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
136
»Between Ladak and Yarkund, I have been told by an intelligent servant of Mr. Moor-croft's of fatal consequences from the want of due precaution. He says that the passages of the lofty range should be made while fasting, and recommends frequent doses of emetic tartar during the journey. He relates an instance of a wealthy Russian merchant who was on his way to Leh, of Ladak, to see Mr. Moorcroft, having perished in crossing one of the passes because he made a hearty meal before starting.» I
Then he gives a discussion on the physiological effects of the reduced atmospheric pressure, which may be said to be classic.
Nor had Capt. ALEXANDER GERARD on his brilliant journey in 1821, an opportunity to get any information on the Kara-korum. He only indirectly touches upon the mountains when speaking of Ladak: »The country is very mountainous, and occupies a great extent on both banks of the Sing-Zhing-Khampa, or Indus river: it is bounded on the North by Yarkund, and its dependencies; on the East and South East by Chinese Tartary .... The hills are of a crumbling gravelly nature, and seldom shoot into peaks; and by the description of travellers, I conclude they are composed of limestone. The whole tract is arid and almost without foliage ....» 2
Like most other travellers and geographers of his time he extends the southern limits of Chinese Tartary, i, e. Eastern Turkestan so far south as to place it S. E. of Ladak. This may be explained from D'ANVILLE'S map and the general ignorance of the eastern stretching of the Kwen-lun System.
THE DECADE 1818-1828.
t~
I George Lloyd: Narrative of a Journey from Caunpoor etc. Vol. I. London 184o, p. 323. 2 George Lloyd : Narrative of a Journey from Caunpoor etc. Vol. II, Capt. Alexander Gerard's Narrative. London 184o, p. 26o.
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