National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

at many places. It is not the amount of water which causes difficulties, for the
Tsangpo is fordable even below Tuksum; it is on account of the blocks and boulders
in the bed.

I cannot be responsible for the correctness of the following geographical in-
formation given by my guides, but as they proved to be very reliable in everything
else I think it worth while to relate their description of a completely unknown part
of the Himalayas. They asserted that somewhere to the S.W. was a snow-covered
pass, Tabsi, with a difficult and hardly ever used road leading across the high
mountains to the valley of Map-chu or Kauriala. Tabsi-la should thus be situated
somewhere in the same range to which the Kubi-gangri, Chema-yundung-pu and
Ganglung-gangri belong. But from Tabsi-la one does not by any means come down
directly to Map-chu, as could be expected. One comes down to the source region
of Gyang-chu or Kyang-chu, the lower course of which I crossed near Camp 194.¹
Continuing southwards one has to cross a second range of mountains in a pass
called Nangsa-la. The source of Gyang-chu is situated on the north side of this
pass. To the south from Nangsa-la one comes to a region called Mogum,
from the forests of which the sheets of thin bark we saw are said to be carried by
the winds. This can hardly be anywhere else than in the Map-chu valley. The
Gyang-chu should therefore partly be fed from the southern side of the Kubi-gangri
and, further east pierce the range, the highest part of which is the same Kubi-
gangri. But then one would expect to find the Gyang-chu as a very considerable
river, which is not at all the case. However, very much depends upon the general
configuration of the mountains. If the southern branch of the Tage-tsangpo, which
Ryder has marked with a dotted line on his map, really has the course Ryder be-
lieves, then a good deal of the water from the southern or rather western side of the
Kubi-gangri group goes to the Manasarovar. Another part may go to the Map-
chu, and only a comparatively small remainder to the Gyang-chu. Probably only
the S.E. part of the Kubi-gangri group drains to the Gyang-chu.

This part of N.W. Nepal, or the country S.W. of the Tibetan frontier is com-
pletely unknown and left as a blank on all maps. But from the information I got
it really seems likely that there are two ranges between the Map-chu of Purang and
the Kubi-tsangpo. S.E. of Gurla-mandata, Ryder has also two ranges, and this may
be the case still further south-westwards. Therefore it should be possible to reach
the southern side of Kubi-gangri by following the Gyang-chu upwards. This high
region has many interesting problems and surprises in store for future exploration.

From Shamsang, Nain Sing's and Ryder's »furthest south«, I had now, at
Camp 200, proceeded 53.2 km. or 32 miles S.W., and the general hydrographical
situation had become perfectly clear to me. I decided, however, to continue in the
direction of the glaciers. So, on July 12th, we marched another 16.1 km. or