Oct. 4, 1883] 



NA TURE 



553 



near Hanle, or the Pir Panjal that of the Jhelum. Sir Henry 

 Strachey's conception of the general structure was the soundest 

 and most scientific first propounded. 1 He considered it to be 



c . 



Us 



1 1 



'IV 



P4 C 



N 



£ 

 X 



E 7 



L 



t -1 00 



1 1 



1 1 1 



1 1 



E 



u 

 = 



2-m 



rt 



da.** 



3 _ o-- 



M $ ""H-E 



* i 



a « 2 



x Si.- 

 ° rt c 



s|a 



c 



t* _rt 



i.3, 



LgA, 



rt c . ! 

 U J3 



M « ^ hA l " B 



It 



— ao "■ o hh 



he £ bo to bi) 



^ " - 5 S q 

 rt'" rt « « 



■ rt rt p. 



cu & &> 



-a 3 



Sis 



II i 

 SO E 

 O 



a; cs 



i E 

 lie 



I- 2 



(4 rt 



a. J 



O 



P* 



so rt S 

 z s2fi 



w 



a c aj2 " 



3 - ' « 3 i 



life III 



~ a s j.^ „ 3 



x-J2^ s.a a 



S O > rt r?CO 



2 a: « 



j= -a 

 •J 



la 





3-11 1 



21 1 



x 

 o 



uotSaxf aEiaqij, 



2'3 



made up of a series of parallel ranges running in an oblique line 

 to the general direction of the whole mass, the great peaks 



1 " Physical Geography of Western Thibet," Royal 'Geographical Society 's 

 Journal, vol. xjciii. p. 2. 



being on terminal butt-ends of the successive parallel ranges, the 

 watershed following the lowest parts of the ridges, and the 

 drainage crossing the highest, in deep gorges directly transverse 

 to the main lines of elevation. 



It wfll be seen from sections, drawn as above, that the moun- 

 tain mass of the Himalayas increases gradually in height from 

 the south to about its central portion and then as gradually falls 

 towards the north side. There is no abrupt and conspicuous 

 slope from the higher line of peaks to the plains ; a succession 

 of spurs from the main water-parting intervenes, and these spurs 

 retain often a very considerable altitude far to the south. The 

 spurs terminate, usually, abruptly towards the plains of India, 

 at an altitude of 5,000 to 8,000 feet, just within a more or less 

 broad belt of fringing low hills, the well-known Sivaliks. 



It has been laid down that the Himalayan chain culminates in 

 two parallel ranges running through its entire length from the 

 Indus to the Brahmaputra, and these have been called the north 

 and south Himalaya, or central and southern ; the two combined 

 (they are very close in parts) really constitute the above chair. 

 We can apply this system to certain portions of the range, but 

 it breaks down when we reach the Sutlej on one side and the 

 Monass on the other. The more we increase the scale of our 

 map-', the greater the number of axial lines we can establish, all 

 intimately connected with, and subsidiary to, the run or strike of 

 the greater series of axial elevations. 



Explanation of the Different Ranges 



1. Kuenlun Range. — The most westerly extension of this gran- 

 itoid axis is found W.N.W. of the Zangi-diwan pass at Oikul 

 and the Victoria Lake. Here Stoliczka records it 1 with slates 

 and schists resting on it to the southward. Now the next great 

 granitoid axis south of the above, with palaeozoic rocks on its 

 northern face, is at the Mustagh pass, fifty miles to the south of 

 Kuenlun at Zangi-diwan, and it coincides in position with the 

 gneiss of Kila Panza, 2 the granitic axis of the Mustagh being 

 continued W.N.W. in the high peaks of Hunza-Nagar. The 

 Kuenlun axis passes by Shahdula eastward by peaks E. 61, 

 23,890, E. 64, 21,500, up to Yeshil-Kul on the Keria route, for 

 a distance of about 450 miles ; beyond this is unexplored country. 



1 have adopted the term Mustagh as one well known to the 

 people on both sides of the range, and better known than 

 Karakoram, applied by them to the pass of that name. The 

 Karakoram pass also lies on an axis of elevation further to the 

 north and intermediate between the Mustagh and Kuenlun. 



2. Mustagh. — This axis, as I have shown above, commences 

 near Kila Panza in Wakhan, thence by the Baroghil and Keram- 

 bar passes to the great peaks dominating the Hunza valley to the 

 Mustagh pass, eastward by K„ 28,250, to the great peaks north 

 of the Shayok, K 9 , K)„, K n , K la 3 , the Sassar pass, and thence 

 S.E. on to the Marse Mik La and the high mass north of the 

 Panjjkong Lake, crossing at Nyak Tso on to the high range 

 south of the Rudok plain, where we again enter unsurveyed 

 ground. It is probably continuous to the Aling Gangri, the old 

 original drainage of the Shayok passing through it at the Pang- 

 kong Lake, thus repeating in a similar way that of the Indus 

 through the Ladak range'near Hanle. This most remarkable 

 depression of the whole area, the Rudok plain, lies S.E. of the 

 Pangkong Lake, where, on the same meridian as the sources of 

 the Indus and Sanspu, we have a plain only a little abjve 

 14,000 feet, which once drained in glacial and pre-glacial times 

 into the Shayok, rendering that branch as long as, probably longer 

 than, the present Indus. From a high point above the Pangkong 

 I have looked over this plain ; for a distance of some sixty miles 

 it was seen bounded to the south by mountains of over 21,000 

 feet, and no mountain ranges broke the horizon. The depression 

 is a broad and continuous one here, lower and more extensive 

 than that at the head of the Indus. It is not improbable that it 

 indicates the head waters of the next great drainage area north 

 of the Indus, viz. of the rivers that find an exit to the sea 

 through Burmah. The Gang-rhi and Karakoram, or Mustagh, 

 cannot be therefore considered as one range separating the Indus 

 basin from that of the northern or central plateau of Thibet. 

 This mu>t lie across the broad elevated plateau that extends from 

 the Karakoram pa-s, having a general parallelism to the Kuenlun 

 certainly so far a; 34° N. and long. 82° E. 



The crystalline limestone near the west end of the Pangkong 

 Lake would appear to be the same as the similar limestone 



1 Scientific Results of the Yarkand Mission, p. 38. 

 a St. liczka, loc. cit. p. 38. 



3 Unknown and unnamed peaks were thus designated during the progress 

 of the triangulation. 



