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

on the Rhine. Still the valley is narrow; the roads on each side are situated in the
slopes, and sometimes forced down to the very bank by promontories of rock.
Sometimes, at the southern side, the road is built some 40m. above the water-level
along the very rock. Beyond the village Tse, situated in the opening of a northern
tributary, our path is full of gravel; the valley is here about 400m. broad, but then
a southern tributary comes out with a great fan sloping some 10° to the main valley
which therefore becomes wider. At its junction the Tse brook forms an acute angle
with the main river the wrong way, an irregularity which is common in this hydro-
graphic system. At one place the Tsangpo sweeps along the northern side of the
valley, and here the road, laid with stones, runs nearly at the same level with the
water, and, sometimes a few metres above it. A little further on the granite rocks
fall nearly perpendicular into the river, and one has to ride in the water; the bed
is hard sand; the summer-road crosses the cliffs. Here the river is very narrow and
forms small rapids, but just above the place it is a wide, dark and deep basin, with
a very slow current.
Beyond the narrow passage the valley may be 800m. wide, and there is more
space on the north side, where a few bushes grow. Gisü-pu is a northern tributary
the fan of which goes down to the very river. Chujung is a gorge from the south.
At Tangnak the Tsangpo again touches the northern side and forces the road down
to the river. At the southern side is the village of Mingi with some huts, gardens
and fields, and a sharply marked erosion terrace. Sometimes the Tsangpo is up to
100m. broad. Still the valley is so narrow that even the high-water cannot make
the river much broader than it was now. At flat wide places, such as Ye, the valley
must look like a lake when the high-water comes down.
At Chaga, a village of a few huts, the height is 4,012m. (13,159 feet). Opposite
is Pindsoling on its rocky ridge. Here is a chaksam or iron-chain bridge, in a bad
state of repair and not in use. The inhabitants of Chaga said that the river, from
now, would rise a little from the melting of river-ice further west; if the weather
remains clear and warm for some days this rise becomes stronger. In the beginning
of June the river should stand about 2m. higher than at present. At the beginning of
August the water-level should nearly touch the chains of the bridge, which, at their
lower part, seemed to be some 5 or 6m. above the water. This happens only in
very rainy summers and for 10 days or two weeks. At the beginning of October
the Tsangpo was said to be still 2m. higher than now, at the beginning of April.
Even in the first days of November it stands higher than in April, and only the
beginning of December will see it go down to the present level, and then freeze.
It was said never to become lower than in April and December, which seems unlikely,
for much water must be bound during January and February.
At Chaga the current is so strong that the Tsangpo never freezes all the way
across; even during very cold winters there is an open channel in the middle. Hide-
boats go down to Shigatse in 4 or 5 days now, in 2 or 3 days in summer, and