146 



NATURE 



[October 7, 19 15 



important work undertaken by the expedition was 

 entrusted, together with a report of the interest- 

 ing- discussion which followed the reading of the 

 paper. By the kind permission of the Royal 

 Geographical Society we are now enabled to re- 

 produce two of the views exhibited at the meeting 

 on June 14, illustrating the characters and sur- 

 roundings of the Remo glacier, which in some 

 respects appears to resemble the great ice streams 

 of the Arctic regions rather than those of the 

 usual Himalayan type. 



In general the Himalayan glacier, like that of 

 the Alps, is confined to a single drainage system, 

 and is separated from its neighbours by an ice- 



pared with its breadth, no doubt account for its 

 immaculate appearance, so vividly described in 

 the paper (Fig. 2). 



The difference in aspect between the surround- 

 ings of the Remo glacier and those of the glaciers 

 further west and in Sikkim, a point raised by 

 the President at the close of the discussion, is 

 perhaps to be explained in part by the geolc^ical 

 structure of the district. The line of division 

 between the crystalline rocks constituting the 

 main axis of the Himalaya and the softer slates, 

 shales, and limestones of Palaeozoic and Meso- 

 zoic age which succeed them on the north, is 

 shown on Lydekker's geological map of Kashmir 



Fig. I. — Sources ot the River Yarkand. From the Geographical Journal, August. 



free ridge. But here we see the Remo not only 

 spilling over the saddles which surround its upper 

 basin, into the valley of the neighbouring Siachen 

 glacier, but actually sending a tongue across the 

 main watershed dividing the Indus drainage from 

 that of Central Asia (Fig. i). Again, the fact 

 noticed by Dr. de Filippi, that the front of the 

 Remo glacier is almost free from moraine matter, 

 is without parallel among the larger glaciers of 

 the Himalaya, where one may often clamber for 

 miles beyond the snout over heaped-up masses of 

 ddbris, and scarcely detect a vestige of the ice 

 beneath. The moderate dimensions of the moun- 

 tains that rise above the Remo glacier, as com- 

 NO. 2397, VOL. 96] 



(Memoirs, Geological Survey of India, vol. xxii.) 

 as passing diagonally across the Karakoram range 

 to the west of the Siachen glacier ; and in the last 

 note made by Stoliczka, two days before his death, 

 he records the presence at the Karakoram pass of 

 shales and limestones of Triassic and Liassic age. 

 Thus the material from which the magnificent 

 pinnacles of the western Karakoram, or the pre- 

 cipices of Kinchinjunga, have been carved out is 

 lacking in the eastern extension of the range. 

 Moreover, the absence of a deep gorge in close 

 proximity to the crest of the range, like that of 

 the Indus further west, or of the Tista in Sikkim, 

 lessens the transporting power of the tributary 



