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0045 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
中央アジア踏査記 : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / 45 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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which water the Khotan oasis, the Kara-kash and Yurung-
kash, break indeed through the northernmost main range,
which maintains from here onwards a crestline of close on
20,000 feet for a distance of at least 300 miles, but their
passage lies largely through extremely deep-cut and for the
most part quite inaccessible gorges. Even where less con-
fined ground can be gained at the head of their valleys, the
extremely rugged character of the northern slopes of the
glacier-clad range would suffice to close the way to any but
expert mountaineers. But quite as great a barrier is repre-
sented by the utter want of resources on the drainageless
Tibetan plateaux, 15,000 to 16,000 feet in height on the
average, which adjoin and extend for many marches to the
south. They are bare of grazing, fuel, and in many places
even of drinkable water.

Very different in character and yet almost as forbidding
and barren is the aspect which the outer slopes of the K'un-
lun present above the Khotan section of the basin. Here by
the side of wide loess-covered peneplains we find areas where
a perfect maze of steeply serrated ridges and deep-cut gorges
(Fig. 2) has been produced by erosion. Such a condition can
only be due to prolonged water action, and yet only on rare
occasions do these barren slopes, unprotected by vegetation,
receive any heavy fall of rain or snow.

To the east of the glacier-girt high ground where the
sources of the Yurung-kash river take their rise, the chain
which overlooks the Tarim basin takes for over 400 miles a
trend to the north-east. Throughout the whole length of
the chain the foot of its northern slopes is formed by a glacis
of piedmont gravel, attaining in parts a width of forty miles
and more, and everywhere utterly barren.