THE DEASY GROUP OF CAPTAIN RAWLING. 57
From Camnp XX V our route rises slowly in a broad, open valley, the floor of which is sand, dust and fine gravel, with a little patch of grass and yapkak here and there, but generally barren. No watercourse is crossed, but the whole ground seems to have been washed by occasional rain-water. To the right of our route there is, however, the chief watercourse of the valley, beginning from the little threshold and the bright red mountains north of it. The hills to the south, standing 2 or 3 km. from our route, are of a dirty brown colour. The living rock on the pass is reddish brown fine-grained sandstone and conglomerate.
From the little threshold the view was unlimited to the N. E., i. e. so far as the not quite clear air permitted. No mountains were visible in this direction, only the continuation to the E. N. E. and N. E. of the enormous latitudinal valley we had followed ever since Aksai-chin, and which Wellby had followed eastwards all the way through Tibet. The part in front of us is the same which Rawling has called Antelope Plain, a name that is inappropriate as there are antelopes in nearly all the plains of Tibet. To the N. 66° E. and N. 83° E. a low ridge of mountains was seen (Pan. 41, Tab. 7). Some six kilometers east of the pass the next lake was to be seen, smaller than the previous one. The ground in this region is of an intensely red colour. From the mountains to the north several very insignificant brooks come down, all of them now frozen. At the first, which contained some open water, Camp XXVI was pitched in a comparatively protected valley with good grazing and fuel. At all the four transverse thresholds we so far had crossed in the latitudinal valley the same observation had been made, viz., that the eastern slope is steeper than the western and, as a rule, the lowest part of each depression, or in other words the lake, was situated nearer to the western boundary threshold than to the eastern.
A little east of the pass the rock was grey limestone. The gravel around Camp XXVI consisted mostly of grey oolithic limestone. From the camp the highest peak of the Deasy Group was visible to the S. 400 E., and the nearest peak to the S. 51° E.
On October ist the march to Camp XXVII was only 9.5 km., and the new camp, being at 5,08 i m., was 6o m. below the previous one, giving a slope of I : 158. The direction is E. N. E. The little brook at which we had camped turns E. S. E. towards the next lake.
The lake, which is marked on Rawling's map, has a height of 5078 m. Its colour is green and its water as fresh as any spring water. From a valley in the Deasy Group to the S. E., a rivulet enters the lake ; it still carried water, and must be quite large during the summer. The lake must have an outlet somewhere, perhaps subterranean. About one quarter of its area was frozen, but now gradually became broken up by the very strong eastern wind. Only along the windward or eastern shore the ice formed needles and jags pointing towards the wind. Along
8. IV.
IIIFカラー高解像度
