Descend Hanle river -- Unsettled weather -- Encamp on banks of
Indus -- Upper course of Indus -- Pugha ravine -- Forest of
Myricaria-trees -- Borax plain -- Hot springs -- Borax lakes of
Eastern Tibet -- Sulphur mine -- Pulokanka Pass -- Salt lake --
Lacustrine clays with shells -- Ancient water-mark -- Rupchu --
Tunglung Pass -- Fall of snow -- Alluvial conglomerate -- Giah
-- Narrow ravine -- Miru -- Upshi -- Indus valley -- Marsilang
-- Richly cultivated plain of Chashut -- Bridge over Indus --
Le -- Buddhist edifices.
On the 17th of September we left Hanle, _en route_ to Le. Our road lay
down the left bank of the river by which the waters of the lake-plain
are discharged into the Indus. The valley through which it flowed was
open and level, and its slope imperceptible. On the left lay a low
range of hills, an irregular mass increasing much in width, as well as
in height, as we proceeded northwards, the Hanle extremity being the
termination where it slopes into the plain. On the right, a very lofty
range, some of the peaks of which were certainly not less than 21,000
feet in elevation, ran parallel to our course, separating the open
valley of the Hanle river from the Indus.
[Sidenote: HANLE RIVER.
_September, 1847._]
The width of the valley varied from one to three miles. The stream was
very winding, crossing from side to side, and often pressing the road
close to the spurs of the range on the left. The range on this side
was principally clay-slate, with occasional outbreaks of trap, which
had in many places converted the stratified rock into a hard red or
green jasper. From the immediate proximity of the igneous rock the
stratified masses were very much contorted, and no regular dip was
observable.
Saline efflorescence occurred everywhere in great quantity in the
vicinity of the stream; as a consequence, Chenopodiaceous plants were
more than usually abundant, and I collected at least three species of
that family which I had not previously observed. The banks of the
stream were everywhere bordered by a belt of green herbage, more or
less broad, in which the usual species of _Ranunculus_, _Gentiana_,
_Pedicularis_, _Juncus_, _Cyperaceæ_, and grasses were common. _Glaux
maritima_ also occurred abundantly. Two other European plants were
found in the swamps along the course of the river, which were very
interesting as a proof of the extremely European nature of the flora:
these were _Hippuris vulgaris_ and _Limosella lacustris_. Towards the
end of the day's journey, _Caragana versicolor_ (_Dama_) became very
common, covering a large extent of surface, and growing to a much
greater size than I had ever before seen, with an upright stem nearly
six feet in height. I could scarcely persuade myself that the species
was the same as the little depressed shrubs which grew on the passes
further south. Two species of _Myricaria_, both of which I had seen in
Piti, also reappeared during the day, so that we were evidently
approaching a lower level and more genial climate.
Banks of alluvial conglomerate occurred on the sides of the valley,
in the spaces between the projecting spurs of the range on the left
hand, on the latter part of the day. The beds were distinctly
stratified and very sandy, more or less full of rounded stones, and
often passing into pure sand, which was interstratified with the
coarser beds. The day was very cloudy and threatening, and a few drops
of rain fell for the first time since the 29th of August, the weather
during the whole of that interval having been brilliant and quite dry.
We encamped eleven miles from Hanle, on a gravelly plain close to the
river.
Dining the night the weather did not improve, but continued very
cloudy, and on the morning of the 18th the mountains on the right side
of the valley were covered with snow, down to within 1500 feet of the
plain. The wind blew strongly from the northward, and the day, which
was still very cloudy, was bitterly cold, and, to our feelings,
extremely uncomfortable. We continued to follow the course of the
Hanle river, passing over long gravel flats, which alternated with
turfy saline meadows. Several low spurs from the mountains on the
left, which projected far into the plain, making the river bend much
to the right, were crossed as we proceeded. About ten miles from our
morning's camp, we left the course of the river, which turned to the
right and entered a rocky mountain gorge, while our road kept its
northerly direction. An open valley led us to the crest of a low ridge
of trap and slate, from which a very long stony monotonous valley
descended to an extensive plain covered with fine mud and saline
exudation, on which the only vegetation was a few tufts of _Suæda_ and
coarse grass. Crossing this plain, on which the dry clay was in many
places deeply cracked and fissured, as if it had till within a short
time been under water, or at least swampy, we encamped, at an
elevation of 13,800 feet, on the banks of the Indus, here a muddy
torpid stream, without any apparent current, about four feet deep and
twenty or twenty-five feet wide. There was, however, another channel,
separated from that on which we were encamped by a small island.
[Sidenote: RIVER INDUS.
_September, 1847._]
So sluggish was the stream at the point where we joined it, that we
were for a long time uncertain in which direction the current was
flowing; and though we were prepared to find the Indus at the end of
our day's journey, the river on whose banks we were encamped was so
much less than our anticipations, that we were very unwilling to be
convinced that we had really arrived at the great river, to which we
had so long looked forward as one of the most interesting objects of
our journey. The island in the centre of the channel was a bank of
very fine sand or mud, on which large flocks of wild-fowl were
resting; it was very little elevated above the surface of the water,
which must frequently, I should think, rise sufficiently to cover it.
The bank on which we were encamped, though rather higher, was not more
than four feet above the water; it was quite vertical, and composed of
fine clay, without any intermixture of stones or gravel.
[Sidenote: UPPER COURSE OF THE INDUS.
_September, 1847._]
The course of the river Indus, from its source to Le, has hitherto
been less known than any other part in Tibet; but as Captain Strachey,
a month or two after our visit, descended along it from the Chinese
frontier, as far as Le, the unknown portion is now very much reduced.
It rises in the mountains north of the lakes of Mansarawer and Rawan
Rhad, and runs in general towards the north-east. Moorcroft has
described its appearance at Garu or Gartop, where it is a very
insignificant stream; but the intervening country is so little known,
except by native report, that we can scarcely be said to have an exact
knowledge of the upper part of its course. There is in some maps an
eastern branch laid down, but of that we have no definite information.
From the arid and snowless nature of the country through which it must
flow, it is probably a very small stream, but its length may be
considerable.
Immediately above the open plain in which we joined the Indus, it
would appear to have a very rocky and rugged channel. Such, at least,
was the description given to us by our guides of the lower course of
the Hanle river, which we left only a few miles before it joined the
Indus; and as the mountains to the south-west appeared to close in
very abruptly within a very short distance of our encampment, we could
not doubt that the open and level plain which we found in this portion
of the river's course was of limited extent, and quite an exceptional
feature in the character of the country through which the Indus flows.
From the great elevation and abrupt slope of the range which runs
parallel to the Hanle river on the east, there can be no doubt that
the spurs which it sends down on its north-east slope, towards the
Indus, must be bold and rocky; and though the hills on the left bank
of the Hanle river are much less elevated, yet they rise as they
advance to the eastward. The descent of this river too, though very
gentle in the upper part of its course, while its valley is broad, is
probably very abrupt in the last few miles, where its channel is rocky
and its ravine narrow. The elevation of its junction with the Indus
is, I believe, about 13,800 feet above the level of the sea.
[Sidenote: INDUS VALLEY.
_September, 1847._]
On the 19th of September our road lay in a westerly direction down the
Indus. The weather was still extremely unsettled, the sky being cloudy
and a violent north or north-west wind continuing to blow in frequent
gusts. No rain, however, fell. The plain gradually narrowed as we
advanced, and the mountains on the left approached by degrees close to
the river. Low grassy plains, covered with a saline incrustation,
quite dry, and without any brushwood or tall herbaceous vegetation,
skirted the river, the course of which we followed very closely.
Indeed, notwithstanding the considerable diminution of altitude, the
aspect of the valley of the Indus was more dreary and barren than we
had for some days been accustomed to. The rocky spurs were quite bare;
and even on the level tracts no vegetation was seen, excepting on the
very lowest banks, which were moistened by the river. This utter
sterility was no doubt due to the absence of lateral rivulets, the
hills which rose on our left hand being stony and steep, and not
rising to a sufficient elevation to be covered with perpetual snow, or
to accumulate and retain snow-beds in their ravines till a late period
of the year.
The rock on the left-hand mountains during the day was quite different
from any that had hitherto occurred, being a conglomerate, with
rounded stones of various sizes, many of them granite. The matrix was
of a very dark colour, and generally extremely hard; more rarely it
was a coarse sand, crumbling to pieces. This conglomerate was
everywhere stratified, the beds dipping to the south-west, at an angle
of about forty-five degrees. During the day the river varied much in
width, being seldom less than twenty-five yards, and sometimes as much
as eighty. The stream was generally very gentle, not exceeding two
miles an hour, except in a few rapids, and the river was in most
places fordable. We encamped on the left bank, in a place where it was
shallow and wide.
On the 20th of September we continued at first to follow the left bank
of the Indus, which gradually assumed a more northerly direction. The
mountains on both sides approached much more closely to the river than
they had done the day before, and those on the right continued
extremely lofty. The river now flowed more rapidly, and was often
wider and more shallow; one rapid was not less than 150 yards in
width. Banks of alluvial clayey conglomerate were usually interposed
between the mountains and the river, forming cliffs which attained not
unfrequently an elevation of fifty feet. These were separated by
projecting spurs, over which the road passed wherever they advanced so
close to the centre of the valley as to prevent a passage along the
level plain. Some small streamlets were crossed during the day, and in
consequence the vegetation was at times more varied, and at the same
time more luxuriant, than it had been the day before. A few bushes of
_Myricaria_ were seen on the bank of the river; and in the lateral
ravines the ordinary shrubs and herbaceous vegetation were common.
The only new plant was a species of _Labiatæ_, a coarse-growing
under-shrub, probably a species of _Ballota_.
[Sidenote: PUGHA RAVINE.
_September, 1847._]
The hard conglomerate of the day before did not again occur, various
forms of clay-slate being the prevailing rock. The steep slopes were,
however, very frequently covered with a talus of angular fragments,
which obscured the structure of the lower portions of the mountains,
at the same time that it revealed the nature of the higher strata,
which would otherwise have been inaccessible. Red and green jaspery
rocks, very hard and brittle, were abundant, with various forms of
greenstone, at times closely resembling syenite. These were evidently
the same rocks as had been met with in the neighbourhood of Hanle, and
along the river for some way below that town. Their recurrence here,
therefore, tended to confirm what had for some time appeared to me to
be the prevailing strike of these formations, namely, from S.S.E. to
N.N.W.
After following the course of the Indus for about eight miles, we
turned abruptly to the left, ascending a narrow gorge, in which a
considerable stream flowed from the south-west. The slope was, from
the first, considerable, and the course of the ravine very winding.
Steep rocky cliffs rose precipitously on both sides, and generally
approached so close to one another that their tops could not be seen.
The channel of the stream was at first stony and quite bare, but after
a mile bushes of the _Myricaria_ became common, fringing the stream,
but nowhere growing at any distance from it. These gradually increased
in size and abundance, and at our camping place, three miles from the
commencement of the ravine, they were generally small trees, many of
them not less than fifteen feet in height, with stout erect trunks
five or six inches in diameter.
The morning of the 21st of September was bright and clear, and
intensely frosty, the unsettled weather which had continued since our
leaving Hanle having quite disappeared. Our road still lay up the
gorge, which had quite the same appearance as on the previous day.
High precipices, or very steep banks, hemmed in the stream on both
sides. Small trees of _Myricaria_ still continued abundant in the
immediate vicinity of the water; elsewhere, all was as desolate as
ever. Some of these trees were not less than a foot in diameter; the
trunk was generally very short, often branching within a foot of the
base. At intervals there was a good deal of alluvium, partly in the
shape of coarse conglomerate, partly a fine micaceous sand, filling up
the recesses at the bends of the ravine. After three miles, the ravine
suddenly expanded into a narrow plain, the surface of which was
irregularly undulating, and completely encrusted with salt. As this
plain was interesting in consequence of the production of borax, we
encamped on the bank of the little stream about a mile from the end of
the gorge, and remained stationary the next day in order to examine
the nature of the locality in which the borax is found.
[Sidenote: HOT SPRINGS.
_September, 1847._]
As the day's journey was a very short one, we arrived at the salt
plain by eight o'clock A.M. The air was still quite frosty. While our
tents were being pitched on a dry bank a little way above the stream,
we proceeded to its bank, and were not a little surprised to find the
water quite tepid, notwithstanding the extreme cold of the air. On
procuring a thermometer, it was found to have a temperature of 69°.
Advancing up the stream, we found that numerous hot springs rose on
its banks, and sometimes under the water. The hottest of these had a
temperature of 174°. From these springs gas was copiously evolved,
smelling strongly of sulphur; and in their immediate neighbourhood the
water of the little river had a faintly sulphurous taste, though
elsewhere it was quite pure and good. The stream, which was perhaps
twenty feet wide, was usually rather deep. Dense masses of aquatic
weeds, chiefly species of _Zannichellia_ and _Potamogeton_, grew in
the water, and along the margins their dead stems, mixed with mud,
formed immense banks, scarcely strong enough to bear the weight of a
man, and yet seemingly quite solid. A small crustaceous animal was
common among the weeds, but though I searched with care I could find
no shells. The stream was full of fish, which swarmed among the weeds,
and darted backwards and forwards in the tepid water in immense
shoals. They were generally about six inches in length, and appeared
to my inexperienced eye to belong to two or three species, all
different from those which had been seen at Hanle. In the hottest
water of the hot springs I collected three species of _Conferva_.
[Sidenote: MYRICARIA TREES.
_September, 1847._]
The existence of the tree _Myricaria_ in the gorges between Pugha and
the Indus, which had appeared to us at the time very remarkable, was
fully explained by the occurrence of the hot springs, and the
consequent high temperature of the water of the stream, and was
peculiarly interesting as an illustration of the influence of
temperature upon vegetation. It may fairly be considered, I think, as
a proof, that arboreous vegetation does not cease at great elevations
in consequence of the rarefaction of the air, but only on account of
the diminution of temperature which usually accompanies increased
elevation. The trees of _Myricaria_, it must be observed, came
abruptly to an end with the ravine, none occurring on the open plain.
We cannot suppose that the trifling increased elevation caused their
disappearance; it seems probable that the narrow walls of the gorge,
by concentrating the heat, prevented its escape, and that, therefore,
the temperature was more elevated than in the open plain, where the
action of winds and free radiation combined to lower it. The
occurrence of fish in the water of Pugha, at an elevation of nearly
15,500 feet above the level of the sea, is also very remarkable, and
still more strikingly demonstrative of the same fact, inasmuch as it
would certainly not have been very surprising that air at that
elevation should, from its rarity, be insufficient for the support of
life in animals breathing by gills.
At the gorge, where the narrow ravine expands into the lake plain of
Pugha, the rock is clay-slate, but the hills which skirt the open
plain are micaceous schist, varying much in appearance, often with
large crystals of garnet, and crumbling rapidly to decay. On the
surface of the plain lay many scattered boulders of a peculiar kind of
granite, evidently transported from a considerable distance along the
stream; and in all the central parts of the plain, a very remarkable
conglomerate in horizontal strata, consisting of angular fragments of
the surrounding rocks, cemented together by calcareous matter, was
observed.
[Sidenote: BORAX PLAIN.
_September, 1847._]
The whole of the plain is covered, to the depth of several feet at
least, with white salt, principally borax, which is obtained in a
tolerably pure state by digging, the superficial layer, which contains
a little mixture of other saline matters, being rejected. There is at
present little export of borax from Pugha, the demand for the salt in
Upper India being very limited, and the export to Europe almost at an
end.
[Sidenote: BORAX LAKES OF TIBET.
_September, 1847._]
It has long been known that borax is produced naturally in different
parts of Tibet, and the salt imported thence into India was at one
time the principal source of supply of the European market. I am not
aware that any of the places in which the borax is met with had
previously been visited by any European traveller, but the nature of
the localities in which it occurs has been the subject of frequent
inquiry, and several more or less detailed accounts have been made
public. These differ considerably from one another, and no description
that I have met with accords with that of the Pugha valley. Mr.
Saunders[13] describes (from hearsay) the borax lake north of Jigatzi
as twenty miles in circumference, and says that the borax is dug from
its margins, the deeper and more central parts producing common salt.
From the account of Mr. Blane[14], who describes, from the information
of the natives, the borax district north of Lucknow, and, therefore,
in the more western part of the course of the Sanpu, it would appear
that the lake there contains boracic acid, and that the borax is
artificially prepared by saturating the sesquicarbonate of soda,
which is so universally produced on the surface of Tibet, with the
acid. At least, the statement that the production of borax is
dependent on the amount of soda, leads to this conclusion. The whole
description, however, (as is, indeed, to be expected in a native
account of a chemical process,) is very obscure, and not to be
depended upon. Mr. Saunders does not notice any hot springs in the
neighbourhood of the borax; but in the more western district described
by Mr. Blane, hot springs seem to accompany the borax lake as at
Pugha.
It is not impossible that the three districts in which the occurrence
of borax has been noticed, which are only a very small portion of
those which exist, may represent three stages of one and the same
phenomenon. The boracic acid lake may, by the gradual influx of soda,
be gradually converted into borax, which, from its great insolubility,
will be deposited as it is formed. On the drainage or drying-up of
such a lake, a borax plain, similar to that of Pugha, would be left
behind[15].
From Pugha, two roads towards Le were open to us. We might either
return to the Indus, and follow the valley of that river throughout,
or proceed by a more direct route across the mountains to join the
road from Lake Chumoreri to Le, by which Mr. Trebeck had travelled on
his way to Piti. As we knew that the Indus route would be surveyed by
Captain Strachey, who was desirous of following the course of the
river as far as practicable, we preferred the more mountainous road,
and, therefore, on leaving our encampment at Pugha, on the morning of
the 23rd of September, we continued to ascend the valley of the little
stream, on the banks of which we had been encamped. For the first two
miles the plain was nearly level, and similar in character to what has
just been described, hot springs being observed at intervals.
[Sidenote: SULPHUR MINE.
_September, 1847._]
Two miles from our encampment, we stopped and examined the spot whence
sulphur is obtained, at the base of the mountain slope on the north
side of the valley. Ascending a few feet over a loose talus of
shingle, which skirted the bottom of the hill, we found two narrow
caverns in the slaty rock, apparently natural, or only a little
widened by art, roughly circular, and less than three feet in diameter
at the mouth. One of these caverns continued a long way inwards,
nearly horizontally, but it contracted considerably in diameter, and
was so dark that we could not penetrate far. The rock was principally
gypsum, interstratified with very friable mica-slate. Sometimes the
gypsum was amorphous and powdery, at other times in needles two or
three inches long, perpendicular to the strata of slate. The sulphur
was in small quantities, scattered among the gypsum, and was more
abundant in the lower beds. It was frequently in very perfect
crystals, not, however, of any great size.
The air which issued from these funnel-shaped apertures was very
sensibly warm, and had a strongly sulphurous odour. Unfortunately, we
had not anticipated the necessity for observing the temperature, which
was not by any means oppressive, and was only remarkable in contrast
with the extreme cold of the external air.
In the neighbourhood of the sulphur-pits, the hot springs along the
course of the stream were very numerous, evolving much gas. A little
higher they ceased altogether, and the upper part of the plain was
without any springs, as was evident from the quantity of ice by which
it was covered. For more than a mile it was a dead level, and very
swampy; but afterwards the valley became gently sloping and gravelly,
the little stream being often hidden under the pebbles. Large boulders
of the same granite which we had observed the day before, were
scattered over the surface. The vegetation in this valley was
extremely scanty, a few scattered tufts of _Dama_, and some shrubby
_Artemisiæ_, were occasionally seen, but the herbaceous vegetation had
been almost entirely destroyed by the intense morning frosts, which
had for some time been of daily occurrence. On the latter part of the
day's journey the rock on the mountain-side changed from mica-slate to
gneiss, of which very lofty scarped cliffs rose abruptly on the right
hand. We encamped on a level spot, after ten miles of almost
imperceptible ascent.
Next morning we continued to ascend the valley, which was now very
rugged, from masses of boulders, which were heaped one on another to a
very great thickness. The stream had cut for itself a narrow channel,
nearly a hundred feet in depth, the walls of which were entirely
composed of huge incoherent masses of rock, all more or less angular.
A walk of three miles brought us to the crest of the pass, which was
nearly level and grassy for about a mile; its elevation was about
16,500 feet. The pass (Pulokanka La) is a very deep depression in the
axis of the chain, which runs parallel to the left bank of the Indus,
separating the waters tributary to that river from those which join
the Zanskar river, some of the feeders of the latter springing from
the valleys on the western slopes of these mountains. The hills right
and left of the pass rise very boldly into rugged masses, contrasting
strongly with the level plain which constitutes the pass, in which the
watershed is scarcely perceptible.
[Sidenote: SALT LAKE.
_September, 1847._]
From the pass the descent was considerably more abrupt than the ascent
had been. The valley to the right was bare and stony, watered by a
small streamlet, which had, as on the eastern face of the pass, cut a
deep channel for itself among boulders. On descending, we turned
gradually to the right, and a lake by degrees came in view, towards
the southern extremity of which the road advanced over undulating
hills of fine clay, full of fresh-water shells, almost entirely of one
species of _Lymnæa_, of which the specimens were extremely numerous.
This lake is the Thogji Chumo of Mr. Trebeck, who travelled along it
on his journey from Le to Piti.
[Sidenote: FOSSILIFEROUS CLAYS.
_September, 1847._]
I was much surprised, and not a little pleased, to find that the
clay-beds contained fossils; as, except on one occasion in Piti, where
I found one or two specimens of a small _Planorbis_, I had in vain
sought in the clayey beds for any trace of organized beings. Here,
however, shells were in prodigious abundance, and as the species was a
large one, they were very conspicuous. The clay formation was
horizontally stratified, and quite impalpable. The uppermost beds
were at least a hundred feet above the level of the lake; and as the
valley by which we descended was in its lower part almost horizontal,
the lacustrine beds extended to a considerable distance from the lake,
forming a slightly undulating surface, over which the road ran.
After reaching the banks of the lake, the road kept its eastern shore
throughout its whole length, which was about three miles, and we
encamped close to its north end, on the edge of a level salt plain.
Our elevation was about 15,500 feet. The margins of the lake, which
was intensely saline, were generally very shallow, and its banks often
swampy, and covered with saline plants, especially _Chenopodiaceæ_; a
species of _Suæda_, with cylindrical fleshy leaves, was especially
abundant, growing in the soft mud close to the banks of the lake. A
_Blysmus_, several grasses, and _Ranunculus Cymbalaria_ were also
common along the banks of the lake. No shells could be seen in the
water. The surrounding hills were not very lofty, but often rose
abruptly several hundred feet, and were in general rugged and rocky.
At the height of perhaps 150 feet above the lake, a weathered mark
could be traced on the face of the mountains, wherever they were
rocky, everywhere quite horizontal. This was most conspicuous from a
distance, and became indistinct on a near approach. It appeared to
indicate, as I shall hereafter show, the level of the surface of the
lake at some former period.
On the morning of the 25th of September, our day's journey commenced
by rounding the north end of the lake, keeping at some distance from
its margin to avoid swamp. For about two miles from the northern end,
the ground continued almost level, and contained great masses of the
lacustrine clay quite horizontally stratified, and very little higher
than the surface of the water, but here quite without shells. A wide
valley, rising gently towards the north, lay beyond this level plain;
but our road, passing across the end of the lake, ascended another
valley, which ran in a north-west direction from its north-west
corner. The slope of this valley was very gentle. It was bounded by
low undulating or rocky hills, on which, where the surface was
suitable, the same remarkable water-mark could be traced continuously,
and still, to all appearance, quite horizontal. The centre of the
valley was occupied by clay, at first non-fossiliferous, but a little
further on containing a great abundance of shells, the same as in the
bed seen the day before. A few specimens of a very small bivalve,
seemingly a species of _Cyclas_, were also met with; but they were so
very rare, that they bore an infinitesimally small proportion to the
_Lymnæa_.
[Sidenote: ANCIENT WATER-MARK.
_September, 1847._]
[Sidenote: FORMER OUTLET OF LAKE.
_September, 1847._]
For several miles the ancient water-mark could be traced along the
sides of the hills, appearing to descend gradually, as the valley
slightly rose in elevation. Beds of clay continued to occupy the
middle of the valley nearly as long as the water-mark remained
visible. At last it disappeared where a depression on the left,
leading to the valley of Rukchin, seemed to indicate the former
drainage of the lake, at a time when its waters occupied a much higher
level, and contained in a living state the large mollusca of which the
shelly coverings still remain in such vast abundance in the clay. As
it was at the very edge of the lacustrine clay formation that the
shells were so abundant, while the masses of clay in the vicinity of
our encampment of the 25th, at the north-east extremity of the lake,
were without any, it would appear that the species was quite littoral,
while in the more central parts fine mud was deposited, without
shells. The outlet was indicated to me by Major Cunningham, who in a
previous journey had travelled along a part of the Rukchin valley in
descending from the Lachalang pass towards the salt lake. As it may
fairly be inferred that the lake was quite fresh at the time when it
was inhabited by _Lymnææ_ and _Cyclades_, it is satisfactory to know
that so very small an increase of the height of the surface of the
water, as about 150 feet, would be sufficient to admit of its
discharging its waters along the course of an open valley into one of
the tributaries of the Zanskar river.
Our road, after passing the ravine on the left, along which I suppose
the discharge of the lake at its original level to have been effected,
turned still more towards the north, and ascending an open valley to
the right, crossed a low _col_, or pass, and descended into a small
basin surrounded by hills, which was evidently at some former period
the bed of a small lake, for it was filled with pure fine clay, in
which, however, I could not observe any shells. From this plain we
passed into another open valley, up which we ascended in a northerly
direction for five or six miles, encamping where the mountains on both
sides began to close in a circle. Throughout the day we had been
gradually but very gently ascending, and the height of our encampment
was probably about 16,500 feet. We were about two miles from the
Tunglung pass, a depression in the range parallel to the Indus, the
same ridge which we had crossed before descending to the salt lake.
The axis of the range had been very near us on the right hand since we
had crossed it on the 24th, and had sent down a succession of spurs,
separated by wide valleys, along which we had been travelling. These
separating ridges appeared usually to rise to an elevation of from one
to two thousand feet above the nearly level valleys which lay at their
bases, and were, though often rocky, less remarkably so than in many
previous parts of our journey.
[Sidenote: ASCENT TOWARDS
TUNGLUNG PASS.
_September, 1847._]
The elevated country surrounding the sources of the Parang and Hanle
rivers, and those of the more eastern branches of the Zanskar, as well
as that encircling Lake Chumoreri, constitutes as near an approach to
what Humboldt has denominated a knot (_noeud_) of mountains, as any
part of the Himalaya which I have visited; not that I conceive there
is any reason to suppose that we have in this part of the chain an
intersection of two mountain masses of different ages, to which cause
the distinguished geographer is disposed to assign those aggregations
of mountains which he has so designated. There is, however, as
indicated by the origin of so many considerable streams in a confined
area, an extensive tract of highly elevated land, in which the valleys
have a very gentle slope, while the surrounding mountains are not much
elevated above them. The whole tract is nevertheless eminently
mountainous, if contrasted, not with the still more rugged districts
by which it is on every side surrounded, but with the hilly districts
of less alpine countries.
In the elevated district which we had been traversing since crossing
the Parang pass, there is little or no cultivation, a field or two at
Hanle and at the monastery on the banks of Lake Chumoreri (as I am
informed by Major Cunningham) being the only exceptions. The district,
however, is much frequented by a nomade population of shepherds, who,
living in tents, move about with their flocks as the abundance of food
or their own caprice may lead them. Clusters of black tents were now
and then seen by us at intervals, especially in Rupchu, by which name
the districts round the salt lake are known to the wandering
inhabitants.
During the whole of the 25th of September, a furious north wind had
continued to blow, accompanied by a cloudy sky, and all the
indications of extremely unsettled weather, such as had been met with
in the neighbourhood of Hanle only a week before. It was evident that,
as winter approached, these periods of disturbance recurred more and
more frequently. This time the fury of the blast increased as the day
advanced, and after dark the cold in our tents was very severe. About
10 P.M. it began to snow slightly, and at daybreak on the 26th the
ground was covered with snow to a depth of between two and three
inches. As we had a prospect of arriving in milder regions by
diminishing our elevation during the day, we hastened our departure as
much as possible. A mile and a half of level ground brought us
directly under the pass, the ascent to which was at last very steep.
The road was very stony and rugged, but everything being covered with
snow a good deal deeper than on the open plain on which we had
encamped, we did not linger at the summit. The wind still blew
strongly from the north, driving in our faces the still falling snow,
and opposing our progress towards the crest, which was very rocky,
being composed of a mass of hard stratified quartz. The elevation of
the summit was about 17,500 feet.
[Sidenote: TUNGLUNG PASS.
_September, 1847._]
The descent from the pass was very rapid. After a few paces, we were
in a narrow and steep ravine, in which we continued to descend very
abruptly, without obtaining any view of the surrounding country. Three
miles from the summit, at perhaps 2000 feet lower level, snow ceased
to lie on the ground, but it continued to fall lightly till the
afternoon. Large rounded tufts of an Alsinaceous plant were common on
the upper part of the descent, conspicuous under the snow. Lower down,
the remains of species of _Corydalis_ and _Saussurea_ were
discoverable in crevices of the rocks, the only remains of the alpine
vegetation. The rock on both sides was clay-slate.
Continuing to descend rapidly, the ravine widened a little, and became
filled with a most extensive development of alluvial conglomerate,
forming thick masses, worn into pinnacles and fantastic shapes, like
the similar deposits above Sungnam in Kunawar. This was particularly
conspicuous where a lateral valley joined that along which we
descended, a flat-topped promontory of alluvium there projecting far
beyond the primitive rocks.
[Sidenote: GIAH.
_September, 1847._]
After a descent of about 4000 feet of perpendicular height, we arrived
at Giah, elevated 13,400 feet above the sea, not a little glad to be
among houses, in a more temperate region than it had been for some
time our lot to travel in. We took up our quarters in the upper room
of a two-storied house, which had been prepared for our reception,
and willingly agreed to halt a day in order to give time for
arrangements, for a change of porters, and a rest to our servants and
guides. Giah will be recollected, by those acquainted with Moorcroft's
travels, as the place where he entered the Tibetan country, and where
he was for some time kept in considerable uncertainty as to the nature
of the reception he would meet with. Since that time the supremacy of
the Sikhs has entirely changed the state of the country; and though
the king (Gylpo) of Giah still exists, he does not even exercise a
nominal sovereignty, but lives a pensioner on the Sikh government,
without power and with a very limited income.
The influence of the Sikhs has, however, produced little change in the
character of the people, as their occupation of the country, except in
Le itself, and at one or two military posts, is entirely nominal, and
only maintained by the moral influence of their known superiority in
resources and military skill. The gumpa, or monastery, as in
Moorcroft's time, crowns a rocky hill on the right bank of the Giah
stream, while the town, or more properly village, on the left bank, is
built on the steep alluvial banks high above the stream. There was a
considerable extent of cultivation round the village, barley and peas
being the chief crops; both had been cut, but were still lying in
small heaps in the fields. Notwithstanding the great elevation, a
number of poplar-trees, of the large cordate-leaved species (which
seems identical with _P. balsamifera_), occur in the village, several
of which attain a considerable size.
[Sidenote: GIAH RAVINE.
_September, 1847._]
On the morning of the 28th of September we resumed our journey
towards Le. By crossing the Tunglung pass, we had again gained the
eastern slope of the ridge dividing the waters of the Zanskar from
those of the Indus. The Giah stream flows towards the latter river
with a north-easterly course, and two marches of little more than
seven miles each, brought us to the banks of the Indus at a village
called Upshi. For the first mile after leaving Giah, the valley was
somewhat open, with steep banks of alluvial conglomerate; it then
contracted rather suddenly into a narrow ravine, with steep rocky
walls, composed of highly inclined strata of conglomerate and
sandstone. Owing to the diminished elevation, the vegetation was
considerably more recognizable than it had been for the last week, and
several shrubby plants were seen which had long been absent. _Ephedra_
was common in the crevices of the rocks, and the Tibetan rose and a
small shrubby _Lonicera_ grew on the gravelly banks of the little
stream.
[Sidenote: REMARKABLE GORGE.
_September, 1847._]
At Miru, a considerable village where we encamped, the valley expanded
into a little plain, filled as usual with alluvium, and covered with
cultivation. A few poplar-trees occurred in the village. The ravine
contracted immediately below this place, and was, if possible, more
narrow and rocky than the day before, as the little stream had to be
crossed not less than four or five times in as many miles, on small
wooden bridges of rough planks. A very beautiful Labiate shrub, a
species of _Perowskia_, with bright blue flowers, which I afterwards
found very abundant in the Indus valley from 12,000 to 8000 feet, was
here met with for the first time. Close to its junction with the
Indus, the ravine expanded into an open plain, well covered with
houses and enclosures, with scattered poplar and willow trees, as well
as a few apricots, and traversed by canals of irrigation conducted
from the little Giah rivulet. The Indus is here not more than forty
feet wide, flowing swiftly over large boulders, and quite unfordable.
Throughout the whole course of this very remarkable gorge by which we
descended from Giah, the rock continued to be conglomerate,
alternating with strata of sandstone and of a very friable slate. The
conglomerate was extremely hard, and generally of a dark brown colour.
The matrix, which had often a semi-vitrified appearance, was not less
hard than the enclosed stones, which were all rounded and very various
in size and composition, jasper rock, granite, and quartz being all
seen. The sandstone which accompanied the conglomerate varied much in
colour, various shades of red, brown, and green being predominant. It
was also extremely hard. These strata, which were highly inclined,
often nearly vertical, were in general well marked, in consequence of
the beds of hard sandstone and conglomerate being thrown out in relief
by the more rapid decay of the soft slates with which they alternated.
The dip was everywhere very variable, and several very distinct
sections were displayed, where it was evident that the strata were
curved and sinuated. The curves observed were convex below; the strike
of the strata was nearly perpendicular to the general direction of the
ravine, or from north-west to south-east.
[Sidenote: INDUS VALLEY.
_September, 1847._]
From Upshi, our course lay down the Indus valley in a direction west
of north. The width of the Indus, which was a rapid stream, varied
from thirty or forty to a hundred feet. Platforms of alluvium, almost
level-topped, and often attaining a thickness of a hundred feet, were
interposed between the river and the mountains, which, still composed
of highly inclined strata of conglomerate and its associated rocks,
advanced in a succession of spurs towards the centre of the valley.
These platforms were quite bare of vegetation, a few tufts of a
prickly _Echinops_ being the only plant worthy of note which I
observed. No villages were passed till we reached Marsilang, at which
we encamped after a journey of about ten miles. Here there was very
extensive cultivation on the surface of the platform, on both sides of
a deep ravine, cut in the alluvium by a considerable stream, which
descended from the west. The plantations of willow and poplar were
very luxuriant. The willows were planted in rows, and were frequently
pollarded, their twigs being in great demand for baskets and other
useful purposes in so treeless a country. When allowed to grow their
full size, they spread much, and attain a length of upwards of thirty
feet. The cultivated willows of Tibet are mostly European forms;
_Salix fragilis_ and _S. alba_ are the most common. The poplars are of
two sorts: one a spreading tree with large cordate leaves, which was
first seen in Upper Kunawar, and is common in all the Tibetan
villages, up to the highest limit of tree cultivation; it is quite
identical with _Populus balsamifera_, which I cannot distinguish in
the herbarium from _P. laurifolia_, of Ledebour. The other, which I
had not before seen in Tibet, was a tall, erect, and slender tree,
with much darker foliage and smaller leaves; it seems, so far as my
specimens enable me to decide, to be the common black poplar (_P.
nigra_) of Europe.
[Sidenote: MARSILANG.
_September, 1847._]
At Marsilang the Indus is crossed by a good wooden bridge, thirty-four
paces in length, which enables its inhabitants to communicate with the
large villages and extensive cultivated tracts on the east bank of the
river. As soon as we left the cultivated lands of Marsilang, on the
morning of the 1st of October, we found ourselves again on a platform
of alluvium; but after a few miles we reached another village, with
extensive cultivation, and on the latter part of the day's journey
passed through a succession of villages separated by gradually shorter
intervals of unprofitable and barren land. These cultivated tracts
were everywhere well irrigated; indeed, every spot, where irrigation
was easy of execution, seemed to be under cultivation. Each village
had its plantation of poplars and willows, not, however, so plentiful
as at Marsilang. The grain had everywhere been cut and housed, the
operations of harvest being seemingly quite at an end. The whole of
this richly-cultivated district is called Chashut.
Our journey of the 2nd of October was for about six miles through an
uninterrupted tract of cultivation, very little elevated above the
level of the river, the alluvial platforms being here of
inconsiderable thickness. The direction of the valley was also much
more westerly, and the mountains on both sides had receded
considerably from the river, leaving an open plain of five or six
miles in width. Numerous irrigation channels intersected the fields,
which gradually, as we proceeded, united one to another, till at last
they all combined into one large and deep canal, by which the
superfluous waters were conveyed to the Indus. Crossing this canal, we
reached the river, which we crossed by a bridge twenty-five paces in
length. A few houses, and a small patch of cultivation, lay on the
right bank of the river, immediately beyond the bridge, but no extent
of fertile country; low spurs of rocky hills descending from the
north, close down upon the Indus. After crossing the bridge we turned
up a wide and gravelly valley between two of these ridges, the course
of which we followed, ascending very gradually among large boulders,
strewed over the surface, for about three miles. We then turned
abruptly to the left, through a narrow ravine in the low granitic
hills by which the valley was on that side bounded. Emerging from
this, we entered a quite similar and parallel valley, and obtained our
first view of the town of Le, covering the top and slopes of a steep
hill by which the valley was apparently terminated, about two miles
beyond the point at which we entered it.
[Sidenote: LE.
_September, 1847._]
Le, the capital of the province of Ladak, and the most important
place, and only town, of Western Tibet, is situated about three miles
from the Indus, in the upper part of an open valley, which rises
gradually as it recedes from the river, so that the town is rather
more than 1200 feet above its level, or about 11,800 feet above the
sea. The town occupies the slope, and surrounds the base of a low
spur, on the left or east side of the valley, while the centre and
right side are occupied by extensive tracts of cultivation, the fields
rising in terraces one above another, and watered by little rills
drawn from a stream which descends in the centre of the valley. The
aspect of the town, which is very peculiar, is faithfully represented
in the frontispiece to the second volume of Moorcroft's Travels, from
a sketch by Mr. Trebeck.
In the neighbourhood of the town there are several small enclosures,
planted with poplar and willow trees, in one of which we pitched our
tents. These plantations were all young, a very fine garden of old
trees having been, it was said, destroyed at the time of the Sikh
invasion. The governor of Ladak, a deputy of Maharaja Gulab Singh, the
ruler of Kashmir, to whom the rule of Ladak has devolved as a
dependency of the latter country, resides in the town; but the
detachment of troops, amounting to about 150 men, who form the
military garrison of the place, occupy a small square fort on the west
side of the valley, about a mile from the town of Le.
The peculiarities of the Buddhist religion, as practised in Tibet,
which are everywhere conspicuous in all parts of Ladak, are especially
remarkable in the capital. The principal monasteries in the
neighbourhood of Le are at some distance from the town in the vicinity
of villages both up and down the Indus; but religious edifices, of the
many kinds which are everywhere so common in Tibet, are seen all round
Le in great numbers. Along the road by which we approached the town,
there is a very long building, of the kind called _Mané_, extending
for more than half a mile. It consists of two parallel walls, twelve
or fifteen feet apart, and nearly six feet high, the intervals between
which are filled up with stones and rubbish, and the whole covered
with a sloping roof, which rises at a gentle angle to the central
ridge, midway between the two walls. On the roof are laid large slabs
of slate, every one of which is covered with Tibetan letters, or more
rarely with a rude drawing of a temple. The words on these stones are
(I believe, invariably) a repetition of the mystical Buddhist prayer,
from one of the words of which these curious, and apparently useless,
erections take their name. The Mane seems one of the most
indispensable accompaniments of a Tibetan village, and they may
occasionally be seen even in desert tracts; so that the amount of
labour which has been expended in their construction must have been
very great, some of the largest containing many millions of
repetitions of the words _Om Mane Padme Hom_. In the smaller villages
they are often very inferior in size, sometimes not more than twenty
or thirty feet in length, and three feet high. Every traveller has
constant occasion to notice that in passing these walls the Tibetans
always leave them on the right hand, considering it both wrong and
unlucky to do otherwise; those proceeding in contrary directions
therefore take opposite sides.
[Sidenote: RELIGIOUS EDIFICES
OF TIBET.
_September, 1847._]
Equally conspicuous in the environs of Le are the urn-like buildings,
called Chokten or Chosten, which are, I believe, erected over the
ashes of Lamas, or priests, and are, therefore, in a country where a
third or fourth part of the male population adopt a monastic life,
particularly abundant. Long rows of these, consisting of twenty or
more urns of various sizes, may often be seen in conspicuous places
above the villages, forming, from the brilliant whitewash with which
they are covered when new, very prominent objects. Many of those near
Le are of large size, and ornamented with rude paintings of dragons
and other mythological animals of uncouth form.
The religion of Tibet, from the remarkable nature of its institutions
and ceremonies, has of late years attracted much attention; but as,
from the hurried nature of my journey, I had no opportunity of
acquiring any information regarding it which has not already been made
public, it is not necessary for me to dwell upon it at any length.
Throughout the whole of Western Tibet, the monasteries are very poor,
in comparison with those in the neighbourhood of Lassa, of which we
read such gorgeous descriptions; all their wealth in silver and gold
having been plundered by the Sikhs, during their short possession of
the country as far east as Garu and Taklakhar. Still the number of
Lamas does not seem to have much diminished, though they are more
dependent upon the cultivation of the soil than in Eastern Tibet,
where some of the monasteries are said to contain thousands of
priests.
[Sidenote: LE.
_September, 1847._]
The town of Le is said to contain about 3000 inhabitants. Many of the
houses are very high, the former residence of the king containing
seven stories. They are usually built of unburnt brick, formed from
the fine lacustrine clay of the neighbourhood. The Sikh Thannadar has
lately built for himself a house of stone, but he found it necessary
to bring lime from Nubra, a distance of nearly forty miles, none being
procurable so near in the valley of the Indus. The timber used in the
construction of the houses is all poplar or willow, both of which are
found to last a very long time in the arid climate of Tibet. The beams
are laid perhaps two feet apart, and covered sometimes with small
planking, but more generally with brushwood, over which is laid a
thick coating of clay, so as to form a flat roof, to which there is
usually access by a small stair or ladder.
The mountain ranges which bound the valley in which the town of Le is
situated, though not lofty, are very generally rocky and inaccessible.
They consist partly of distinctly stratified gneiss, but principally
of a fine white granite, which decays with great rapidity, and
contains many irregular nodules of an iron grey colour, much finer in
the grain than the rest. The width of the fertile plain of Chashut,
over which I made the last two marches down the Indus, had prevented
me from ascertaining the nature of the rocks on the mountains to the
left, so that I cannot fix the exact point where the granitic eruption
comes in contact with the slates and conglomerates of the Giah ravine.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] Turner's Tibet, p. 406.
[14] Phil. Tr. 1787, p. 297.
[15] I have made over all my specimens of the borax and other saline
products of Tibet to Dr. R. D. Thomson, of Glasgow, who is at present
engaged in examining them.