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
PRSHEVALSKIY'S THIRD EXPEDITION.
s
337
along the southern border of Eastern Turkestan. Our knowledge of the geography of Central Asia was, as Richthofen puts it, enormously increased, and our interest stimulated by the journey of this single man. In opposition to all traditional conception, the wall-shaped edge of the Tibetan plateau-land had been found immediately south of Lop-nor.
In his preface to the German translation quoted above, Dr. A. PETERMANN expressed himself in enthusiastic words on the importance of Prshevalskiy's discoveries, and says that the great features of the interior of Asia now were practically known. In the following very clear words, he sets forth the essence of the problem:
Przewalsky hat das Verdienst , hier die erste feste Bestimmung gegeben zu haben. Aber noch mehr. Nach den bisherigen Karten and Vorstellungen lag die Lob-nor-Senke weit jenseit des grossen Asiatischen Gebirgs-Massivs and näher am Thian-Schan-System, nach Przewalsky bildet sie aber den Fuss des Kuenluen , also jener gewaltigen Gebirgsund Plateau-Region, welche sich von den Ebenen Indiens über den Himalaya, Karakorum, das Hochland von Khor ununterbrochen bis zu dieser nördlichen Kette erstreckt. Przewalsky's Altyn-tag bildet den nördlichsten Abfall des Kuenluen.
In 1879— 188o Prshevalskiy undertook his third journey of exploration in Central Asia, from Saisan viâ Hami to Tibet and to the upper course of the Yellow River. In the preface to his narrative he calls his expedition »a scientific reconnoitring in Central Asia». Like the first two expeditions, the third one was of very great importance, and brought back an amount of geographical knowledge. Now he again crossed the Tang-la, presumably the eastern continuation of the northern Kara-korum, and he gives a more detailed description of it than after his first expedition. I have translated the following passage from his own original text.I
As soon as one has crossed the Mur-usu the ground begins to rise towards
the south,
and forms here an extensive plateau, perhaps one of the very highest in Northern Tibet. On the crest of this plateau stretches due east and west a range with eternal snow, known under the name of Tan-la. This name belongs perhaps, also to the plateau as a whole, from which , at different places separate mountain groups rise, some of them with eternal snow. Such groups and mounts were, for instance, Medu-Kun, Dorsi, and Joma on the northern side of Tanla. The ground between these groups is rolling so that the plateau of Tan-la, as a rule, represents an undulating surface. The slope, both at the northern and the southern side , is very gradual , although the pass itself on the road of the Mongolian caravans has a height of 16,700 feet. But in spite of this very considerable height, the summit of this pass rises only 2,100 feet above the valley of Mur-usu, and 2,000 feet above the valley of San-chu flowing along the foot of Tan-la's southern slope. However, the rise to this plateau is, on the northern side, 125 versts, and the slope on the
I H. M. Ilp}Icesa.nbcKifi : 7 pernbe nynaeluecnieie Eô A3iu. 143b 3aiicaua ttepe3 b
Xamu 8ô Tu6ennb u ha eepxoebîl WeAtnoie PYbxu. C.-IleTep6ypri. 1883, p. 233 et seq. Parts of the chapter here quoted have been inserted in an article entitled Über den Oberlauf des fang-tse-kiang und das Tan-la-Gebirge 1879-80, Petermann's Mitteilungen, 29. Band, 1883, p. 345 und 376.
43. VII.
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