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 ARU•TSO.
L
405
This is of course physically impossible. »All around appeared dead; no fresh water, no vegetation, and no animal life.» The country to the east could be clearly seen and easily mapped; so he turned south.
The ranges in this region ran north and south. »The mountains are composed of limestone, which was much disintegrated.» Gold-diggings were seen at many places. Then he went south-west-wards, and saw several salt lakes; in some places only salt pans remained. But Huping-tso was fresh. The Aru-tso was fresh, although BOWER on 1890 had found it salt and DEASY in 1896 drinkable.
This is certainly worth recording, if only for the reason that, as this change has been shown to take place in one great lake of the Tibetan plateau, it is quite possible that at certain seasons or periods other lakes may become altered in character.
I have tried to explain this apparent contradiction elsewhere and shown that
the statements of the three travellers do not permit a comparison, as they struck the shore at different places. BOWER touched the lake at its northern end. DEASY'S route, according to his map, ran at some distance from the western shore of the lake; and it was at the southern end that RAWLING touched the lake. It is evident that the salinity can vary a good deal at different places along the shore of a lake, chiefly because of the presence of fresh-water springs.'
Of the Bum-tso he says that it probably at some season overflows its banks; otherwise its waters would be salt. It is, however, more likely that the lake has an underground outflow. Some days N. E. of Bum-tso everything was sandstone and shale. Then he approaches well-known ground at Noh and Panggong-tso. Of the results he says: »Altogether our travels carried us over 8000 miles of country, the greater part previously quite unknown to the European, while an area of 35,000 square miles was accurately surveyed.»
GRAHAM SANDBERG identifies the Aru-tso, or Tsarul-tso as he thinks is the correct name, with the Ike Namur Nor of older maps. For the Tibetan word Tsarul is equivalent to the Mongol word Namur. Thus Tsarul-Chhe Ts'o should be the same as Ike Namur Nor or »Big Harvest Lake» ; and Tsarul-Chhung Ts'o the same as Bakha Namur Nor or »Little Harvest Lake». He finds this etymology likely on account of the scarcity of good pasturage.2
Our region in Western Tibet was crossed in 1906 by Major C. D. BRUCE, accompanied by Captain LAYARD. They went over the Chang-la, Marsimik-la and Lanak-la, the latter 17,750 feet high. Bruce says of the crossing to the Kwen-lun:
Over the first portion , from Leh to the Kuen Lun, previous exploration has been
chiefly confined to various surveys and attempts to obtain an alternative route between Ladak, or Rudok, and Chinese Turkestan, for such -seems to have been the idea actuating
1 .Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia 1899-1902. Vol.. 1V, p. 521.
2 Graham Sandberg: Tibet and the Tibetans. London 1906, p. 47.
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