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

152   NAIN SING'S JOURNEY IN 1873-74, - AND OTHER EXPLORATIONS.

thing the Pundit saw with his own eyes is wonderfully well and correctly surveyed, but for the country south of his route, which he only saw from a distance and where he depended upon native information is not an improvement upon the Chinese maps.

West of Dangra-yum-tso Nain Sing has, with dotted outlines, a lake he calls Tede Nåmcho, which he must have heard of on his route between Tashi-bup-tso and Dangra-yum-tso. The situation he gives it on his map is nearly correct. The form he gives the Dangra-yum-tso is probably wrong as it is impossible to get an idea of it from the northern shore. He certainly exaggerates its dimensions when saying it has a circuit of about 200 miles. On the map it is only 140 miles. He says it is 45 miles long, which may be right, whereas 25 miles broad seems to be exaggerated. The water is slightly brackish. Kyaring-tso is 40 miles long and 8 or 12 miles broad. It is perfectly fresh as most lakes to the east are. He says a river, Nak-chu, was found to leave the Tengri-nor from its N.W. corner and join the great Nak Chu Khd of Chargut-tso. He believes the drainage of all the other lakes goes to Charguttso which he makes twice as large as any of them. The information he obtained about the whole drainage caused much confusion and Trotter is quite right in saying the evidence in its favour is not sufficiently strong to justify his entering into the subject at length.'

Ombo, on the northern shore of Dangra-yum-tso was the chief village of a district called Nakchang Ombo. This and some other villages with stone huts produce a profusion of barley. Nakchang Gomnak farther east was totally devoid of cultivation. The Tang-Jung-tso north of Dangra-yum-tso was believed by the Pundit to have once been connected with the latter. I cannot judge in this matter as I passed north of Tang-jung-tso, but the Pundit may easily be right as beach-lines of a considerable height surrounded the shore-plains south of Dangra. The Pundit also heard of Sasik Gomba, or Särshik-gompa as I heard it called, and gives a good description of the Pembo sect. The whole of Nakchang was subordinate to the two 7ong5ons of Senja Jong as nowdays.2

A cart might be driven all the way from Noh as far as to Ombo without any repairs being made to the road, a statement that is much exaggerated, at least for the passage between Tashi-bup-tso and Dangra-yum-tso. The plateau traversed was found to be 15 00o to 16 000 feet in height. »The plain is, as a rule, confined between mountains which run parallel to the direction of the road, but a few transverse ridges of considerable elevation are crossed en route.» As a rule the drainage tended to the north.

I DUTREUIL DE RHINS does not accept the hydrography of Chargut-tso as represented by Nain Sing. According to the Pundit the river of Chargut-tso should go to Tsiamdo and be identical with

Mekong.   On voit par là, ce que valent les renseignements de ce genre, recueillis auprès des indi-
gènes qui font communiquer toutes les rivières les unes avec les autres . . .» L'Asie Centrale, Paris 1889, p. 491.

2 Nain Sing often writes ch instead of ts. He writes cho instead of tso, and Nakchang instead of Naktsang. Senja Jong is pronounced Shansa-dsong.