Southern Tibet : vol.7 / 506 ページ（カラー画像）

0506	Southern Tibet : vol.7
南チベット : vol.7

342

valley, to the Mustagh Pass; eastward by K 2, the peak that during some years
carried his own name, farther to the high peaks north of the Shayok, K 9, K 10,
K 11, and K 12, the Saser Pass, and thence S. E. to the Marsimik-la, and the high
mass north of the Panggong Lake. »Crossing at Nyak Tso on to the high range
south of the Rudok plain, where we again enter unsurveyed ground.»

Then follows this very important and certainly nearly correct theory, that only
could be expressed by a man of such great intelligence and capacity as GODWIN-
AUSTEN. The Mustagh Range »is probably continuous to the Aling Gangri, the
old original drainage of the Shayok passing through it at the Panggong Lake, thus
repeating in a similar way that of the Indus through the Ladak range near Hanlé.»
S. E. of the Panggong-tso is the Rudok Plain, on the same meridian as the sources
of the Indus and the Tsangpo, only a little above 14,000 feet, which in glacial and
pre-glacial times drained into the Shayok, rendering that branch probably longer than
that of the present Indus. Nowadays we know that the Rudok Plain is not on the
same meridian as the sources of the Indus and Tsangpo, and that the Indus branch
of Panggong-tso, even in glacial time, hardly could be as long as the present Singi-
kamba. But these are only small corrections that do not in the least diminish the value
of Godwin-Austen's original and clever hypothesis. He had seen the Rudok Plain
with his own eyes, and for a distance of some 60 miles he saw it bounded to the
south by mountains of over 21,000 feet. But he was lead astray when he surmised
that this depression could have anything to do with the headwaters of the rivers
that find an exit to the sea through Burma. By reason of this arrangement, as he
perceived it, he could not join the Kara-korum and Gangri Range to one and the
same system: »The Gang-rhi and Karakoram, or Mustagh, cannot be therefore con-
sidered as one range separating the Indus Basin from that of the northern or central
plateau of Tibet.» But, on the other hand, he says of the great water-parting: »This
must lie across the broad elevated plateau that extends from the Karakoram pass,
having a general parallelism to the Kuenlun certainly so far as 34° N. and long. 82° E.»
Though he does not dare to sketch the prolongation of the northern Kara-korum
beyond 82° E. long., he has here gone much farther in the right direction than any
one of his predecessors.

Regarding his Karakorum-Lingzi-Thang Range, he does not feel solid ground
under his feet. West of the pass, probably the Kara-korum Pass, the country was
unknown. »Eastward the line of elevation passes north of the Dipsang plain to the
Compass La, and south of the Lingzi Thang plain, by the Changlung Burma La to
the neighbourhood of the Kiang La, and thence still further east it may pass north
of Sarthol into Garchethol.» On the whole this theory is, however, very much in
accordance with facts, though in our days we are able to approach the reality some-
what nearer.

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
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

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 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

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
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ