Western Himalaya and Tibet

ne soil-Isolated rocks-Chirasa-Panamik-Lower Nubra-Platforms of Alluvium-Traces of a great flood-Unmaru-Kuru-Great contraction of valley-Mountain pass of Waris-Boghdan ravine-Chorbat-Mahommedan p

or Cunningham following the course of the Indus, and proceeding by Dras to Kashmir, while I crossed the range of mountains to the north into the valley of the Shayuk, and descended along that river to its junction with the Indus. The mountain range which separates these two rivers barely rises into the region of perpetual snow, a very few peaks only retaining any snow throughout the year. It is therefore crossed by passes at

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p ascent a depression in the ridge, to descend into a narrow ravine which has a south-east course into the Sabu valley, up which the road led. The hills were very stony and bare, or covered with the large Ec

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avine before the road left it to ascend rapidly the steep mountain-sides, which were covered with masses of boulders, heaped together in great confusion. The upper part of the ascent, which was very steep, was covered with snow, which lay on the loose stones of

ble. Fortunately, a great part of my baggage porters were in advance, but it had been for some time quite dark before I reached a spot sufficiently free of snow to be suitable for an encampment. The night was in

-east, and it was surrounded on all sides by extremely rugged mountains, now much covered with snow, down to about 14,000 feet. Throughout the descent, vast piles of boulders, heaped one on another, and forming steep banks, evidently moraines, occupied the flanks of the valley. The village of Digar, though small, and possessing only two small trees, had

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apidly, but still high above the bottom of the dell. The Digar ravine, before reaching the Shayuk, joined a wider one which descends from the south-east, and the united valley has a nearly due north direction. As the road turned by degrees to the left, round a spur of the mountains, the Shayuk valley cam

n thickness, for more than a mile, before it descended, which it did at last very abruptly down a steep sandy slope. The mass of alluvium was, in many places, al

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poplar (P. Euphratica) were not uncommon, growing in pure sand. This tree is remarkable for its extended distribution. Originally discovered on the banks of the Euphrates, it has been found by Griffith, and more recently by Dr. Stocks and others, to be abundant on the banks of the Indus, in Sind and Multan. It occurs also at intervals along the valley of the Indus, within the mountains, but appears to be far from common, and to confine itself to hot sandy places. In several part

rable velocity, and was about three feet deep in the centre. Its bed was full of large waterworn boulders and gravel, and the banks on both sides were, for a great dis

nly called the Nubra river. Thence I ascended the latter stream for about twenty miles, with the intention of making an attempt to penetrate to the north-east, across the mountains to the Nubra Chu of Vigne; but the lateness of the season, and especia

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part of the valley of the Nubra river, as far up, indeed, as population and cultivation extend. The place of junction of the two rivers is elevated, according to my observation of the boiling-point of water, about 10,600 feet above the l

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on, and the valley ceases to be inhabited. The centre of the plain is uniformly occupied by a flat gravelly expanse, one to three miles in width, scarcely raised above the surface of the river, which, when flooded, covers a great part of it. On both sides of this gravelly bed, low platforms of alluvium, in the form of triangles, with their apices resting on the mountain ravines, slope very gent

y bare: in this it contrasts strongly with similar portions in the valley of the Nubra river, which are densely wooded. The cause of this difference seems to lie in the frequent floods which have, at different periods, devastated

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nd on the facility with which it can be diverted from its bed for purposes of irrigation; and as, in this district, the width and horizontality of the alluvial tracts are very favourable to the industry of man, the villages are in general large and surrounded with much cultivation. Indeed, a super-abundance

, so that at the head of each little stream there is either a glacier, or a snow-bed which does not entirely melt till the latter end of autumn, affording therefore a nearly perennial supply of water. Even

d almost the only timber the inhabitants can command. The walnut and El?agnus, both of which trees fi

us efflorescence of carbonate of soda; while the abundance of Salsol? and other Chenopodiaceous plants on the dry alluvial plains, and even on the rocky hills, s

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of this gravelly plain, particularly on the right side of the valley, is covered by a dense thicket of Hippopha?, extending continuously for four or five miles, usually impervious, except in certain beaten tracts, and tenanted by vast numbers of hares. The gravel on which this

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he right bank of the river, is situated the little fort and village of Chirasa, a considerable mass of houses, of a class a little better than those usual in the district, and conspicuous from their elevat

re to have removed the accumulation of detritus, which once, no doubt, occupied the whole valley. Beds of gravelly conglomerate, at times passing into fine clay, may here be

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e very substantially built, and the long sacred walls, called Mané, are numerous, and of great length and size. Several watercourses, which are carried along the sides of the hills at an elevation of several hundred feet above the cultivation, and are easily recognizable by the frin

e district of Nubra extends about thirty miles below the junction of the river of that name with the Shayuk; but I found the level valley gradually to diminish in width as I descended. On the 22nd of October I encamped at Hundar; on the 23rd, at Tertse; and on the 24th at Unmaru, beyond which village there is no cultivation, and the valley becomes

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gently. In the narrower parts of the valley they were often not less than a hundred feet high along the river. In structure these platforms varied much. The greater part certainly consisted of gravel and clay, quite unstratified, but the lower beds were very frequently fine clay, or fine sand, or alternations of these two. The superposition of the coarse beds to the fine was nearly uniformly observed, though occasionally, above the fine clays, alternations of gravel with thin beds of sand or clay were met with. In one place, on the north

the range into the valley of the Indus), is a very large village (probably the most populous in Nubra), with very fine orchards of apricot-trees. Walnut, mulberry, and El?agnus became common at Unmaru, on the north bank of the river. Perhaps the gradual narrowing o

is usually divided into many channels. Above Hundar, where I forded it, one branch was not less than 300 feet wide, and was from one to two feet deep. Opposite Tertse, again, I found the stream runn

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had deposited these reliqui?, the invariable reply was, that a great flood had taken place five years before, by the bursting of a lake called Khundan Chu, at which time the whole course of the river was devastated, and much destruction of property, sometimes even life, ensued, particularly in the narrower parts of the valley. In most parts of the world the preservation of such insignificant vestiges of a flood for so long a period would have been impossible; but here, where rain is

a and Tamarix were common; thickets of Hippopha?, loaded with very acid yellow berries, lined the watercourses, forming an impenetrable barrier. Little bushes of Artemisia, Lycium, Perowskia, and Ephedra, were also occasionally seen on the rocks, but the herbace

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ral of these prominent spurs consisted of trap rocks, various forms of basalt and greenstone occurring, with not unfrequently veins of coars

deep bay or recess in the mountains was entirely filled with beds of loose sand, resting on the alluvial clay formation. The appearance of the place was altogether most singular. Much of the light sandy beds were evidently of very recent origin, probably referable to the great flood five years before, at which time the waters, suddenly checked at the gorge, a

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s where the steepness of the rocks obstructs the passage; but at other seasons it is necessary to make a long détour, and to ascend a lateral ravine for eight miles before a point is reached where the steep ridge is capable of being crossed. Leaving Kuru on the morning of the 26th of October, I en

mass of rock lying across a very narrow part of the stream, where it had worn out in the solid rock a channel not more than from three to twelve feet wide. The steep sloping banks of the ravine were usually shingly and devoid of

the Giah ravine, was also observed at intervals, alternating with very highly metamorphic slates. After about five miles, the road left the main ravine to ascend into a lateral branch, much more steep than the former. Here masses of alluvial conglo

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s in a westerly direction. As soon as I had gained the summit, a reach of the Shayuk was seen, distant perhaps a mile and a half, flowing among steep black rocks, with here and there banks of gravel at the bends. The view from the rid

were very common, and a few stunted trees of juniper occurred at intervals. The descent from the ridge was exceedingly abrupt (three thousand feet in less than a mile), into a narrow valley, in which I encamped among the fields of a summer village named Boghdan, now, like the

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re entirely confined to the level bottom of the ravine, forming a belt, ten or twenty feet wide, on each side of the little stream. After a descent of three miles, I again jo

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the further extension eastward of the Mahommedan religion, which is now universally that of the people of the whole of the Iskardo (or Balti) district, as well as of Dras. On the Indus, and in the valleys south of it, the

he river. The mountains, everywhere steep, rocky, and inaccessible, close in general to within a quarter of a mile of one another, and their projecting spurs, at short intervals, advance quite to the centre of the valley, forming deep bays, either filled with sand or occasionally occupied by platforms of conglomerate, on the top of which, where water is procurable, there is generally a village. The river, winding from one side of

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. It is nowhere in the whole distance fordable; and as the villages lie alternately on opposite sides of the river, I had occasion to cross it three times before reaching Siksa. In every case a narrow and rapid part of the river is selected, the bridges being composed of poplar t

ucture of the alluvium. In the sections of these masses of boulders and clay, I several times observed that the strata, instead of being horizontal, were highest in the middle and sloped gently downwards on either side. This would indicate, I think, a

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his village stood formerly on the low ground close to the Shayuk, but the cultivable soil at the lower level was entirely swept away by the flood of 1842, so that the inhabitants were obliged to change the position of their houses. The first considerable v

in the district. Willows are less frequent than in Nubra, but there are plenty of poplars. The black poplar is the common species, but a white downy-leaved species (P. alba), which is cultivated also i

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g out gigantic veins or branches into the overlying slates, which are often transformed into a coarse serpentine. The hard conglomerate which is associated with the slate, seems the same as occurs in Lower Nubra, so that probably the slates are also a continuation of the same series, and the whole may

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eeded when he abandoned his intention of penetrating by the Shayuk to Nubra, and it has since been crossed by several travellers at different times. It is, indeed, a route

that of Nubra, and, like that, coincident with the junction of a large river from the north. It is certainly worthy of note, that it is always at the point of junction of large tributaries that the valley of the Shayuk is wides

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lar to that of Nubra that no detailed description is necessary. The river divides in the open gravelly plain into numerous branches, which separate to a considerable distance from one another, and ramify very irregularly. There is not much alluvial accumulation in this plain, except in the immediate vicinity of Khapalu, where a very curious isolated rock of black slate rises abruptly in the middle of the plain, its bas

feet. A little further down it is joined by the Machulu, and it does not appear to be anywhere fordable in its further course, even in winter, so that probably the influx of water brou

hapalu to Kartash was (I was informed) already shut up by snow, and impracticable for travellers. To the north, up the wide valley of the Machulu, the mountains are more distant, and the main chain of the Muztagh is

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standing among the gravel and shingle of the river-beds. Khapalu, on the other hand, which is situated at the point of junction of a considerable stream, occupies the surface of a thick bed of alluvium of great extent, sloping very steeply from the apex of the triangle in a recess among the mountains to its base, which is formed by the Shayuk. The fort of Khapalu is perched at a great height on a remarkable projecting scarped rock, just at the mouth of the ravine behind the village. The cultivation has a width of not less than

higher parts of the Shayuk (except in the mountains, where a small alpine species is occasionally seen), was found in Surmu. The species was apparently identical with the common berberry of Europe, which extends even into the drier valleys of the Himalaya. I also recog

prevents the formation of swampy margins to the little irrigation streams, it does not spread to so great an extent over the

d of November, and remained there during the 4th. The weather, which for some days had been very unsettled and disagreeable, suddenly cleared up on the 2nd of November, and continued for nearly a week very fine, the days being uniformly bright and sunny, with a

the work is only carried on during winter, when labour is of no value for other purposes. I purchased for a rupee (paying, I believe, a go

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ry swampy, and traversed by numerous small streamlets, in which a Chara and a linear-leaved Potamogeton were abundant. Below this plain the mountain spurs close in upon the river, contracting its channel very much, and frequently preventing all passage along the bank. The narrow portion of the river extends within a few miles of Iskardo, or for at least thir

g this part of the course of the Shayuk in very great quantity. The largest village on this part of the river is Kiris, situated just above the junction of the Shayuk and Indus, on a nearly level alluvial platform of large size. Round Kiris there is a very extensive deposit of lacustrine clay,

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ss deep, so that neither river so decidedly preponderates over the other as to enable their relative size to be determined at a glance. Probably the discharg

there is also a good deal of slate. The schists are of very various appearance; a very hard black slate is the most common, but in contact with and near the granite many portions of the slaty mass are quite undistinguishable from gneiss. The

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northerly point of the river, where the ravine is narrowest, I passed through the cultivated lands of the village of Nar, which extend for more than two miles on the surface of an alluvial platform many hundred feet above the bottom of the valley. Leaving this village, I continued to ascend, and entirely lost sight of the Indus, which flowed to the south-west, while the road kept winding among rocky hills, gradually ascending to the crest of a low pass, among

it of pure white clay. Three miles from Iskardo, a spur from the northern mountains advances close to the river, and the road skirting the latter is for a short distance rocky and uneven. Soon, h

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he sea. In its very centre, on the south bank of the Indus, and opposite to the junction of the Shigar river, an isolated rock of black slate rises to the height of nearly a thousand feet, directly overhanging the Indus,

e is most familiar to foreigners, and is likely to become universal, as well from the inhabitants of the district being all Mahommedans, as from

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rise very abruptly in rocky pinnacles, covered, at the time I reached the valley, with much snow. Two spurs from this range run forward to the Indus, one five miles east of Iskardo, the other about three miles to the west of it, dividing the whole south side of the valley into thre

luvial conglomerate or of fine clay. Not unfrequently these clayey cliffs recede to a considerable distance from the river, in which case the intervening space is generally sandy. A small branch of the stream,

h and tranquil, occasionally only a little rippled in turning round a projecting rocky spur, where its bottom is gravelly and the inclination perhaps a litt

To the right and left of the rocky hill, two small streams have excavated for themselves out of the soft clay deep and wide ravines, which are covered with coarse gravel, and are faced by more or less steep banks of clay o

ile the western and more accessible end was apparently protected by a series of rude works. The principal buildings of the palace seem to have been at the very base of the rock. A mass of ruins, showing large blocks of well-hewn stone, fragments of marble fountains, and some solid walls

evel of the plain, and built of very large blocks of hewn stone. The intervening space is filled with earth. At present, a small conduit, a foot or so wide, brings all the water which is required for the use of the

he little stream which joins the Indus to the east of the rock of Iskardo, and is separated by a hollow from the palace and the pr

of some of the more remote villages in the valley, and especially of those on the banks of the Shigar river, which are very richly cultivated. Many of the Iskardo houses, however, are very good, being oft

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ry variable; but it is seldom less than thirty feet, and to the east of the town is as much as a hundred feet. The clay formation varies much in appearance, being most commonly a very fine unctuous cream-coloured clay, stratified quite horizontally, but occasionally gritty and mixed with numerous particles of mica. Now and then thin beds of sand and of small water

t after repeatedly searching carefully did not succeed in obtaining any more. I was more fortunate in two places east of Iskardo, where fresh-water shells are sufficientl

te the mountains on the southern side of the valley, two very remarkable banks of boulders project forward into the valley. They consist of very large fragments

ease in the hand, the particles of which it is composed being very slightly coherent. These beds, in which I could find no traces of shells or of vegetable remains, are elevated at least 800 or 1000 feet ab

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e. Artemisi? and Chenopodiace? were still abundant. Hippopha? was the universal shrub along all the streamlets, and Lycium was common in sandy places; a berberry (the same already seen at Khapalu) was also frequent. The few novelties were Kashmir plants. Lycopsis arvensis, Prunella vulgaris, a thistle, a species o