-tsangpo, which already here, at the front of its mother-glaciers, makes the impression of à mighty river receiving some strong tributaries from its right side. Grass grows on the banks, close and low as velvet; the ground is a little undulating; it is a rough, cold, and windy region, a high-alpine nature, a magnificent and picturesque view, the cradle of one of the most famous rivers on the earth.
At the southern foot of the little pass are the three small moraine-lakes, Tsoniti, dammed up by the front-moraines of old glaciers, which have now retreated into the mountains. The three lakes are at different absolute altitudes though the difference is only a few metres. Again we cross a labyrinth of old moraines, some of them rather steep. To our right, N.W., stretches the ridge we have just crossed, and from its crest several now dry ravines go down to the left side of the Kubi. Camp 200, Hlayak, is at 4,861 m. (15,944 feet), near a little moraine-pool and a brook from a spring. This is a well-known camping-ground; the grass is good, and, at the end of July, 15 or 20 tents arrive to pass six weeks at Hlayak, or until the first snow forces them to return to Shamsang and Chang-tang. During the winter the snow is generally some five feet deep in this region, and if a heavy snowfall comes early in autumn the situation of the nomads and their flocks may be very critical. Ryder and Rawling had II/2 foot of snow even on the Maryum-la with its half Chang-tang climate. My guides, who used to pass the summer at Hlayak and still further south, informed me that when the great masses of snow, which during the winter fall in the upper reaches of Kubi-tsangpo, begin to melt in the late spring at the same time when the ice of the river breaks up, a very considerable amount of water flows down through the bed of Kubi-tsangpo. This high-water of the spring was even said to be more considerable than the high-water of the rainy season in the autumn. This may indeed be the case in these uppermost regions, but lower down the Martsang-tsangpo certainly rises more in the autumn than in the spring.
Near Camp 200 a right tributary, Lungyung, from the S.E., enters the Kubi; its brook comes from a mountain region called Lungyung-pu. Below this valley, and the whole way to the junction with the Chema-yundung-pu the Kubi is said not to receive a single tributary worth mentioning, only small, usually dry ravines. Even here, so near the source, the Kubi is very difficult to cross. After sunny summer-days it is impossible, but after cold cloudy clays the river sinks and may be forded
33-131387 H.
IIIFカラー高解像度
