Western Himalaya and Tibet Part 7

[Sidenote: THE PITI RIVER.

_August, 1847._]

An abrupt descent followed, of not less than seven or eight hundred feet, into a wide steeply-sloping valley, descending from the north to join that of Hango. On the surface of this hollow, the road pa.s.sed among a mult.i.tude of large angular boulders of limestone, irregularly scattered over the surface. This limestone was much like that of the Hangarang pa.s.s, and as it nowhere occurred _in situ_ on the road, the boulders must have come from the hills on the upper part of the lateral ravine. A small spring of water and a solitary willow marked the centre of the valley, beyond which the road again ascended slightly, till on rounding a corner, the Piti river came into view, at the bottom of a most remarkable rocky ravine. Full in front, just beyond the river, was a scarped rock of great height; it was of a dark grey colour, and was traversed in every direction by immense white veins. Round this precipice, which seemed to project beyond the general ma.s.s, the river swept in a deep curve, of which the convexity was towards me.

The mountains on the right bank of the river, which formed the termination of the range on which I stood, seemed not less steep than those opposite, for the road, instead of pa.s.sing round them without change of level, rose rapidly as it turned to the left, till it had attained an elevation of at least 12,000 feet, at which height it wound among precipitous rocks of hard dark slate, covered with bushes of _Ephedra_, and scattered trees of _Juniperus excelsa_. When fairly round the rocky projecting range, the village of Lio was discovered more than 2000 feet below, in a narrow ravine, on the bank of a small stream descending from the north-west, and close to its junction with the Piti river. The descent was very abrupt, in a rocky ravine among large boulders, partly of slate, partly of granite. This rock occurred in thick veins in the clay-slate, most abundantly on the lower part of the precipices which rose on the left hand during the descent.

[Sidenote: LIO.

_August, 1847._]

Lio, at an elevation of 9600 feet above the sea, is a considerable village, with a large tract of cultivation, disposed in terraces from three to six feet above one another. The crops of wheat and barley had been all cut, but there were many fields of buckwheat in full flower, and of millet (_Panic.u.m miliaceum_) still quite green. Numerous apricot-trees, from which the fruit had long been gathered, were interspersed among the cultivated lands. Surrounded on all sides by very precipitous mountains, which reflect the sun's rays, Lio appears to enjoy a great amount of heat, and the weeds which bordered the corn-fields were rank and abundant, and included many species which had not been seen at the higher villages. _Salvia glutinosa_, almost the only remaining Simla plant, burdock, sow-thistle, lucerne, and melilot, were the commonest weeds. A little _Cuscuta_ was common on these latter. No tree of any kind occurred in the valley, nor on the slopes on either side. Elevation could not be the cause of this, the height being much lower than the line of upper limit of tree vegetation in the outer Himalaya, and the temperature of the valley, as was evident from the kinds of grain cultivated, very much greater than it would have been at the same level, in the more rainy climates nearer the plains of India.

The ravine through which the Lio stream runs is narrow and rocky, and contains a great number of transported blocks of various sizes, scattered irregularly over the surface. Close to the village there is a curious isolated rock, separated by the stream from the mountain ma.s.s with which it has evidently once been connected.

[Sidenote: CROSS THE PITI RIVER.

_August, 1847._]

On the 25th of August we crossed the Piti river, a little above Lio, and ascended to the village of Nako, on a very steep ridge, which descended from the great mountain Porgyul. After leaving the cultivated lands of Lio, which extend for half a mile from the upper part of the village, we ascended the right bank of the Piti river for nearly a mile, to a bridge, by which it is crossed. The river ran here in an extremely narrow ravine, precipitous mountains rising on either side. Its banks were steep, and covered with loose shingle, the _debris_ of the precipices above. The stream is of considerable size, but much inferior to the Sutlej where we had last observed it close at hand, though I believe it is nearly as large as that river, at the point of junction of the two. The Piti runs in this part of its course with great rapidity, and is probably of considerable depth.

[Sidenote: ASCENT TO NAKO.

_August, 1847._]

The bridge was situated at a bend of the river, where the rocky banks contract more than usual. It was similar in structure to that over the Sutlej at w.a.n.gtu, but much smaller, and in so dilapidated a state, that it could scarcely be expected to last another year. The ascent to Nako was throughout steep, the difference of elevation being about 2500 feet, and the distance not more than two miles and a half. When at a sufficient height above the narrow dell in which the Piti runs, a good view was obtained of the mountains by which we were surrounded, which rose on all sides in rugged precipices. The steepness of the cliffs allowed their geological structure to be well seen. The fundamental rock, wherever I saw it, appeared to be clay-slate, sometimes pa.s.sing into chert or quartzy sandstone. This basal rock was everywhere traversed by innumerable veins of quartz and granite, which exhibited no signs of parallelism, but ramified in every direction.

These veins were often of great thickness. Not unfrequently, indeed, the ma.s.s of granite much exceeded the slaty beds between which it was interposed; but its connection with other veins of more moderate size rendered it evident that it had been injected into the slate.

Behind the village of Lio a thick deposit of alluvial clay was discernible, which seemed to suggest the idea of the valley having formerly been a lake; and at no place where I had seen these clayey acc.u.mulations was this hypothesis so plausible, for the precipices south of the junction of the Lio stream, rose almost perpendicularly for more than 1000 feet above the Piti river, and approached so close to one another, that their disruption was at least a possible contingency.

The slopes, as we ascended, were covered with boulders of granite in countless profusion, and the vegetation was extremely scanty, _Ephedra_ being the most abundant plant observed. On the upper part of the ascent the road crossed a little streamlet, which was conducted in an artificial channel to irrigate a few fields of wheat. The margins of this little stream, and a belt a few feet in width on both sides, where the ground was swampy, were covered with a dense thicket of _Hippophae_ and rose-bushes, among which grew thickly and luxuriantly a scandent _Clematis_, and _Rubia cordifolia_, mint, dock, and thistles. The number of species altogether was scarcely more than a dozen, but the brilliant green formed so delightful a contrast with the prevailing monotony, that what in a more fertile country would have been pa.s.sed as a mere thicket of thorns, to my eyes appeared a most beautiful grove of graceful shrubs; and I lingered in the swampy ground, till I had traversed it repeatedly in every direction, and completely exhausted the flora.

[Sidenote: NAKO.

_August, 1847._]

Nako is a smaller village than Lio, and from its elevation (12,000 feet) has no fruit-trees; but at the base of the cultivation, which is extensive, there was a copse of willows and poplars. The predominant crop was barley, now quite ripe, and being cut; the species was the common one, not _H. aegiceras_, but the ears were very short, and the return must, I should think, have been very small. There was abundance of water, which ran in every direction through the fields. The little streamlets had a narrow belt of green on their margins, consisting of small gra.s.ses, several gentians, and _Potentillae_, one of which I could not distinguish from _P. anserina_, a _Polygonum_ very like _P.

viviparum_, and, most remarkable of all, a small orchideous plant, which seemed to be a species of _Herminium_.

[Sidenote: BUDDHIST TEMPLES.

_August, 1847._]

At Nako, we had a most satisfactory proof of the little estimation in which the lamas, or priests of the Buddhist religion, hold their religious buildings, the apartments furnished to us in the village being the different parts of the temple, surrounded with full-sized figures of the different incarnations of Buddha, in sitting posture, each with his hands in the position which is conventionally used to indicate the individual. The remarkable forms and system of the Buddhist religion, as practised in Kunawar and Ladak, have been so often and accurately described, that it would be useless for me to attempt to give any account of what I could, from want of previous knowledge, very imperfectly understand, and from my other occupations scarcely at all inquire into. The gradual transition, in ascending the Sutlej, from Hinduism to Buddhism, is very remarkable, and not the less so because it is accompanied by an equally gradual change in the physical aspect of the inhabitants, the Hindus of the lower Sutlej appearing to pa.s.s by insensible gradations as we advance from village to village, till at last we arrive at a pure Tartar population. The people of upper Piti have quite the Tartar physiognomy, the small stature and stout build of the inhabitants of Ladak, to whom also they closely approximate in dress. To what extent mere climatic influences may cause these differences, and how far they depend on an intermixture of races, I do not pretend to decide. It is impossible, however, to avoid being struck by the coincidence between these physical and moral changes in the human race, and the gradual alteration in the forms of the vegetable world, which are observable as we advance from a wet to a dry climate.

[Sidenote: PORGYUL _August, 1847._]

From Nako we proceeded, on the 26th of August, nearly due north, to Chango, about ten miles up the Piti valley. Nako is situated on the shoulder of the great mountain Porgyul, which rises to a height of 10,000 feet above that village, and Chango is at the very extremity of a long spur given off by that mountain further east: it is therefore separated from the Nako spur by a valley of considerable size, which descends abruptly towards the Piti river. Our road lay in a long sweep round the deep bay formed by this valley, at an elevation not lower than that of Nako, crossing in the most receding part a foaming torrent which descends from the perpetual snows of the mountain behind. Half a mile from Nako, and scarcely lower than that place, is a patch of cultivation, watered, as I was surprised to find, by a conduit brought more than a mile along the side of the hill from the stream which occupies the mid-valley; the water of which was collected into several ponds, one above another, in which it was kept in reserve till required for irrigation. The crops cultivated were buckwheat and a species of _Bra.s.sica_, both in flower. A number of poplars and willows were planted along the stream, but no fruit-trees.

[Sidenote: ANGULAR BOULDERS.

_August, 1847._]

Beyond this cultivated tract, the road, till we reached Chango, was entirely barren. For several miles we continued to pa.s.s through a most extraordinary acc.u.mulation of transported blocks, scattered irregularly on the gently sloping sides of the mountains. They covered a very large area, and occurred in such almost incredible profusion, that the road seemed to lie in a hollow among fragments of rock on all sides. They were all angular; and at so considerable an elevation as 12,000 feet, I have now no hesitation in referring them to glacier action. The rock _in situ_ was clay-slate, with copious granite veins, and the boulders were in general the same. In one place, however, a dark mica-slate, with large crystals of cyanite, was the predominating rock of the erratic blocks, which no doubt might have been traced to its source in the ravine above, as I nowhere saw it _in situ_ during the day.

After pa.s.sing the torrent which occupies the centre of the valley, the road very gradually approaches the Piti river, from which it had at first receded considerably. We could now observe that the mountains which overhung the river in this part of its course were much less precipitous, and the valley wider and more open, than around Lio.

Alluvial beds of great thickness everywhere rested on the ancient rocks, a.s.suming the most diversified forms, but in general thicker and higher on the sides of the hills, at some distance from the river, than in the centre of the valley. About a mile and a half from Chango, the road began to descend rather rapidly along a dry water-course filled with huge boulders. It then crossed a stream, which had cut for itself a very deep channel through the alluvial conglomerate, and ascended slightly to the village of Chango. Close to the last stream was a bed of very fine clay, which had a thickness of at least twenty-five feet, and did not appear to contain any stones, pebbles, or fragments of rock. This clay had quite a different appearance from the alluvial conglomerate, which covered it, without appearing to pa.s.s into it. It occurred extensively in several places in the neighbourhood of Chango, and had entirely the appearance of having been deposited in a very tranquil lake, while the alluvium which rested upon it, and, therefore, was of more recent formation, contained so many fragments of rock, all seemingly angular, that its origin could scarcely be a.s.signed to deposition under water, unless under some very peculiar circ.u.mstances.

[Sidenote: CHANGO.

_August, 1847._]

Chango is situated in the middle of an open, nearly level tract of considerable size, which slopes very gently towards the Piti river.

The cultivation is extensive, water being more than usually abundant, so that much of the ground is swampy from its waste, and covered with tufts of a small _Iris_ and a species of _Equisetum_. The barley had been all cut, as well as the beans, which are here grown to some extent. Buckwheat and rape-seed (a species of _Bra.s.sica_) were still in flower, and the millet quite green. Apricot-trees were still common, though the elevation of Chango is about 10,500 feet. The village lies nearly opposite to Shialkar, but separated from it by the Piti river, which, at the bridge of that place, is elevated exactly 10,000 feet above the level of the sea.

[Sidenote: ZUNGSAM RIVER.

_August, 1847._]

A little way above Shialkar and Chango, two very considerable rivers unite to form the Piti river. The larger of these, descending from the north-west, is known by the same name. The other, which flows from the north-east, may be called the Parang river, by which name it is known in the upper part of its course; lower down, it seems to be usually called Zungsam. The direct road from Hangarang to the Indus lies up this river, which unfortunately flows for several days' journey through districts which are included within the Chinese frontier. It was our wish to proceed by the most expeditious route, and at the same time that nearest the line of boundary, to Hanle. It was, therefore, our object to effect, if possible, a pa.s.sage up the Zungsam river, though, as we knew that Captain Gerard and M. Jacquemont had both been stopped upon the frontier, we had no reason to antic.i.p.ate any more favourable result.

We therefore took, on leaving Chango, a north-easterly direction, proceeding, on the 27th of August, to a village on the left bank of the Parang or Zungsam river, called Changar, the same place which, by Gerard and Jacquemont, is named Changrezing. Leaving the cultivated lands of Chango, and crossing the stream which skirts the plain, we immediately commenced a steep zigzag ascent over a barren shingly road, to the heights which overhang the village to the north-east.

After a very fatiguing climb of not less than 1300 feet, we attained the summit of the ridge, and advanced along it for some distance without much change of level, but still gradually ascending among low-topped gravelly hills. A very steep ascent followed to the summit of the pa.s.s, which was called Changrang La[8], and could not be much under 13,000 feet. The whole ascent was extremely barren, the arid slopes producing a minimum of vegetation. A fleshy Cruciferous plant, with a strong pungent taste not unlike horse-radish (_Christolea_ of Decaisne in Jacquemont), a fine _Nepeta_ (_N. floccosa_, Benth.), and a little _Stipa_, were the only novelties; and these, with the _Ephedra_, a little _Lactuca_, an aromatic species of _Chenopodium_ (_C. Botrys_), the Tibetan _Euphorbia_, and a shrubby white-flowered spinous _Astragalus_, were almost all the plants observed.

[Sidenote: CHANGAR.

_August, 1847._]

From the summit of the pa.s.s, the road descended abruptly into a deep ravine, which originated in a snowy mountain to the south. At the bottom of this ravine, between rocky precipitous banks, ran a considerable torrent, which was crossed by a very frail wooden bridge.

Immediately after crossing, the road began to ascend rapidly, rising to an elevation only a few hundred feet lower than the pa.s.s from which we had descended, after which, half a mile of nearly level road brought us to our camp at Changar, a small village on a stony hill, of which only one house seemed habitable. A few fields of barley, not yet ripe, separated our tents from the village; these were irrigated by a small streamlet, whose source was a spring on the rocky hill-side a few hundred yards off, shaded by a few rose-bushes and a small clump of juniper-trees.

We remained one day stationary at Changar, to complete some arrangements which were required previous to our leaving the district of Hangarang; and on the 29th we proceeded to ascend the valley of the Zungsam river, intending, if no obstacles were offered, to follow its course and the regular road to Hanle; but in case of obstruction, which there was every reason to apprehend, to adopt the plan which had been already followed both by Gerard and Jacquemont, of crossing the river, encamping on its north bank, and proceeding in a westerly direction along the course of the Piti river to the Parang pa.s.s, in which direction we could effect a pa.s.sage to Hanle without the necessity of entering on the territories under Chinese control.

[Sidenote: BLACK CURRANT.

_August, 1847._]

Our road, for about three miles, was undulating, with rather a tendency to descend, but without any abrupt change of level. It lay along the gently sloping side of the ridge, and crossed a good many little ravines. To the right was the crest of the ridge; to the left, the valley of the Zungsam river, which was nearly 2000 feet below, the slope being very precipitous. In many of the ravines, where there was a stream of water, there was a dense jungle of shrubs, which contrasted strongly with the barrenness of the hills. A willow, rose, _Lonicera_, a shrubby _Astragalus_, an _Artemisia_, a _Potentilla_ of large size, and a black currant, closely resembling that of our gardens, were the princ.i.p.al shrubs; and the herbaceous vegetation was the same as in similar places since entering the Tibetan region. The currant, which occurred here for the first time, was quite a new species: its ripe fruit was quite black, and had the size and flavour of the common black currant, with, however, a considerable degree of acidity.

About three miles from Changar, an abrupt descent led from the platform on which we had been travelling, to the level of the banks of the river, more than 1000 feet lower. The path by which we descended was steep, rocky, and difficult. The rock was still clay-slate, with granite veins. The granite in general very much exceeded in quant.i.ty the rock into which it had been injected, as was well seen on several precipitous cliffs along the course of the stream, in which the stratification of the slaty rock and the ramifications of the granite could be examined in detail. The banks of the river were adorned with a species of _Myricaria_, a small tree, with very delicate graceful foliage and beautiful rose-coloured flowers.

[Sidenote: CHINESE FRONTIER.

_August, 1847._]

On reaching the small streamlet which forms the frontier of the Chinese dominions, we found, as indeed we expected, that there was no intention of permitting us to proceed by the direct road to Hanle; and all arguments to induce a compliance with our wish proving ineffectual, we agreed to take the route up the Piti river by Dankar, and were then permitted to proceed about a mile, to the village of Kyuri, where we encamped for the day. I have now no doubt that if we had resolutely advanced, no serious opposition to our progress would have been made; but our instructions were so precise that we should not have been justified in using the smallest degree of force, or incurring any risk of a collision.

To reach Kyuri[9], we crossed the Zungsam river by a very remarkable natural bridge, composed of an enormous block of granite, which has in some way been placed across the stream, at a spot where it is much contracted in width, flowing in a deep rocky fissure from fifteen to twenty-five feet in width, evidently of great depth. At this point a considerable number of boulders of large size are piled on both banks, of which the one that spans the channel is eighty-five feet in length and probably not less than forty in width and twenty in depth; it is placed obliquely across the stream, its left or southern extremity being lower, and inclined at so considerable an angle that the pa.s.sage is one of some difficulty for horses and loaded cattle, though for men, with ordinary care, it is quite easy. The higher end is so much elevated above the surface on which it rests, that a rudely constructed stair of stones is necessary to enable travellers to descend.

[Sidenote: KYURI.

_August, 1847._]

Our encamping ground at Kyuri was on a gently sloping barren plain, seven or eight hundred feet above the valley of the Zungsam, and was reached by a short steep ascent from the bridge. There was no cultivation; but about a mile to the east, a long sloping tract of alluvium interposed between the mountains and the river was covered with green fields, though it had only two houses and not a single tree. Alluvium abounded in every direction, forming steep sloping banks, often much worn away by running water, and occasionally from two to three hundred feet in thickness. The plain on which we were encamped was also of recent origin; it consisted of a fine clay, curiously worn into cliffs and narrow ridges. A few layers of fine sand were included in the clay, and by a careful search I found three or four small fresh-water sh.e.l.ls in the clay, belonging to at least two species--one a _Lymnaea_, the other a _Planorbis_. The sh.e.l.ls were, however, very scarce, and all found near one spot, nor did any other portion of the deposit seem fossiliferous. The clay was in front of and below our encampment, and was covered by coa.r.s.e alluvial conglomerate.

[Sidenote: THE ROAD REJOINS THE PITI VALLEY.

_August, 1847._]

The road up the valley of the Parang river being tabooed to us by the jealousy of the Chinese Government, it became necessary to make a very considerable _detour_, no practicable road being known in the mountains north of Piti, between that which we were thus prevented from following, and the Parang pa.s.s, to reach which we had to make five or six marches up the Piti river before turning to the north. On leaving Kyuri, on the 30th of August, we ascended gently on a bare gravelly hill for several hundred feet, and then proceeded for two miles to the westward, along the steep side of the mountain. The road was rocky and very barren, the caper and an _Astragalus_ being almost the only plants seen. We then descended rapidly, so as to reach the bank of the Piti river, at the place where it makes its great bend and a.s.sumes a southerly direction. Here it is joined by the Giu (Gumdo of Jacquemont), a considerable stream, which has its source in the lofty and inaccessible range to the north. This torrent had excavated a deep channel in the alluvial beds, which were composed of alternations of coa.r.s.e incoherent conglomerate and fine clay. In this ravine, which sheltered them from the bleak winds of the more exposed slopes, I found a luxuriant growth of shrubs; of which the commonest forms were the rose, ash, _Colutea_, _Rhamnus_, _Myricaria_, _Capparis_, _Ephedra_, and _Artemisiae_. As soon as the stream was pa.s.sed, a steep ascent commenced, but the luxuriant vegetation at once disappeared, and the road was as barren, dusty, and stony as usual. We ascended only to descend again, and encamped on a small level spot forty or fifty feet above the Piti river, dest.i.tute of cultivation or inhabitants, but known to the people of the district by the name of Huling.

On our next day's journey, the country at first presented the same general character. The mountains along the road were lofty and rugged, and sloped steeply to the river. A ma.s.s of alluvial deposit generally rested on their bases, and the road lay at no great distance above the river, rising a few hundred feet to pa.s.s over the spurs, and again descending on their western sides. The steep slopes were in several places covered with an incrustation of hard angular breccia, with a calcareous matrix, the origin of which I conceive to have been the same as that of the breccia noticed in the vicinity of Sungnam. Across the river there was a considerable tract of level ground, covered with cultivation surrounding a small village, with a few poplar and willow trees; but the left bank, on which we travelled, was entirely barren.