Southern Tibet : vol.7 / Page 516 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

0516	Southern Tibet : vol.7

disappears in and is, so to say, absorbed by the Tibetan plateau-land. Even if it
was as impossible to them as to anybody else to answer this question, their thoughts
went in the right direction, and they regarded a prolongation of the system as possible.

In 1881 K. E. VON UJFALVY travelled in the Kara-korum Regions. He has
the following general view of the orography:¹

Im allgemeinen scheint die Terrainanschwellung gegen den Nordosten zu sich all-
mählich zu senken. Im Karakorumgebirge erreicht sie ihre grösste constante Höhe, zieht
gegen Südosten als Himalaja, als gewaltiger Gebirgszug bis an die chinesische Grenze und
stösst dort an das grosse hinterindische Alpenland. Im Nordwesten wird dieselbe Terrain-
anschwellung zum gewaltigen Bergstock (von dem sich der rauhe Hindukusch abzweigt),
der sich an das Pamirplateau, »das Dach der Welt«, lehnt. Dieses von einer mittleren
Höhe von 12,000 Fuss, also niedriger als das von Deosai im Süden von Iskardo (12,500—
13,000 Fuss), wird im Osten von der Kisel-Yartkette begrenzt, in welcher der Tagarma
noch bis zu 20,000 Fuss Seehöhe hinaufragt.²

Ujfalvy travelled in 1881. He started from Skardo »in the morning» without
telling which day and month. He crossed the Indus (where?) and ascended a pass
(which?). However, from the highest point of the pass he enjoyed a beautiful view,
the broad, green, luxuriant Shigar valley lay at his feet, and in the distance he saw
the Boltoro Glacier, the largest in the world after the inland ice of Greenland, and
in the background the Gusherbrum (26,378 feet) and Dapsang (28,265 feet), second
in height on the earth. In the villages Shigar and Tshutrun he met some Pakhpus
and Shakshus, who had come across the Mustagh Pass with the intention to barter
in Skardo, giving gold dust and skins for stuffs. They were known to plunder on
the Yarkand road across the pass.

The third day (?) Askole was reached, which is situated »nearly at the foot of
the Biafo-Ganse Glacier», and from where one has a finer view of the ice-sea of the
Karakorum than from any other point. To the north and east the mighty Biafo-
Ganse Glacier was seen, farther eastward joined by the enormous Boltoro Glacier.
Unfortunately he could not think of attempting the Mustagh Pass which, as he asserts,
both in the preface and in the text, was crossed in 1760 by the Portuguese Jesuit
D'ESPINHA. Ujfalvy only proceeded to the foot of the pass. He heard that it had
been much used in olden times, but that travellers now avoided it on account of
the snow storms and the robbers of »the upper Yarkand valley». The Nushik Pass
was never used, and was regarded as one of the most difficult passages of the Kara-
korum. The trade between Eastern Turkestan and the northern parts of India he
found to be of much greater importance than was generally believed.

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