Southern Tibet : vol.4 / Page 455 (Color Image)

0455	Southern Tibet : vol.4

its very shallow erosion furrows and beds it, however, seems to fall from north to
south. On all sides, it is surrounded by mountains. Those to the south are com-
paratively low. Between the latter, there is, no doubt, a passage by which the
watercourse of the valley pierces its way southwards. This would also be in perfect
accordance with Deasy's map. For several days he travelled in a meridional valley
which he calls *Damtang-lungpa*. The watercourse of our *Camps CCCXXX* and
*CCCXXXI,* is obviously one of the uppermost feeders of this meridional valley, and
somewhere in the eastern part of the arena plain, not far from *Camp CCCXXXII,*
we must have crossed Deasy's route.

To the E. S. E., was the opening of the valley to which we steered. It seemed
to lead to a very flat threshold beyond which, far away, a mountain was visible.
This seemed to indicate comparatively level ground for a few days' march. The
arena valley was about 10 km. broad and 8 km. on our road. It would have been
very comfortable for our march if it had not been snow-covered to nine tenths of
its area. The snow lay one foot deep, and in erosion beds which we had to cross,
two or three feet. Sometimes the surface of the snowdrifts was so wind-beaten, frozen
and hard, that our animals could pass without breaking through. Grass was seen
only at a place in the western part of the plain, which otherwise has only some
moss and *yapchan* plants. Only antelopes were grazing, two wolves were seen; of
yaks and kyangs only the dung. Of human visits no sign, not even a path. Entering
the valley on the east side of the plain, we very slowly ascended to the little thre-
shold which is so flat that it is impossible to tell where it is situated. On its eastern
side the slope is just as gradual to *Camp CCCXXXII,* where the vegetation was
the same as hitherto, and the amount of snow not quite as great. From this camp,
Pan. 415, Tab. 75, is drawn showing the valley to the N. 66° W. in the direction
of the little threshold. Pan. 416, Tab. 75, is a view of the continuation of the
valley to S. 68° E. the way we had to travel the next day.

It is a very characteristic and interesting feature that the latitudinal valleys
are so well developed in this part of western Tibet as we had found on our cross-
ing nearly the whole way from the Lake of *Aksai-chin.* Of course we had met
some irregularities in this long distance, and we had had to cross two very high
and several lower passes and thresholds, but this does not interfere with the fact
that the mountain ranges in western Tibet follow the orographical laws so well known
for the stretching of western *Himalaya* and western *Kara-korum,* and dictate the
N. W.—S. E. running of the latitudinal valleys. Particularly from *Shemen-tso* our
valley had been regular and typical. In one respect the latitudinal valleys of Western
Tibet are, as a rule, very unlike those of Eastern Tibet, *viz.* that the former are
much narrower as *e. g.* the valley of *Camp CCCXXX.* This, of course, simply de-
pends upon the fact that the mountain ranges of Western Tibet, on account of

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