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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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of the Transhimalaya. According to Dutreuil de Rhins the Pundit of 1871-72 returned from Tengri-nor to Lhasa by the same route as Huc and Gabet, viz. Djang Talong, Loundjoub, and Lingbou. I

In his Memorandum on the Results of the above Exj5loration 2 Montgomerie makes some interesting reflections. He begins : »I have always borne in mind the necessity to explore the vast regions which lie to the north of the Himalayan Range, from E. long. 83° to E. long. 93°, and I have consequently, from time to time, tried to get more information as to this terra incognita; but since the Pundit made his way from Kumaon to Lhasa, I had not till lately succeeded in getting much advance made to the north of his line of explorations, though a good deal was done to the north of the _Månsarowar Lake. One explorer made his way from Rudok, on the Pangkong Lake, to Thok-Jalung, and thence back to the Mansarowar, passing quite to the east of the great Kailas peak. The same explorer subsequently made his way to Shigatze, but he was unable to penetrate the north of the main course of the upper Brahmaputra.»

The two lines on which Montgomerie was successful, the upper Lavar-tsangpo in the west and the Khalamba-la in the east are separated from each other by some 46o miles terra incognita, as he was justified in calling it in 1875. We find from the above quotation that although Montgomerie hardly ever spoke of any more or less hypothetical range north of the Tsangpo, he was still thinking of this country, which perhaps could as well be a high plateauland as one or several ranges. But he avoided speaking at all of things which he did not know and simply kept the signification of terra incognita, which in 1906 could still be read in translation on the English maps of these parts of Tibet. For even so late as in 1906 the space had not been crossed, and these 46o miles are certainly the longest uninterrupted strip of land in the interior of Asia which so late had not yet been interrupted by a single itinerary.3 Two itineraries, Nain Sing in the north and Rawling-Ryder in the south still remained to be carried out. But none of them entered an inch upon real Transhimalaya. Only a number of peaks could be seen from a distance. The work was peripheric, and the term terra incognita had to remain for another 32 years.

Montgomerie further tells us that he could not extract any more details from

the explorer's report.

He pays special attention to the numerous hot springs with water of sulphurous smell, in some cases thrown up to 40 or 6o feet, and says they remind one of the Geysers of Iceland. He could have added that they indicate an activity of mountain-

building forces still going on.

The "I'engri-nor was found to have no outlet and it has never been represented as having one, not even on the old Chinese maps. »The water is decidedly bitter.»

I L'Asie Centrale, Paris 1889, p. 486.

2 L. c. p. 325.

3 The distance between my two crossings through the Takla-makan desert, along the Keriyadarya in 1896 and between Yangi-köl and Tatran in 1899, is only 18o miles.

THE EXPLORATION OF TENGRI-NOR IN 1871-72.

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