Southern Tibet : vol.4 / Page 383 (Color Image)

0383	Southern Tibet : vol.4

On *November 24th,* we travelled 23.3 km. N. W. We had 11.2 km to the
pass, *Kongta-la,* 5,061 m. high, an ascent from *Chushul* of no less than 702 m.
and at a rate of 1: 16. From the pass to *Camp CCLXVII,* was a distance of
12.1 km. and a difference in height of 284 m., the latter place being at 4,777 m.;
the rate of fall is here 1: 43. We cross some small irrigation canals and a brook
from a spring, now open, and pass some *mani-rigmos* with inscribed stones, after
which our road rises towards the pass. On our right we now have the mighty
snow-range we had seen so many days, and which stands on the S. W. shore of
*Panggong-tso,* but now its snow-fields are hidden by lower slopes, shoulders and
ramifications. Here a caravan of 500 sheep was met with, carrying barley to *Rudok.*
Otherwise the country is as lifeless as before. The road runs at some height above
the bed of the principal watercourse of the valley from the pass which we have to
our left the whole time, and which is called *Ar.* To our right are mighty moun-
tains of grey quartz-biotite-diorite, eroded by several transverse valleys, with gravel
and blocks in their beds. On the S. W. side of the *Ar* valley, there is the black,
wild and rocky *Ladak Range.* In the background of the upper *Ar,* we have a
high snow-covered mass belonging to this range, and at its left side, west of the
pass, is another mass that had been in sight for a long time. In the valley itself
there is a winding ice-brook and on its sides, some grass.

Approaching the pass the road crosses two or three deep-cut valleys from the
mountains to the right, filled with gravel and boulders. They join the *Ar* valley
which keeps close to the base of the black rocks of the *Ladak Range.* On the
top of *Kongta-la* is a large cairn with poles, horns, rags and streamers. Wind-
worn boulders of quartz-biotite-diorite lay on the saddle. The slope down from its
N. W. side is gradual and the comparatively broad valley continues between the black
rocks to the left and the grey to the right. Above the rocky crests of the latter,
snow-patches now appear. The watercourse is dry and shallow. The soil consists
of coarse sand and gravel, the road is good. *Tasang* is a large tributary valley
from the S. W., in the background of which a portion of the *Ladak Range* again
appears. Four tents were pitched in the middle of the valley, and at *Kongma-lung-
kongma, Camp CCLXVII,* there were two. In the high regions of the rocks N. E.
of that place, was a little hanging glacier.

On *November 25th,* we travelled 30 km. N. W. As *Camp CCLXVIII* has
a height of 4,411 m., we again descended 366 m. or at a rate of 1:82. Leaving
the camp, we cross the valley diagonally, also two dry watercourses, after which we
descend among heaps of gravel and blocks. The principal watercourse of the valley
is to our left; it is frozen, but we hear the murmuring of water below the ice. From
the left, the valley *Puryok* enters, from the right, *Kuni.* Occasionally ice ribbons
come down from the sides. The mountains to our right are rocky and wild and
26. 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