Departure from Le -- Sabu Valley -- Pass between Le and Nubra
-- Snow -- Encamp at 15,500 feet -- Digar -- Valley of Shayuk
-- Alluvium -- _Populus Euphratica_ -- Tsatti -- Nubra river --
District of Nubra -- Villages -- Irrigation -- Saline 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 population --
Villages -- Outburst of granite -- Siksa -- Khapalu -- Open
plain of Khapalu -- Junction of Shayuk and Indus -- Nar --
Iskardo plain -- Description of Iskardo -- Aqueduct -- Fort --
Lacustrine clay formation -- Vegetation.
While we were at Le there was a good deal of unsettled weather, and
two very slight falls of snow. On the 9th of October we had an
opportunity of observing an eclipse of the sun, which was welcomed by
the inhabitants of the town with a most discordant beating of drums,
intended to frighten away the demons who had taken possession of the
sun. After a week's halt, Major Cunningham and myself started in
different directions; Major 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 the head of each
valley; but the pass nearest to Le having a small but very steep
glacier on its northern face, is difficult and dangerous in autumn,
after the snow has entirely melted from the surface of the ice. I was,
therefore, recommended to cross into Nubra, by a pass a few miles
further east, at the head of the valley of Sabu, which is separated
from that in which the town of Le lies, by a steep ridge of granite
hills.
[Sidenote: SABU VALLEY.
_October, 1847._]
I left Le on the morning of the 11th of October. The road to the Sabu
valley enters the granite range close to the town, ascending a narrow
stony valley in an easterly direction, and crossing by a short steep
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
_Echinops_ of the Indus valley, of which the heads of fruit were
falling to pieces. I encamped for the night in the valley of Sabu,
which is very like that of Le, with pretty extensive cultivation, but
few trees.
[Sidenote: LAZGUNG PASS.
_October, 1847._]
Next day I crossed the pass. The ascent was very long and fatiguing,
and, from the lateness of the season, very uninteresting. A cold bleak
wind blew from the north in strong gusts, and the sky was overcast
with light clouds. The valley contracted into a rocky ravine 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 the crest to the
depth of about a foot. It was late in the evening before I reached the
top of the pass, the distance being much greater than I had been led
to anticipate. The elevation of the summit, by the observations of
Captain Strachey, is about 18,300 feet.
On the north face of the pass snow lay thickly for two miles or rather
more, and more scantily for a mile further. As evening had begun to
close before I reached the summit, I hurried my descent as much as
possible. 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 intensely cold, the sky being clear; and next morning, at
half-past six o'clock, the thermometer stood at 15°. At the same time
I found that water boiled at 184°, indicating an elevation of upwards
of 15,500 feet.
In the morning I made a short march to the village of Digar, which I
ought to have reached the day before, had not the darkness prevented
me. The distance was not more than four miles, and the descent about
2500 feet, Digar being rather more than 13,000 feet above the level of
the sea. The general direction of the valley in which I was encamped
was north-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 a considerable extent of cultivation, and seemed
prosperous. It was situated on the left side of the valley, or rather
on the slope of the mountains on that side opposite a lateral ravine,
from which a stream of boulders had at one time descended. The centre
of the valley was much lower, being excavated out of the alluvium
which had once filled the whole.
[Sidenote: VALLEY OF SHAYUK.
_October, 1847._]
On the morning of the 14th of October, I descended to the valley of
the Shayuk, making a march of fifteen miles to the village of Tsatti,
on the right bank of that river. The road skirted the steep stony
hills on the left side of the valley, parallel to the Digar stream,
for about two miles, descending rapidly, 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 came in
sight, 1500 feet below. It was of considerable width, and very stony,
barren, and desolate. Mountains of black slate, very lofty and rugged,
in many places too steep for snow to lie, were seen to the north-east,
from among which the river appeared to issue into the more open tract
immediately below.
The road did not descend at once to the level of the river, but,
turning abruptly to the left, proceeded along a platform of alluvium,
at least a thousand feet in 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, almost pure sand,
but in general many pebbles and boulders were mixed with it. Towards
the river it presented scarped cliffs, in which its composition was
well seen.
[Sidenote: POPULUS EUPHRATICA.
_October, 1847._]
The Shayuk, where I descended to it, flowed through a wide gravelly
plain, varying in breadth from one to two miles, and quite destitute
of vegetation. Rocky spurs of black slate and conglomerate, with many
granite veins, projecting from the mountains on the south,
occasionally narrowed the valley, while the recesses were generally
filled with a mass of alluvium. The river was occasionally divided
into several branches. In some of the recesses small trees of a
peculiar species of 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 parts of Nubra it is common enough, but
only, so far as I have observed, on the south side of the Shayuk. This
poplar is also remarkable for the very changeable shape of its leaves,
which vary from broadly deltoid and coarsely toothed, to narrow-linear
and quite entire. The leaves of the full-grown tree are generally
broad and much toothed, while young plants have very narrow leaves;
the shoots of pollarded plants, which are common, the tree being much
used for fuel, are also narrow.
After proceeding parallel to the river for six or seven miles, I
crossed to the right bank. The stream was undivided, and about a
hundred yards broad. It had a considerable 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
distance from the river, of similar structure, and so little elevated
above its surface, that a very slight rise of the water would have
been sufficient to submerge them.
From the village of Tsatti, at which I encamped on the 14th of
October, I followed the course of the Shayuk to its junction with a
large stream descending from the north, which, from the name of the
district in which the junction is situated, is commonly 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 especially the occurrence of several falls
of snow, which extended down the mountain slopes almost as far as the
plain, induced me to place reliance on the assurances of the people of
the valley, that the difficulties of the road would be quite
insurmountable.
[Sidenote: DISTRICT OF NUBRA.
_October, 1847._]
The district of Nubra includes the whole course of the Shayuk river,
from its great bend to the eastward of the point where I joined it
below Digar, till it again contracts nine or ten miles below the
village of Unmaru; and also the lower 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 level of the sea. This may be considered as the mean elevation of
the whole district; for the cultivated tracts nowhere rise to any
height above the bed of the rivers, which have everywhere a very
gentle and apparently uniform inclination.
[Sidenote: DESCRIPTION OF NUBRA.
_October, 1847._]
The valley of the Shayuk is widest at the point of its junction with
the Nubra river. At this place the level plain, including the gently
sloping alluvium on each side, has a breadth of about six miles. The
width of the valley gradually diminishes as we recede from the centre,
the mountains encroaching more and more, till at last they hem in the
river, leaving no space for villages or cultivation, 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 gently towards the base of mountains,
which rise abruptly and precipitously on both sides of the valley, to
a height of three or four thousand feet. Some of the more projecting
spurs, even where the width of the valley is greatest, advance so far
into the open plain as to abut upon the river and compel the traveller
to ascend their slopes, in order to cross them in travelling from
village to village.
The gravelly plain over which the Shayuk flows, is usually quite
devoid of vegetation. A few scattered bushes of _Tamarix_ and
_Myricaria_ appear, indeed, near its junction with the Nubra river,
but further up the gravel is absolutely 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 the whole
course of the Shayuk valley, from the glaciers of Sassar. These
floods, which appear to be due to the blocking-up of the upper course
of the river by the ice, have been most destructive to the prosperity
of the valley.
[Sidenote: VILLAGES.
_October, 1847._]
Throughout Nubra, the villages, with scarcely an exception, occupy the
surface of the low platforms of alluvium which fill up the
funnel-shaped terminations of the ravines. In Tibet the size of the
villages, and the extent of cultivation by which they are surrounded,
entirely depend on the supply of water and 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
of water is in general indicated by the swampy banks of the irrigation
canals, as the water, oozing through the loose gravel of the
platforms, produces a dense jungle of _Hippophaë_ scrub, which makes
the cultivated tracts conspicuous, even in winter, when the trees are
bare of leaves and the fields of crops.
This copious supply of water no doubt depends on the great elevation
of the surrounding mountains, which everywhere rise, if not above, yet
almost to the level of perpetual snow, which is about 18,000 feet, 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 in the
hottest months slight falls of snow are of occasional occurrence at
all elevations above 16,000 feet; and as every range rises much above
that height, a small addition to the supply is thus obtained.
The villages have generally a few fruit-trees, as well as a good many
poplars and willows, which yield almost the only timber the
inhabitants can command. The walnut and _Elæagnus_, both of which
trees find their upper limit in Nubra, are so extremely scarce that
they are not available for such purposes.
In most parts of Nubra the soil is very generally saline, the dry
grassy plains which are common on the banks of the streams being
generally covered with a copious efflorescence of carbonate of soda;
while the abundance of _Salsolæ_ and other Chenopodiaceous plants on
the dry alluvial plains, and even on the rocky hills, seems to prove
that the saline matter is not confined to the immediate vicinity of
water, or to the lowest levels, but is very generally diffused over
the surface.
[Sidenote: VALLEY OF NUBRA RIVER.
_October, 1847._]
The valley of the Nubra river, for upwards of twenty miles, is very
similar in general character to that of the Shayuk. The same wide
gravelly expanse occupies its centre, forming a plain of one or two
miles in width, through which the river runs in many branches. A great
part of this gravelly plain, particularly on the right side of the
valley, is covered by a dense thicket of _Hippophaë_, 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 jungle grows is almost on a level with the river,
so that it is very generally swampy, and traversed here and there by
little streamlets of water. The _Hippophaë_ is here a small tree,
attaining a height of fifteen feet, with a short thick trunk and stiff
crooked spinous branches.
[Sidenote: CHIRASA.
_October, 1847._]
In several parts of the course of the Nubra river, low hills rise in
the valley, isolated, or nearly so, from the mountain ranges behind,
and forming, therefore, a remarkable feature. On one of these, on the
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 elevated
position. The rock on which they stand is composed of a hard porphyry,
which has been injected from below, and has displaced the black slate,
which is the more usual rock in the lower part of this valley.
In the lower part of the ravine behind the town of Chirasa, the
alluvium is more extensively developed than usual in this valley,
where aqueous action seems in a great measure 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 seen, at a height of perhaps 1000 feet, on the
mountain-sides in isolated patches, generally faced by cliffs, in
which a tendency to horizontal stratification is observable.
[Sidenote: NUBRA VALLEY.
_October, 1847._]
The lower part of the Nubra valley is very fertile, and on the east
side cultivation extends, with little interruption, from Tirit as far
as Panamik, in a belt varying in width from a few hundred feet to
nearly a mile. The villages are large, and seem populous. Many of the
houses are 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 fringe of _Hippophaë_ bushes, which forms
an impenetrable belt along their margins, indicate a degree of
industry and energy very unusual in Tibet, where, however, the amount
of cultivable land is seldom sufficient to promise much reward to any
extensive and elaborate system of irrigation.
As the advanced period of the year rendered exploration at great
elevations scarcely practicable, and made it desirable to reach a
lower level as soon as possible, I did not remain more than a week in
Nubra. On the 22nd of October I started from Lyakjung, at the mouth of
the Nubra river, towards Iskardo, following the course of the Shayuk
river. The 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 extremely narrow. On the 25th of October I reached
an encamping ground called Kuru, at the termination of the Nubra
district, where the mountains, which for three days had gradually been
encroaching on the valley, completely closed in, and the river
entered a deep gorge, walled in on both sides by lofty and almost
perpendicular cliffs of black slate.
[Sidenote: LOWER NUBRA.
_October, 1847._]
[Sidenote: FOSSIL SHELLS IN THE CLAY.
_October, 1847._]
The general aspect of the lower part of Nubra requires no particular
description, as it presents much the same features as the other parts
of the district. The mountains on both sides of the valley are not
less steep, barren, and inaccessible than elsewhere in Tibet. The
alluvial platforms, which were everywhere present, increased
remarkably in thickness as they diminished in size. Widely spread out
in the broadest parts of the valley, they were not more than from
twenty to forty feet thick where cut across by the river, and sloped
very 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 side of the river, nearly opposite to the village of Tertse,
I found these beds to contain fresh-water shells. The fossiliferous
bed was elevated very little above the present level of the river, and
was composed of a fine somewhat sandy clay, stratified horizontally,
and covered with upwards of fifty feet of coarse conglomerate. The
shells, which were all small, were species of _Planorbis_ and
_Lymnæa_, apparently identical with those afterwards found in the
neighbourhood of Iskardo, but quite different from those of the salt
lake of Thogji.
The villages of Lower Nubra are not numerous, but some of them possess
very extensive cultivation. Hundar in particular, at the mouth of a
large ravine, by which a considerable tributary stream descends from
the south (at the source of which there is a pass across 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 _Elæagnus_ became common at Unmaru, on the north
bank of the river. Perhaps the gradual narrowing of the valley may
have a considerable effect in modifying the climate, for the
diminution of elevation is very inconsiderable, the river at Kuru
being nearly 10,300 feet above the sea, or not more than 300 feet
lower than the junction of the Shayuk and Nubra rivers.
In this part of its course, and at this advanced season, when the
great summer floods are over, the Shayuk appears to be everywhere
fordable. It is, however, a noble stream, with a rapid current; and 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 running in seven
branches, of which three were from 100 to 150 feet wide, and had an
average depth of about two feet, increased in the centre to about
three. The other branches were, however, much smaller.
[Sidenote: GREAT FLOOD OF THE SHAYUK.
_October, 1847._]
In several places between Hundar and Tertse, on the gravelly plain
which skirted the river, I observed manifest traces of a flood,
consisting of such rejectamenta as are usually seen deposited by
swollen streams, fragments of wood and twigs, straw, sheep's dung, and
other light materials, forming a bed two or three feet wide,
continuous in many places for hundreds of yards, at a distance of not
less than half a mile from the river. To my inquiries as to the nature
of the flood which had deposited these reliquiæ, 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 almost unknown, and where the
winter falls of snow seldom exceed one or two inches, there are no
disturbing causes which could prevent them from remaining till carried
away or altered in position by another similar flood. I should,
therefore, have had no difficulty in attaching credence to the
testimony of the inhabitants of the country, even had I not, in my
journey down the river, received the most abundant proofs that the
flood was everywhere well known, at least as far as Iskardo.
The vegetation of Lower Nubra had so entirely disappeared, that I
could form scarcely any idea of its character; but, as the general
aspect of the country was unaltered, I had no reason to look for any
change. In the gravelly bed of the river, bushes of _Myricaria_ and
_Tamarix_ were common; thickets of _Hippophaë_, 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
herbaceous vegetation had quite withered away. In the villages, the
cultivated trees were also rapidly shedding their leaves; constant
night frosts, and frequent falls of snow on the mountain-sides, having
so far reduced the temperature that winter was evidently at hand.
[Sidenote: NARROW GORGE.
_October, 1847._]
Below the village of Unmaru, the width of the valley had so much
diminished that many of the lateral spurs advanced close to the river.
Several of these prominent spurs consisted of trap rocks, various
forms of basalt and greenstone occurring, with not unfrequently veins
of coarse serpentine. Stratified rocks, however, still continued, but
the hard black slate was often with difficulty distinguishable from
the basalt.
My encamping ground at Kuru was on the north side of the river, and
close to the gorge into which the Shayuk disappeared among rocks of
black slate, which rise almost perpendicularly from the river. A small
tributary, descending from the north, ran parallel and close to the
rugged mountain spur which formed the barrier of the valley; and
immediately above, a 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, after having spread out _ad
libitum_ in the open valley of Nubra, rose to a height of not less
than fifty feet above their usual level, and required several days to
subside. The beds of clay under the loose sand were all stratified,
and were, no doubt, referable to the same lacustrine formation as the
fossiliferous beds observed higher up the valley of the Shayuk.
[Sidenote: WARIS RAVINE.
_October, 1847._]
From Kuru there is no road along the bank of the river, the rocks
being on both sides too precipitous to permit of a passage, and the
river too deep to be forded. In winter, when the river is frozen,
travellers are able to continue their course along its bed by
proceeding on the ice in those places 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 encamped at the
village of Waris, elevated 12,400 feet, among a few fields from which
the crops had long been cleared. The few huts which formed the village
contained no inhabitants, being abandoned, as soon as the harvest has
been reaped and housed, for the more temperate climate of the river
valley.
The ravine by which I ascended from Kuru was very narrow and rugged.
The road generally lay at a considerable height on the steep slopes of
the hills, but three times crossed the stream; once by a natural
bridge composed of a huge 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 vegetation; but on the
margin of the little stream there were a good many shrubs, principally
willows, and occasionally the cordate-leaved poplar so commonly
cultivated in the Tibetan villages, which here appeared quite
indigenous.
The geological structure of this rocky ravine was very intricate, from
the great mass of igneous rock, granite, greenstone, and amygdaloid,
which everywhere occurred. A very hard conglomerate, similar in
character to that of the upper Indus and 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 conglomerate of great thickness rested on the sides
of the mountains, many hundred feet above the bed of the stream.
During the day the weather had been very cloudy and threatening, and a
little snow fell in the afternoon at my encamping ground at Waris.
[Sidenote: PASS ABOVE WARIS.
_October, 1847._]
During the night more snow fell, and on the morning of the 27th it was
four or five inches deep. From my camp I ascended at once, very
steeply, to the crest of the ridge on the left, which I then followed
in a succession of undulations 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 ridge was very
striking, the dark colour of the rocks below contrasting strongly with
the snowy whiteness of the upper parts of the mountains, which, on
the south side of the Shayuk, rise very abruptly to a height of
perhaps 18,000 feet.
The summit of the ridge was not less than 14,700 feet above the sea.
At this elevation, the snow, on southern exposures, had, by eleven
A.M., quite melted, under the influence of a bright sun. Along the
ridge, tufts of a prickly _Statice_, still displaying the remains of
flowers, 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 one I had left in the morning, deserted by its inhabitants, who
had gone for the winter to the village of Chulungka, nine miles
distant, on the banks of the Shayuk. I was now in the district of
Chorbat, the ridge which I had just crossed being the boundary of
Nubra on the west.
[Sidenote: BOGHDAN RAVINE.
_October, 1847._]
The Boghdan ravine, though very narrow and tortuous, is well wooded
with small trees of poplar and willow, and with shrubs, chiefly of
_Hippophaë_ and _Myricaria_. These plants are 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 joined the Shayuk, along which a journey of four days brought me
to Siksa, the principal village of Chorbat, encamping on the way at
the villages of Chulungka, Turtuk, and Pranu.
[Sidenote: DISTRICT OF CHORBAT.
_October, 1847._]
The district of Chorbat is a dependency of the government of Iskardo,
which, like that of Le, is subject to Kashmir. The desert country by
which Nubra and Chorbat are separated has, for the present, acted as
a barrier to 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, there is no uninhabited tract between the
two, so that the Mahommedan and Buddhist population are in direct
contact. The result is, that Mahommedanism is in that part gradually,
though very slowly, extending to the eastward.
In this part of its course the Shayuk river is in general very rapid,
and is hemmed in so closely by the mountains on both sides, that
little space is left for the accumulation of alluvium, except where
considerable lateral streams join the main river. The barrier by which
Chorbat is separated from Nubra is the most contracted part of the
valley, and the general ruggedness by degrees becomes less marked as
we continue to descend the 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 its channel
to the other, washes the foot of each rocky spur, so that the road
frequently quits the level of the river to ascend abruptly the rocky
hills, which are often so steep as to be only accessible by means of
scaffoldings of wood, propped up against the face of the perpendicular
cliffs by trunks of trees. Once or twice the road lay at a great
height above the river for several miles, without descending at all to
its level.
[Sidenote: BRIDGES.
_October, 1847._]
The channel of the Shayuk is generally formed of coarse gravel or
large rolled stones, and immense boulders are everywhere scattered on
the level banks. The stream is rapid and deep, and the fall much more
considerable than in Nubra, Siksa being only about 9000 feet above the
sea. 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 trunks, stretching from bank to bank, with a light and rude
hand-rail of hurdles to give support. Opposite Turtuk, the bridge,
which rests upon piers projecting on each side eight feet into the
river, measures twenty-five paces, so that the river is not more than
eighty feet wide.
Where platforms of alluvium occupy the lateral ravines, they attain a
very great thickness, seldom less than two hundred feet, and
occasionally at least twice as much. They are generally cut off in
steep cliffs by the river, beautifully showing the structure 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 local origin of these deposits, which
probably commenced under water, close to a ravine on the
mountain-side, and gradually extended, by the addition of successive
layers, till they met similar accumulations, derived from the opposite
side of the valley.
[Sidenote: VILLAGES.
_October, 1847._]
In the upper part of the district of Chorbat, the villages are few and
very insignificant, but lower down several are of great extent.
Chulungka, the highest village, consists of three or four houses, on a
small platform about fifty feet above the river. This 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 village is Turtuk, on the south side of
the river. Pranu, on the north side, is remarkable for the great
extent of its cultivation, and for several isolated rocks, behind
which the alluvium has accumulated to a thickness of at least six or
seven hundred feet.
All the villages are surrounded by fine orchards of apricot-trees.
Walnut and mulberry trees are also common; and at Turtuk I saw a few
vines; these latter are, however, by no means generally cultivated 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 in Kunawar,
and which seems to be indigenous in some of the Himalayan valleys
south of Kashmir, occurs for the first time at Turtuk. The fields are
everywhere terraced, and water seems to be very abundant.
[Sidenote: ROCKS OF CHORBAT.
_October, 1847._]
A very remarkable outburst of granite commences at the junction of the
Boghdan ravine with the Shayuk, and continues as far as Siksa,
altering the secondary rocks so that they can scarcely be recognized.
The granite is frequently in great mass, and usually occupies the
lowest part of the valley, sending 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 even be
connected with the conglomerates and slates of the Giah valley and of
the Indus below Le, the strike of which to the N.W. or N.N.W. would
carry them nearly in the direction of Chorbat. Here the intrusion of
the granite renders both dip and strike obscure, the beds being
frequently quite vertical.
From Siksa, close to which there is a small fort or castle on an
isolated rock, a road leads across the Hanu pass into the valley of
the Indus. By this route Mr. Vigne proceeded 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 very commonly adopted in travelling from Iskardo to Le, as the
lower part of the Shayuk is more open and practicable than the Indus
below the junction of the river of Dras.
[Sidenote: PLAIN OF KHAPALU.
_October, 1847._]
Below Siksa, the valley of the Shayuk continues narrow for eight or
ten miles. It then begins again to expand, and its width continues to
increase as far as Khapalu, which is situated near the centre of a
wide plain similar to 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 widest, and that the
evidences of the former existence of lakes are most evident, while in
the intermediate parts of its course the valley is narrow and rugged,
and shows no certain indications of having been at any period
lacustrine.
[Sidenote: MACHULU RIVER.
_November, 1847._]
The great axis of the plain of Khapalu is from south-east to
north-west, in the direction of the river Machulu, which runs through
a very open and wide gravelly plain, apparently for a considerable
distance. This stream, which is probably at least as large as the
Nubra river, has its source in heavily-snowed mountains to the north.
The general surface of the plain is gravelly, and its appearance on
the whole is so similar 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 base being washed by one
branch of the Shayuk, now (after its junction with the Machulu) too
deep to be forded. Behind this rock there is an accumulation of
alluvium, forming a steep ridge six or seven hundred feet in height;
which it is necessary to cross in travelling from Surmu to Khapalu, as
the abruptness with which the clay-slate rock rises out of the water,
completely prevents a passage along the margin of the river.
On the 2nd of November I forded the Shayuk a little below the village
of Abadan, where it runs in two branches, each about a hundred yards
wide, and with an average depth of about two 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 brought by that stream is very
considerable. I did not, however, see the junction, which is situated
on the north side of the plain, quite out of the direct road towards
the town of Khapalu.
Where the valley is widest, the mountain ranges on both sides of the
river are well seen. The range south of the Shayuk rises close at hand
into a very steep mountain mass, now much snowed. A pass which leads
from Khapalu 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 evidently fully in sight; the absence of hills close at
hand allowing a considerable extent of it to be seen; it was very
heavily snowed. The nearest, and apparently loftiest peak, bore N. 13
W. (Magn.) from Surmu.
[Sidenote: KHAPALU.
_November, 1847._]
The principal villages of this open tract are Surmu and Khapalu, both
on the south side of the Shayuk, and separated from one another by a
high alluvial ridge, which rests on a bold scarped rock rising
immediately out of the river. Surmu has a very long and narrow tract
of cultivation, skirting the gravelly river-bed. It occupies the
slopes of a projecting platform of alluvium of no great height. In
this village many fields, on a level with the river, have evidently
been destroyed by the flood of 1842, as fruit-trees were still
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 two
miles, and, as it abounds in fruit-trees, it must in summer, when the
fields are green and the trees are in leaf, be a place (for Tibet) of
considerable beauty. From the abruptness of the slope of the alluvial
platform, the terrace-walls of the fields are very high, often as much
as six feet. The fruit-trees are the same as those commonly cultivated
in Nubra and Chorbat; the elm and _Elæagnus_ of Nubra are also common,
as well as the white poplar. At Khapalu there are also a few
plane-trees, which do not extend further east.
The _Lycium_ of Nubra, which had entirely disappeared in the narrow
and rocky parts of the Shayuk, reappeared as soon as the valley spread
out into a gravelly plain, being common at Abadan, and abundant at
Surmu and Khapalu. A species of berberry, a genus wanting in the
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 recognized
a few other new plants--a small, almost herbaceous _Sophora_ was one
of these, and, still more remarkable, _Peganum Harmala_, a species
which extends from the Mediterranean flora as far east as the Punjab,
and which indicates a very considerable amount of summer heat.
The shrubby _Hippophaë_ is still very plentiful, but, either from more
careful cultivation, or because the nature of the slopes prevents the
formation of swampy margins to the little irrigation streams, it does
not spread to so great an extent over the cultivated tracts, which,
therefore, in the winter season look considerably more bare than those
around the villages of Nubra.
The height of the bed of the Shayuk at Khapalu may be roughly
estimated at about 8000 feet, as the determination of the
boiling-point of water at my tent, which was high up in the village,
gave an elevation of 8300 feet. I arrived at Khapalu from Surmu on the
3rd 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 gentle
wind blowing up the valley of the Shayuk. The temperature in the sun
was extremely agreeable, though the shade maximum was never much
higher than 50°. The nights were clear and cold, the thermometer
falling at Khapalu more than 14° below the freezing-point.
A little below Khapalu I found a number of people washing the sand of
the Indus for gold; but the produce seemed to be very trifling, and
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 good
deal more than the value) the produce in gold-dust of one man's
labour for three weeks. I suppose, however, he only worked
occasionally.
[Sidenote: BRAGHAR.
_November, 1847._]
Below Khapalu the valley of the Shayuk again begins to contract, but
the open plain may be considered to extend for some way below the
village of Braghar, where a large tributary joins from the north, and
to which place there is a great deal of cultivation, especially on the
right bank. Immediately below Braghar, there is a remarkable saline
grassy plain, very 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 thirty miles of river
distance. Throughout this tract the valley is very similar to that
between Nubra and Chorbat. Villages are numerous, occupying very
elevated platforms, on which there is frequently luxuriant
cultivation. In many of the narrowest and most rugged places there is
no passage along the river, and the road crosses spurs of considerable
elevation.
Between Kunes and Kuru the narrowness of the river is probably at its
maximum, as the road lies altogether along a ridge, elevated perhaps a
thousand feet, to which the ascents and descents are extremely abrupt.
Many parts of this ridge are capped with alluvium, which occurs in
many places along 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, very fine, and horizontally
stratified. Good sections of this, sometimes at least fifty feet in
thickness, are exposed east of Kiris, not far from the Shayuk. I did
not observe any fossils; but in so cursory an inspection as I was able
to make, it is very probable that I may have overlooked them.
[Sidenote: JUNCTION OF SHAYUK WITH INDUS.
_November, 1847._]
The junction of the Shayuk and Indus rivers takes place a little way
below Kiris. The Shayuk is considerably wider and more rapid than the
Indus, but much less 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 discharge of the two will be
found nearly equal. The direction of the united streams is the same as
that of the Shayuk, which the Indus joins nearly at a right angle.
The granitic and slate rocks of the district of Chorbat are continued
unaltered as far as the junction of the Indus and Shayuk. In many
places the granite so predominates as to form almost the whole mass of
the mountains, but more generally 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 direction and inclination of the dip vary extremely. In general
the granitic veins appear to be parallel to the strata of schist, but
instances are not unfrequent where vertical strata of schist are cut
through by horizontal veins of granite.
[Sidenote: NAR.
_November, 1847._]
On the 9th of November I encamped at Kiris, and next day I passed the
junction of the Indus and Shayuk. The direction of the united streams
soon becomes nearly due north, and it flows for many miles through a
very narrow ravine, along which the road is of a most difficult
nature, partly high on the mountains, partly on platforms of alluvium,
and occasionally over angular blocks of rock, which are piled in
enormous heaps along the banks of the river. At the most 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 rocks of black slate,
which entirely prevented me from seeing the nature of the surrounding
country. From the summit of the ascent I descended gradually down a
narrow valley, and emerging at last rather suddenly on an open plain,
I found myself in sight of the valley of Iskardo, which presented to
the eye an expanse of level ground much greater than I had seen since
leaving Khapalu, to which and to Nubra the district round Iskardo
bears a very close resemblance.
When the road entered the open country, at the north-east corner of
the plain of Iskardo, it lay for miles over loose sand, utterly
barren, forming low undulating hills, which rested upon a deposit 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, however, it
again enters a tract of bare sand, which extends as far as the ferry
immediately above the town of Iskardo. The river, being here
unfordable, is crossed by means of a flat-bottomed boat.
[Sidenote: ISKARDO.
_November, 1847._]
The plain of Iskardo, which surrounds the junction of the Shigar river
with the Indus, is nearly twenty miles in length, and has an average
breadth of about five miles. It is elevated about 7200 feet above the
level of the 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, parallel to which it stretches for nearly a
mile. It is faced on all sides by perpendicular cliffs, inaccessible
except at the west end, where a steep and difficult path leads to the
summit, which is a long narrow ridge.
The name Iskardo is a Mahommedan corruption of a Tibetan name Skardo,
or Kardo, as it is very commonly pronounced; but as the
first-mentioned name is most familiar to foreigners, and is likely to
become universal, as well from the inhabitants of the district being
all Mahommedans, as from the country being now subject to Kashmir, it
is better, I think, to retain it, than to attempt to substitute the
more pure Tibetan pronunciation.
[Illustration: ISKARDO
_From South-east of the Valley._
_Pl. II._
J. W. del. W. L. Walton, Lithog.
Printed by Hullmandel & Walton.]
The mountains which surround the Iskardo plain rise at once with great
abruptness, and are very steep and bare. Those on the south side,
derived from the range which separates the Indus from the table-land
of Deotsu, the axis of which is not more than ten or fifteen
miles distant, 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 three deep bays, each watered by a considerable
stream, whose source is in the southern mountains. The mountains on
the north side, the terminal spurs of two great branches of the
Kuenlun or Muztagh, which flank the Shigar river, are considerably
lower, but equally barren and desolate.
The river Indus traverses the open valley in an extremely winding
course. At one time it washes the base of the cliffs which terminate
the projecting mountain spurs; at another it flows between high banks
of alluvial 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, at times little more than a chain of pools, often runs
close to the cliffs, indicating a former channel of the river; and
when this is the case, the low ground between the two channels is
often swampy and grassy.
The bed of the Indus in this part of its course is very little
inclined, the stream flowing in general very gently over a sandy bed,
its surface quite smooth and tranquil, occasionally only a little
rippled in turning round a projecting rocky spur, where its bottom is
gravelly and the inclination perhaps a little greater. Opposite
Iskardo the Indus is even in the depth of winter a noble stream,
often more than 500 feet wide, and nine or ten feet deep in the
centre.
Iskardo occupies a nearly level plain of fine alluvial clay elevated
fifty or sixty feet above the river, and extending from the isolated
rock which overhangs the Indus towards the mountains on the south side
of the valley. 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 or sand. The surface of the platform
on which all the cultivated ground lies is watered by means of
artificial canals, brought from a distance of nearly two miles, from
the point where the streams issue from among the hills.
The neighbourhood of the rock of Iskardo was doubtless selected as the
site of the principal town of the kingdom of Balti, from the
advantages which it afforded as a place of defence; and in the days of
the independence of the country a fortified palace occupied its
eastern extremity, while 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 supporting
terraces, which appear at one time to have been gardens, alone remain
to show the former magnificence of the place. A mausoleum, raised to
the memory of the last independent king, Ahmed Shah, perched on a rock
perhaps 300 feet above the plain, is still untouched and uninjured.
An aqueduct or canal extends in a direct line from the palace towards
the mountains, a distance of at least a mile. It is an exceedingly
massive work, consisting of two walls raised perhaps fifteen feet
above the level 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 inhabitants of Iskardo; but a very large quantity might
be conveyed along the aqueduct, and the work is so strong and
substantial that very little repair would be requisite to restore it
to its original condition.
The fortified post of the present rulers of the country is built on
the margin of the platform of alluvium, on the right bank of the
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
principal part of the village. It is built of unburnt brick, and is
extremely irregular in shape, with rounded bastions at the angles.
The houses of Iskardo are very much scattered over a large extent of
surface, so that there is no appearance of a town; nor is the
population in the immediate neighbourhood of the rock so extensive as
that 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
often of two stories, and built of unburnt bricks in a framework of
wood. Latticed windows, covered with paper or small plates of mica,
are also common. The roofs are all flat, and covered with mud beaten
hard.
[Sidenote: LACUSTRINE CLAY.
_November, 1847._]
The lacustrine clay formation occurs in great quantity throughout the
valley of Iskardo, and is nowhere seen in greater perfection than in
the immediate neighbourhood of the town, where the cliffs facing the
Indus, and those along the little lateral streams which descend from
the south, exhibit an abundance of sections of these beds. The height
of the cliffs is very 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 waterworn pebbles alternate with
the finer clays. In many places near the rock of Iskardo, the beds are
very irregular, undulating a good deal, and at times exhibiting very
remarkable flexures, as if the isolated rocky mass (which must have
once been under water) had formed eddies in the lake, and prevented
that regularity of deposition which is elsewhere so universal.
Fossils are very rare in these clays, but occurred in several
different localities. Close to Iskardo I once found a very few small
specimens of a _Lymnæa_ and _Planorbis_, but 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
sufficiently common in one or two thin seams of very fine clay, mixed
with a good deal of apparently vegetable matter. The great mass of the
clay is, however, quite non-fossiliferous.
The surface of the clay formation round Iskardo is very undulating,
and is often covered with masses of large boulders. Opposite two of
the ravines which penetrate 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 of rock, angular or more
or less rounded, piled on one another to a height of forty or fifty
feet. They terminate abruptly, and are, I think, evidently moraines.
On the very top of the isolated rock, in the middle of the Iskardo
plain, horizontal beds of coarse sandstone rest upon the hard
clay-slate of which the rock is composed. This sandstone crumbles with
great 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
above the level of the Indus. The sandstone seems to cap the whole
hill, but is exposed only in a few places, being in a great measure
covered by the loose drift or alluvium which has been deposited above
it.
[Sidenote: VEGETATION.
_November, 1847._]
The vegetation of Iskardo had so entirely disappeared, that I was able
to form very little idea of its nature. A few shrubby species, and
some withered fragments of autumn flowering plants, alone remained. On
the whole, I was struck with the similarity of the few plants which I
recognized with those of Nubra and Le. _Artemisiæ_ and _Chenopodiaceæ_
were still abundant. _Hippophaë_ 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 of _Sium_, some gentians, and _Ranunculus
aquatilis_, were the most Indian forms which I met with. From the
mountains I procured specimens of a juniper (_J. excelsa_), and of the
alpine birch of the Himalaya, which skirts the southern borders of the
Tibetan region, without extending into the driest parts of that
country.