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

easy to control the information given, and to find out that the same names were
always given to the same objects by all three guides if questioned separately. Later
on the Mukchung-simo proved to be, not a double peak, but a prismatic ridge. To
the right of it, south-westwards, was a distant peak called Gave-ting. To the W.S.W.
and W. are several other peaks and some considerable glaciers, amongst them Chema-
yundung-pu, the cradle of the river of the same name. N. 72° W. is a black peak,
Dugri, visible from the road to Tage-tsangpo.

The bottom of the valley and the whole foreground of the landscape is domi-
nated by the heavy grey rapids of the Kubi-tsangpo, which already here, at the front
of its mother-glaciers, makes the impression of a mighty river receiving some strong
tributaries from its right side. Grass grows on the banks, close and low as velvet;
the ground is a little undulating; it is a rough, cold, and windy region, a high-alpine
nature, a magnificent and picturesque view, the cradle of one of the most famous
rivers on the earth.

At the southern foot of the little pass are the three small moraine-lakes, Tso-
niti, dammed up by the front-moraines of old glaciers, which have now retreated
into the mountains. The three lakes are at different absolute altitudes though the
difference is only a few metres. Again we cross a labyrinth of old moraines, some
of them rather steep. To our right, N.W., stretches the ridge we have just crossed,
and from its crest several now dry ravines go down to the left side of the Kubi.
Camp 200, Hlayak, is at 4,861 m. (15,944 feet), near a little moraine-pool and a brook
from a spring. This is a well-known camping-ground; the grass is good, and, at the
end of July, 15 or 20 tents arrive to pass six weeks at Hlayak, or until the first snow
forces them to return to Shamsang and Chang-tang. During the winter the snow
is generally some five feet deep in this region, and if a heavy snowfall comes
early in autumn the situation of the nomads and their flocks may be very critical.
Ryder and Rawling had 1½ foot of snow even on the Maryum-la with its half
Chang-tang climate. My guides, who used to pass the summer at Hlayak and still
further south, informed me that when the great masses of snow, which during the
winter fall in the upper reaches of Kubi-tsangpo, begin to melt in the late spring
at the same time when the ice of the river breaks up, a very considerable amount
of water flows down through the bed of Kubi-tsangpo. This high-water of the spring
was even said to be more considerable than the high-water of the rainy season in
the autumn. This may indeed be the case in these uppermost regions, but lower
down the Martsang-tsangpo certainly rises more in the autumn than in the spring.

Near Camp 200 a right tributary, Lungyung, from the S.E., enters the Kubi;
its brook comes from a mountain region called Lungyung-pu. Below this valley,
and the whole way to the junction with the Chema-yundung-pu the Kubi is said not
to receive a single tributary worth mentioning, only small, usually dry ravines. Even
here, so near the source, the Kubi is very difficult to cross. After sunny summer-
days it is impossible, but after cold cloudy days the river sinks and may be forded