554 



NA TURE 



[Oct. 4, i8»3 



at Shigar near Scardo. It comes in, too, on the north side of 

 the great gneissic axis, the northern boundary of which follows 

 the Shayok River pretty closely from Tankse and Shayok to 

 Khapalu. The foldings in the gneiss which have caught up the 

 palaeozoic slates near the Tankse are again on the west indicated 

 by the metamorphic schists on the Indus south of Kartaksho, 

 and by those in the section S.W. of Scardo. 



2N. Karakoram-Lingzi Thang Range. — West of the pass the 

 country is not known. Eastward the line of elevation passes 

 north of the Dipsang plain to the Compass La, and south of the 

 Lingzi Thang plain, by the Changlung Burma La to the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Kiaug La, and thence still further east it may 

 pass north of Sarthol into Garchethol. 



3. The Ladak-Gurla Range. — This is the best defined, as a 

 continuous granitoid axis, on the east and west of Leh ; the 

 Indus flows at the base of its escarpment for 190 miles, and this 

 line also was not far from the limit of the ancient mimmulitic 

 sea. On the west it unites with the great plateau of Deo-ai and 

 extends to Gilgit. The Indus drainage has cut through it from 

 south to north into the Scardo basin, and back again to south at 

 the sharp bend at Bunji, while on the east at Hanle the same 

 river passes to the north again, and the range is continued 

 following the left or south bank up to the Gnrla peak, south of 

 the Mansarowar Lake. Thence it is probably continuous up to 

 the Fotu La. 



2S. The Shayok-Kailas. — This subsidiary axis is well marked 

 on the south of the Pangkong Lake N.W. and S.E. of Tankse, 

 running parallel to the Ladak range. It is then to be followed 

 westward, north of the Shayok River to the junction of the 

 Basha Braldoh Rivers, and thence to Haramosh and Raki Pushi 

 peaks, and perhaps through Yasin to Tirich Mir on the Hindu 

 Kush. To the eastward from Sajam peak, the north side of the 

 Indus and Gartangchu to the Kailas peak, thence very probably 

 north of the head waters of the Brahmaputra. 



4. The Zaskar Range, where best displayed, is that portion 

 which lies south of the districts of that name in Ladak, and 

 running parallel for 100 miles with the upper sources of that 

 large tributary of the Indus, the river of the same name. In 

 the size of the present glaciers that fill the upper valleys, this 

 portion more closely resembles the Alps of Europe than any 

 other part of the Himalayan chain. It is continued to the N.W., 

 past Dras, to the southern side of the Deosai plains, thus coalesc- 

 ing with that great elevated mass of the primitive rocks. It is 

 continued to the Nanga Purbet, 26,620 feet, and it probably 

 continues still further, west of the Indus, the curve of the range 

 bounding Swat and Bajaur on the north towards Kunar, and 

 which, after the central portion, we may term, at present, the 

 Bajaur range. Taking it up in a S.E. direction, it bends slightly 

 south, crossing the he..d of the Bagha River by the kotang pass 

 to that line of lofty snowy peaks seen from Simla and other hill 

 stations leading past. (Jhini to the east of the Sutlej, to the 

 famous peaks of Gangotri, Nandadevi, and Nampa. To the 

 majority of Europeans who have visited India this is perhaps the 

 best known portion of the Himalayas. 



4N'. The Riikshu Ridge. — Two secondary ranges, more or 

 less connected with the list, one intimately so with an axis of 

 trapprean intrusion of early tertiary age, w hich from Dras to the 

 Mansarawa is over 400 miles in extent, can be followed. The 

 first is conspicuous at the Tsomorirhi Lake, Mata Peak, 20,600 

 feet, b»ing of granitic rock ; it is seen on the west covered by 

 the earlier sedimentary formations, but it can be traced towards 

 Dras, and on the S.E. to the Imis La, curving thence towards 

 the Leo Purgial mass, the elevated tertiary formations of Hnndes 

 coming in on the east. 



4N". The Stok. — Another subsidiary and later line of elevation, 

 one I had at first been inclined to disregard in this address, 

 being a minor feature in comparison with the whole chain, Hanks 

 conspicuously (attaining the very considerable elevation of over 

 20,000 feet) the left bank of the Indus for 200 miles, and is still 

 more intimately related to the above trapprean intrusion. It 

 forms a connecting link with the tertiary rocks of the same age 

 on the southern base of the Himalayas (the elevation of which 

 led on successively to the formation of the outermost range of 

 hills, the Sivaliks), and shows the relatively recent date of the 

 elevation of the whole chain, and the obliteration of the topo- 

 graphical details of a previous mountain mass. 



4N. The Baralaeha Ridge. — This line of elevation corresponds 

 with the run of the highly tilted slates, carboniferous and 

 succeeding formations resting against the Zaskar axis, which it 

 follows from near Sum to south of Padam by the Baralaeha and 

 Parang passes ; here, for a short distance constituting the water- 



parting between the Indus and Chandrabagha, it can be traced 

 towards the Sutlej, Chini, crossing on to the Keobrang, and in 

 turn the Nilang, Niti, l.akhur, and Tinkar passes, displaying all 

 along this line its characteristic feature, first seen at the Baralaeha 

 pass, of being the main water-parting between the Ganges and 

 Kali basins on the south, and the Indus on the north, and 

 constituting from here to the eastward, with the peaks on the 

 granitic or gneissose axis, the main Himalayan range. In the 

 Nipal area to the eastward, we notice the great similarity with 

 which one river ba^n follows the other, the only difference being 

 that the watersheds of some lie further to the north than others. 

 We may thus, I think, infer that the above character of the 

 Baralaeha axis is the type of the physical features along this 

 unsurveyed, little-known territory, until we reach the longitude 

 of Darjiling. 



4.1. The Chenab and North Kashmir.— South of the Chenab 

 River, running parallel with it for many miles, is another gneissic 

 axis, through which the Chenab passes into a sharp bend to the 

 south near Kishtwar; the peak of Gwalga well marks its 

 position here, and the strike of the same rock is continued 

 towards the northern outer hills of the Kashmir valley by 

 Barrapatta and Dalwas Peak, near the Hoksar pass, and the 

 Maro Wardwan valley below Ainshin. For some distance the 

 stratified rocks only are seen, but on the Roodpathar ridge near 

 Srinagar and in the Sind valley, and again from near Haramook 

 Peak to Tragbul, the gneissic rocks appear. Further still thev 

 occur in the hills at the head of the large tributaries of the 

 Kahmil River, and thence I suspect are continued across the 

 Kishengunga to the snowy peaks above Wamba and into 

 Khagan. On the S.E. at the Kotang pass at the head of the 

 Beas valley it unites with the Zaskar axis. 



5. The Pir Panjal-Dhaoladhar Ridge. — On the outer face of 

 the chain there is a well-marked gneissic or granitoid axis, (t 

 is well exemplified < n the Dhaoladhar ridge above Dharmsala, 

 directly connected with, and equally well displayed in, the 

 Chatadhar ridge south of Budrawar : thence it can be traced to 

 the Chenab, w hich breaks through it here, to the south-east side 

 of the Kashmir valley, forming the eastern end of the Pir Panjal 

 range. We find it at intervals amidst the older slates along the 

 ridge westward, and close up to the gorge of the Ihelum Kiver. 

 where it leaves the valley of Kashmir. It reappears on the 

 other side of the Jhelum in the Kajnag ridge towards Mozuffer- 

 abad. The gorges of the Kishengunga and Khagan Rivers are 

 near this place, and to the westward the granitoid rocks are 

 again met with at Manserah in the Hazara valley. Little is 

 known of the mountains to the north of this, but the axis 

 apparently crosses the Indus near Amb, curving round in the 

 Yusufzai Hills nurth of the Peshawar valley, the Sufedkoh being 

 an analogous range on the south of the Kabul River. Returning 

 to the Dhaoladbar ridge, the granitoid axis continues to Sultanpur 

 on the Beas across that river, by Tuket to Hatu, across the 

 Sutlej to Kuper and Kanchu Peak-, and the well-known peak 

 of the Chor. Nag Tiba, north of Mussoorie, would mark ii -s 

 eastern extension, beneath the slates of that ridge, and beyond 

 Dudatoli and Binsar Peaks, and Almora to the Kali Kiver, 1 near 

 Meenda Ghur. This axis thus holds the same position with 

 regard to the plains of India and at about the same distance 

 from their base for a very great distance. 



6. The Sub-Himalaya. — This longitudinal section of the 

 Himalaya is easily defined by the fringing line of hills more or 

 less broad, and in places very distinctly marked off from the 

 main chain by open valleys (dhuns), or narrow valleys parallel 

 with the main axis of the chain. 



The Eastern Himalaya. — In Western Bhutan, beyond 

 Darjiling, between the Juldoka and the Am Mochu, the gneissic 

 rocks have a N.W. strike by the Pango Li, apparently tow arils 

 Kanchinjunga ; to the S.E. by Betso Peak to the Singchula 

 above Buxa. Hooker records Kinchinjhow as of granite, with 

 stratified rocks to the mirth. This axis may possibly be con- 

 tinued E.S.E. to Chunutlarhi and the gneiss of the mountains 

 north of Paro. 



In the far east, in the Dafla Hills, a more general parallelism 

 of the ranges from W. to E. is found, assimilating to the N.W. 

 area. A well-marked granitoid axis is to be traced from S.W. 

 to N.E. (the outer Himalaya here), convex to the S.E., the 

 tertiaries or the Sub-Himalaya being of considerable breadth 

 and elevation, and following the same curve. Considerable 

 valleys or dhuns are also again a feature on this side. 



Lastly, there is the Assam range, which, although not forming 

 a part of the Himalayan mountain system, I must allude to, as 

 1 Captain R. Strachey, R.E., P.G.S., 1851. 



