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
376
SOME GERMAN GEOGRAPHERS ON THE MOUNTAINS OF TIBET.
Futterer emphazises that in spite of the ordinary expression »Tibetan plateau-land» which is correct from a merely morphological point of view, the southern part of High Asia, from a geological point of view is a region of folds. Only the highest ridges crop up as mountain ranges. All depressions are filled with deposits and the remains of destruction, which in an enormous scale have levelled the surface. It is impossible to imagine the height of the peaks of these old folded chains which must have been enormous considering the tremendous masses of débris filling up all the intermediate depressions between the gigantic ranges and reaching to a very considerable height at the sides of the present ranges. The result of this destructive and accumulating action is the plateau-land of Tibet as we know it at present.
In spite of the geological profiles existing, Futterer regards the structure of the mountain region between the Western Kwen-lun and the Kara-korum as well as of the Western Kwen-lun itself as not quite clear. He says:
Wenn v. Richthofen angibt, dass die von S. O. nach N. W. gerichteten Ketten gegen W. N. W. and schliesslich WzN. umbiegen, and dass dadurch ein allmähliches Anschmiegen derselben an den westlichen Kwen-lun in ähnlicher Weise stattfinde, wie dies an seinem östlichen Ende seitens der sinischen Ketten geschieht, so steht damit die Auffassung von Suess nicht in Einklang, der als merkwürdige Thatsache nach Stoliczkas Berichten konstatiert, »dass der Kwen-lun selbst gegen N. N. W. abschwenkend jenes grosse Gebirge bildet, welches sich westlich über Jarkand and Kaschgar erhebt and in der Regel als Kizilyart bezeichnet wird».
FUTTERER agrees with WEGENER that the Dupleix Range may be regarded as a western continuation of the Tang-la chains. On the other hand he finds it doubtful that the Tsa-tsa-Daban and other neighbouring ranges may be the western end of the 'Tang-la-Dupleix System. And if the Tang-la, Dupleix and Tsa-tsa really form one and the same system, he finds it doubtful in the same degree that this system can be the tectonic continuation of the Western Kwen - lun and the Kizil - yart with their N. W.—S. E. stretching ranges. If such a range really existed, for instance somewhere south of Keriya, BOGDANOVI'I'CH would have brought clearness to the problem. ßut judging from his map, no E. S. E. stretching range exists in the region south of the Western Kwen-lun. LoczY has only dared to indicate with a dotted line the possibility of such a connection. Already in
904 when I wrote Vol. IV of my Scientific Results of a Tourney in Central Asia 1899-1902, I felt sure that the view of WEGENER could not be correct, and that FUTTERER was right in his doubts. My own view appears from Pl. 69 in the volume quoted.
On his and Dr. Holderer's two years' journey through Asia, undertaken from November 1897, Futterer had no opportunity' to contribute to the knowledge of the
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