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

pendicular fluviatile terraces prove that sometimes a good deal of rain water flows
down from the southern mountains. At the time of my visit it contained only a
little brook from a spring, surrounded by good grass. West of this valley is an-
other pass, higher than the first and with a cairn on its top; it cuts off one or
two promontories.

At the westernmost corner of the lake two more considerable valleys open out
into a little sandy plain, which probably has been covered with water at a period
when the Satlej emerged from the north-western corner of the Rakas-tal. Black
stripes of dead algae in the sand show how the lake has gradually subsided. The
little plain is crossed by a water-course, 3m. deep and from 10 to 20m. broad, now
only containing stagnant pools of water.

From camp 228 the western shore turns off north-eastwards. A comparatively
large peninsula is cut off; it has a perfectly isolated hill which has probably at one
time been an island. The shore plain is broader than at the eastern side, the
ground is sand and clay with some grass and steppe-vegetation. A wall of fine
hard gravel crosses a part of the plain and points to the N.E., just as another forma-
tion of the same kind situated at the western side of the entrance to the narrow
part of the lake. The only difference is that the former is now situated on dry
land, though it must have been formed in water, by winds and waves. The long
narrow gravel pier which projects from the shore is situated N.E. of a sharp mountain
corner, and therefore has no doubt been formed by the sand and fine gravel which
is swept along the foot of the mountains out into the lake by the prevailing S.W.
wind. This pier is broader at its base, and ends with a hook turned northwards.

At this place the rocks fall steeply, almost perpendicularly, towards the lake.
First we come across mica-quartzite in 54°S.20°W. and a little farther north lime-
stone in 57°S.35°W. and 58°S.10°W. There is no shore plain here; the gravel
scree at the foot of the rocks falls steep and narrow to the lake. The mountains
are red, in sharp contrast to the green lake and blue sky.

Beyond the pier the shore plain becomes broader again. The shore line runs
fairly straight northwards without capes and bays. The ground is covered with
wind-blown sand. At some places small flat blocks, 1 or 2dm. in diameter, lie
upon pedestals of sand like glacier-tables, this being the work of the hard, almost
constant wind. Around Camp 224 much sand has been heaped, even forming dunes,
which, at a cape north of Camp 224, fall steep into the lake; from their crests a
rain of sand is blown out into the lake.

On two lines between Camps 223, 224 and 225 I could sound the depth, and
found at the northern line a maximum of 16.6, and on the southern 28.3, showing
that the lake becomes deeper from north to south, like the Manasarovar, and as
could be expected from its configuration and its surroundings.

At the northern section of the western shore some springs rise from the
ground, which at certain patches is swampy and treacherous. Crossing the depres-