Southern Tibet : vol.7 / 517 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0517	Southern Tibet : vol.7
南チベット : vol.7

351

On Ujfalvy's map the Hindu-kush and Kara-korum are sketched as one con-
tinuous range.

It is surprising that so late as in 1885 the Salwen could be supposed to take
its origin from the far west of Tibet between Himalaya and Kara-korum. ROBERT
GORDON finds this statement of Chinese sources in accordance with the information
given to NAIN SING on his journey in 1873, when it was said that the river came
from the extreme west of the plateau, in longitude 83°. The possibility of such an
idea proves how little was known of western Tibet only 35 years ago. But the
FORSYTH and other expeditions had not proceeded so far as 83° east.

In his excellent little book, LEON FEER distinguishes between three different
and parallel mountain chains belonging to the Himalaya System. He remarks:

A l'extrémité occidentale, la chaîne septentrionale, qui prend le nom de Karakoroum,
se relie aux monts Kien-loun. Ceux-ci, se dirigeant de l'ouest à l'est, unissent en quelque
sorte les deux extrémités de l'arc décrit par la chaîne septentrionale, forment la corde de
cet arc, et enferment avec lui un vaste espace très peu connu, à peine exploré, que nous
appelons, à tout hasard, le plateau tibétain, et qui doit être soigneusement distingué du
Tibet propre, tout entier compris dans le massif himâlayen.¹

Objection has been raised against such terms as Tibetan plateau, plateau-land
or table-land. But, as YULE and BURNELL say: »It is a technical expression in
geography, applicable to a considerable area, of which the lowest levels are at a
considerable height above the sea.²

It is, however, not the altitude, but the morphology that is decisive in the choice
of the term. The eveness of the great latitudinal valleys, and the insignificant difference
of height between their floors and the crests of the flat ranges give us the right to
use this term.

In his Geographical description of the Chinese Empire, MATUSOVSKIY has no
objection against the term plateau-land.

He describes Tibet as an enormous mountainous plateau-land with an average
height of 13,000 feet calculated from 260 observations made by PRSHEVALSKIY and
other travellers.

This is the highest plateau-land on the earth's surface. On its southern side it is
bordered by the Himalayan mountain chain, in the north by the Kwen-lun, in the east by
its several ramifications, and to the west by the mountains of Kara-korum, joining Himalaya
with the Kwen-luns. From this plateau-land the biggest rivers of Southern and Eastern
Asia take their origin. In the N. W. it has the character of an extensive plateau, crossed
by ranges of second rank, forming closed depressions with lake basins in the interior of
them . . . . In the west the Tibetan plateau-land is bordered by the mountainsystem of
the Kara-korum, which is a link between Kwen-lun and Himalaya and represents a very
wild alpine country, where the summits of the mountains to a very great extent are covered

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