Southern Tibet : vol.7 / 577 ページ（カラー画像）

0577	Southern Tibet : vol.7
南チベット : vol.7

0577

Southern Tibet : vol.7

南チベット : vol.7

405

This is of course physically impossible. »All around appeared dead; no fresh
water, no vegetation, and no animal life.» The country to the east could be clearly
seen and easily mapped; so he turned south.

The ranges in this region ran north and south. »The mountains are composed
of limestone, which was much disintegrated.» Gold-diggings were seen at many
places. Then he went south-west-wards, and saw several salt lakes; in some places
only salt pans remained. But Huping-tso was fresh. The Aru-tso was fresh, although
Bower on 1890 had found it salt and Deasy in 1896 drinkable.

This is certainly worth recording, if only for the reason that, as this change has
been shown to take place in one great lake of the Tibetan plateau, it is quite possible
that at certain seasons or periods other lakes may become altered in character.

I have tried to explain this apparent contradiction elsewhere and shown that
the statements of the three travellers do not permit a comparison, as they struck
the shore at different places. Bower touched the lake at its northern end. Deasy's
route, according to his map, ran at some distance from the western shore of the
lake; and it was at the southern end that Rawling touched the lake. It is evident
that the salinity can vary a good deal at different places along the shore of a lake,
chiefly because of the presence of fresh-water springs.¹

Of the Bum-tso he says that it probably at some season overflows its banks;
otherwise its waters would be salt. It is, however, more likely that the lake has an
underground outflow. Some days N. E. of Bum-tso everything was sandstone and
shale. Then he approaches well-known ground at Noh and Panggong-tso. Of the
results he says: »Altogether our travels carried us over 8000 miles of country, the
greater part previously quite unknown to the European, while an area of 35,000
square miles was accurately surveyed.»

Graham Sandberg identifies the Aru-tso, or Tsarul-tso as he thinks is the
correct name, with the Ike Namur Nor of older maps. For the Tibetan word Tsarul
is equivalent to the Mongol word Namur. Thus Tsarul-Chhe Ts'o should be the
same as Ike Namur Nor or »Big Harvest Lake»; and Tsarul-Chhung Ts'o the same
as Bakha Namur Nor or »Little Harvest Lake». He finds this etymology likely on
account of the scarcity of good pasturage.²

Our region in Western Tibet was crossed in 1906 by Major C. D. Bruce,
accompanied by Captain Layard. They went over the Chang-la, Marsimik-la and
Lanak-la, the latter 17,750 feet high. Bruce says of the crossing to the Kwen-lun:

Over the first portion, from Leh to the Kuen Lun, previous exploration has been
chiefly confined to various surveys and attempts to obtain an alternative route between
Ladak, or Rudok, and Chinese Turkestan, for such seems to have been the idea actuating

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