国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

cuts it through caused us to descend to the level of the lake . . . . . This depression in the
ridge between the lakes marks the point where the unconsolidated gravel deposits, over which
we had been travelling from Lagan-Tung-kong (the south-eastern corner of the Rakas-tal), give
place to the stratified rocks which constitute the projecting headland on the east shore of
Rakas-tal, and which are continued across to the cliffs at the north-west corner of Manasarowar.
Where we crossed the hollow, which was close to the edge of Manasarowar, there were one
or two small pools of water, around which the surface was muddy and covered with an
efflorescence of salt, . . . . . Between this muddy flat and the lake is a raised beach of shingle,
its top, I suppose, about six feet above the level of the water of the lake on the one side,
and of the muddy flat on the other, between which it forms a complete raised embank-
ment . . . . . These beaches are, no doubt, mainly produced by the action of the breakers . . .›

After having reached the neighbourhood of the outgoing stream, Richard
Strachey and Mr Winterbottom went on to examine the place where the stream that
flows from the Manasarovar leaves the lake. Approaching Ju (Chiu-gompa), a steep
rocky point forced them to ascend. ›From the height to which we climbed we
looked down on the stream that connects Manasarovar and Rakas-tal. The rocks
on which we stood formed one flank of the ravine through which it flowed; on its
opposite bank was the monastery of Ju . . . . . The ground at the bottom of the
ravine was quite flat, and about on a level with the surface of the lake. A raised
beach, which swept in a well-rounded curve along the edge of the lake, was cut
through by the effluent stream. This was of no great breadth, and apparently
shallow and connected with several pools of still water that looked like old channels.
It is strange that Moorcroft, deliberately going to look for the point of efflux, should
not have noticed it.›

After a quotation from Moorcroft he continues: ›From this it would seem
that he passed over the identical beach I have mentioned, and that he describes the
pools of water under the monastery outside of it. The illness from which he tells
us he was suffering may have interfered with his powers of observation, but for the
rest it must be presumed, that the water in the lake was lower than usual when he
passed, or that the bar was higher, so that no water was then actually running
over it; and as he walked along the edge of the lake, his eye would have been so
near the level of the water that a very small irregularity of the beach might have
concealed the course of the stream from his view.›

He made a sketch of the outlet and says the eastern lake is of course some-
what higher than the western, but he could not ascertain the difference. From some
distance he could ›trace the hollow through which the stream that connects them
runs.›¹ As to the hollow or bay about halfway on the western side of the Manas-