| these ranges should not stretch farther east than to a line drawn between Rudok and Khotan. Fortunately enough T. SAUNDERS was present to save the authority of the Society: It appeared to him that a continuous slope, from the Gangdisri Mountains on the south, to the plain of Khotan or Gobi on the north, would be more remarkable than a sudden descent from another range of mountains forming the northern edge of the plateau, and in continuation of the range actually known to skirt the plateau between the Chang Chenmo plains and Khotan ... He therefore preferred, in the present state of geographical knowledge, to represent the northward edge of the plateau of Tibet as an escarpment descending rapidly to its base, than as a continuous slope.» Sir Henry replied that in the Tarik-i-Rashidi the general mountain system of Central Asia was laid down very much in the way Mr Saunders had described it». Impossible to understand as Saunders believed in the existence of another range of mountains at the northern edge of the plateau! According to his oriental source Sir Henry believed in »but one great mountain system of Central Asia», called Tien-shan, Pamir, Himalaya in different parts of its great bend. »Rudok was regarded as the limit on the northern side of this chain, thereby showing that there could not be a further interior crest.» It is curious to see how the great men of the time were fighting for and against the highest mountain ranges on the earth's crust. As a rule they only »believed» without telling why they believed in one view or the other. Even d'An-ville had a range south of Khotan, although his and Strahlenberg's map could make it likely that Gobi was, farther east, in uninterrupted connection with northern and central Tibet. But why should Tarik-i-Rashidi be more reliable than the Chinese sources? Berghaus on his map of Asia, 1843, has a double range between Eastern Turkestan and Tibet, north of the Namur-noor, continuing the whole way to Kansu. And how could the plains seen by a Pundit at the upper reaches of the Indus be sufficient to prove that the whole eastern Kwen-lun did not exist? Of the Transhimalaya there is nothing in connection with the journey we have dealt with now and nothing in the discussion either. In 1871 Montgomerie sent another native explorer into Tibet. So far as to Dr. Hooker's Wallangchoon Pass Montgomerie deems it unnecessary to give the details as Hooker had already admirably described this part. The explorer calls it Tipta-la and places it on the boundary between Nepal and Lhasa. He crossed a feeder of the Arun river and reached a fresh-water lake, Chomto Dong (14 700) which had never been shown on any map but heard of by Hodgson and Campbell. North of the lake is the Lagulung La, 16 200 feet, surrounded by glacier ice. On the northern side the Shiabal-Chu was flowing down to the Tsangpo. He reached Shigatse and followed westwards the road south of the Tsangpo to the village of Shimrang crossing the Shabki-Chu, called Shiabat on the map, and flowing to the Tsangpo. Over Shakia-gompa the road goes to Dongo La, the watershed between 18-141741 III. | |
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