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

154

NAIN SING's JOURNEY IN 1873-74, — AND OTHER EXPLORATIONS.

plain below ... On the 2 I St I encamped at Chumikgiakdong, a sheepfold on the stream which flows to the west of the plain. Leaving my things at Chumikgiakdong, I went to Labrang Koja, an encampment distant 9 miles. The river is here about 25o feet wide and has a very gentle current. It is crossed by boats made of yak's hides which are sewn at the ends and are attached to sticks at the sides. Next morning, the 23rd, I started for Loh Mantang, 1 and crossed the Chach6 Sangpo 2 miles above its junction with the Brahmaputra. This stream is about 3 feet in depth and 6o feet wide, and comes from a snowy ridge about 14 or 16 miles north of Mantang; 2 I forded it, and going 3/4 mile farther on arrived at Tadum.» 3

At the same place I found the breadth of the Tsangpo to be 36o feet and that of the Tsa-chu 1 o6 feet. As the explorer does not give the depth of the Tsangpo and says the Tsa-chu is 3 feet deep, his dimensions must be regarded as very good and reliable, remembering that he travelled in September and I in June.

The map to this article4 is very interesting and instructive showing how great the blanks still were in 1875. The Shang-chu and Ki-chu crossings gave a comparatively good idea of the orography of the eastern part of the system, but further west Montgomerie's map contained necessarily the same errors which had to disappear only in 1907-08, that is to say mountain ranges following close to and parallel with the northern bank of the Tsangpo, and pierced by the northern tributaries. At two places, however, we find fragments of ranges at some distance from the river, viz. between 85° and 86° East and at 871/2° East. long.

On sheet N:o 71 (Provisional Issue) of India and Adjacent countries published in January 1904 the same two fragments are still to be seen. On Ryder's map they have disappeared.

We have followed the journeys and results of the Pundits who, from 1865 to 1875, were sent to southern Tibet by Montgomerie and Trotter and who have contributed to our knowledge of the Transhimalaya. We have seen that the journey to Tengri-nor by crossing the Nien-chen-tang-la in Khalamba-la and Dam-largen-la was regarded as specially important as proving the existence of the high range south of Tengri-nor. But when Nain Sing, two years later saw and took bearings to a series of peaks on a section of 140 miles of his route the existence of a snowy range north of the Brahmaputra was regarded as clearly demonstrated. This view is both right and wrong. The journey of I87I-72 traversed the whole system, pierced to the very heart of the Transhimalaya and gave two complete profiles across the system. Thus, in spite of the 85 miles of snowy ranges Nain Sing had seen north of the Tsangpo in 1866, his journey in the Tsangpo valley was not re-

Misprint for Tadum.

2 This must be a misprint, for the junction is 33 miles, north of Mantang, and the mountains from where the Tsa-chu comes double as much. He returned by Loh Mantang and Kali-gandak.

3 A map of the Pundit's journey across Photu-la or Kore-la is to be found as PI. XXIV in

Vol. II.

4 Journal Royal Geogr. Soc., Vol. 45, p. 299.