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| 0414 |
Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1 |
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destruction must be much slower; the northern body of
the plateau will hold a greater elevation than the south-
ern, and the northern face of the great uplift will be
more nearly vertical. (Hence it is that history must
record the giving over of Tibet to a southern, not a
northern power.)
As time goes on this giant mound must grow smaller
in every dimension—for Neptune will have it that all the
mountains of the earth shall be dragged down to the sea
—and he sends up hourly millions of little rain-drop
coolies who dig the very rocks away. If the structure
of such a great mass be relatively homogeneous, the
wear will be less ragged, particularly on the wide top, at
considerable distance from the much-disturbed edges.
But if there be somewhere a line of soft material, or if
the tilt of the surface, however small, shall chance to
throw considerable volumes of water along a given line,
even of average hardness, then we shall find a great de-
pression—as that of the Blue Nile, whose steep gorge
descends five thousand feet below the neighbouring
plateau elevation—yet the river-bed is still four thousand
feet above sea. And so here in Tibet the long line of
the Tsang-Po, or upper Brahmaputra, flowing in a de-
pression which begins many miles away on either side of
it, lies also about five thousand feet below the northern
(relatively undisturbed) plateau, and about eleven thou-
sand feet above sea-level. It leaves to the south, border-
ing its east and west course, high lands and great peaks
ere the true descending ramp be met.
Such a gash having been formed, the process of denud-
ation is hastened, because the width of level table-land
is diminished, and the small surface streams become less
sluggish. Wherever the elevation has been so lessened
that snow-coverings are removed by summer warmth,
there enters another element tending to quick removal
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