Western Himalaya and Tibet Part 25

[Sidenote: PHUTAKSHA.

_July, 1848._]

As I advanced, the valley gradually narrowed, and on the right high precipitous rocks ere long overhung the stream, so that I crossed to the left bank, and, instead of keeping on the bottom of the valley, proceeded horizontally along the hill-sides. A little further on, the stream, which had hitherto had a north-west course, turned suddenly to the north, and entered an extremely narrow rocky ravine, which to all appearance was quite impa.s.sable. Here the road turned abruptly to the left, and ascended to cross a low ridge. On attaining the summit an open valley was seen 1000 feet below, which at its lower extremity contracted into a fissure precisely similar to that just described; and as the two ravines were only separated by a narrow rocky ridge, which rose to the north into a high cliff, there can be no doubt that the two streams joined a mile or two below. Descending gradually into the valley, I encamped at the village of Phutaksha, at an elevation of about 14,300 feet.

[Sidenote: LACUSTRINE CLAY.

_July, 1848._]

Notwithstanding its great elevation, the valley of Phutaksha was partially cultivated. The fields formed a narrow belt parallel to the stream, along which they extended almost up to 15,000 feet, but the crops were scanty. The wild plants of the borders of the cultivated land were the same as those common in Zanskar, and grew with great luxuriance along the margins of the irrigation streamlets. Alluvial boulder clay was common in the valley; and I saw also a great deal of the fine cream-coloured clay, which I have elsewhere noticed as being probably of lacustrine origin. The occurrence of this clay at an elevation of upwards of 14,000 feet is rather uncommon, and here, as well as elsewhere, appears to be accompanied by such a conformation of the mountains as to render the former existence of a small lake probable. Below Phutaksha, as I have already observed, the ravine of the little stream is exceedingly narrow and rocky, and as likely as any other part of Tibet to have been blocked up by alluvial deposits so as to form a lake.

On the 4th of July my road lay up the valley. The banks of the little stream were lined with most beautiful green turf, producing all the characteristic plants already mentioned. I took the right-hand branch of two which here united, and, on looking up the other, observed that the snow-line on the northern slope of the mountains, at its head, was very considerably above the level at which I stood; its height, where lowest, seemed to be about 16,000 feet. In one small side-ravine there was an incipient glacier. After leaving the cultivated lands the valley became extremely stony and barren, fragments of a brittle limestone rock being everywhere scattered about. The vegetation changing to that of the alpine zone, several new species of _Astragalus_ and _Phaca_ were collected. Following the streamlet almost to its source, the road afterwards ascended to the top of a steep ridge, elevated probably a little more than 16,000 feet; this ridge was rocky, or covered with s.h.i.+ngle of a dark slate, which had succeeded to the limestone. The yellow _Thermopsis_ was almost the only plant which grew on the summit, from which I had a fine view of the pa.s.s crossed the day before, and of the range of mountains I had left; but to the north there was no distant view, the valley bending abruptly to the right.

[Sidenote: HANUPATA.

_July, 1848._]

From the top of the pa.s.s I descended rapidly along a deep valley, generally at some height above the stream, to the village of Hanupata, elevated 13,100 feet. This valley was throughout barren and stony, and became very narrow in the lower part. _Dama_ was very plentiful, but otherwise there was little novelty in the vegetation, except along the bank of the stream in its upper part, where I made a rich collection of small alpine species. A large-flowered _Aster_, a white _Pyrethrum_, and a little _Pedicularis_, were the new species obtained. In the lower part of the valley willow and _Lonicera_ as usual appeared; and when close to Hanupata, I met with a shrubby species of _l.a.b.i.atae_ (perhaps a _Ballota_) which is an extremely common plant in the valley of the Indus from 7000 to 14,000 feet, but seems never to occur far from that river.

[Sidenote: WANDLA RAVINE.

_July, 1848._]

On the 5th of July I proceeded down the same valley to Wandla, a distance of about eleven miles. The fields of Hanupata occupied only a narrow strip along the bank of the stream, the sides of the valley being steep and rocky. The crops were much further advanced than any I had hitherto seen; the barley in particular was very luxuriant, and one field was already in ear. Along the margins of the field there was the same rank herbage as usually occurs in similar situations. Lucerne and melilot, both seemingly the common European species, were very plentiful. Poplars and willows were cultivated; and I observed some large juniper-trees. Beyond the cultivation the valley became very narrow. The bed and banks of the stream were gravelly, and on the latter grew a dense thicket of _Myricaria_, _Hippophae_, willow, and rose. After two or three miles there was not left s.p.a.ce even for these, the mountains coming so close together that in many places there was not room to pa.s.s between them and the water. The current was too rapid for fording, so that it repeatedly became necessary to ascend to a considerable height in order to effect a pa.s.sage. One of these ascents was not much less than 1000 feet perpendicular, up a narrow lateral ravine, and then over a very steep bank of loose s.h.i.+ngle, descending again with great abruptness to the water's edge.

The road also crossed the stream several times.

In one place I observed a very remarkable natural tunnel, where the stream flowed below a solid ma.s.s of conglomerate rock, which formed an arch obliquely across it. The conglomerate was exceedingly hard, and rested on both sides on very soft friable slate, by the excavation of which, by the action of the stream, the tunnel appeared to have been formed. The original channel of the stream was still visible six or eight feet higher than its present level a little to the right. The ravine continued narrow and rocky for nearly seven miles, but during the last two of these the road lay high upon the mountain-side, and was tolerably level and good. Near the end the valley became wider, and several small patches of cultivation appeared, with a few apricot-trees; and a double yellow rose was planted near some of the houses. The last mile of the day's journey was entirely through very rich and luxuriant cultivation, which was further advanced than any I had yet seen.

[Sidenote: WANDLA.

_July, 1848._]

The elevation of Wandla is only 11,000 feet, and the heat of the sun was very oppressive. On the latter part of the march, many plants of the Indus valley which were familiar to me from my journey of the year before, but which I had not seen during my present visit to Tibet, made their appearance. _Echinops_ and _Nepeta floccosa_, _Mulgedium Tataric.u.m_, a large and handsome yellow _Corydalis_, _Capparis_, and numerous _Chenopodiaceae_ were abundant. The leaves of _Tussilago Farfara_ were common along the water-courses; in the corn-fields a little viscid _Cerastium_ (_Lepyrodiclis_) was only too plentiful. By far the most conspicuous plant was the rose (_R. Webbiana_), which, in the rich and well-watered soil of the cultivated plain, grew most luxuriantly, forming dense almost spherical bushes, many of which were at least fifteen feet high, as much in diameter, and bushy down to the ground. They were now in full bloom, and the foliage was almost entirely concealed by the profusion of bright red flowers.

I was obliged to remain a day at Wandla, owing to the serious illness of one of my servants, who, though a native of a mountainous country, had suffered much more on the high pa.s.ses than any of the inhabitants of the plains of India, and was now so much exhausted as to be unable to move. On the 7th, however, I proceeded towards the Indus, not a little glad to be at last within a day's journey of that river, as I was considerably later than I had originally calculated, not having made allowance for the very rugged nature of the country between Zanskar and Le.

[Sidenote: LAMAYURU.

_July, 1848._]

The valley of Wandla, I was informed, contracted again into a rocky ravine a very little way below the village. This ravine was not quite impracticable, but the stream had to be forded very frequently; and as it was at least four feet deep, I was recommended to follow another route, a little more circuitous, but free of difficulty. For the first mile I proceeded up an open valley, which joined at a right angle from the west that which I had descended on the 5th. I then turned to the right up a very sterile ravine, with much saline efflorescence; in a few places a small streamlet trickled among the stones, but for the first part the channel was quite dry, the water filtering underneath the gravel. The sides of the ravine were bare and s.h.i.+ngly and without vegetation, except at the entrance, where a _Corydalis_, thistle, and one or two other plants occurred sparingly. On the most stony parts _Guldenstadtia cuneata_, Benth., was common, and here and there in the gravelly channel was a bush of _Myricaria_ (not _M. elegans_, but a smaller and much less handsome species). After a gentle ascent of about two miles, I gained the head of the ravine, and crossing a stony ridge not high enough for alpine plants, descended another valley on its north side, which, though at first if possible more barren than the ascent, soon became somewhat green with willow-bushes and the ordinary plants. After descending perhaps a thousand feet, I reached an extensive tract of cultivation, just above which, in another ravine, lay the village and monastery of Lamayuru, of which a circ.u.mstantial account has been given by Moorcroft[20]. At this place, I joined the road from Kashmir by Dras to Ladak, which has been repeatedly traversed by European travellers, and is particularly described in Moorcroft's Travels.

[Sidenote: INDUS VALLEY.

_July, 1848._]

[Sidenote: KALATZE.

_July, 1848._]

Below this village the valley contracted, and was for some distance full of immense ma.s.ses of lacustrine clay; lower down it became a narrow rocky ravine. The road descended with great rapidity till I reached the Wandla stream, which I had left in the morning; it was afterwards less steep, following the banks of that river through a winding rocky valley to its junction with the Indus, which was not seen till close at hand. The valley of the Indus, where I entered it, was very barren, with bare rugged mountains on both sides. A stony platform of alluvial conglomerate usually intervened between the mountains and the river, over which my road lay for about three miles up the river, to a good wooden bridge, defended on the north side by a small, very indifferent fort. By this bridge I crossed to the right side of the river, and a mile further on reached the village of Kalatze (or Kalsi, as it is commonly p.r.o.nounced), at which I encamped.

In the lower part of the Wandla ravine, the clay-slate rock became much indurated, and alternated with a very hard conglomerate, the matrix of which had a semi-fused appearance, while the pebbles which it contained were all rounded. This rock is very similar to, and probably identical with, that of the Giah ravine north of the Tunglung pa.s.s, and of the upper Indus. A modern conglomerate, with an indurated sandy and calcareous matrix, in horizontal beds, rested unconformably upon the more ancient rock, but afforded no indications by which I could form an opinion of its exact age.

[Sidenote: VEGETATION OF VALLEY OF INDUS.

_July, 1848._]

The elevation of my tent at Kalatze I made to be 10,400 feet; but I was encamped at the highest part of the village, and the bed of the river was not much above 10,000 feet. The cultivated lands, which are very extensive, lie on the top of a thick platform of alluvium, through which the river has excavated a deep broad channel. The lands of the village slope gradually from the base of the mountain to the edge of the cliff overhanging the river, and the fields are made into level terraces by walls of stones from three to six feet in height.

Numerous streams of water are conducted through the fields for irrigation, upon which cultivation in Tibet entirely depends. The crops had an appearance of great luxuriance: they consisted of wheat and barley (both in full ear, the latter even beginning to turn yellow), buckwheat, peas, and oil-seed (_Bra.s.sica Napus_). Fruit-trees were abundant, chiefly apricots; but there was no deficiency of apples, pears, walnuts, and mulberries. Along the water-courses and on the edges of the fields grew plenty of wild plants, many the same as occur everywhere in Tibet, but, from the diminished elevation, numerous novelties were observed. A _Clematis_, with dingy brownish-orange flowers, straggled over bushes; a shrubby _Ballota_ and a _Perowskia_ covered the walls; _Iris_, _Capsella_, _Veronica biloba_ and _agrestis_, _Lamium amplexicaule_, _Mentha_, _Potentillae_, _Plantago Asiatica_, _Thalictrum_, and numerous other plants grew along the water-courses; while in the fields among the corn the weeds were much the same as are common in Europe and in the plains of India in the cold season; _Vaccaria_, _Silene conoidea_, _Stellaria media_, _Malva rotundifolia_, and _Convolvulus arvensis_ being plentiful.

[Sidenote: NURLA.

_July, 1848._]

On the 8th of July, I marched to Nurla[21], about eight miles up the valley of the Indus. After leaving Kalatze, the whole day's journey was quite barren, the road usually lying on the top of an alluvial platform. Just beyond Kalatze, a large stream had cut a deep ravine through the platform, showing it to be composed of large incoherent water-worn stones, mixed with gravel and clay. The mountains on both sides were steep, rocky, and bare. The vegetation on these platforms was scanty: _Boragineae_ and _Chenopodiaceae_ were the two prominent orders; _Nepeta floccosa_, a little _Hyoscyamus_, _Guldenstadtia_, a large and handsome _Corydalis_, a _Matthiola_, and several _Astragali_, _Cruciferae_, and _Artemisiae_, were also prevalent. Of gra.s.ses, _Stipa_ was the most common, but several sub-tropical forms were observed, which were interesting and somewhat unexpected. A species of _Cymbopogon_, and an _Andropogon_ allied to _A. Ischaemum_, grew among rocks close to the river. In similar places I met with two species of _Vincetoxic.u.m_, one a twiner, and the other erect; _Tribulus_, too, was common on the most barren spots. At Nurla, the cultivated lands are very extensive: the crops and fruit-trees as at Kalatze; some of the barley was nearly ripe. The common bean seemed a good deal cultivated, usually intermixed with wheat; _Lathyrus sativus_ was also a common crop[22].

Behind the village of Kalatze, rounded hills of moderate elevation were capped with incoherent beds of sand and boulders of considerable thickness, horizontally stratified; similar beds, sometimes indurated into a soft sandstone rock, occurred at intervals throughout the day.

Boulders of granite were abundant in the alluvium and on the surface of the platforms, derived, I believe, from the axis of the chain separating the Indus from the Shayuk. These transported ma.s.ses of granite were not observed anywhere between lower Zanskar and the Indus; it may therefore, I think, be inferred that the superficial alluvium (which, where the two occur together, generally covers the lacustrine clays) has been deposited since the present river system was in full operation, and is not, as I at one time conjectured, a.n.a.logous to the drifts of Europe. The ancient rocks between Kalatze and Nurla were alternations of friable slate with indurated conglomerate and grey sandstone.

[Sidenote: SASPOLA.

_July, 1848._]

Between Nurla and Saspola, to which place (eleven miles) I marched on the 9th, the valley of the Indus was narrower than before, as well as more rocky. The rock was chiefly grey sandstone. The road frequently ascended to some height in places where the banks of the river were too rugged to permit a pa.s.sage. On the 10th of June I proceeded to Nimo, ten miles further. At Saspola the road leaves the banks of the Indus, to ascend a barren valley, among hills of loose conglomerate.

At first, the banks of the little stream were green and turfy; but after about a mile I entered a dry stony ravine, along the bed of which the road gradually ascended. The rocks were clay-slate, conglomerate, and sandstone, and all the hills were capped with modern alluvial clay conglomerate. Granite boulders occurred abundantly, and marks of the action of water were seen on the rocks far above the reach of the present streams. At the summit, which must have been nearly 1000 feet above the Indus, I emerged suddenly upon a wide and open gravelly plain. To the right, a number of low hills concealed the course of the Indus; to the left, the mountain range had receded to some distance, and could be seen to be here and there tipped with snow. The road lay for several miles over this barren plain, which was entirely alluvial, descending afterwards very abruptly into a deep flat-bottomed hollow, excavated out of the soft conglomerate by a considerable stream. In this hollow, quite concealed till close at hand, was the village of Bazgo, with a long narrow strip of cultivation along the margin of its stream. Following the course of this valley till near the Indus, I then ascended its left bank, and emerged upon another extensive alluvial platform, high above the river, but parallel to it. At the east end of this platform was the village of Nimo, the termination of my day's journey.

[Sidenote: NIMO.

_July, 1848._]

From this place my journey of the 12th brought me to Le, about twelve miles. About a mile above Nimo the Indus is joined by the Zanskar river. The valley where the two rivers unite is very rocky and precipitous, and bends a long way to the south. The road to Le does not follow the river, but ascends among gravelly ravines behind the village, and emerges on a wide open plain, which, as on the previous march, is interposed between the northern range of mountains and the present channel of the Indus. The height of this plain above the river was at least 1000 feet; it was lowest in the centre, sloping up not only towards the mountains to the north, but to a range of round-topped hills of moderate elevation, which overhung the valley of the Indus, sinking on their south face very abruptly down to the river. The higher mountains were chiefly granite, with a few interposed beds of slate dipping at a high angle. The granite exhibited the usual tendency of that rock to decay in spheres, or rather in irregular-shaped ma.s.ses with rounded angles.

In proceeding along this plain, the road at first rose almost imperceptibly, but after two miles I reached the highest part of it, from which it sloped down towards the east. From this point the course of the Indus in front of Le, and to the south-east for many miles, was finely seen. The river runs through a wide valley, but the range of mountains to the north sends down many rugged spurs, which, in the shape of low rocky hills, advance close to the river. On the south or left bank, on the contrary, a wide, open, gently-sloping plain extends to a considerable distance. From the highest level of the plain a long gradual descent brought me to the Indus, to which it was necessary to descend in order to get round one of the spurs just referred to. It is here a tranquil but somewhat rapid stream, divided into several branches by gravelly islands, generally swampy, and covered with low _Hippophae_ scrub. The size of the river was very much less than it had been below the junction of the river of Zanskar, the latter appearing to contribute considerably more than half the amount of water. At the point of the low spur lay the village of Pitak, on an isolated hill, surrounded by extensive deposits of cream-coloured lacustrine clay. From this village there is a gradual ascent of about four miles to the town of Le, which is built on a low hill at the upper corner of a wide open valley.

[Sidenote: PITAK.

_July, 1848._]

The bed of the Indus at Pitak, below Le, has an elevation of about 10,500 feet above the level of the sea, but the town is at least 1300 feet higher. Its sheltered situation, in a hollow surrounded by hills, and facing the south, compensates to a certain extent for this increase of elevation; still the crops are very much inferior to those on the banks of the Indus. There are but few trees, the apricot being the only fruit-tree cultivated, and it does not seem to thrive. Water is plentiful in the valley, and is conveyed through the cultivated lands in deeply-cut ca.n.a.ls or trenches, faced with walls of stone.

Natural meadows of tall gra.s.ses, intermixed with luxuriant lucerne and melilot, are common along the banks of the river, especially above the town.

[Sidenote: LE.

_July, 1848._]

The vegetation in the vicinity of Le scarcely differed from that of the Indus at Kalatze. The most abundant families of plants were _Chenopodiaceae_, _l.a.b.i.atae_, and _Artemisiae_, which covered the barren and stony tracts; the _Boragineae_, so abundant throughout Tibet in early spring, had already quite dried up and disappeared. In the meadows tall species of _Thalictrum_, _Silene_, and _Heracleum_, were coming into flower, and in swamps _Veronica Beccabunga_ and _Anagallis_, _Limosella_, and a yellow _Pedicularis_, were the most abundant plants.

At Le I had the pleasure of meeting Captain Strachey, who had spent the winter there, and had returned shortly before my arrival, from an exploring journey to the eastward. After a week's stay I set out for Nubra on the 19th of July, crossing the lofty chain separating the two rivers by the pa.s.s directly north of Le, which, during the summer months, presents no difficulty, and is therefore preferred as being the most direct. The pa.s.s is distinctly visible from the town of Le, to which it appears very close, though the distance is at least ten or twelve miles. I did not attempt to cross it the first day, but encamped as far up on the southern face as I conveniently could, so as to reach the top early in the morning. At starting, the road lay for about three miles through an open valley, partly cultivated, and with a good deal of swampy ground. Higher up, the valley contracted into a barren ravine, with a narrow strip of green along the margin of the stream. About half-way, the road left the bottom of the valley, and for the remainder of the march I proceeded along the bare side of the mountain, ascending very rapidly. There was a striking change in the vegetation as the height increased. On the lower slopes _Cicer_ and _Statice_ were abundant, with several _Astragali_; on the latter part of the ascent many alpine plants were observed, belonging to the genera _Corydalis_, _Elsholtzia_, _Potentilla_, and _Draba_. A very small violet was extremely plentiful in the crevices of the rocks, and among stones, after I had reached 15,000 feet. I encamped at about 15,700 feet, on a level piece of ground, a few hundred feet above the bottom of the valley.

[Sidenote: Pa.s.s NORTH OF LE.

_July, 1848._]

On the 20th I crossed the pa.s.s, starting about sunrise. The morning was intensely frosty, and the stones and vegetation near the water were encrusted with ice. The path lay close to the stream, ascending somewhat rapidly among the green turf which grew along its margin, in which I found many little alpine plants, among which, a large-flowered _Aster_ and a small poppy with still unexpanded flowers were the most conspicuous. The last part of the ascent was extremely steep, among immense angular granite boulders, with here and there a little snow in the crevices. Here a most elegant sweet-scented species of _Primula_ was common, so firmly fixed in the frozen mud, that I could with difficulty procure a specimen. Except in very small patches, there was no snow till within two hundred yards of the top of the ascent, for which distance it was continuous, but very soft, and evidently melting rapidly. The crest of the pa.s.s was a narrow ridge of large spheres of granite, seemingly quite detached from one another, but which had probably been formed on the spot they now occupied by the peculiar decay characteristic of that rock.

The continuation of the ridge on both sides was for some distance very little more elevated than the pa.s.s itself, the height of which was 17,700 feet. To the south, the view was very extensive, embracing a great extent of snowy mountains, with numerous lofty peaks, as well as a part of the Indus valley, and the town of Le, immediately below; to the north it was much more limited, as hills close at hand completely excluded all distant view, except directly in front, where one snowy peak could be seen a long way off, evidently beyond the Shayuk.

On the north side of the pa.s.s snow commenced at the very top, and continued for at least 1200 feet of perpendicular height. The descent for this distance was extremely steep, over a snow-bed, which appeared to cover an incipient glacier. About 1200 feet below the top I came to a small oval-shaped lake, completely frozen over; a little higher up I had pa.s.sed a small bare piece of rock projecting through the snow, and perhaps thirty feet long, on which the beautiful blue-flowered _Nepeta multibracteata_, Benth., had already put forth its flowers. Beyond the frozen lake the descent became at once much more gentle, and was partially free of snow. The path lay over a vast acc.u.mulation of angular stones, which appeared to have fallen from the rocks above.

Many parts of the valley were swampy, evidently from recently melted snow, and in such places the _Primula_, noticed on the ascent, occurred in great abundance, its scapes rising to the height of six to eight inches, and bearing large globes of deep rose-coloured flowers.

Among the loose stones _Nepeta multibracteata_ was common. About three miles from the top I pa.s.sed the end of an exceedingly well-marked moraine, which must have been deposited by a glacier at a time when, from increased cold, these ma.s.ses of ice stretched down much further than they do at present. The remainder of the descent was again more abrupt, but very bare, stony, and uninteresting. A single tree of _Juniperus excelsa_ grew in one of the ravines, and below 14,000 feet a species of berberry, with very small leaves, was common on dry stony ground. I encamped at the small village of Kardong, at 13,500 feet.

The cultivation round this village was on a level plain without any terracing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Metamorphic rocks. Alluvium. Stream. Alluvium.