IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
DIFFERENT ROUTES ACROSS THE KARA-KORUM. 241
a greater extent of level than of hilly ground, and the hills are low and have easy slopes .... The first plain is about r 7,300 feet above the sea-level, it bears traces of having been the bed of a large lake and at present contains two lakes, which, when I saw them, covered
areas of about 16 and 6o square miles resp A second plain slopes for a distance of
3o miles in a north-easterly direction from 16,700 feet down to 15,300, when it rises again towards the watershed of the Kiun Lun.
To the east and S. E. other plains continued far away into Tibet. To the west were deep valleys belonging to the Kara-kash River. Reckoned from the point where he crossed this river, its sources were about 25 miles S. E. on the southern side of the Kwen-lun. From these sources the Kwen-lun was said to continue about 100 miles to the east and terminate in an extensive plain, communicating with the Chang-tang plain.
Finally he crossed the Kwen-lun in the Yangi Diwan (= davan), 1 9,09 2 feet, and had a difficult road to Ilchi. Of the different roads he tells us:
The usual route from Leh to Ilchi is over the Karakoram Pass, and through Sanjii, but there are several others, which, however, have not been much used till very lately, ,1 : the Hindotak diwan, the Brinjga diwan, and the Polû route. The last of these is the best, as it lies over vast plains, where water, grass, and wood are obtainable at every halting-place.
This may be the same road which later on was used by FORSYTH'S Pundit and by DUTREUIL DE RHINS. It is, no doubt, easier ground, but longer than the ordinary Kara-korum Pass road. The Hindotak road is reported to branch off to the E. N. E. from Sukit (Suget) on the ordinary Kara-korum Pass road. It can only be used by foot passengers »On account of very difficult and extensive glaciers on the northern side of the pass».
His own road Johnson calls the Brinjga route, »over immense plains perfectly uninhabited and void of all vegetation)) .... The whole country is covered over with a deposit of saltpetre and soda to the depth of from six inches to a foot; »the plains have once been the beds of three vast lakes, judging from the water-marks and banks which are distinctly visible». Masses of snow and ice make the Brinjga passes difficult; one of them was 18,66o feet. From the sources of the Kara-kash there is another road to Khotan over Shahidullah, following the river the whole way and being passable only in winter. The routes chiefly used by traders from Leh to Yarkand are those via Kugiar, Kalian and Sanj6, the last two, being closed in winter. He recommends the Rudok-Chang-tang-Polu road, which he supposed could be reached even from Almora, vici the Niti Pass and Gartok.
On his way back he travelled through the lower spurs of the Kwen-lun to Sanju, crossed the Walagôt Pass (16,760) which was the first Kwen-lun Pass, then the Suget-davan (18,227) and finally the Kara-korum Pass, to which he gives an altitude of 8,3 17 feet.
3 i . VII.
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