Western Himalaya and Tibet Part 1

Western Himalaya and Tibet.

by Thomas Thomson.

PREFACE.

On the termination of my journey in Tibet, I submitted to the Indian Government a detailed report of my observations in that country. It was my original intention to request the permission of the Court of Directors to publish this report in the form in which it was drawn up; but after my return to England, this plan was, at the suggestion of friends, abandoned for that now followed.

At the time of my appointment to the Tibet Mission, my attention had not been specially directed to the Himalaya, but I have since had many opportunities of studying that chain of mountains. My first definite impressions of Himalayan geography were received from my fellow-travellers, Major Cunningham and Captain Henry Strachey. The latter gentleman had just completed one of the most adventurous journeys ever made in the Himalaya; and Major Cunningham's knowledge of the geography of Northern India is so accurate and extensive, that the delay in the publication of his map, although caused by the devotion of his leisure time to other branches of research, is a subject of deep regret to all who know its value. More recently I have had the good fortune to travel in the Eastern Himalaya with Dr.

Hooker, and it was a source of great gratification to me, when we met, to find that in studying these mountains at opposite extremities of the chain, the results at which we had arrived were almost identical.

My botanical collections, which were very extensive, have as yet been only roughly a.s.sorted, and the names of plants given in the present work are chiefly derived from a careful comparison of specimens with the Hookerian Herbarium at Kew,--a collection which, as is well known to Botanists, both from its extent and from the liberality with which it is thrown open to students of that science, occupies in this country the place of a national collection.

The heights of places given in the work have been derived from very various sources. Those in the earlier part are chiefly from the extremely accurate observations of the Gerards; for others I have to thank my fellow-travellers; but the greater number are calculated from my own observations of the boiling-point of water, and do not therefore pretend to great accuracy. Still the thermometer which I used (by Dollond) was a very good one, and comparisons with barometric observations, or with known heights, have given such results as satisfy me that at considerable elevations it may be depended upon to within three or four hundred feet as an extreme error.

The orthography of oriental proper names is a question of great difficulty, and grave objections may be urged against any system which has been proposed. If each European nation represents the sound of the vowels and variable consonants after the mode which prevails in its own language, then proper names must be translated, as it were, when rendered from one of these languages into another; whereas, if the mode of spelling the names remain fixed, then the value of the letters must be different in the majority of the languages from that which usually prevails. For purely popular purposes the former method would probably be the most judicious; and the English language has peculiar facilities for rendering oriental sounds, in consequence of its possessing the open sound of _u_, as in _but_, which is wanting in other European languages, though so common in Arabic, Persian, and Hindee, and all cognate tongues.

A uniform mode of spelling, however, has so many advantages, that I have been induced to give it a preference; but it will be seen that in a few instances, where the popular mode of spelling has become familiar, and as it were a portion of the English language, as in the words Punjab, Jumna, Sutlej, Kussowlee, and a few others, I have not had courage to carry out the rule.

For the plates which accompany the work I have to thank Mr.

Winterbottom, who very kindly permitted me to select from a series of sketches those which I thought most suitable. This was not an easy task; but in the two views of the neighbourhood of Iskardo I found so faithful a representation of the extremely rugged scenery of the Tibetan mountains, contrasted with the level plain of Iskardo, and the lacustrine strata of the neighbourhood, that no more desirable ill.u.s.trations for a journey in Tibet could be conceived. The little vignette, too, though it does not represent any part of the country through which I travelled, is precisely similar to many ravines in Rondu, and serves to show that the Gilgit valley is quite the same in general appearance with that district. I was more particularly desirous of introducing this sketch, from the very faithful representation it contains of the alluvial platforms which skirt the streams in every part of Tibet.

The map is founded princ.i.p.ally upon Mr. Arrowsmith's large map, and his name is its best guarantee. The districts round the Pangong lake are taken from a sketch given to me by Captain H. Strachey, and the whole of the eastern part has been revised by him. A great part of the course of the Shayuk has been laid in by Mr. Arrowsmith from my own rough survey, while the little-known district between Jamu and Zanskar, which I was not competent to survey, has been rendered as nearly as possible from the notes which I had made of the length and direction of my marches.

The sketch of the district between Nubra and the Karakoram pa.s.s, which will, I hope, be found useful as an ill.u.s.tration of that part of my journey, has been prepared for me by Dr. Hooker, from a rough draft of my survey, a.s.sisted by verbal explanations.

In conclusion, I have to add, that for the correction of the press, during which process many asperities by which the ma.n.u.script was disfigured have disappeared, I have to thank my kind friends, Dr. and Mrs. Hooker.

CHAPTER I.

Appointment to a Mission about to proceed to Tibet -- Leave Firozpur for Simla -- Approach to the Mountains -- Appearance of Himalaya from Plains of India -- Kalka -- Ascent to Kussowlee -- Vegetation of Plainward Face -- Origin of Kussowlee Ridge -- Climate and Vegetation of Kussowlee -- Aspect of inner ranges -- Road from Kussowlee to Simla -- Sabathu -- Cross Gambar River -- Haripur -- Tropical Vegetation of Basin of Gambar -- Steep Ascent to Simla -- its extent and situation -- its Vegetation -- Oak-forest -- Pines -- Flora of Spring Months -- of Rainy Season -- View from Peak of Jako -- Structure of Mountain Ranges.

In the month of May, 1847, while with my Regiment at Firozpur on the south bank of the Sutlej, I received intimation that Lord Hardinge, at that time Governor-General of India, had appointed me a member of a mission which he had determined to despatch across the Himalaya Mountains into Tibet; and I was directed to proceed without delay to Simla, from which place the mission was to start, as soon as the necessary arrangements could be completed.

I left Firozpur on the evening of the 20th of May, and travelling only at night, on account of the extreme heat, I arrived at the foot of the hills, on the morning of the 24th. The greater part of the road was through a perfectly level country, and nearly parallel to the Sutlej, but without following its sinuosities. During a part of the last night's journey, I travelled among low hills, partly composed of loose sand and boulders, partly of clay and sandstone. The road enters this tract by an open valley, bounded on both sides by hills, which on the left are low and rounded. On the right they are scarped towards the plains, as well as towards the valley up which I travelled, and the strata of which they are composed, dip towards the Himalaya. The valley is traversed by a little stream descending from the mountains, one of the tributaries of the Gagar or Markanda, that remarkable river, which runs in a south-west direction, as if about to join the Indus, but ultimately loses itself in the sands of the Bikanir desert.

[Sidenote: APPEARANCE OF HIMALAYA FROM THE PLAINS OF INDIA.

_May, 1847._]

When viewed from the plains of India, at a distance sufficient to enable the spectator to see the most elevated part of the chain, the Himalaya appear to form several distinct parallel ranges on the horizon, rising in succession one behind another. The most distant of these is covered with perpetual snow, while the other two, usually called the middle and outer ranges, have the usual blue-grey tint of distant mountains. From very great distances in the plains, the most remote of these three apparent ranges is alone visible; and as the traveller advances towards the base of the mountains, the others rise in succession above the horizon.

The optical deception, in consequence of which, ma.s.ses of mountains of every configuration resolve themselves into ranges perpendicular to the line of sight, as soon as the eye is so far removed that the outline of the different parts becomes indistinct, has given to our maps many mountain-chains, which a nearer inspection proves to have no existence. As a good instance of this, I may mention the Suliman range, west of the Indus, which, though laid down in all our maps as a mountain belt, parallel to and skirting the plain country, behind which no mountains at all are represented, evidently consists of a series of ranges, almost perpendicular to the Indus, and separated from one another by considerable rivers. The sources of these rivers lie far back, and the north and south axis from which they spring, separates all the tributaries of the Indus from a succession of streams, which run in a south-westerly direction, and appear to terminate, without reaching the sea, in the low and flat country of Seistan and western Beluchistan.

At distances of between sixty and thirty miles from the base of the Himalaya, the three parallel chains are well seen. On a nearer approach, the lower and outer mountains by degrees become more distinct, and subtend a greater angle, so as at last to conceal the more distant portions of the chain. At the same time, the uniformity of outline by which they had been characterized, insensibly disappears. Ridges become visible in the face presented to the eye, which, as the traveller continues to advance, become developed into projecting spurs, separated from the general ma.s.s by wide valleys, previously quite undistinguishable. On a still nearer approach, the elevation continuing to increase, the extent of range embraced by the eye is gradually lessened, till at last, when we arrive at the base of the mountains, a single valley with its bounding ranges of low hills is alone visible, the giant ma.s.ses, so conspicuous from a greater distance, being no longer to be seen.

The low sandy or sandstone hills, which form the outskirts of the Himalaya, are not, on the road from Firozpur to Simla, anywhere of greater elevation than a few hundred feet. A few miles beyond the entrance, the valley, which has a considerable slope, widens as it approaches the more lofty mountains, and the sandstone cliffs are replaced by rounded hills, probably of a more ancient rock, covered with soil and vegetation.

[Sidenote: KALKA.

_May, 1847._]

At the very base of the steep mountains is situated the village of Kalka, at which, as it is the termination of palankin travelling, travellers in general stop, to arrange for the continuance of their journey. Situated close to the source of the little stream which I had been following since I had entered the hilly country, and surrounded on all sides by low hills, Kalka has an elevation of perhaps 2000 feet above the level of the sea, or 1000 feet above the plain on the outside of the sandstone hills.

The general aspect of the low hills around Kalka is barren and uninviting; it was especially so at the season of my visit, when the great heat had scorched the herbaceous vegetation, and all nature had a burnt-up appearance. The subtropical valleys are not here, as farther to the east along the base of the mountains, filled with dense forest. They are in general bare, a few scattered trees only appearing here and there. In the level part of the valley, at the very entrance, where the soil was still of some depth, _Acacia Arabica_ and _Butea frondosa_, the most prevailing trees of the plains beyond, were frequent; but the stony water-courses contained little but a bamboo, and the hill-sides were covered with scattered bushes of the more ordinary shrubs of the plains of Northern India, and presented few features of interest.

[Sidenote: ASCENT TO KUSSOWLEE.

_May, 1847._]

Immediately on leaving Kalka, a long and steep ascent commenced, continuing for about ten miles, to the military post of Kussowlee, which occupies the crest of the ridge overlooking the Kalka valley, and can be seen throughout the greater part of the ascent, overhanging the winding road, which has been constructed along the side of the mountain. The elevation of Kussowlee is about 6500 feet, an alt.i.tude at which the climate in the Himalaya is perfectly temperate, so that during the ascent a traveller from the plains of India meets with a complete change of climate, a change, too, which in the month of May, the period of my visit, is particularly grateful, the heat below being most oppressive and disagreeable.

As the elevation increases, the view from the road becomes more extensive. The low ranges of hills to the south and west, which had obstructed the view, are by degrees overtopped, and the plains beyond become visible. Soon after leaving Kalka the road crosses a low ridge, and enters a receding bay, or steeply sloping valley beyond, at the upper extremity of which, all along the crest, are seen the houses of Kussowlee. Winding round this valley, and continuing to rise, the stream in its centre is crossed about midway, and the ascent continues on the spur which forms its western boundary. This ridge is crossed close to the point where it is given off by the main range, and the road, winding round its most projecting part, enters a fir-wood, and, turning back very abruptly in an opposite direction, proceeds eastward along the northern face of the Kussowlee range.

[Sidenote: VEGETATION.

_May, 1847._]

The plainward face of this range, along which the road from Kalka ascends, is quite devoid of forest. The lower part is covered with scattered jungle, to use a most expressive Indian word, of small shrubs, almost all of forms common in the plains. _Carissa_ and _Adhatoda_ are the most common, with _Rottlera tinctoria_, a plant which does not extend far into the plains, and a scandent leguminous shrub, apparently a species of _Mucuna_. Around the few houses which occur on the ascent, the bamboo occurs planted, as well as the mango, and other common cultivated trees of the Indian plains. At an elevation of about 4000 feet, an alteration in the vegetation begins to be perceptible. The thin jungle of plain shrubs disappears, the few shrubs which still occur, are generally scattered bushes of _Hamiltonia_, _Nyctanthes_, _Prinsepia_, _Scutellaria_, and _Rubus_, but the slopes are usually bare and gra.s.sy. Ferns and mosses appear in the crevices of the rocks, and the first individuals of those species which predominate in the temperate zone, are found in shady spots where they are sheltered from the sun. At the same elevation _Euphorbia pentagona_ makes its appearance. This tree, which is confined to the hottest and driest slopes of the Himalaya, is remarkable for its peculiar shape, its thick fleshy five-angled branches, and its milky juice. It is nowhere to be met with in the plains of Upper India, but is common throughout the subtropical belt of the Himalaya from Kamaon westward.

[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF KUSSOWLEE RIDGE.

_May, 1847._]

A glance at the map will serve to show that the great Himalayan mountain range, dividing the waters of the Sutlej from those of the Jumna, holds a nearly due east and west course in its middle part, but that at its western extremity it bends round to the south, and terminates in the Indian plain, not far from the town of Nahan, and that (among many others) the Kussowlee ridge is a branch from it, running in a north-westerly direction, and separating the waters of the more western branch of the Gambar, from the small tributaries of the Gagar, which find their way to the plains on the left hand.

The ridge upon which the station of Kussowlee is built, nowhere attains an elevation exceeding 7000 feet. It is very narrow, and often rocky and precipitous immediately below the crest on the plainward face, which dips very suddenly. The inner slope is somewhat less abrupt, and is covered from the summit to perhaps 1000 feet below it, with an open forest of a species of fir (_Pinus longifolia_), which, in general appearance and mode of growth, much resembles the Scotch fir, but is distinguished by the very great length of its leaves. The barracks for the troops and the houses of the residents are scattered over the northern slope, or perched on the narrow summit of the ridge.

The shrubby and herbaceous vegetation which occurs scattered among the fir-wood, is so markedly different from that which prevails at the base of the mountains, and during the greater part of the ascent, that the traveller appears suddenly transported into a new world. Instead of those tribes of the vegetable kingdom which abound in the torrid zone, all the forms which now meet the eye are characteristic of a temperate climate. The moderate elevation of the range, and its proximity to the plains, tend to lessen the rapidity of the diminution of temperature; and as the greater part of the ascent lies on a bare sunny slope, the tropical flora extends towards the summit, much farther than it does on ranges which rise higher, and are clothed with shady forest. During the ascent, therefore, the traveller, though often struck with the appearance of new forms, is still accompanied by many species familiar to him as natives of tropical jungles, but on pa.s.sing to the northern face of the spur, the temperate region is at once entered, and most of the tropical forms disappear.

[Sidenote: VIEW FROM KUSSOWLEE.

_May, 1847._]

As soon as the crest of the first slope of the Himalaya has been gained, the eye is naturally directed towards the mountains beyond, in order to ascertain their appearance and position, when viewed at a diminished distance and from so much more considerable an elevation than had previously been the case. Nor will the view from Kussowlee in favourable weather disappoint the traveller who is desirous of meeting with beautiful scenery. Immediately to the north lies a deep ravine, and beyond a single ridge is the wide valley of the Gambar, with numerous mountain spurs, which, from their comparatively lower level, are not prominently brought into view. To the south-east the main range dips abruptly to a level, nearly 1000 feet below what it attains in the station of Kussowlee itself, but again rises into the finely wooded hill on which has recently been built the Lawrence Asylum.

Still further to the south are deep dells, with bare and rugged slaty mountains, scarcely at all wooded. In the months of May and June, when the atmosphere is generally extremely hazy, the prospect is limited to the ranges more immediately in the vicinity; but occasionally even in these months, as well as in the dry intervals of the rainy season, and during the delightful autumn weather which follows the termination of the rains, a much more distant prospect is opened, stretching far up the valley of the Sutlej, to the snow-clad peaks which, on either hand, hem in that river.

In the direction of the plains of India, the view is also very remarkable. The Kussowlee ridge so completely overtops the hills which intervene between it and the level country, that from its summit they interfere very little with the commanding view of the interminable flat which, like the ocean, stretches as far as vision extends. In the usual state of the atmosphere, especially in the hot season, a dense haze overhangs the plains, and entirely obscures their more distant parts; but in the cold season, as well as at day-break in summer, and especially after heavy rains, the misty vapours are entirely dissipated, and distant objects are defined with extreme precision.

Perhaps the most striking, because the most unexpected part of the view of the inner Himalaya, from Kussowlee, lies in the great depth of the valleys in the interior, and the distance of the next elevated range, of which the appearance of the mountains from the plains of India affords no indication. The extreme narrowness of the ridge, and the suddenness of the descent on both sides, is also very remarkable, and has, as already remarked, a very sensible effect on the climate, the heat of the lower ma.s.s being conveyed upwards, while the small extent of the knife-edge-like ridge, which rises above 6000 feet, exposes a minimum surface to the refrigerating influences of a rarefied atmosphere.

[Sidenote: ROAD TO SIMLA.

_May, 1847._]

The distance from Kussowlee to Simla is by the road about thirty miles, though in a direct line the two places are not much more than half that distance apart. The road descends from Kussowlee almost to the level of the plains, crossing the Gambar at an elevation of a little less than 3000 feet, and ascends to Simla by following the ridge which runs parallel to that river on its right bank, the source of the Gambar being immediately below Simla. It would indeed be possible to reach Simla, by following the crest of the ridge, without descending at all into the valley of the river; but for this purpose it would be necessary to follow the Kussowlee ridge so far to the southward, in order to reach its junction with the main range, that the length of the journey would be very much greater than that now followed. The road, therefore, only keeps the ridge for a very short distance, or as far as the "col," or lower part immediately north of Kussowlee, which is quite bare of trees. It then turns abruptly to the left, descending on the north face of a spur, at first in a winding manner, afterwards for a short distance along a shady ravine, and finally through a good deal of cultivation, at an elevation of between 4000 and 5000 feet, to a considerable stream which runs towards the north to join the Gambar. The greatest part of the descent is bare of trees, except along the banks of the little stream, which are covered with a belt of wood. The cultivated lands are extensive, occupying a flattish terraced slope, such as is of very general occurrence in the mountains, the fields being adapted for the growth of rain crops, princ.i.p.ally of rice, with a few fields of ginger and cardamoms.

[Sidenote: SABATHU.

_May, 1847._]

After reaching the stream just mentioned, which is crossed by a ford, a suspension bridge, for which the piers are partly built, having never been erected, the road continues to descend parallel to it towards the north, pa.s.sing under the military station of Sabathu, which, at the elevation of 4200 feet, occupies the crest of the ridge immediately to the east of the little river, a very short distance before its junction with the Gambar.