Part 14 (1/2)
Where platforms of alluvium occupy the lateral ravines, they attain a very great thickness, seldom less than two hundred feet, and occasionally at least twice as much. They are generally cut off in steep cliffs by the river, beautifully showing the structure of the alluvium. In the sections of these ma.s.ses of boulders and clay, I several times observed that the strata, instead of being horizontal, were highest in the middle and sloped gently downwards on either side.
This would indicate, I think, a local origin of these deposits, which probably commenced under water, close to a ravine on the mountain-side, and gradually extended, by the addition of successive layers, till they met similar acc.u.mulations, derived from the opposite side of the valley.
[Sidenote: VILLAGES.
_October, 1847._]
In the upper part of the district of Chorbat, the villages are few and very insignificant, but lower down several are of great extent.
Chulungka, the highest village, consists of three or four houses, on a small platform about fifty feet above the river. This village stood formerly on the low ground close to the Shayuk, but the cultivable soil at the lower level was entirely swept away by the flood of 1842, so that the inhabitants were obliged to change the position of their houses. The first considerable village is Turtuk, on the south side of the river. Pranu, on the north side, is remarkable for the great extent of its cultivation, and for several isolated rocks, behind which the alluvium has acc.u.mulated to a thickness of at least six or seven hundred feet.
All the villages are surrounded by fine orchards of apricot-trees.
Walnut and mulberry trees are also common; and at Turtuk I saw a few vines; these latter are, however, by no means generally cultivated in the district. Willows are less frequent than in Nubra, but there are plenty of poplars. The black poplar is the common species, but a white downy-leaved species (_P. alba_), which is cultivated also in Kunawar, and which seems to be indigenous in some of the Himalayan valleys south of Kashmir, occurs for the first time at Turtuk. The fields are everywhere terraced, and water seems to be very abundant.
[Sidenote: ROCKS OF CHORBAT.
_October, 1847._]
A very remarkable outburst of granite commences at the junction of the Boghdan ravine with the Shayuk, and continues as far as Siksa, altering the secondary rocks so that they can scarcely be recognized.
The granite is frequently in great ma.s.s, and usually occupies the lowest part of the valley, sending out gigantic veins or branches into the overlying slates, which are often transformed into a coa.r.s.e serpentine. The hard conglomerate which is a.s.sociated with the slate, seems the same as occurs in Lower Nubra, so that probably the slates are also a continuation of the same series, and the whole may even be connected with the conglomerates and slates of the Giah valley and of the Indus below Le, the strike of which to the N.W. or N.N.W. would carry them nearly in the direction of Chorbat. Here the intrusion of the granite renders both dip and strike obscure, the beds being frequently quite vertical.
From Siksa, close to which there is a small fort or castle on an isolated rock, a road leads across the Hanu pa.s.s into the valley of the Indus. By this route Mr. Vigne proceeded when he abandoned his intention of penetrating by the Shayuk to Nubra, and it has since been crossed by several travellers at different times. It is, indeed, a route very commonly adopted in travelling from Iskardo to Le, as the lower part of the Shayuk is more open and practicable than the Indus below the junction of the river of Dras.
[Sidenote: PLAIN OF KHAPALU.
_October, 1847._]
Below Siksa, the valley of the Shayuk continues narrow for eight or ten miles. It then begins again to expand, and its width continues to increase as far as Khapalu, which is situated near the centre of a wide plain similar to that of Nubra, and, like that, coincident with the junction of a large river from the north. It is certainly worthy of note, that it is always at the point of junction of large tributaries that the valley of the Shayuk is widest, and that the evidences of the former existence of lakes are most evident, while in the intermediate parts of its course the valley is narrow and rugged, and shows no certain indications of having been at any period lacustrine.
[Sidenote: MACHULU RIVER.
_November, 1847._]
The great axis of the plain of Khapalu is from south-east to north-west, in the direction of the river Machulu, which runs through a very open and wide gravelly plain, apparently for a considerable distance. This stream, which is probably at least as large as the Nubra river, has its source in heavily-snowed mountains to the north.
The general surface of the plain is gravelly, and its appearance on the whole is so similar to that of Nubra that no detailed description is necessary. The river divides in the open gravelly plain into numerous branches, which separate to a considerable distance from one another, and ramify very irregularly. There is not much alluvial acc.u.mulation in this plain, except in the immediate vicinity of Khapalu, where a very curious isolated rock of black slate rises abruptly in the middle of the plain, its base being washed by one branch of the Shayuk, now (after its junction with the Machulu) too deep to be forded. Behind this rock there is an acc.u.mulation of alluvium, forming a steep ridge six or seven hundred feet in height; which it is necessary to cross in travelling from Surmu to Khapalu, as the abruptness with which the clay-slate rock rises out of the water, completely prevents a pa.s.sage along the margin of the river.
On the 2nd of November I forded the Shayuk a little below the village of Abadan, where it runs in two branches, each about a hundred yards wide, and with an average depth of about two feet. A little further down it is joined by the Machulu, and it does not appear to be anywhere fordable in its further course, even in winter, so that probably the influx of water brought by that stream is very considerable. I did not, however, see the junction, which is situated on the north side of the plain, quite out of the direct road towards the town of Khapalu.
Where the valley is widest, the mountain ranges on both sides of the river are well seen. The range south of the Shayuk rises close at hand into a very steep mountain ma.s.s, now much snowed. A pa.s.s which leads from Khapalu to Kartash was (I was informed) already shut up by snow, and impracticable for travellers. To the north, up the wide valley of the Machulu, the mountains are more distant, and the main chain of the Muztagh is evidently fully in sight; the absence of hills close at hand allowing a considerable extent of it to be seen; it was very heavily snowed. The nearest, and apparently loftiest peak, bore N. 13 W. (Magn.) from Surmu.
[Sidenote: KHAPALU.
_November, 1847._]
The princ.i.p.al villages of this open tract are Surmu and Khapalu, both on the south side of the Shayuk, and separated from one another by a high alluvial ridge, which rests on a bold scarped rock rising immediately out of the river. Surmu has a very long and narrow tract of cultivation, skirting the gravelly river-bed. It occupies the slopes of a projecting platform of alluvium of no great height. In this village many fields, on a level with the river, have evidently been destroyed by the flood of 1842, as fruit-trees were still standing among the gravel and s.h.i.+ngle of the river-beds. Khapalu, on the other hand, which is situated at the point of junction of a considerable stream, occupies the surface of a thick bed of alluvium of great extent, sloping very steeply from the apex of the triangle in a recess among the mountains to its base, which is formed by the Shayuk. The fort of Khapalu is perched at a great height on a remarkable projecting scarped rock, just at the mouth of the ravine behind the village. The cultivation has a width of not less than two miles, and, as it abounds in fruit-trees, it must in summer, when the fields are green and the trees are in leaf, be a place (for Tibet) of considerable beauty. From the abruptness of the slope of the alluvial platform, the terrace-walls of the fields are very high, often as much as six feet. The fruit-trees are the same as those commonly cultivated in Nubra and Chorbat; the elm and _Elaeagnus_ of Nubra are also common, as well as the white poplar. At Khapalu there are also a few plane-trees, which do not extend further east.
The _Lycium_ of Nubra, which had entirely disappeared in the narrow and rocky parts of the Shayuk, reappeared as soon as the valley spread out into a gravelly plain, being common at Abadan, and abundant at Surmu and Khapalu. A species of berberry, a genus wanting in the higher parts of the Shayuk (except in the mountains, where a small alpine species is occasionally seen), was found in Surmu. The species was apparently identical with the common berberry of Europe, which extends even into the drier valleys of the Himalaya. I also recognized a few other new plants--a small, almost herbaceous _Sophora_ was one of these, and, still more remarkable, _Peganum Harmala_, a species which extends from the Mediterranean flora as far east as the Punjab, and which indicates a very considerable amount of summer heat.
The shrubby _Hippophae_ is still very plentiful, but, either from more careful cultivation, or because the nature of the slopes prevents the formation of swampy margins to the little irrigation streams, it does not spread to so great an extent over the cultivated tracts, which, therefore, in the winter season look considerably more bare than those around the villages of Nubra.
The height of the bed of the Shayuk at Khapalu may be roughly estimated at about 8000 feet, as the determination of the boiling-point of water at my tent, which was high up in the village, gave an elevation of 8300 feet. I arrived at Khapalu from Surmu on the 3rd of November, and remained there during the 4th. The weather, which for some days had been very unsettled and disagreeable, suddenly cleared up on the 2nd of November, and continued for nearly a week very fine, the days being uniformly bright and sunny, with a gentle wind blowing up the valley of the Shayuk. The temperature in the sun was extremely agreeable, though the shade maximum was never much higher than 50. The nights were clear and cold, the thermometer falling at Khapalu more than 14 below the freezing-point.
A little below Khapalu I found a number of people was.h.i.+ng the sand of the Indus for gold; but the produce seemed to be very trifling, and the work is only carried on during winter, when labour is of no value for other purposes. I purchased for a rupee (paying, I believe, a good deal more than the value) the produce in gold-dust of one man's labour for three weeks. I suppose, however, he only worked occasionally.
[Sidenote: BRAGHAR.