Southern Tibet : vol.4 / 431 ページ（カラー画像）

0431	Southern Tibet : vol.4
南チベット : vol.4

range bordering our latitudinal valley on the north, is very rugged and rocky with
steep pyramidal peaks cropping up out of the heaps of detritus. It was of a reddish
yellow colour. To the right or south of our route, we had low rounded hills.
Finally the valley becomes broad and open. The principal watercourse is crossed
through 1 m. deep snow, after which we keep to the top of the left terrace where
the snow is swept away by the wind. The bed follows the base of the southern
hills. Several small furrows from the rocky range to the north go down to the
principal bed. The ground was sand and fine gravel. In the mouth of a little
valley to the south, some grass appeared, and here we pitched our Camp CCCXVII.
The snow was less deep here than higher up in the valley. There was no wind, but
it went on snowing. At 3 o'clock p. m. a regular gale came from the S. W. With
indescribable fury it blew through the valley, and at the same time it snowed very
fast. The temperature was at — 16.4°. It is difficult to imagine the hardships of
such a journey. Only very little fuel could be found as everything was covered
with snow. Eleven wild yaks were seen on a snowy hill in the neighbourhood
where we camped. No other tracks of wild animals had been noticed. A little
higher up in the valley we had seen a fireplace made of three stones where Tibetan
hunters had camped, perhaps long ago. This was the first time since Arport-tso,
that we had passed a place visited by natives. At 10.30 o'clock p. m. the severe
snow-storm ceased. At 9 o'clock the stars were visible through the snow-fog.

On January 31st, we marched only 4.7 km. to the S. E., the valley falling
76 m. or at a rate of 1 : 62. The temperature in the night, had been down to
—26.9°; it snowed again in the morning, and nothing could be discerned of the sur-
roundings. We had, therefore, only to follow the chief erosion bed of the valley,
which, a short distance below Camp CCCXVII, turns around a black projecting
rock at the right side. The snow was now about one foot deep everywhere, and
two or three feet in the erosion beds. In the mouth of a little side valley to the
right, some yellow grass-straws peeped up through the snow. At another place
the three usual stones proved that hunters had been camping, as the country is too
high and too far north for nomads. The valley falls extremely slowly to the S. E.
At a place where the wind had blown away the snow and the grass was good we
made Camp CCCXVIII, at a height of 5,249 m. Fuel, consisting of plants and yak
dung, was plentiful. Four wild yaks were seen retiring to the west.

Early in the afternoon Shemen-tso became visible to the S. E. The shore-
line of the lake could easily be distinguished, though only on the northern side, for
the southern disappeared in snow-fog. The plain just north of the lake, appeared to
be dark as if no snow had fallen there. It, therefore, seemed probable that we were
going to leave behind us the very high protuberance of the plateau-land, where the
greatest amount of the snow falls in January. Ever since we had reached these

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国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ