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

ALONG THE NORTHERN BANK OF THE RIVER.

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great valleys are said to come down from the north. At Sadung the river is called

Damchok-kamba.

In the morning and comparatively clear weather the perspective to the east

The ramifications, of brown and grey-brown colour, were was very picturesque.

seen from afar in lighter and lighter colours, and finally disappearing in the haze; their fall down to the bottom of the valley is not very steep. The river itself is out of sight. The river-bed appears light grey, but in summer, when at least half the bottom of the valley must be filled the colour is probably a darker grey from

the muddy water.

Continuing westwards the road crosses a little brook from Dongka-pu, and goes along the foot-hills, not seldom covered with sand; the rock is here metamorphosed porphyrite. Then again the Tsagulung valley with its village is left behind. The ground is soft and covered with some meagre grass. We touch the north-going bend of the river where Siting is situated. Sometimes ravines are crossed; the further from the mountains the shallower they become. A marked but low erosion terrace follows the northern side of the high-water bed. Now the ground becomes gravelly and sandy with some steppe-vegetation. A promontory consists of biotitic plagioclas-amphibolite; the valley is here anticlinal. Its breadth is about 5 km.; only west of Ta-nak does it become narrower. Again we pass the valley Chomo-tsong, the water-course of which breaks through the terrace; then follows the double Chini valley with village. Here and there are blocks of granite rounded and worn by running water. Sometimes manis are seen. The river is not visible from the road.

At some distance to the west the view gets closed by a fairly mighty group with snowfields. Otherwise snow is rare; at the north-side of the valley there is none at all, at the south-side only some narrow stripes in shadowy places. One of the brooks only still contained some rotten ice in spite of the sun. To our left is the village of Kogii, to our right its corn- and wheat-fields, which continue for a considerable part of the road; where the road runs between fields it is protected by earth-walls against the irrigation water. Tangbe is the next village, Lärko a valley above it, and Laku-pu is the next north valley. To the south is seen the comparatively great tributary Gyachin-tse. At some places sand-dunes are formed, as always with the lee-side to the east. The next promontory consists of grey granite, continuing

westwards.

Beyond this place there are again cultivated fields, irrigated as usual from the northern tributaries; the villages therefore are placed in the openings of the side-valleys. Only where the fields are situated below the erosion terrace, as near Yangyu, may they partly be watered by canals from the river.

A mani-rig-mo measured 178 horse-steps in length; these votive-walls cannot be compared with those in Ladak, which are much better built and decorated with finer mani-stones. At Lakiya-tang, a promontory of quartzitic mass, the river is