Southern Tibet : vol.3 / 153 ページ（カラー画像）

0153	Southern Tibet : vol.3
南チベット : vol.3

its course from the east to the west (!). Then Chúshér, Chabná and the city Chang»,
»south of which flows the river Yékó-Chángó, before mentioned. Two cos from
Changé »is a mountain over which you pass». At its base is the village of Nám.
The 34th stage goes to a mountain, Láchain-Lachún. »In this stage you again see
the Yékó-Chángó river. Then Nitáng, and Thi-sambar. The 36th stage: Lahassa,
first passing Birbum, situated at the base of a mountain called Kimbú.»

At the time when it was published, 1832, this itinerary was no doubt of great
interest. The traveller seems not to have had any gift for understanding rivers and
their directions.

The following description of the general orography of the Himalaya may
serve as a contribution to Hodgson's characteristics as a student of physical geog-
raphy.¹ His map of 1857 (Pl. XV) gives a good idea of the subject. Already the
introduction is interesting: »The details of Geography, ordinarily so called, are
wearisomely insignificant; but the grand features of physical geography have a preg-
nant value, as being alike suggestive of new knowledge, and facilitative of the orderly
distribution and ready retention of old. — I had been for several years a traveller
in the Himalaya before I could get rid of that tyranny of the senses which so
strongly impresses almost all beholders of this stupendous scenery with the conviction
that the mighty maze is quite without a plan. My first step towards freedom from
the overpowering obtrusiveness of impressions of sense was obtained by steady
attention to the fact that the vast volume of the Himalayan waters, flows more or
less at right angles to the general direction of the Himalaya, but so that the number-
less streams of the mountains are directed into a few grand rivers of the plains,
either at or near the confines of the two regions.» He shows »that the great peaks
bound instead of intersecting the alpine river basins, and that, in truth, the peaks
by so bounding create the basins, whereas their intersection would destroy them.»
On these principles he represents a series of well defined basins on his map. There,
he says, it will be seen »that the lateral barriers of the river basins are crowned by
the pre-eminent Himalayan peaks, that the peaks themselves have a forward position
in respect to the ghát line or great longitudinal watershed between Tibet and India,
and that from these stupendous peaks, ridges are sent forth southwards proportionally
immense». He describes the different ridges sent forth from different peaks and
separating the waters of the Kosi, Tista, Gandak, Karnali, Ganges and Jumna from
their neighbours. The general conclusion is: »It is inconsistent with all we know of
the action of those hypogene forces which raise mountains, to suppose that the points
of greatest intensity in the pristine action of such forces, as marked by the loftiest
peaks, should not be surrounded by a proportionate circumjacent intumescence of
the general mass; and if there be such an intumescence of the general surface around
each pre-eminent Himalayan peak, it will follow, as clearly in logical sequence as in

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