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

:I

222   THE LATEST DISCUSSION ABOUT THE TRANSHIMALAYA.

»South of it I stretches a perfect terra incognita. Just as this last-mentioned range forms the northern boundary of Nain Sing's lacustrine basin and serves as a water-parting between it and the Selling-tso lakes, so we may take it that the Dangrayum-tso and the groups of lakes to which it belongs are bounded on the south by an important main range running parallel with that on the north. And another big range overlooks, I believe, the northern bank of the Tsangpo. Between these two systems, of which there is not a sign on our maps, I assume that there exists a particularly broad and extensive latitudinal valley, which, I dare say, includes a vast number of lakes, amongst them being the Karmo-tso, Ruldap-tso, Galaring-tso, and Mun-tso, which have been located on the maps from hearsay. Between the last-named and the Dangra-yum-tso Nain Sing has drawn a big range, which he entitles the 'Targot Lha, Snowy Peaks'. This is undoubtedly a westward continuation of the great range of Ninchen-tang-la, which rises south of the Tengri-nor. To the southern-most range, namely that which overlooks the left bank of the Tsangpo, we may count the Kailas mountains north of the Manasarovar lakes.»

This is only a series of mistakes. And how could it be otherwise, considering that I was writing about an unknown country as Hodgson, Saunders and Markham ! The only correct thing was about the system north of the central lakes, which was superficially known. But I committed a mistake, which from one point of view was even graver than that of Hodgson: I believed in the existence of two parallel ranges2 where he had only one, and I thought they were separated from each other by a broad open valley, which I placed in the very regions where the highest mountains are in reality situated. I was misled by hypothetical lakes, which still remain mysterious. To combine Nain Sing's Targot Lha with Nien-chen-tang-la was also a very great mistake. And I believed, just as Burrard and HABENICHT did, that a continuous range followed the northern bank of the Tsangpo and that the Kailas was part of it.

I cannot omit the following passage, as it is of special interest, being a key to my last exploration and a link between my two last expeditions. It is also to be found on the last page of my work: 3

»In the south the circumstances arc different. The shape of Nain Sing's lakes alone suggests that the mountain-ranges are there built up with less regularity. They also lie closer together, are in general smaller, but at the same time much steeper, and abound in hard rock. Of this country we possess but the scantiest information, having no knowledge even of what its broad features are like. Within the very last year or two the extreme south of Tibet, i. e. the valley of the Tsangpo, has been reconnoitred by the members of the English expedition; but the whole of the extensive region between that valley and my route to Ladak is an absolute terra incognita, and it is just in this broad gap between the central plateau and the valley of the Tsangpo that the forms intermediate between the two are to be found. The investigator who

I The above mentioned range.

2 Scientific Results, Vol. IV, P1. 69, p. 580.

3 Op. cit. p. 607, 6o8.