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

water. At some places fresh water springs appear round the swamp. This place is
called Putse.

On the north, west and south this depression is bounded by hills. From
the Manasarovar it is separated by the ordinary wall of gravel and sand, which,
on August 16th, was 6.9 m. above the lake. The distance between the edge of
the lake and the nearest shore of the salt swamp was now 406 m., and the surface
of the swamp stood 2.35 m. lower than that of the Manasarovar. At the interior or
western side of the gravel wall some perfectly clear fresh-water springs came out
forming small water courses going to the swamp. The springs had a temperature
of 3.4° C. or some 8° colder than the lake and 6° colder than the salt pools. The
lake water pierces the filter of the gravel and sand of the wall, but just below the
horizon where these springs come out there is a layer of clay which is impermeable.
In spite of the fact that the neck between the lake and the depression is so much
as 400 m. broad, the water communicates underground through it from east to west.
The consistence of the hills and the ground being clay makes it impossible for the
water to continue to the Rakas-tal. It evaporates in the depression and only salt and
gypsum are left, the latter forming white tables and cubes and making the outlines of
the pools very irregular. If the whole neck between the Manasarovar and Rakas-tal
were permeable, the water could as easily constantly pour underground from the
eastern lake to the western. How far this takes place along one or several lines
across the neck I cannot say. At Putse, at any rate, there is no such communica-
tion. Putse is rather what the Germans call a ›Salzpfanne‹, and a formation belong-
ing to the same sort as the Kara-bughas of the Caspian. As to the possibility of the
water crossing the whole neck this would probably be possible only at one or two
places, for most of the neck consists of solid rock. Even when such is not visible it
may be hidden by detritus. At the point where the hills rise only 58 m. above the
Manasarovar there does not seem to exist any hard rock. The fragments on this
part of the neck were graywacke, calcedon and gneiss-granite.

In 1907, the surface of the Manasarovar was only a few inches above the im-
permeable clay layer. Therefore the springs were not abundant. But when the lake is
rising as in 1909 and 1910, the springs must be much more abundant and the pools
of the depression larger. If the lake falls below its stand in 1907, the salt pools may
perhaps be completely cut off, though, curiously enough, the most abundant springs
were not visible near the gravel wall, but at the south-western edge of the depression.
The question whether the neck between the two lakes allows water to pass
underground or not, does not, however play any important part, for even if such a
communication takes place it does not interfere with the functions of the channel.

At Camp 214 there are two beach lines in the hills, the higher being 20.1 m.,
the lower 8.1 m. above the surface of the lake, on August 16th.

From Camp 214 to Chiu-gompa the solid rock stands steep along the shore,
only seldom interrupted by detritus. Higher up, the hills are rounded as usual,