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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THE TSANGPO FROM YE TO THE JUNCTION OF THE DOK-CHU.

on the Rhine. Still the valley is narrow; the roads on each side are situated in the slopes, and sometimes forced down to the very bank by promontories of rock.

Sometimes, at the southern side, the road is built some 4om. above the water-level along the very rock. Beyond the village Tse, situated in the opening of a northern

tributary, our path is full of gravel; the valley is here about 400m. broad, but then

a southern tributary comes out with a great fan sloping some i o° to the main valley which therefore becomes wider. At its junction the Tse brook forms an acute angle

with the main river the wrong way, an irregularity which is common in this hydro-

graphic system. At one place the Tsangpo sweeps along the northern side of the valley, and here the road, laid with stones, runs nearly at the same level with the

water, and, sometimes a few metres above it. A little further on the granite rocks fall nearly perpendicular into the river, and one has to ride in the water; the bed is hard sand; the summer-road crosses the cliffs. Here the river is very narrow and forms small rapids, but just above the place it is a wide, dark and deep basin, with a very slow current.

Beyond the narrow passage the valley may be Boom. wide, and there is more space on the north side, where a few bushes grow. Gisii-pu is a northern tributary

the fan of which goes down to the very river. Chujung is a gorge from the south.

At Tangnak the Tsangpo again touches the northern side and forces the road down to the river. At the southern side is the village of Mingi with some huts, gardens

and fields, and a sharply marked erosion terrace. Sometimes the Tsangpo is up to i oom. broad. Still the valley is so narrow that even the high-water cannot make the river much broader than it was now. At flat wide places, such as Ye, the valley must look like a lake when the high-water comes down.

At Chaga, a village of a few huts, the height is 4,012M. (i 3, 159 feet). Opposite is Pindsoling on its rocky ridge. Here is a chaksam or iron-chain bridge, in a bad

state of repair and not in use. The inhabitants of Chaga said that the river, from now, would rise a little from the melting of river-ice further west; if the weather

remains clear and warm for some days this rise becomes stronger. In the beginning of June the river should stand about 2m. higher than at present. At the beginning of August the water-level should nearly touch the chains of the bridge, which, at their

lower part, seemed to be some 5 or 6m. above the water. This happens only in very rainy summers and for i o days or two weeks. At the beginning of October

the Tsangpo was said to be still 2m. higher than now, at the beginning of April. Even in the first days of November it stands higher than in April, and only the beginning of December will see it go down to the present level, and then freeze. It was said never to become lower than in April and December, which seems unlikely, for much water must be bound during January and February.

At Chaga the current is so strong that the Tsangpo never freezes all the way across; even during very cold winters there is an open channel in the middle. Hide-boats go clown to Shigatse in 4 or 5 clays now, in 2 or 3 days in summer, and