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0749 Southern Tibet : vol.7
Southern Tibet : vol.7 / Page 749 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000263
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LAKES IN THE INTERIOR OF TIBET.

r.~

553

Chumar flows, lies nearly 2 00 m. higher than my Lake XX which is salt and belongs to the self-contained region of Tibet. However it seems likely that the Yang-tse drainage during the moist epoch reached to the region where now de Rhins' Lac des Roches Rouges and Lac No. 4 are situated. The central part of Wellby's valley has probably drained to the Tarim basin, provided that its rivers where able to pierce the Kwenlun ranges, while the westernmost portion of the same valley has drained to the Indus.

South of Wellby's route the difficulties begin in the central parts of the great plateau-land where not a single traveller has crossed Tibet from west to east or vice versa. In the far east, outside of the boundary of the self-contained plateau-land, the latitudinal valley of the Mur-usu and its left tributary, the Toktomai-ulan-muren, however, clearly indicate the next great folding trough. Continuing in the western prolongation of this valley we indeed come across a series of seven lakes discovered by different travellers and all of them situated between 34° and 341 ° North Lat. In spite of the interruptions of terra incognita between some of these lakes, they really seem to mark a continuous folding trough between two mountain systems. These lakes are the following:

Lac Montcalm    4960 m. . . . Bonvalot

Large Lake     4968   . . Hedin I

Place in a valley     4956 »   . Littledale

Vallée des Lacs Jumeaux     5121 » . . de Rhins

Lake between Camps LI and LII, approxim    5000 » . . . Hedin

Salt Lake     4880 n . . Rawling

To Huping-tso     5030 » . . . Rawling

Gore-tso     5 I8 » . . Rawling

The mean altitude of the lakes is therefore 5012 m. The Yang-tse drainage of this valley has stretched to about 85 or 86° East Long., whereas the western part of the valley has belonged to the Indus system.

The next folding trough to the south is interesting. It begins in the east in the latitudinal valley running along the northern foot of the Tang-la system and belonging to the drainage of the Yang-tse. Through this valley Rockhill travelled in 1891-92, though it is a pity he has no altitudes on his map. The fold continues westwards along his Keten-gol and over the Chib-chang-tso, to the basin of which Bonvalot has given the unreliable altitude of 5 300 m. Then the prolongation of the fold is indicated by the following lakes and valleys:

Salt Lake (Camp XLVI, I 90 I)     4972 M. . . Hedin2

A valley     4957 » • • . Hedin

I The observation is taken at some distance from the lake which therefore has a lower altitude.

2 The names indicate the explorers who are responsible for the altitudes. 7o. VII.

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