Southern Tibet : vol.7 / 646 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0646	Southern Tibet : vol.7
南チベット : vol.7

Having thus penetrated the southern side of the Kara-korum System they had the
gigantic Baltoro Glacier with some of the highest peaks on the earth to the east.
May 16th they left Askoley to continue into the ice deserts of the Kara-korum.
A little higher up they passed the Biafo Glacier, coming from N. W. into the Braldoh
valley. From this point onwards the valley is known as the Biaho. The river flows
through a narrow gap between the valley wall and the steep front of the snout of
the Biafo Glacier.
During the last 50 years the snout of the Biafo Glacier has undergone constant
oscillations. In 1861, according to GODWIN-AUSTEN, it filled the valley and covered
the river entirely. In 1892 CONWAY found that it had retreated a quarter of a mile
from the wall of the valley, and continued, during August, to retreat another quarter
of a mile, leaving a wide moraine. In 1899 the WORKMANS found that the snout
barely reached the outlet into the Braldoh valley at all. In 1902 GUILLARMOD says
that the snout again had advanced to the right bank of the Braldoh River. Then it
retreated to the same position as in 1899, as the Workmans found on their visit in
1908. The DUKE'S expedition visited the region at a new period of advance. From
the observations made by travellers on different glaciers of the Kara-korum »every
glacier appears to obey laws of its own». Some »show all the signs of rapid shrin-
kage», others are stationary for long periods, and others are in a period of actual
increase, often very rapid. In 1905 The Geological Office of India began a series
of observations in Western Himalaya for solving the problem and explaining the
phenomenon which obviously depends upon climatic changes.
According to Dr. ARTHUR NEVE, the glaciers in these regions are, on the
whole, in a period of growth. The material seems as yet to be insufficient for certain
conclusions, and observation for a long period is necessary.
Passing Korophon, they camped at Punmah. The Punmah valley comes from
a vast glacier system across which there is a pass, the New Mustagh, some 19,000
feet high, not in use. The old Mustagh Pass is also closed. The New Mustagh Pass
has never been crossed by Europeans. In olden times the mountains could be crossed
by several other passes between Baltistan and Hunza-Nagar, Yarkand, Eastern Tur-
kestan. Now they are all ice-covered and impracticable. The Kara-korum Pass is
the only one in use.
The expedition again camped at the snout of the Baltoro Glacier, at a place called
Paiju. According to Filippi, the snout had retreated about 300 yards between 1903 and
1909. The Baltoro Glacier, 36 miles in length, has no frontal moraine. As a rule the
absence of frontal moraines is characteristic in all the great Kara-korum glaciers, Siachen,
Biafo, Hispar, Baltoro, Chogo Lungma. Filippi explains this phenomenon »by the im-
mobility of the terminal portion of these glaciers, which has turned into dead or stagnant
ice, and may be considered, geologically speaking, in every respect as rock».

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