| | find a mani-rigmo here, far away in the wilderness; usually, as for instance in the valleys of the Translaimalaya, they indicate the approach to a gompa or some other sacred place. Continuing S. E. at a distance of one or one and a half kilometer from the shore, we slowly descend, crossing some erosion beds to a comparatively large valley with a larger bed which is always dry. The mountains at its southern side send out a little promontory into the lake. At the shore we again see the curiously modelled formations of white deposits of salt and gypsum. Here and there small open pools of water are seen. Just outside the promontory a tepid spring comes up, forming a strip of open, bitterly salt water in the middle of the white deposits. My men said that a little distance from the shore the bed was covered with ice, though I am not sure that it was not all white dry deposits. On the northern slopes of the hills at the southern side of the valley, four distinct terraces were seen, the lowest at about 2 0 M. above the lake and all at short intervals from one another. The limestone rocks of the place are wild and steep. We crossed them in a low threshold and after passing a transverse valley from the S. 80° W., we had to climb a second, somewhat higher range or ramification, parallel to the first one. This second range also ends with a promontory into the lake, at the base of which, there is also open water. The living rock is everywhere a grey, dense limestone. After crossing a new transverse valley from S. 8o° W., the road crossed a third very low threshold of wild rugged cliffs. On these small passes, cairns were built; also three stone pyramids on the one in the middle. The ground is full of gravel. Our direction finally becomes south, between the base of the mountains and the white shore. The southern part of the lake bed is modelled in the most curious way in pyramids, tables, walls, cones and different extraordinary formations with deep furrows between, which all is a work of the winds. Farther out in the bed, one had really the impression of seeing ice. Fresh water could be obtained from several springs. As we had no guides now, I could not determine the name of this interesting place, but it corresponds in every detail with the description I had received from our last Tibetans when they spoke of Rinek-chutsan or »The hot water of the black mountain)), so I have entered this name on Pl. 5.' At Camp LXXI we were at the lowest point we had passed ever since Gogra, on August 2 8th, or nearly three months before. The height was only 4,706 m., which also signifies the height of the lake. We had obviously left the highest protuberance of the plateau-land behind, and had arrived at regions some 200 or 30o m. lower than the altitudes we were accustomed to. Pan. 78A and 78B, Tab. 12, gives a general aspect of the limestone mountains to the west, N. W., north and N. E. |
IIIFカラー高解像度
