Southern Tibet : vol.4 / Page 240 (Color Image)

0240	Southern Tibet : vol.4

same direction as Wellby and Malcolm and then turned to the S. E. or south, we
would probably also have come across both hunters and nomads. The annual
wanderings between *Gertse* and *Lashung*, *Gomo* and other places on our route are
not to be regarded as something extraordinary, for quite similar wanderings are, no
doubt, undertaken in other parts of *Chang-tang*. Yet we know very little of them.
We really only know a few particular cases which could with certainty be marked
on maps. How very interesting it would be to be able to mark all the routes of
the wandering nomads on a large-scale map! Only in the future such a map can
be drawn. The same may be said of the gold-diggers. But probably their wanderings
are very regular. The principal thing for them is to reach their gold mines as quickly
as possible. They are less dependent on grazing grounds than the nomads, as they
usually have only a few ponies with them, and the Tibetan ponies are, in case of
need, nourished with flesh. But so long as we are unable to tell where all the
different gold-mines are situated, and which of them are abandoned and which still
in use, and from where the professional gold-miners come, we cannot think of a
general map showing their yearly wanderings. We were now and would still for a
rather long time, or to the southern parts of *Transhimalaya*, travel through parts of
Tibet where there is no permanent population, and where the human beings met
with were like birds of passage. Still the problem of their wanderings is a most
fascinating one, and a map of their annual migrations would give a very clear idea
of their conditions of life as well as of the natural capacity of the country.

The march of *November 25th* is interesting in so far as it takes us, in a
distance of 12.3 km. to the S. S. E., from a height of 4,904 to 4,706 m. or a fall of
198 m., being the same as 1 : 62. During the last four days the absolute altitude
had thus constantly diminished from 5,167 to 5,103, 4,999, 4,904 and finally 4,706,
showing that we had reached an unusually low depression.

The S. W. storm ceased and the temperature again sank: last night to
—26.8°. I have said before that the hard winter storms were more trying for the
animals than anything else. In the night before and the morning of November 25th,
4 mules died, and only 8 were left. The last storm had been too hard for them.
The ponies of *Sanskar* and *Ladak* proved, in the long run, to stand the atrocities
of the climate better than the mules. It would be of a certain physiological interest
to mark out on a map the places where ponies and mules died, and to enter the
date, the absolute altitude, the temperature and the strength of the wind. No doubt
such a map would show the relation between the capacity of resistance of the ani-
mals and the climatic elements. As a rule the effects of the bad influences, as for
instance, lack of grass and water, will be delayed, so that occasionally some animals
may die at a comparatively low place with good grass and water and no wind, if
they, during the preceding days have had to endure cold, storms and starvation.

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