Southern Tibet : vol.4 / Page 178 (Color Image)

0178	Southern Tibet : vol.4

system behind. This last day's march had cost the life of one fifth of the caravan,
and the condition of all the surviving animals had by no means been improved by
the hardships. In such cases as this it would always be better thoroughly to re-
connoitre the region to make sure whether it is practicable for the caravan. After
such hardships as these, one has only one thing to do to save the rest of the cara-
van and avoiding a catastrophe, and that is to find a place with good grass and
water and give the animals a few days' rest.
So on October 24th we only covered 5.9 km. to the E. S. E. and S. E. to
Camp XLVIII where the height was 5,153 m., or 70 m. below Camp XLVII, giving
a rate of descent as 1:84. Our route follows the base of the hills to our right or
S. W., where innumerable small, dry watercourses are crossed, all very shallow and
some containing ice. To our left is the plain, partly covered with sand and gravel,
partly with grass. To the east and N. E. it is bounded by low hills. To the north is
a snow-covered range of moderate size, being either the continuation of, or a rami-
fication from, the range we had just crossed. At Camp XLVIII the grass was very
good, and there was a large amount of wild yak's dung. A spring gave good
water which formed extensive ice-sheets. The soil consisted of sand and gravel. A
short distance south of the camp is a salt lake which seemed to be oblong from
N. N. E. to S. S. W., though, as a rule, it is difficult to determine the contours of the
lakes from a distance. It was surrounded by a ring of white salt crystallisations,
and was frozen hard. The whole day a S. W. storm was blowing which did not
cease until dark.
From Camp XLVIII Pan. 59, Tab. 10, was drawn from north over east to
south, the rest of the horizon being hidden by the hills at the base of which we
camped. It shows all the hills visible in that direction, the greatest part of the lake,
except its western shore, and to S. 57° E. it shows the low region we were going
to cross the next day.
At about 1 km. S. 16° W. from the camp we found some curious ruins of three
small houses. They had been built at perhaps 30 or 40 m. above the lake on the
slope of the hills. Properly it was only square ground walls, which perhaps rather
had served as a foundation for small black tents, for the walls were only 1 foot
above the sandy ground around it. By digging we found that the walls continued
about 1 foot under the sand, which had partly buried them. Grass was growing
on the top of this sand, and the ruins may be very old. The walls consisted of
flat stones of reddish quartzitic sandstone which was common in the neighbourhood.
The two best preserved walls were built quite near each other and faced to the
S. 80° E. The sides of the bigger were 4.0×3.1 m., and of the smaller, 2.2×2.2. At
the west side of the former there was a little appendix about 1 m. square. The
third square was either obliterated or had never been completed. Quite close

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