Southern Tibet : vol.7 / 489 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0489	Southern Tibet : vol.7
南チベット : vol.7

327

Kwen-lun. In some time, however, the view prevailed that there was only one tremendous
mountain mass including all three systems, possessing high peaks as well in the
middle as on the borders. Only geologically the orography can be understood and
nobody has done more in the right direction than STOLICZKA.

Richthofen discusses the results of Stoliczka's researches and concludes that from
the Indus to the Kwen-lun, nothing is younger than Trias. The Kwen-lun itself is
of a very old age. As a rule the arrangement is the same as in the Chinese portion.
Thus the Kwen-lun is the oldest of the whole series, and at its southern side the
other mountain folds have made their appearance.

He regards the two opinions: the one accepting three ranges, Himalaya, Kara-
korum and Kwen-lun, the other regarding the whole mountain mass as one single
block, as being both partly wrong and partly right. So far as the unity is concerned,
it may be said to be correct from a physico-geographical point of view. But this
unity disappears if we follow the different systems in their continuation to the east.
Only the Kwen-lun holds its direction and independence. But the country south of
it changes more and more. Richthofen distinguishes two mountain systems: the Kwen-
lun (W. N. W.—E. S. E., a direction which we now know is wrong from the meridian
of Keriya), and the north-western Himalaya (N. W.—S. E.). Only the Kwen-lun
remains a range, the Kara-korum and Himalaya broad highlands. He does not quite
accept the view that the elevated ground with the Kara-korum Pass should be the
same as the high Mus-tagh. But he is aware that the subaerial and lacustrine de-
posits hide very much of the relief. For the plateaux of Tibet are not founded on
mountain structure, but are due to secondary phenomena, and, if a humid climate arrived,
these plateau-forms would soon disappear. In the zone of syenitic gneiss only, we
find a series of ranges, amongst which the K 2 Range is the most considerable.
Until further information was brought back, Richthofen preferred to separate the
Kara-korum from the K 2 Range instead of — as had been done — carrying the crest
of the K 2 Range in a long curve along the water-parting of the Shayok and down
to Chang-chenmo and Lake Panggong. In 1877 the country between Kara-korum
and the southern foot of the Kwen-lun was too little known for allowing any con-
clusions as to its building.

The denudation has proceeded so far in the Kwen-lun that the average crest
height is only some 700 or 900 feet lower than the peaks, a view that has to be
much altered after the exploration of later years. In the Himalaya the average crest
height is 4,800 m. and the summits up to 8,840 m. Thus the crest height of the
Kwen-lun is so much higher than the crest height of the Himalaya, as the summits
of the Himalaya are higher than the summits of the Kwen-lun.

The regions east of the Chang-chenmo route belonged still, in 1877, to »the
least known parts of the whole earth», and for these regions Richthofen had to go

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