6 NATURAL SCIENCE. „^«c„, 



from which the Oprang river takes its rise, was given by the lecturer. 

 Some of these glaciers descending from the northern flanks of the 

 Mustagh — the westerly continuation of the Karakoram — were, 

 indeed, so cut up by crevasses that progress was found impossible, 

 and the party met with some hair-breadth escapes from the 

 avalanches which seem to be perpetually thundering down these 

 valleys. The Tagh-dum-bash Pamir was eventually reached in 

 October by an easy pass of 14,600 ft., and the transition from the 

 deep gorges and lofty cliffs of the Yarkand river and its tributaries 

 to the broad and open valleys of the Pamir, appears to have been 

 very striking. Here a cold of 5° below zero was experienced. From 

 the Pamir, Hunza territory was reached by crossing the Mintaka 

 pass, due north of Hunza itself; the scenery down the Hunza valley 

 to Gilgit being described as grand in the extreme, peaks of 20,000 ft. 

 being comparatively common, while a few, like Raki-Poshi, exceed 

 25,000 ft. At Gilgit the party were received by Colonel Durand, the 

 British agent. The concluding portion of the paper described a 

 second journey round the Pamirs, commenced in the summer of 1890, 

 when Captain Younghusband, in company with Mr. Macartney, 

 travelled by way of Kashmir and Leh to Yarkand, thence journeying 

 westward to the Pamirs, and reaching Gilgit in October, 1891. 

 Although Captain Younghusband has given us much information as to 

 the geography and ethnology of the Pamirs, we cannot help a feeling 

 of regret that, not being either a zoologist or geologist, he is unable 

 to give us an account of their fauna and geology. 



Thus much of exploration to the north of the Karakoram and 

 Mustagh. We learn, however, from a contemporary, that a small 

 expedition, under Mr. W. M. Conway, has just left this country for 

 the purpose of exploring the glaciers flowing from the Mustagh south- 

 wards into the valleys of Baltistan, or little Tibet. The great Palma 

 (Punmah), Biafo, and Baltoro glaciers, which unite their streams in 

 the upper affluent of the Shigar river, are believed to be the largest 

 in the world outside the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and, although 

 mapped by Colonel Godwin Austen, have never yet been fully 

 explored. One of the main objects of the expedition is to attempt the 

 ascent of Peak " K.2 " of the Indian survey maps — now known as 

 Mt. Godwin Austen — which has a height of 28,265 ft., and is 

 believed to be the second highest mountain in the world. This mag- 

 nificent peak stands on the crest of the Mustagh, and gives rise to 

 one of the chief affluents of the Baltoro glacier, and the party are 

 determined to see how far it is possible to ascend this giant. In 

 their ascent of the Biafo glacier — the largest of the three — we 

 venture to hope that the scientific members of the expedition will 

 endeavour to give us some exact data as to the direction and extent 

 of the band of Triassic limestone rocks which is known to lie in a 

 trough of the gneissic rocks, and to extend towards the crest of the 

 Mustagh in the direction of the glacier in question. 



