Southern Tibet : vol.4 / Page 460 (Color Image)

0460	Southern Tibet : vol.4

Leaving the lake, we very slowly rise to the S. E., following a well-trodden
path and crossing others, the latter probably of wild animals. The soil is gravelly
and hard. A little beyond half-way, there is a very insignificant upheaval of the
ground, only some 20 m. above the surface of the salt lake, and probably the last
remains of an old beach-line. To the south we have the western cape of a detached
hill which seems to reach the vicinity of the southern shore of the lake. Both to
the S. E. and east, the country is open. According to Deasy's map, we could expect
to come across high snowy mountains in this direction, but still none were in sight.
From Deasy's route, which we now had some 45 km. behind us where it was nearest
to the west, it might, however, have been difficult to estimate the real distance of
the snowy mountains he has seen. Camp CCCXXXVI was pitched on the plain
near the little hill, on the slope of which was sufficient snow for our supply of
water. In the course of the march, two Tibetan ponies came running to our caravan
and accompanied us to the camp. They had obviously run away, perhaps from far,
for no tents, nor any other signs of nomads or hunters were in sight.

The weather had been good and cloudless, but at 1 o'clock p. m. a storm
broke out from the west, with greater fury than I had ever experienced in Tibet.
The whole country disappeared and even of the nearest hill, nothing could be seen.
At the same time the sky became thickly overclouded, and the bright day was changed
into twilight. Impenetrable clouds of yellowish red dust were swept along the ground.
The approach of the storm was noticed with a sound reminding one of that of a
jet of water put into a fire, though much stronger. An iron spade and an iron pot
were taken by the wind and could hardly be caught; only a very strong wind is
able to remove such heavy objects laying on the ground.

A very common form of soil on the Chang-tang plains is fine gravel in a
thin layer on the top of the dust. This arrangement is, of course, a result of the
sorting activity of the wind which carries away the dust, and leaves the gravel
behind. Such was also the case with the steppe around this camp; it looked as if
a vacuum cleaner had swept across the soil. We had already got, and would still
get, ample opportunity to settle the fact that the first months of the year, which
are also the coldest part of the winter, are the most windy of the whole year. We
had made the same observation the year before, on the way from Ngangtse-tso to
Shigatse, though the wind in those eastern and more protected parts was not quite
as strong as here on the open plateau-lands of the Chang-tang.

An hour before the storm broke out, I sketched Pan. 419a and b, Tab. 76.
The first part of it, to about east, shows the mountains which bound the plain on
the north. To the E. S. E. is the continuation of the great latitudinal valley we
had followed for such a long time. S. E., south and S. W., are the mountains
bounding the plain to the south, W. S. W. is the detached hill near our camp, and

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