Southern Tibet : vol.4 / Page 342 (Color Image)

0342	Southern Tibet : vol.4

reason enough to make the soil soft as there are no roots to make it solid. Due
to the same reason, the rabbits are particularly numerous in the west as they live
on the roots. Curiously enough we had not seen a single marmot on the western
route, whilst such animals were common farther east. Nor had we seen a single
bear on the western route, only on the eastern ones, which seems to be due to the
bear's liking the marmots' flesh.

The material filling the latitudinal valleys and depressions in the east, is as a
rule, finer than that in the western parts of the plateau-land, which is due to the
sorting action of the prevailing winds. Probably the S. W. and W. S. W. wind is,
as a rule, stronger in the western parts of High Tibet than in the eastern. The
fine material is, therefore, carried away from west to east, and reaching the eastern
regions, it settles down and is deposited in the depressions. Valleys and plains
covered with gravel are, therefore, more numerous in the west than in the east, due
to the sorting power of the wind. It may also depend on the greater corrasive
action of the wind, that the levelled plateau-like character with rounded flat mountains
and small relative differences of altitude between crests and valleys, is more pronounced
in the west than in the east. On the eastern routes I crossed higher and more
difficult passes than on the route of 1906, on which we did not cross a single
difficult pass. By purely morphological reasons and on account of the existence of
grass, the western route is, therefore, easier. The great mortality among the caravan
animals, only 10%, of them reaching Camp CVIII, is caused chiefly by the wind.

We had not crossed a single high pass or a single mighty range that could
be suspected of being the south-eastern continuation of the Kara-korum Mountains.
In my Scientific Results, I had expressed the opinion that this mighty system must
cross the whole of High Tibet and reappear in the Tang-la System in the east.
But in 1905, when this theory was written down, nearly nothing was known of
the central Transhimalaya. At the end of this work, I shall have to enter upon
this most important and interesting problem.

The continuation of my journey from Camp CVIII the whole way to Gartok,
including the first five crossings of the Transhimalaya, has been described in Vol. III
p. 247 et seq. In Vol. II, I have described my researches in the valley of the
Tsangpo and on and around the Manasarovar and Rakas-tal, as well as the
sources of the Brahmaputra, the Satlej and the Indus. The only thing that remains
to do is, therefore, to describe the physical geography and morphology of my route
from Gartok, through the Indus valley, back to Ladak and up through the Shayok
valley to Changtang where the second great crossing of High Tibet begins and
stretches the whole way down to Chunit-tso, where we again come into contact with
the last three crossings of the Transhimalaya, described in Vol. III.

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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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