Southern Tibet : vol.4 / Page 517 (Color Image)

0517	Southern Tibet : vol.4

side of the *Kailas*. At 2 km. from *Camp CCCCLVI*, our road crossed a rather
insignificant depression with swampy ground which farther S. E., contained some pools
of stagnant water. This was the old bed of the *Satlej*. Then it was left out of
sight until *Camp CCCCLVI*, *Serlep-yung*, which was pitched at the left side of
the *Satlej* bed. Here it contained both pools and springs, though the water was
not good. According to my instruments, the absolute altitude of the place was
4,585 m. This would be 4 m. below the surface of *Rakas-tal*, and we would have
passed the little threshold, from which the *Satlej* bed begins to fall N. W.

As the hypsometrical relations along the valley of the *Satlej* are of great
interest, and give a very clear conception of the accentuated relief, I am going to
give the distances and absolute altitudes of the following stages. We have just left
the *Manasarovar* with 4,602 m. and *Rakas-tal* with 4,589 m., and our journey
from *Tokchen* to *Serlep-yung* has been accomplished at approximately the same
altitude, or on the platform of a high plateau-land surrounded by gigantic moun-
tains. We have found that the plateau-land of *Manasarovar* was somewhat higher than
certain parts of the *Chang-tang* plateau, for instance, between *Camps CCCLXVII*
and *CCCLXVIII*. From the mountains surrounding the Sacred Lake, the *Brah-
maputra*, the *Indus* and the *Satlej* take their rise, their upper courses and their
upper tributaries belonging to what v. Richthofen calls the peripheric region, inside
of which is the great self-contained area of Central Asia. The greater part of my
journey falls within the boundaries of the latter area. My journey along the *Satlej*,
traverses a mountainous country, a part of *Himalaya*, that is typically peripheric.
The road I took is well-known since many years, and has been described several
times. Still I enter my own geographical, topographical and hypsometrical obser-
vations, or, at any rate, their principal features, in order not to miss the opportunity
of giving an example of the great morphological difference between the plateau-land
with the horizontal lines prevailing, and the peripheric region with the vertical, or
at least very steep lines, prevailing. The profile line of the route, of course, becomes
very irregular on account of its not running along the river itself, which would be
impossible, as the river flows, for long distances, in deep-cut gorges with vertical rocks.
It runs wherever it is possible, between hills and across passes at the sides of the
river. Therefore, though the road as a whole goes down, it sometimes happens that
a certain camp has a greater altitude than the one preceding. During the first stages
from *Serlep-yung*, where the slope downwards begins, the fall is very gradual, some-
times insignificant, though not quite as gentle as the *Gartong* and Upper *Indus*.
The great differences of altitude belong to the latter half of the road.

Thus the section from *Serlep-yung* or *Camp CCCCLVI*, on a march of 13 km.,
on *July 29th, 1908*, to *Chukta-lung pa* or *Camp CCCCLVII*, the ground rises from
4,585 m. to 4,615 m. or 30 m. which is a rate of only 1:433. The rise of the
39. 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