Western Himalaya and Tibet Part 3

[Sidenote: TOP OF HATTU.

_August, 1847._]

On the top of Hattu there are the remains of a square building, with very thick walls, I believe of native origin, and intended as a sort of fort, which, however, from the want of water, must have been quite untenable. It is now in ruins, its interior being filled with a wilderness of hemp, nettles, _Galium Aparine_, dock and other coa.r.s.e plants. The gra.s.sy slopes of the summit are covered with a luxuriant herbage of _Potentillae_, _l.a.b.i.atae_, _Gentianaceae_, _Epilobium_, _Polygonum_, and _Anemone_, while a few stunted bushes of _Quercus semicarpifolia_, a simple-leaved _Pyrus_, and a willow, are the only shrubby vegetation. The forest, however, rises close to the base of the cliffs on the western face, and contains all the species common on the ascent of the mountain, the vegetation of the summit being in no respect peculiar, not even in early spring exhibiting any truly alpine plant. The mountain bamboo, a graceful small species of _Arundinaria_, which is extremely abundant in the woods of the upper temperate and subalpine zones, adorns the rocky hollows close to the summit.

[Sidenote: VIEW FROM HATTU.

_August, 1847._]

In every direction except south, and along the ridge to the east, the view from the top of Hattu is very extensive, as it overlooks all the peaks in the immediate vicinity. To the north the mountains of Kulu, which separate the valley of the Sutlej from that of the Beas, and from the upper Chenab, are most beautifully seen, their peaks rising above one another from west to east, till they enter the region of perpetual snow. Towards the plains, in clear weather, the view must be superb; but in that direction there is so generally a hazy state of the atmosphere, that though I have ascended Hattu four times, I have never been fortunate enough to obtain a favourable day.

In looking back from the summit of Hattu towards Simla and the plains, it may be observed that the country is well wooded, though when viewed from Simla or the heights of Mahasu the same mountains had appeared almost bare. This diversity in the aspect of the country, according to the direction from which it is seen, is due to the ridges being well wooded on one face, and bare of trees on the other. The plainward face is never, except under very exceptional circ.u.mstances, at all wooded, while the northern and eastern slopes are generally covered with forest. Probably the more direct influence of the sun, and the action of the strong winds which generally blow up the valleys towards the interior of the mountains, act in concurrence in drying the atmosphere, and checking the growth of trees on the southern and western faces of the ridges.

The shrubby and herbaceous vegetation of Hattu is exceedingly luxuriant. The more open glades of the forest are filled with an undergrowth of tall balsams, annual-stemmed _Acanthaceae_, _Dipsacus_, _Compositae_ (among which the beautiful _Calimeris_ is very abundant), while in the drier pine-forest a graceful little bamboo occurs, often to the exclusion of every other plant. It grows in dense tufts, eight or ten or even twelve feet high, the diameter of the stem not exceeding a quarter of an inch. The currant of the Mahasu ridge is also common, with many of the same shrubs which are there abundant.

The ridge close to Nagkanda is much drier, and has fewer peculiar plants; the resemblance to the Simla flora being there very remarkable.

[Sidenote: CULTIVATION.

_August, 1847._]

On the southern slopes of this ridge, at elevations equal to that of Nagkanda bungalow, and even higher, in some places as high as 9500 feet, there are considerable patches of cultivation. Barley is probably the spring crop, but during the rains a good deal of buckwheat is cultivated. This plant will not thrive in the very humid regions, and is therefore indicative of a drier climate than that of Simla; indeed, even the occurrence of cultivation at such an elevation, during the rainy season, satisfactorily proves the existence of a more moderate rain-fall and greater warmth than on the peaks nearer the plains, as for instance on the Mahasu ridge, on which, except the potato, no cultivation whatever is attempted during the rains, though there are a few fields of wheat or barley in one spot as high as 8000 feet.

[Sidenote: DESCENT TOWARDS THE SUTLEJ.

_August, 1847._]

[Sidenote: SHADY RAVINE.

_August, 1847._]

Our missing loads having arrived at Nagkanda on the evening of the 5th of August, we resumed our journey on the morning of the 6th, marching to Kotgarh, ten miles. At Nagkanda we finally left the main range, and began to descend towards the valley of the Sutlej, following, at the commencement of our journey, a spur which runs from immediately west of the bungalow directly towards the river. After about four miles we quitted this spur to descend into the valley on the right, after crossing which we ascended to Kotgarh, situated on a long spur descending from the peak of Hattu. The early part of the descent was very abrupt, through a forest of large pines, princ.i.p.ally _P.

excelsa_ and spruce (_Abies Smithiana_). Some trees of the latter measured upwards of seventeen feet in circ.u.mference. Sycamore and cherry were also common in the forest, and a good many trees of _Corylus lacera_, the hazel of the north-west Himalaya, were observed.

The trees were festooned with the gigantic vine already noticed in the Mahasu forest. After the first two hundred feet of descent, the forest was less dense, and chiefly pine. _Rhododendron arboreum_ commenced about 1000 feet below Nagkanda, and was soon followed by the holly-leaved oak, and a little lower by _Q. incana_, the common h.o.a.ry oak of Simla; and by the time we had got down to 7000 feet, the vegetation was quite similar to that of Simla. At a little below this elevation, the road leaves the crest of the ridge, which may be seen to continue in a northerly direction, partly bare and partly pine-clad, and descends rapidly to the bottom of the deep ravine on the right. Soon after leaving the ridge we entered thick forest, and at the bottom of the ravine two considerable streams are crossed within a very short distance of one another, at an elevation of about 5500 feet, the lowest level to which we descended during the day's journey. Along the banks of these streams, which have a considerable inclination of bed, the forest is very dense and shady. Few of the trees are coniferous, nor do oaks in this part of the Himalaya select such moist localities. _Lauraceae_ of several kinds, the horse-chesnut, alder, and hornbeam (_Carpinus viminea_), with Toon and _Celtis_, are the prevailing trees.

The streams which the road here crosses descend from different parts of the ridge of Nagkanda. They occupy the bottom of deep ravines, and are in their whole course densely wooded. These ravines are, in their upper part especially, extremely steep and rocky, often with precipitous walls, and scarcely practicable even on foot. The denseness of the forest is princ.i.p.ally due to their northern exposure, and to the consequent more equable temperature and greater humidity.

They contain many trees not previously observed on the journey from Simla, though all of them, I believe even the horse-chesnut, occur in the very similar steep rocky ravines below f.a.gu. The alder is a common tree at 4-5000 feet in the north-western Himalaya, always in valleys and on the banks of streams.

In this shady forest I collected a considerable number of plants which do not occur at Simla. A scandent _Hydrangea_, the loosely-adhering bark of which separates in long rolls like that of the birch, and is used as a subst.i.tute for paper, was seen twining round the trunks of trees. I observed also a fine _Calanthe_, and abundance of _Adenocaulon_, a remarkable genus of _Compositae_, which, till Mr.

Edgeworth discovered a species in the Himalaya, was only known as a native of South America. In the thickest part of the forest in this ravine, I was also fortunate enough to meet with a few specimens of _Balanophora_, which here probably attains its western limit. All these plants are abundant forms in the most humid parts of Nepal and Sikkim, and their presence may, I think, be regarded as indicative of a more equable temperature throughout the year than prevails in the more open parts of the Sutlej Himalaya. The range of mountains on which Nagkanda stands certainly intercepts a great deal of moisture during the rainy season, and therefore makes the valleys on its northern aspect less humid at that period of the year. This would appear to be more than counterbalanced by the effect of the dense forest in keeping up moisture and preventing radiation during winter, for the cold and dryness of that season seem to have a much greater effect in determining the cessation of the forms characteristic of the eastern Himalaya, than the diminished rain-fall during the three months of the rainy season.

[Sidenote: KOTGARH.

_August, 1847._]

After crossing the stream at the bottom of the valley, the road advances in a northerly direction, at first gradually ascending through fine shady woods, but afterwards, turning to the right, mounting rapidly by very abrupt zigzags, up a bare dry hill-side, to the Kotgarh ridge. Here we took up our quarters for the night, in a house the property of Captain P. Gerard, a little above the village of Kotgarh, at an elevation of about 7000 feet, in a fine grove of _Pinus excelsa_.

Kotgarh, a large village, and the seat of an establishment of missionaries, was at one time a military post, and is interesting to the Himalayan traveller, from the fact of the detachment here stationed having been long commanded by one of the brothers Gerard, whose labours in these mountains, geographical and meteorological, are so well known. It has, however, long been abandoned as a military station, the peaceable state of the hill population rendering it unnecessary to keep a garrison in these mountains.

[Sidenote: CULTIVATION.

_August, 1847._]

Captain Gerard's house, in which we spent the night, is elevated several hundred feet above the upper part of the village of Kotgarh, which occupies the steep face of the ridge directly overlooking the valley of the Sutlej. One reach of the river is visible from the front of the house, and the deep roar of the rapid stream was distinctly audible, notwithstanding that we were still 4000 feet above it. On the morning of the 7th of August we resumed our journey, descending abruptly through the village of Kotgarh to the Sutlej. At first the pine-forest which surrounded our night quarters, accompanied us down the steep hill-side. It was intermixed with a few scattered deodars; and the shrubby and herbaceous vegetation was in all its features identical with that of Simla. Soon, however, the descent was on a bare hill-side, and after reaching the village, the road, inclining to the right or east, kept nearly level for about a mile, pa.s.sing through much cultivation, in terraced fields on the slopes. The crops were _Kodon_ (_Eleusine Coracana_) and a cylindrical-headed _Panic.u.m_, both grains commonly cultivated in the plains of India. There were also many fields of _Amaranthus_ and _Chenopodium_. The first of these is occasionally cultivated in all parts of the hills, its bright red inflorescence, in autumn, tinging with flame the bare mountain slopes.

The _Chenopodium_ was new to me as a cultivated grain, and is particularly interesting from its a.n.a.logy with the Quinoa of South America. It is entirely a rain crop, and grows very luxuriantly, rising to a height of six or eight feet, with a perfectly straight stout very succulent green stem, and large deltoid leaves, either pale green or of a reddish tinge, and covered with grey mealiness. The seeds, which are extremely small, are produced in great abundance on all the upper part of the plant, and are ripe in September.

[Sidenote: DESCENT TO THE SUTLEJ.

_August, 1847._]

For about a mile after leaving the village of Kotgarh, the descent was trifling, but the remainder of the road to the Sutlej was very steep, so that the change in the vegetation was sudden, commencing just at the point where _Quercus incana_ disappeared; before which few plants indicating heat occurred. The want of wood, no doubt, a.s.sisted the rapidity of the change, for the heat soon became considerable. In the course of the descent, I noted all the new forms as they occurred; but the exact order in which each individual species makes its appearance, depends so much upon accidental and unimportant circ.u.mstances, and is so likely to be affected by errors of observation, unless many series are obtained in different aspects of the same slope, that it would lead to no advantage to enumerate the species as they were met with.

Nearly 1000 feet above the bed of the river, or at an elevation of about 4000 feet, the vegetation had become quite subtropical, species of _Mollugo_, _Polanisia_, _Corchorus_, _Leucas_, _Euphorbia_, _Microrhynchus_, and the ordinary gra.s.ses and _Cyperaceae_ of the plains, being the common weeds. The descent continued very abrupt, the heat increasing rapidly, till the road reached the bank of the Sutlej, at the village of Kepu, which occupies a flat piece of land overhanging the river.

[Sidenote: VALLEY OF THE SUTLEJ.

_August, 1847._]

Having commenced our day's journey before daybreak, in order to complete the march before the extreme heat had commenced, we stopped here to breakfast, under the shade of a fine mango-tree. The neighbourhood of the village was well cultivated, with extensive rice-fields and a fine grove of tropical trees--mango, _Ficus Indica_ and _religiosa_, _Melia Azedarach_ and _Azadirachta_, _Grewia_, oranges, and plantains. Our late residence in a cool climate made us feel the heat much, though the temperature at nine in the morning was not much more than 80. After breakfast, we continued our journey up the valley, to Nirt or Nirat, a distance of six or seven miles, and next day we reached Rampur, the capital of Basehir, twelve miles further, and still in the Sutlej valley.

The district of Basehir is an independent hill state, governed by a rajah, whose dominion also extends over Kunawar; it commences a very little north of Kotgarh, and occupies the south side of the river Sutlej and the mountain slopes above it, as far east as the confines of Kunawar. The valley of the Sutlej, in the western part of Basehir, from Rampur downwards, has an elevation of little more than 3000 feet, Rampur (140 feet above the bed of the river) being 3400 feet above the level of the sea[4]. The river, at the season of our journey, which was the height of the rains, at which time it is at its largest, is an impetuous torrent, of great size, but very variable in breadth, foaming along over a stony bed, with generally very precipitous rocky banks, and filled with large boulders. During the rainy season it is extremely muddy, almost milky, and deposits in tranquil parts of its course a considerable amount of white mud. The valley is generally very narrow, with steep bare hills on either side, quite devoid of trees and covered only with a few scattered bushes and long coa.r.s.e gra.s.s. In the bays or recesses on the mountain-sides, between the terminations of the rocky spurs which descend to the river, the valley is often filled with a hard conglomerate rock, the cement of which is calcareous, evidently (geologically) of very recent origin. These patches of conglomerate are flat-topped, and often scarped towards the river, and are frequently 200 feet and more in thickness. They differ in degree of consolidation only from ordinary alluvial deposit, so that they appear to owe their preservation from the denuding effects of river action, to the calcareous matter, which has cemented the pebbles and sand into a solid rock.

[Sidenote: VEGETATION.

_August, 1847._]

The road follows throughout the course of the river, rising sometimes 200-300 feet, to pa.s.s over rocky spurs; at other times it lies on the surface of the boulder conglomerate, and more rarely close to the river. Here and there is a small village, with a few rice-fields, but the greater part of the valley is utterly sterile. Like the valleys of the outer Himalaya, that of the Sutlej here exhibits a curious mixture of the ordinary vegetation of the plains, with forms which point out the mountainous nature of the country. The whole flora is strongly characteristic of a dry soil and an arid climate. The mountain ranges to the west and south, no doubt, intercept a good deal of rain; and the lofty mountains, 10-12,000 feet in height, which, on the right and left, rise rapidly from the river, appropriate to themselves a great part of the moisture which reaches the valley. We may, therefore, in the absence of direct meteorological observations, infer, from the physical structure of the valley, and from the nature of its vegetation, that its climate is drier than that of the valleys at the base of the Himalaya.

The Sutlej valley cannot, of course, be properly compared with the base of the mountains farther east, where luxuriant forest covers all the slopes; but when contrasted with the Pinjor valley, or the low hills above Kalka, it is only on a careful comparison that a difference is to be observed, and then, perhaps, more by the absence of forms abundant in them than by any marked addition of new ones. The ordinary shrubs of the Sutlej, at 3000 feet, are _Adhatoda Vasica_, _Carissa edulis_, _Colebrookea_, _Rottlera tinctoria_, and some species of _Boehmeria_, all characteristic of the outer hills, and the two first common plains plants. The remarkable _Euphorbia pentagona_ is also common. _Butea_, _aegle_, and _Moringa_ do not occur, nor are there any bamboos. _Flacourtia sepiaria_, _Capparis sepiaria_, and _Calotropis_, which are three of the commonest plants of the plains, were also not observed. A large white-flowered caper (_Capparis obovata_, Royle) and a glabrous _Zizyphus_ were the most remarkable new forms. The herbaceous vegetation differed scarcely at all from that of the plains, consisting chiefly of species which, during the rainy season, spring up in the lightest and driest soils.

Mountain plants were only occasional, and mostly such as at Simla descend on the dry gra.s.sy slopes into the valleys: a berberry and bramble (_Rubus flavus_), _Plectranthus rugosus_, which is a grey and dusty-looking shrub, _Melissa umbrosa_, _Micromeria biflora_, a little _Geranium_, _Ajuga parviflora_, a _Galium_, _Senecio_, _Aplotaxis candicans_, and one or two _Umbelliferae_. They did not, however, amount to a twentieth part of the whole vegetation, and the aspect of the flora was quite subtropical. A little _Eriophorum_, which is everywhere common in arid places at the base of the Himalaya, from a.s.sam to the Indus, was frequent in the crevices of the rocks. Ferns were very scarce, only two or three being observed.

[Sidenote: RAMPUR.

_August, 1847._]

The town of Rampur is a considerable place, on a small level tract of ground, about a hundred feet above the bed of the river Sutlej, which it overhangs. The houses are substantially built, in the form of a square, with an open s.p.a.ce in the centre; they are mostly one-storied, and have steeply-sloping slated roofs. The town has a good deal of trade with Tibet, princ.i.p.ally in shawl wool, and is the seat of a small manufacture of white soft shawl-cloths. The river is here crossed by a rope suspension-bridge, of a kind very common in the lower valleys, which has often been described. It consists of nine stout ropes, which are stretched from one side of the river to the other. The width of the Sutlej at the bridge, according to Captain Gerard, by whom it was measured, is 211 feet.

During our stay at Rampur, Major Cunningham directed my attention to the alteration of the level of the river at different periods of the day, from the variable amount of solar action on the snows by which it is fed. This effect he had noticed on his former visit to the mountains, and we had frequent opportunities of observing it during our journey. At Rampur the diurnal variation was not less than three or four feet, the maximum being, I believe, during the night or early in the morning. In the immediate vicinity of snow, the streams are highest in the afternoon, but as the distance increases the period of greatest height becomes by degrees later and later.

Except on our two first days' journey, we had been extremely fortunate in weather since leaving Simla. The day of the 8th was very cloudy and oppressive, and the 9th, on which we remained stationary at Rampur to make arrangements with the Rajah for our further progress through Basehir and Kunawar, was rainy throughout. The rain, however, was light, and did not prevent the Rajah from visiting us in the afternoon, impelled, I suppose, by a desire to see our apparatus and arrangements for travelling. We were lodged in an excellent upper-roomed house of his, overhanging the Sutlej, and not far from his own residence, which lies at the east end of the town, and externally is quite without beauty, presenting to view nothing but a ma.s.s of dead walls. The Rajah seldom remains during the hot season at Rampur, as he has a second residence at Serahan, twenty miles up the river, and 7000 feet above the level of the sea, in which he usually spends the summer, though during 1847, for some reason or other, he remained during the greater part of the year at Rampur.

[Sidenote: ANCIENT RIVER-CHANNEL.

_August, 1847._]

On the morning of the 18th of August we resumed our journey. Our direction still lay up the valley of the Sutlej, and for the first three miles the road kept parallel to the river, ascending occasionally a few hundred feet to cross spurs, when the immediate margin of the Sutlej was too rocky and precipitous to allow of a pa.s.sage. This was not unfrequently the case, and after a few miles the river-bank became so rugged and difficult, that the road left it, to ascend a long ridge, descending from the mountain range to the south. The early part of the road, from the many views of the river rushing over its rocky bed, often among immense boulders, and from the general boldness of the mountain scenery, was, though bare of forest, very striking. Frequently the road overhung the river, which ran through a narrow rocky ravine many hundred feet below. At other times, it lay over the surface of the flat platforms which occupied the valley, and in several places curious excavations were noticed on the rocky surface, as if the river had formerly flowed over higher levels.

One of these ancient channels was so very remarkable, that it could not be overlooked. The rocky banks on either side were at least a hundred feet apart, and the large water-worn boulders, with occasional rugged pointed rocks which filled the bed, conveyed unmistakeably the conviction that we were walking over an ancient river-bed, though the elevation could not be less than 150 feet above the present level of the river.

[Sidenote: ASCENT TOWARDS GAORA.

_August, 1847._]

Three miles from Rampur the road began to ascend a long spur in a south-east direction. After we had ascended a few hundred feet, the course of the river could be seen on the left among precipitous rocks, quite impracticable. The ascent was through a well-cultivated tract, the base of the hill and lower slopes being covered with fields of rice, still only a few inches high. The road ascended rapidly, through villages with numerous fruit-trees. At first, the vegetation continued the same as in the valley, and the hills were bare, except close to the village. Within a thousand feet of the base, the cultivation ceased, and the road entered a wood of scattered firs, mixed after a little with the common oak (_Q. incana_). At about 5000 feet the steep lateral spur joined the ridge, and the road turned to the eastward, and continued along the steep sides of the ridge, which overhang the valley of the river 2000 feet below. The Sutlej was well seen, running among bare rocky hills, the pine-wood being confined to the upper parts of the steep slopes.

Had we continued our course along this ridge, it would in time have conducted us to the crest of the main range south of the Sutlej, the same which we had left at Nagkanda to descend into the Sutlej valley.

It would have been necessary for this purpose to ascend to a height of between 12,000 and 13,000 feet, and to proceed to a considerable distance south; our object, however, being to keep along the river as nearly as possible, it would not have suited our purpose to ascend so far, and the road only left the banks of the Sutlej on account of the difficult nature of the ground in the bottom of the valley. We found, therefore, after continuing a mile or two on the steep slope of the ridge, that the road again began to descend, not exactly towards the Sutlej, but to the bottom of the ravine or dell, by which the spur on which we had ascended was separated from that next in succession to it.

[Sidenote: GAORA.

_August, 1847._]

As far as the beginning of the descent the hill-side had been bare, or only clothed with scattered pine-wood, but as soon as the eastern slope was gained, and the descent commenced, the slopes became well wooded with _Rhododendron_ and Oak. The descent was probably not more than 1000 feet, perhaps scarcely so much, as the ravine sloped very abruptly to the Sutlej; on the lower part of the descent, and on the bank of the stream, the wood was princ.i.p.ally alder, and a few subtropical gra.s.ses and _Cyperaceae_ marked the commencement of the vegetation of the lower region, while a valerian, a _Hieracium_, a species of _Datisca_, and an _Arundo_ or allied gra.s.s, were the new species of plants observed; of these, perhaps the _Datisca_ alone markedly indicated an approach to the interior Himalaya. After crossing the ravine the road ascended abruptly up a well-wooded slope, on the northern face of a steep spur, to the village of Gaora, at which, for the first time since leaving Simla, we encamped, no house being available for our accommodation. The morning had been fair, though dull, but soon after our arrival at Gaora it began to rain, and continued to do so all the afternoon.