ALONG THE NORTHERN SHORE OF SHEMEN-TSO. 239
the shore of the lake and thus be spared from rising ground and high passes. The contour line of the shore is comfortable, without indentations, with the only exception of the peninsula of Camp CCCXX. In this respect the southern shore seems to be much more complicated with deep inlets and projecting capes and rocky peninsulas. To judge from a distance, this shore reminded me of Chargut-tso, Pangs ong--tso and Rakas-lal. So much seemed obvious, that Shemen-tso was one of the largest lakes of western Tibet. The whole lake was frozen. Only at a first little cape, there was a hole of a spring. The cape with terraces visible to the right of Pan. 405 consisted of living limestone and had to be climbed by our tired animals. East of this cape we stick to one terrace the whole time, with the highest terraces to our left. The hills retire somewhat from the shore, leaving a narrow stripe of plain between their gravelly base and the lake. The amount of snow decreases gradually to the east, and only at lee slopes of terraces and erosion beds traversing them, the drifted snow is more considerable. Then the material is again hard clay, absolutely barren. There is no grass during the whole march, only some yaftchan plants. No signs of human life. Of animals, we only saw hares, jack-daws and some small birds. Occasionally dung of kyangs was seen. From Camp CCCXX, a little black ridge was seen running out due east in a flat cape. We had this cape in front of us during the latter part of the march and hoped to find some grass at its lee side. But only the usual hard plants which are excellent as fuel, were found. Still we camped here only 2 m. above the lake. The black ridge con-
! sisted of darkgreen quartzitic schist. The temperature had been at —22.7° in the
night. At 10.30 o'clock a. m., the S. W. storm began. At 3 o'clock p. m. the whole landscape disappeared in a haze of dust. Before that happened, I had had time to draw Pan. 406A and B, Tab. 72, showing the mountains from north over east and south to S. W.
On February 6th, we made 12.3 km. E. S. E., still following the shore of Shemen-tso. Camp CCCXXII was about 8 m. above the lake. The night had been calm with clouds and a temperature of only —19.5°. In the morning a very thin sheet of snow covered the ground and soon disappeared. We followed the excellent marching ground between the terraces consisting of sand or clay and some gravel. Just east of the camp, we crossed a broad and shallow erosion bed coming from a larger valley to the north. The lake becomes a little narrower as we proceed, and the mountains on the southern shore develop their details. The plain of the northern shore becomes broader. Farther east, the northern hills again approach the shore. At their base we found a series of small stone cairns on a straight line, built by Tibetan antelope hunters. In a little rock was a grotto, and from beneath a slab of schist, the brook from a spring streamed forth in the same way as the source of the Indus. It carried, at the most, half a cub. m. of water per second and, as it
IIIFカラー高解像度
