Western Himalaya and Tibet Part 10

On the 14th of September we proceeded along the stream close to which we had encamped the day before. High mountains, whose summits could not be seen from the bottom of the narrow ravine, rose on both sides.

The rock on both banks was clay-slate, much altered by heat, often very hard, and with numerous quartz veins; no more greenstone was observed. The stream, copious when we started, gradually disappeared as the ravine widened, and water soon lay only in pools along the gravelly bed. Boulders of granite were abundant all along. After three miles the ravine opened into a wide gravelly plain, skirted by rounded hills of considerable elevation, to which the alluvial platforms sloped very gently on both sides. _Christolea_, a little shrubby _Artemisia_, and a small _Stipa_, were the plants which grew among the gravel.

[Sidenote: UNDULATING COUNTRY.

_September, 1847._]

After about a mile and a half, the direction of the plain trending to the south more than was suited to our purpose, we turned to the left, to cross the ridge which ran parallel to it on the north-east. A long gravelly plain, sloping almost imperceptibly upwards, led us to the summit of the ridge, which was not more than two or three hundred feet above the plain we had left. From this pa.s.s, for such it was, though an insignificant one, an open valley, skirted on both sides by low rounded hills, ran to the north-east for nearly five miles. The appearance of the country was very remarkable. The hills were all very gentle in slope, and quite rounded in outline, so that the surface was almost undulating. It required reflection on the fact that we were traversing a tract in which the bottoms of the valleys were from 15,000 to 15,500 feet above the level of the sea, to make us aware of the very mountainous nature of the country we were pa.s.sing through, which was, if any part of Tibet (which I have seen) may be so called, the _Table Land_ north of the Himalaya. The height of the mountains, too, was in fact greater than we had at first been inclined to believe, the gentleness of the slopes making us think the ridges nearer than they really were, and therefore leading to a false estimate of their height. In general they were from 1000 to 2000 feet in height, and their summits therefore from 16,000 to 17,000 feet above the level of the sea.

[Sidenote: OPEN VALLEYS.

_September, 1847._]

The open valley along which we now proceeded was remarkable in another point of view. It was quite waterless, and seemed hemmed in on both sides by hills, so that its drainage must take place in the direction of its long axis; at least, no lateral depression could be perceived on either side. About a mile from its eastern end, this plain was lower than in any other part. We had been descending along it from west to east, and we could see that beyond that point it rose gently to the eastward. The surface of the lowest part was covered with a hard shining white clay, without any of the fine gravel which abounded elsewhere. A few tufts of an _Eurotia_ were the only plant which it produced. It was evident that the winter snows which fall on this isolated spot, when melted in summer, finding no exit, form a small lake, till they completely disappear by evaporation.

[Sidenote: HANLE PLAIN, ITS VEGETATION.

_September, 1847._]

After crossing this low clayey tract, we ascended gently for nearly a mile in an easterly direction, when the valley terminated very abruptly and unexpectedly in a precipitous descent of four or five hundred feet, the clay-slate rocks emerging suddenly from beneath the gravel at the very edge of the precipice. The road descended in a narrow gorge, which had apparently been worn by aqueous action in the almost perpendicular cliff. On emerging from this gorge, we found ourselves on the border of a very extensive perfectly level tract, seemingly surrounded by hills, and approaching in shape to a circle, though its outline, from projecting ranges of hills, was very irregular. The margins of this plain were dry and gravelly; the centre, as seen from a distance, was green, but in many places encrusted with a saline efflorescence.

Skirting this plain, which lay on our right, while ranges of hills, separated by wide gravelly valleys, occupied the left, we reached Hanle, a Buddhist monastery inhabited by about twenty lamas, built on the summit of a steep hill which rises abruptly out of the plain. We encamped in a ravine at the foot of the hill on which the monastery is built, in which the tents of the wandering population are erected when they bring their flocks into this neighbourhood.

The plain of Hanle, which is not, I think, less than six or eight miles in diameter, resembles very much that curious flat tract which we pa.s.sed on the 12th of September, on the south side of the Lanak pa.s.s; it is, however, much larger in dimensions. Several streams, very tortuous and sluggish, wind over its surface. These were frequently three feet or more in depth, and contained mult.i.tudes of small fish, usually about six inches in length, but growing to eight or ten inches at least. They were a species of carp. We tried to eat them, but, though sweet and well-tasted, the bones were so numerous and troublesome that we relinquished the attempt. We were much interested at the occurrence of fish at an elevation of 14,300 feet, a height at which, _a priori_, it would scarcely have been expected that they would have existed.

The surface of the plain was very saline, and, where not swampy, covered with coa.r.s.e gra.s.ses and _Cyperaceae_. It was very uneven, hummocks or knolls being scattered over the surface, which made walking very difficult. These, I presume, were caused by the gradual growth of plants, which, in process of time, formed heaps in spots not covered by water during the melting of the snow in spring. In some parts there were extensive patches of _Dama_. A species of _Elymus_ and a _Blysmus_ were very abundant. The ground in the vicinity of the streams was swampy, and the coa.r.s.e gra.s.ses of the drier parts were replaced by little _Potentillae_, _Glaux maritima_, _Taraxac.u.m_, _Aster_, and a number of Chenopodiaceous plants. In the running waters a _Potamogeton_ and _Ranunculus aquatilis_ were plentiful. The streams, which must, I believe, as in the case of the plain of the 12th, princ.i.p.ally derive their supply from springs which break out on the edge of the flat country, all converge to a point at the north-east end of the plain, and, uniting into one, continue their course down an open valley in a northerly direction towards the Indus.

As no section of the bed of this remarkable plain is anywhere to be seen, it is not possible to form an estimate of the depth of its boggy soil, or of the nature of the subjacent deposit. It can scarcely be doubted that it has at one time been a lake, which has been gradually silted up; but it is not easy to conjecture the length of time which has elapsed since it became dry land, in the absence of any knowledge of the nature and contents of the deposits which occur beneath the surface. As an outlet for the waters of the plain exists to the northward, we may infer that the waters of the lake were always fresh.

We remained two days at Hanle, to effect a change of porters, a matter which cannot be accomplished in a hurry in an almost uninhabited country, without unnecessary hardships on individuals. There is no settled population except the monks or lamas; a few stone huts without roofs, which were scattered about the foot of the rock, having no tenants. To the east of the monastery, on the border of the plain, watered by an artificial channel brought with considerable labour from the river, we observed two or three small fields. The grain, which was barley, had been cut and carried away, so that harvest at Hanle was over. The view from the top of the monastery was extensive, as we overlooked the whole plain to the south, and the valley of the Hanle river on the east. The mountains were highest to the east, where a very lofty, steep, and irregular range, with a good deal of snow in some places, separated Hanle from the Indus. To the south and west, the mountains, though high, were rounded.

The rock on which the monastery is built is wholly igneous, but varies from a coa.r.s.e-grained granite, rapidly decaying, to a dark-coloured greenstone, with large crystals scattered through it. Close to the foot of the hill, the clay-slate was in a few places visible, considerably altered by igneous action, as was to be expected from its proximity to the greenstone.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] I state these facts on the authority of Major Cunningham. Captain H. Strachey visited this district in 1848, and will, I hope, soon make public his observations. He has ascertained that the surface of the lake is 15,200 feet above the level of the sea.

CHAPTER VI.

Descend Hanle river -- Unsettled weather -- Encamp on banks of Indus -- Upper course of Indus -- Pugha ravine -- Forest of Myricaria-trees -- Borax plain -- Hot springs -- Borax lakes of Eastern Tibet -- Sulphur mine -- Pulokanka Pa.s.s -- Salt lake -- Lacustrine clays with sh.e.l.ls -- Ancient water-mark -- Rupchu -- Tunglung Pa.s.s -- Fall of snow -- Alluvial conglomerate -- Giah -- Narrow ravine -- Miru -- Upshi -- Indus valley -- Marsilang -- Richly cultivated plain of Chashut -- Bridge over Indus -- Le -- Buddhist edifices.

On the 17th of September we left Hanle, _en route_ to Le. Our road lay down the left bank of the river by which the waters of the lake-plain are discharged into the Indus. The valley through which it flowed was open and level, and its slope imperceptible. On the left lay a low range of hills, an irregular ma.s.s increasing much in width, as well as in height, as we proceeded northwards, the Hanle extremity being the termination where it slopes into the plain. On the right, a very lofty range, some of the peaks of which were certainly not less than 21,000 feet in elevation, ran parallel to our course, separating the open valley of the Hanle river from the Indus.

[Sidenote: HANLE RIVER.

_September, 1847._]

The width of the valley varied from one to three miles. The stream was very winding, crossing from side to side, and often pressing the road close to the spurs of the range on the left. The range on this side was princ.i.p.ally clay-slate, with occasional outbreaks of trap, which had in many places converted the stratified rock into a hard red or green jasper. From the immediate proximity of the igneous rock the stratified ma.s.ses were very much contorted, and no regular dip was observable.

Saline efflorescence occurred everywhere in great quant.i.ty in the vicinity of the stream; as a consequence, Chenopodiaceous plants were more than usually abundant, and I collected at least three species of that family which I had not previously observed. The banks of the stream were everywhere bordered by a belt of green herbage, more or less broad, in which the usual species of _Ranunculus_, _Gentiana_, _Pedicularis_, _Juncus_, _Cyperaceae_, and gra.s.ses were common. _Glaux maritima_ also occurred abundantly. Two other European plants were found in the swamps along the course of the river, which were very interesting as a proof of the extremely European nature of the flora: these were _Hippuris vulgaris_ and _Limosella lacustris_. Towards the end of the day's journey, _Caragana versicolor_ (_Dama_) became very common, covering a large extent of surface, and growing to a much greater size than I had ever before seen, with an upright stem nearly six feet in height. I could scarcely persuade myself that the species was the same as the little depressed shrubs which grew on the pa.s.ses further south. Two species of _Myricaria_, both of which I had seen in Piti, also reappeared during the day, so that we were evidently approaching a lower level and more genial climate.

Banks of alluvial conglomerate occurred on the sides of the valley, in the s.p.a.ces between the projecting spurs of the range on the left hand, on the latter part of the day. The beds were distinctly stratified and very sandy, more or less full of rounded stones, and often pa.s.sing into pure sand, which was interstratified with the coa.r.s.er beds. The day was very cloudy and threatening, and a few drops of rain fell for the first time since the 29th of August, the weather during the whole of that interval having been brilliant and quite dry.

We encamped eleven miles from Hanle, on a gravelly plain close to the river.

Dining the night the weather did not improve, but continued very cloudy, and on the morning of the 18th the mountains on the right side of the valley were covered with snow, down to within 1500 feet of the plain. The wind blew strongly from the northward, and the day, which was still very cloudy, was bitterly cold, and, to our feelings, extremely uncomfortable. We continued to follow the course of the Hanle river, pa.s.sing over long gravel flats, which alternated with turfy saline meadows. Several low spurs from the mountains on the left, which projected far into the plain, making the river bend much to the right, were crossed as we proceeded. About ten miles from our morning's camp, we left the course of the river, which turned to the right and entered a rocky mountain gorge, while our road kept its northerly direction. An open valley led us to the crest of a low ridge of trap and slate, from which a very long stony monotonous valley descended to an extensive plain covered with fine mud and saline exudation, on which the only vegetation was a few tufts of _Suaeda_ and coa.r.s.e gra.s.s. Crossing this plain, on which the dry clay was in many places deeply cracked and fissured, as if it had till within a short time been under water, or at least swampy, we encamped, at an elevation of 13,800 feet, on the banks of the Indus, here a muddy torpid stream, without any apparent current, about four feet deep and twenty or twenty-five feet wide. There was, however, another channel, separated from that on which we were encamped by a small island.

[Sidenote: RIVER INDUS.

_September, 1847._]

So sluggish was the stream at the point where we joined it, that we were for a long time uncertain in which direction the current was flowing; and though we were prepared to find the Indus at the end of our day's journey, the river on whose banks we were encamped was so much less than our antic.i.p.ations, that we were very unwilling to be convinced that we had really arrived at the great river, to which we had so long looked forward as one of the most interesting objects of our journey. The island in the centre of the channel was a bank of very fine sand or mud, on which large flocks of wild-fowl were resting; it was very little elevated above the surface of the water, which must frequently, I should think, rise sufficiently to cover it.

The bank on which we were encamped, though rather higher, was not more than four feet above the water; it was quite vertical, and composed of fine clay, without any intermixture of stones or gravel.

[Sidenote: UPPER COURSE OF THE INDUS.

_September, 1847._]

The course of the river Indus, from its source to Le, has. .h.i.therto been less known than any other part in Tibet; but as Captain Strachey, a month or two after our visit, descended along it from the Chinese frontier, as far as Le, the unknown portion is now very much reduced.

It rises in the mountains north of the lakes of Mansarawer and Rawan Rhad, and runs in general towards the north-east. Moorcroft has described its appearance at Garu or Gartop, where it is a very insignificant stream; but the intervening country is so little known, except by native report, that we can scarcely be said to have an exact knowledge of the upper part of its course. There is in some maps an eastern branch laid down, but of that we have no definite information.

From the arid and snowless nature of the country through which it must flow, it is probably a very small stream, but its length may be considerable.

Immediately above the open plain in which we joined the Indus, it would appear to have a very rocky and rugged channel. Such, at least, was the description given to us by our guides of the lower course of the Hanle river, which we left only a few miles before it joined the Indus; and as the mountains to the south-west appeared to close in very abruptly within a very short distance of our encampment, we could not doubt that the open and level plain which we found in this portion of the river's course was of limited extent, and quite an exceptional feature in the character of the country through which the Indus flows.

From the great elevation and abrupt slope of the range which runs parallel to the Hanle river on the east, there can be no doubt that the spurs which it sends down on its north-east slope, towards the Indus, must be bold and rocky; and though the hills on the left bank of the Hanle river are much less elevated, yet they rise as they advance to the eastward. The descent of this river too, though very gentle in the upper part of its course, while its valley is broad, is probably very abrupt in the last few miles, where its channel is rocky and its ravine narrow. The elevation of its junction with the Indus is, I believe, about 13,800 feet above the level of the sea.

[Sidenote: INDUS VALLEY.

_September, 1847._]

On the 19th of September our road lay in a westerly direction down the Indus. The weather was still extremely unsettled, the sky being cloudy and a violent north or north-west wind continuing to blow in frequent gusts. No rain, however, fell. The plain gradually narrowed as we advanced, and the mountains on the left approached by degrees close to the river. Low gra.s.sy plains, covered with a saline incrustation, quite dry, and without any brushwood or tall herbaceous vegetation, skirted the river, the course of which we followed very closely.

Indeed, notwithstanding the considerable diminution of alt.i.tude, the aspect of the valley of the Indus was more dreary and barren than we had for some days been accustomed to. The rocky spurs were quite bare; and even on the level tracts no vegetation was seen, excepting on the very lowest banks, which were moistened by the river. This utter sterility was no doubt due to the absence of lateral rivulets, the hills which rose on our left hand being stony and steep, and not rising to a sufficient elevation to be covered with perpetual snow, or to acc.u.mulate and retain snow-beds in their ravines till a late period of the year.

The rock on the left-hand mountains during the day was quite different from any that had hitherto occurred, being a conglomerate, with rounded stones of various sizes, many of them granite. The matrix was of a very dark colour, and generally extremely hard; more rarely it was a coa.r.s.e sand, crumbling to pieces. This conglomerate was everywhere stratified, the beds dipping to the south-west, at an angle of about forty-five degrees. During the day the river varied much in width, being seldom less than twenty-five yards, and sometimes as much as eighty. The stream was generally very gentle, not exceeding two miles an hour, except in a few rapids, and the river was in most places fordable. We encamped on the left bank, in a place where it was shallow and wide.

On the 20th of September we continued at first to follow the left bank of the Indus, which gradually a.s.sumed a more northerly direction. The mountains on both sides approached much more closely to the river than they had done the day before, and those on the right continued extremely lofty. The river now flowed more rapidly, and was often wider and more shallow; one rapid was not less than 150 yards in width. Banks of alluvial clayey conglomerate were usually interposed between the mountains and the river, forming cliffs which attained not unfrequently an elevation of fifty feet. These were separated by projecting spurs, over which the road pa.s.sed wherever they advanced so close to the centre of the valley as to prevent a pa.s.sage along the level plain. Some small streamlets were crossed during the day, and in consequence the vegetation was at times more varied, and at the same time more luxuriant, than it had been the day before. A few bushes of _Myricaria_ were seen on the bank of the river; and in the lateral ravines the ordinary shrubs and herbaceous vegetation were common.

The only new plant was a species of _l.a.b.i.atae_, a coa.r.s.e-growing under-shrub, probably a species of _Ballota_.

[Sidenote: PUGHA RAVINE.

_September, 1847._]

The hard conglomerate of the day before did not again occur, various forms of clay-slate being the prevailing rock. The steep slopes were, however, very frequently covered with a talus of angular fragments, which obscured the structure of the lower portions of the mountains, at the same time that it revealed the nature of the higher strata, which would otherwise have been inaccessible. Red and green jaspery rocks, very hard and brittle, were abundant, with various forms of greenstone, at times closely resembling syenite. These were evidently the same rocks as had been met with in the neighbourhood of Hanle, and along the river for some way below that town. Their recurrence here, therefore, tended to confirm what had for some time appeared to me to be the prevailing strike of these formations, namely, from S.S.E. to N.N.W.

After following the course of the Indus for about eight miles, we turned abruptly to the left, ascending a narrow gorge, in which a considerable stream flowed from the south-west. The slope was, from the first, considerable, and the course of the ravine very winding.

Steep rocky cliffs rose precipitously on both sides, and generally approached so close to one another that their tops could not be seen.

The channel of the stream was at first stony and quite bare, but after a mile bushes of the _Myricaria_ became common, fringing the stream, but nowhere growing at any distance from it. These gradually increased in size and abundance, and at our camping place, three miles from the commencement of the ravine, they were generally small trees, many of them not less than fifteen feet in height, with stout erect trunks five or six inches in diameter.

The morning of the 21st of September was bright and clear, and intensely frosty, the unsettled weather which had continued since our leaving Hanle having quite disappeared. Our road still lay up the gorge, which had quite the same appearance as on the previous day.

High precipices, or very steep banks, hemmed in the stream on both sides. Small trees of _Myricaria_ still continued abundant in the immediate vicinity of the water; elsewhere, all was as desolate as ever. Some of these trees were not less than a foot in diameter; the trunk was generally very short, often branching within a foot of the base. At intervals there was a good deal of alluvium, partly in the shape of coa.r.s.e conglomerate, partly a fine micaceous sand, filling up the recesses at the bends of the ravine. After three miles, the ravine suddenly expanded into a narrow plain, the surface of which was irregularly undulating, and completely encrusted with salt. As this plain was interesting in consequence of the production of borax, we encamped on the bank of the little stream about a mile from the end of the gorge, and remained stationary the next day in order to examine the nature of the locality in which the borax is found.

[Sidenote: HOT SPRINGS.

_September, 1847._]

As the day's journey was a very short one, we arrived at the salt plain by eight o'clock A.M. The air was still quite frosty. While our tents were being pitched on a dry bank a little way above the stream, we proceeded to its bank, and were not a little surprised to find the water quite tepid, notwithstanding the extreme cold of the air. On procuring a thermometer, it was found to have a temperature of 69.