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
THE KARA-KASH REGION. 401
After having stayed for a week in »Camp Purgatory» they came to a large
valley which, surprisingly enough, proved to be that of the Kara-kash.
The waters which appeared between Camp Abandon and Camp Purgatory were evidently its permanent sources, instead of the much more distant points which the maps had heretofore assigned to that character. Thus out- stumbling among the mountains turned to some good account in the laborious effort which man has made to know the globe he inhabits.
They met with some Kirgis who promised to take them on a roundabout road
to the Kara-korum—Leh road. The Kara-korum Pass is given as only i 8,300 feet high. The Saser Pass was crossed. But it is impossible both from the book and the map to make out whether he went the Murgho or Kumdan route. Therefore he has no right whatever to criticise existing maps,' as when he says: »it would perhaps be well to omit these 'noms de phantaisie' from future maps» ; and still he says: »The two lakes shown on our route deserve, on the other hand that some name be given them. One, of fresh-water, is possibly that called Lake Lighten by Wellby.» If the travellers themselves could not decide whether one of the two lakes they »discovered» was Lake Lighten or not, who else could be able to do it, and if it happened to be Lake Lighten why should it need a new name? Under such conditions the following observandum is without value : »The error in respect to the mountains is considerable. The dominating chain is not north and south, as heretofore shown, but there are two east-and-west chains, generally parallel to the Kuen Luen ....»
The same may be said regarding his source of the Kara-kash:
Another correction of some importance has to do with the course of the Karakash, which has been shown heretofore as extending sixty miles or more farther south than is the fact. We chanced to come into the valley of this stream above its permanent sources, which come up out of the sand. There was seen, indeed, a small break in the valley wall, corresponding to the point where the assumed southern extension appears on older maps. But this opening was seen to have a steep incline upward, and no water came from it. Nor can a considerable volume come at any time, as just below this point the valley was crossed completely, from hill to hill, by a very curious line of small stone monuments, about two feet apart, and consisting of small boulders piled about a foot high.
Crosby touched the eastern branch of the river at about 35° I 5' N. lat. The
southern or western branch is given as beginning at about 34° 55'.
In an article Turkestan and a corner of Tibet 2 we find some more details.
For instance he talks of some signs of volcanic action at two different places:
One is near Lake Sarakul, and is about 5 miles square. Within that area one may see several true craters and numberless black, tortured masses rising about 75 feet above the surrounding coarse sand. -- The second volcanic region was noted near the point marked Camp Desertion. Here the surface of the narrow valley was covered, for a distance of several miles, with characteristic volcanic boulders, and outcroppings of lava in mass showed in the sides of the confining heights.
I Op. cit., p. 279.
2 Geographical Journal. June 1904. Vol. XXIII, p. 705 et seg.
51. VII.
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