Of the Nien-chen-tang-la he says: »To the south the lake is bounded by a splendid range of snowy peaks, flanked with large glaciers, culminating in the magnificent peak, Jång Ninjinthanglå, which is probably more than 25 00o feet above the sea. The range was traced for nearly 150 miles, running in a north-easterly direction. To the north of the lake the mountains were not, comparatively speaking, high, nor were there any high peaks visible farther north, as far as the explorer could see . . . He only saw a succession of rounded hills . . .» I
Some fossil shells found by the explorer were examined by Mr OLDHAM who thought they could not be older than cretaceous.
»The proof of the existence of a great snowy range to the north of the Brahmaputra is interesting, the Himalayan system, even at that distance, say 16o miles from its base in the plains of India, showing no signs of getting lower.» Here at last Montgomerie touches, although only in a few words, upon this problem, which was, as compared with all the rest, the most important and grand to be solved on the other side of the Himalaya. It had been proved by the explorer, if anybody doubted the unanimous statement of the Chinese surveyors, that a great snowy range really existed north of the Tsangpo, — between the meridians of Shigatse and Lhasa, a range, that was identical with the Chinese Nien-chen-tang-la.
The extremely conscientious careful and thorough scientific methods of Montgomerie are even more clearly visible in the sentence quoted than usual. The fact that d'Anville already had this range on his map and that Georgi in 1762 had spoken of a nova series elatioru7n nivosorurque montium, and that Klaproth, Ritter and Humboldt had written about the Nien-chen-tang-la, was not sufficient for him. He wanted proofs before he laid out such a range on his map. Kailas had been known for hundreds of years in India, described in Chinese texts, translated into French, and seen and fixed by Moorcroft and the Stracheys. Nain Sing had seen two sections of the ranges north of the Tsangpo, halfway between Manasarovar and Lhasa. Montgomerie's own explorers had crossed high passes north of Manasarovar and south of Tengri-nor, and still I cannot find any place in Montgomerie's writings
I In an article : »Travels in Great Tibet, and Trade between Tibet and Bengal.» (Journal Royal Geogr. Society, Vol. 45, 1875, p. 299.) Markham says »the explorer advanced north from Namling with the intention of crossing the range, called by Hodgson the Ninjin-thanglä.», and speaking of Tengrinor he says: »To the south it is bounded by the Ninjin-thangla Range, consisting of snowy peaks flanked by large glaciers, and culminating in the magnificent peak of Jang Ninjin-thangla, which is probably more than 25 00o feet above the level of the sea. The range was traced for more than 15o miles, running in a north-easterly direction.» In Montgomerie's report the range was traced for nearly 15o miles, in Markham's article for more than 15o miles. On the map the distance between the Nuchin Ggsa Snowy Peak and Khalamba La is only 95 miles, but continuing the range to the Shang-chu one gets 13o miles. From the same map one gets the impression that the Nien-chen-tang-la continues straight south-west, along the eastern or left bank of the Shang-chu to the very Tsangpo. Thus it should be 165 miles in length, without counting its north-eastern and eastern continuation to and along the southern or right bank of the upper Salwen. How far it is true or not that the range should stretch to the Tsangpo and run south-west to north-east the whole way, cannot be told at present, as Comte de Lesdain has not contributed to the solution of the problem.
IIIFカラー高解像度
