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0571 Southern Tibet : vol.7
Southern Tibet : vol.7 / Page 571 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000263
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Stein's journey of 1900 had left several problems unsolved as to the upper-
most course of the Yurung-kash and of its main feeders.¹

On his second great expedition he solved the Yurung-kash problem definitely.
On his previous excursions in the Karangu-tagh Mountains he had felt convinced
that the Yurung-kash head-waters were quite inaccessible through the narrow and
deep gorges cut down by the river on its course westwards. He therefore decided
to attack this wholly unexplored region from the east. His plan was then to make
his way to the uppermost Kara-kash Valley along the unsurveyed southern slopes of
that portion of the main Kwen-lun Range which feeds the Yurung-kash with its chief
glacier sources.

He started from Polur, August 18th 1908, reached Zailik and travelled down
to the deep-cut cañon of Upper Yurung-kash. With plane-table, theodolite and photo-
graphic panoramas he mapped »the greater portion of the inexpressibly grand and
wild mountain system containing the unexplored eastern head-waters of the Yurung-
kash». — »On the south for a distance of over sixty miles, we could see them
flanked by a magnificent range of snowy peaks, rising to over 23,000 feet, and
all clad with glaciers more extensive than any I had so far seen in the Kun-lun.»

From Zailik he travelled up partly along the river, partly on the mountain
spur at its sides to the very source region, which he mapped in minute detail. From
there he continued westwards, travelled along the northern shore of Lake Lighten
and mapped the upper course of the Kara-kash and its glacier sources.²

Stein has definitely cleared up this complicated region which had been only
touched by a few other travellers.