Southern Tibet : vol.4 / Page 161 (Color Image)

0161	Southern Tibet : vol.4

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In the beginning of the march the ground is a little undulating, a low thre-
shold does not even reach the height of the Camp XXXIX. From here the view
is about the same as before, and the relief of the highland is a multitude of short
ranges, flat and stretching chiefly from west to east with latitudinal valleys between. The
region we cross seems to be comparatively high, for as a rule we see three or four
different ranges beyond each other, and nearly always they are so short that both
the western and the eastern end of each of them is visible. There are no high
dominating ranges or peaks, and no snow except that which had fallen during the
last night and which had tinted different mountains white whilst others were bare,
showing that the snow had fallen in unequal showers. In spite of its very changing
relief in detail, the country as a whole seems fairly level where the horizon is at a
great distance.

From the last threshold we follow a sharply marked valley downwards to the
E. S. E. It has cut its erosion bed through solid rock of limestone-breccia. A
spring comes up in its bed, and the ice-sheets from its brook continue the whole
way until the valley opens out into the next flat basin. The slopes at the sides are
partly soft material, partly rocks. The valley is sometimes only a few meters broad.
Finally it emerges into the flat basin and here its watercourse turns to the S. S. E.
in the direction of a small lake oblong from north to south, and now for the greater
part dried up. The dry remainder of its bed resembled a light grey or white plain.
Beyond this basin and south of it a rather low pass seemed to be situated, which
ought to have presented a comfortable march. Continuing E. S. E. we cross two
more erosion beds, the second of which was very considerable and proved that in
the summer a large amount of water occasionally may flow down to the lake which
at that season no doubt becomes filled with a layer of very shallow water. On the
right side of this bed was an erosion terrace 2.5 m. high and perpendicular. In the
bottom of the bed was gravel, of moderate size, and sand, but no silt. The water
had only two or three months ago, flowed down in several branches some of which
had cut themselves one foot deep in the general bed. On the left side of the latter
there was no trace of a terrace. The bed gradually, and without a sharp boundary,
went over into the gravelly plain of the flat basin. This basin, like a few other
depressions on the plateau-land, is oblong in a meridional sense and, therefore, an
exception to the general rule of the west-east stretching. On both sides were low
hills, small promontories projecting here and there towards the lake basin like side-scenes.

There was grass the whole way to the great erosion bed. It was indeed a
rather agreeable surprise to find grass practically everywhere in these high regions
of northern Tibet, where one would have expected a very barren soil. In this
respect north-eastern Tibet is very different. There, I had marched for days without
seeing a single blade of grass. On the other hand wild onions were abundant in
10. IV.

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

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

Citation Information

OCR Text

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