482 DEEP HIMALAYAN GORGES. 



of communication created by human agency, are generally 

 situated, are often so great that the eye frequently fails 

 to fathom their gloomy depths, and one looks down 

 into what appears to be a bottomless pit, when the 

 sun is not shining directly into them. In these cases 

 the only indication of the existence of the .torrent is 

 the noise of its waters, heard ascending from the abyss 

 beneath; occasionally however, wonderful views of these 

 great ravines are obtained, when they happen to be 

 brilliantly lit up by sunlight. They are then seen 

 extending for miles, until lost in the distance, with 

 precipices thrown out into brilliant relief and their slopes 

 generally covered from top to bottom with luxuriant 

 forest growths. The bottoms of these ravines are almost 

 always occupied by streams, and the torrent can then 

 be seen, apparently (and sometimes actually), a mile 

 or more in vertical depth below: its waters white with 

 foam, dashing along its rocky bed. Near Darjeeling 

 for instance, such a ravine may be seen, nearly seven 

 thousand feet deep, that is in other words upwards of 

 a mile and a quarter below the spectator's feet. 



In our preceding section we mentioned the wonderful 

 gorge of the Indus near Iskardoh in Little Thibet, 

 where the river bursts through the western ranges of 

 the Himalayas, which is stated on good authority, by 

 several writers, to be 14,000 feet deep,* that is in 

 other words, but little less than 2-f miles. The sources 

 of the Indus, however, like those of many other great 

 rivers, still continue more or less a mystery, and take 

 their rise in unknown solitudes, in about Lat. 32 N., 

 Long. 8 1 E., at a great altitude above sea-level. This 

 uncertainty with regard to the sources of great rivers 



* Encyclop. Brit., gth edition, Vol. x., p. 68 (Article "River Indus''^. 



