Southern Tibet : vol.4 / Page 475 (Color Image)

0475	Southern Tibet : vol.4

depressions of the same kind, though now without water, were passed. The living
rock here about and in the small ridges, consists of grey, fine-grained granitite.

In front of us and at the base of the mountains to the N. E. of our valley,
we came in sight of a lake of moderate size. Beyond it, to the S. E. a farther range
was visible at about two days' distance. The ground slowly falls to the lake, and
is hard and easy for the march, consisting of fine gravel, somewhat undulated and
traversed by shallow erosion furrows. There is some grass growing, and here and
there, a small patch of snow is left. In the direction of our course, there is a black
promontory from a ridge to the right or S. W. side of the main valley. To the
S. W., the country seems to be very open for a considerable distance, and the ground
here forms flat, long-stretched undulations. As we came down on the even plain
of the lake, the S. W. wind began, and the landscape disappeared in a few minutes.

We approach the lake. Its western shore is striped in white and brownish
red belts running S. W.—N. E., the former being salt deposits, the latter wind-driven
dust. At some places the bluish green lake was open, the water thus being very
salt. Along the S. W. shore, there is a belt of very good grass, one foot in height.
This belt of vegetation is only about 200 m. broad and it has a sharp boundary to
the nearly perfectly barren soil. At the foot of the black promontory, three camping
places were seen, all of them with stone walls for the sheep. At Camp CCCXLVII,
were also the remains of old camping grounds with fireplaces of stone. On Pan. 429 A
and B, Tab. 78, we see to the N. W. the running of the valley we had been following.
To the north, N. E. and east, is the red mountain range bordering the lake at this
side, and in the foreground is the lake itself.

In the afternoon the storm grew to the greatest violence I have witnessed. It
must have been at least 30 m. a second. The temperature was unusually high,
+2,1° at 1 o'clock p. m. It would have been absolutely impossible to proceed against
this storm, and a traveller who makes the attempt of crossing western Tibet to
the S. W., will have to start at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. It is not only dust
and sand, but also small stones that are carried away by the wind, and one has to
protect the face from being badly whipped by them. Our men, fetching ice from the
lake which was at a distance of 100 m., had to go with their back to the wind in
returning to prevent being scourged by this hail of stones. As I have pointed out
many times before in this narrative, we again got a very graphic illustration of the
importance of the wind as an agency of transport and of the levelling of the country.
After two winters in the Chang-tang, one has a perfectly clear understanding of the
whole procedure. Such a storm as the one of March 6th, is a magnificent spectacle.
After a sunny, bright and nearly calm morning, the day is changed into twilight,
sometimes even darkness. Of the landscape, only the nearest part of the grazing
ground was seen, even the shore disappeared, and above us and along the ground,

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

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books