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

Ot

260   THE FIRST CROSSING.

several ravines going S.W. to Rung-chu and the plain of Ye. The feeders of Rungchu above La-rok were all frozen, but on the plain of Ye the water

streams freely.

The steep slope from La-rok takes us down 491 m, or from 4 440 m to 3 949 m, in hardly more than an hour, and one has a feeling of leaving the cold and rough climate of Chang-tang behind and reaching more moderate and mild regions. The granite of the slope is extremely worn by weather and wind, rotten and weathered, formed into cupolas, cavities and ravines, and even the road is sometimes one metre deep cut in the granite, which gives evidence of heavy traffic, even if the water plays a part in eroding and excavating the pathway. At some places round granite blocks are situated on pedestals of earth just like glacier tables, proving that the surrounding earth has been swept away by wind and water; thus only the pedestal which is protected by the block is left.

On the way down over the Ye-shung plain to the Tsangpo several villages and monasteries are passed. There are the monasteries Tukdän-gompa and Gandänchöding in the north, and Tashi-gembe to the west. To the left some small valleys open, Didung from the regions of Sumno-gompa and Ngompo-ritse ; Kuratse from the mountainous region of Tanak-sila; Sharchuk-nang with a small brook. Tenatsatung is an isolated granite rock to the right of the road. Another small mountain to the right is Ngun-chu with several transverse valleys, Yunggung, Cheto-la, a. o. The plain east of it is called Ngunchu-tang. To the left is the valley Tarting, from where the brook De-chu comes down, with a 3 m high terrace on the left. In the Tarting valley is a village Tarting-choro, and above it the great monastery Tartinggompa. The mountains west of it consist of conglomerate of quartz-balls, at a place called Sebrak-hla. Tanka-gompa is another temple in the same neighbourhood. Beyond this the plain is called Tanka-sha.

Opposite Rokdso, a ferry-place and village, the first rock corner to the left of the road is called Nanka-song and consists of grey granite. At the village of Karu, where the Karu-pu comes in from the north and the Su-chu from the south, to the Tsangpo, this first line of crossing, which began at Ngangtse-tso, comes to an end.

My first line over the Transhimalaya, the general topographical features of which I have now shortly described, crossed a complete terra incognita. From this region nothing else was believed to be known than the fantastical and perfectly wrong topography and hydrography as given in Nain Sing.'s map. Nobody could expect that the Pundit would be able to lay down the geography of a country where he had never been, for even one single crossing is not sufficient for a clear conception of the whole region. Only the hydrography is easy to make out, especially when the discoveries on my first line are combined with those on the second. But regarding the orographical arrangement the case is different.

From native information it is impossible to form an idea of what the highlands are like in the region where the eastern tributaries of the Mii-chu and Rung-chu