Southern Tibet : vol.4 / Page 200 (Color Image)

0200	Southern Tibet : vol.4

of pebbles and shingle and detritus material, but soon afterwards opens out into the
plain. The floor of the valley was red from the sandstone gravel and white from
salt crystallisations. In the upper reaches of this valley there were numerous yaks
and antelopes. Of the latter, herds were also seen on the plain north of the lake.
Having climbed up again on the southern side of the valley, we camped at the foot
of a red mountain, where again a square wall was seen with a fireplace protected
with a roof of stones. In front of us to the south was seen a cairn, *lamga teur*
as the Ladakis say, showing where the road passes. Pan. 62, Tab. 10, shows the
view from this camp. The rest of the horizon was hidden by the hills behind us.

On *November 7th* we continued the march around the eastern side of the
great, red sandstone group for 11.3 km., generally to the S. S. W. In the course of
this march the absolute height remains about the same, *Camp LV* being at 5,011 m.
and *Camp LVI* at 5,016 m. The minima of the nights were some degrees higher
than before, *e. g.* the night to the 7th of November — 19.4°, and the S. W. wind
was not quite so strong.

From the camp our road goes steeply up to a hill from which the lake is
again visible and proves to be small and round. Then we march up and down on
very uncomfortable ground consisting of nothing but sharp-edged gravel forming
mighty screes down to the western shore of the lake. No vegetation gets time to
grow up in the gravel which constantly increases after every new fall and sliding
of the destroyed rocks from above. The rocks rise in steep, sometimes perpendicular
walls immediately to the right of our road, and are pierced by a series of deep-cut,
narrow, wild gorges. From these issue narrow beds with their floors full of gravel
and blocks. We have, therefore, to cross a series of screes with erosion valleys
between. The rocks here consist of grey schistose clastophyric quartzite, and white
quartz included in greyish green schist. Through the opening of one particularly
large valley, considerable mountain cupolas were seen to the west, probably the
highest part of the group. From this valley a brook went to the lake, among extensive
ice-sheets. We are at an average height of about 50 m. above *Lashung-tso*, as
we later on were told was the name of this lake, the western shore of which we
slowly approached. Hares were numerous. On the nearly perpendicular cliffs above
us two flocks of *Ovis ammon* of 9 and 5 individuals resp. were seen.

Farther on we had to cross an erosion furrow easily 100 m. broad and filled
with boulders, sharp-edged blocks and gravel without any kind of cement of finer
material between. Hills and slopes of black gravel fall down to the very shore of
the lake. When we are nearest the lake there is a semi-circular stone wall with its
convexity to the south. At *Camp LV* a similar construction was convex to the
north, which seems to indicate that the mountain group acts as a wind-parting. The
lake proved to be salt, though it was completely frozen over. Its colour was white

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