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 TIBETAN CONTINUATION OF THE KARA-KORUM SYSTEM.
489
interfere with the fact that what Burrard calls the Kailas Range must anyhow be regarded as the prolongation of the same fold. When Burrard reminds us of the fact that in this case perhaps only I ,000 or 2,000 feet rise above the surrounding alluvial plains, he touches an arrangement which is very common in other parts of Tibet, where the alluvial and aeolian deposits hide the solid rock skeleton beneath, and make it difficult to follow the different ranges. As I have set forth before, I do not believe, however, that the eastern continuation from Aling Kangri is the same as Nain Sing's »almost continuous range of snow mountains, trending the whole way
to Nien-chen-tang-la».
Col. Burrard leaves the question of the existence of a second Kara-korum Range, the one with the Kara-korum Pass, as unsettled. He has not marked such a second range on his frontispiece map, so his four ranges are not quite the same as those of Dr. A. NEV E. Burrard asks: »What is this water-parting? Is it a fold of the Earth's crust? Is it an easterly continuation of the northern Hindu Kush fold, and has it been welded by pressure into the Kara-koram at K 2 ?» He finds it impossible to answer these questions, its existence as a crustal fold is conjectural, »and it would be unsafe to draw conclusions as to structure from observations of drainage».
For my own part I cannot imagine that the configuration around the Karakorum Pass can be the work of drainage alone. Still legs can this be the case with the surroundings of Chang-lung-yogma. The Lanek-la is more levelled, but probably indicates the continuation of the northern system, which may be traced far into Tibet where its different sections have been crossed by several travellers. In my opinion Dr. A. NEVE'S view is correct as shown on his diagram.' It is also made clear from Dr. Longstaff's sketch-map.2 But the important results of these two alpinists were published three years after Burrard's »Sketch», and Burrard was quite aware of the possibility of such an arrangement, — therefore he wisely left the question open to discussion. Burrard, however, has made the important observation that the great Kara-korum peaks seem to follow two alignments. The Masherbrum peaks surmount a ridge parallel to that on which the K 2 and Gasherbrum stand.
Regarding the Kara-korum in its relation to the Aghil and Kwen-lun Systems, Burrard correctly suggests that these folds may have been pressed against one another: »all the ranges of Tibet tend to converge at the north-western corner of the plateau, as though they were trying to escape through the neck of a bottle; once having passed the neck they separate again, but during the passage they appear to suffer from extreme compression».
The relations of the ranges of Western Tibet to those of Eastern Tibet, Burrard expresses very well in the following passage: »On the west of Tibet we find,
I Geographical Journal. November 1910, P. 575. 2 Geographical Journal. June 191o, p. 625.
62. VII.
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