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

outside would have taken him to the source of the Indus, which at the farthest point
he visited was still a good-sized stream.¹ The robbers seemed to belong to the
nomadic inhabitants of the Shellifuk (Selipuk) and Majin districts, who were noted
as professional robbers.

After his return, on September 4th, the whole party left Giachuruff and went
down the Indus. On September 12th they reached the junction of the Indus and
Gartok rivers. Quite correctly the Pundits regarded the eastern branch as the
head river. ¹

From the junction the third Pundit went to Demchok and the Ladak frontier,
and the first, Nain Sing, to Gartok. As to this name he found it to be a corruption
of Gartod or upper Gar, but it was also called Gar-Yársá from yársá summer and
sa abode. The lower place was called Gár-Gunsá, from gunga winter, and sa abode.

Over Totling they returned to Badrinath, after 18,000 square miles survey,
850 miles route-survey, 80 heights and 75 latitudes. From Totling to Shipki the
route had not been surveyed before. Montgomerie sums up the important results
of this expedition as follows:²

»The routes have also defined the courses of both the upper branches of the River
Indus from near their sources to their junction, and the conjoint stream from that point into
Ladak. Neither of these branches had been previously surveyed in any way, except a small
portion of the Gartok branch above Gartok, which had been roughly laid down by Moorcroft.
— The existence of the eastern branch was doubted by many geographers, as no Europeans
had ever seen it.³ The Pundit's route has now proved that this eastern branch is the main
stream known to the natives as Singh-gi-Chu or Singh-gi-Khamba (Lion's mouth), the River
Indus itself, whilst the other branch, hitherto generally supposed to have been the main stream,
is much smaller than the eastern one, and invariably called the Garjung-Chu.⁴ — A number
of lofty snowy peaks were determined from various stations of the route-survey, the most
remarkable being the Aling-Gangri group north of the Indus, which, judging from the great
mass of snow seen on the southern face during August and September, must be upwards of
23,000 feet above the sea, possibly as much as 24,000 feet. The Aling-Gangri group had
never, as far as I am aware, been heard of before. They appear to be a continuation of the
range between the Indus and the Pangkong Lake. The Pundit could see no farther continua-
tion of the range to the East of Thok-jalung. — The Pundits crossed the great range between
the Satlej and the Indus three times, that between Gartok and Chajothol once, between Chajo-
thol and Giachuruff once, the Chomorang Range twice, and the Himalaya Range three times,
each of the crossings involving a pass of over 17,000 feet, two of them being over 19,000 feet.«

As to the real source of the Indus Montgomerie makes the following interesting
reflections, showing that he felt inclined to let the Indus rise from Kailas, although
he found it more probable that it came from a place farther east.⁵