Southern Tibet : vol.7 / 573 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0573	Southern Tibet : vol.7
南チベット : vol.7

After having stayed for a week in »Camp Purgatory» they came to a large
valley which, surprisingly enough, proved to be that of the Kara-kash.
The waters which appeared between Camp Abandon and Camp Purgatory were
evidently its permanent sources, instead of the much more distant points which the maps
had heretofore assigned to that character. Thus our stumbling among the mountains turned to
some good account in the laborious effort which man has made to know the globe he inhabits.
They met with some Kirgis who promised to take them on a roundabout road
to the Kara-korum—Leh road. The Kara-korum Pass is given as only 18,300 feet
high. The Saser Pass was crossed. But it is impossible both from the book and
the map to make out whether he went the Murgho or Kumdan route. Therefore
he has no right whatever to criticise existing maps,¹ as when he says: »it would
perhaps be well to omit these 'noms de phantaisie' from future maps»; and still he
says: »The two lakes shown on our route deserve, on the other hand that some
name be given them. One, of fresh-water, is possibly that called Lake Lighten by
Wellby.» If the travellers themselves could not decide whether one of the two lakes
they »discovered» was Lake Lighten or not, who else could be able to do it, and
if it happened to be Lake Lighten why should it need a new name? Under such
conditions the following observandum is without value: »The error in respect to the
mountains is considerable. The dominating chain is not north and south, as heretofore
shown, but there are two east-and-west chains, generally parallel to the Kuen Luen . . . .»
The same may be said regarding his source of the Kara-kash:
Another correction of some importance has to do with the course of the Karakash,
which has been shown heretofore as extending sixty miles or more farther south than is
the fact. We chanced to come into the valley of this stream above its permanent sources,
which come up out of the sand. There was seen, indeed, a small break in the valley wall,
corresponding to the point where the assumed southern extension appears on older maps.
But this opening was seen to have a steep incline upward, and no water came from it.
Nor can a considerable volume come at any time, as just below this point the valley was
crossed completely, from hill to hill, by a very curious line of small stone monuments, about
two feet apart, and consisting of small boulders piled about a foot high.
Crosby touched the eastern branch of the river at about 35° 15′ N. lat. The
southern or western branch is given as beginning at about 34° 55′.
In an article Turkestan and a corner of Tibet² we find some more details.
For instance he talks of some signs of volcanic action at two different places:
One is near Lake Sarakul, and is about 5 miles square. Within that area one may
see several true craters and numberless black, tortured masses rising about 75 feet above
the surrounding coarse sand. — The second volcanic region was noted near the point marked
Camp Desertion. Here the surface of the narrow valley was covered, for a distance of
several miles, with characteristic volcanic boulders, and outcroppings of lava in mass showed
in the sides of the confining heights.

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国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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