564 REPORT — 1893. 



from the geographical position they occupy in South Abyssinia. Of the 

 Semites the Amhara are more negroid than the Tigre, while the latter 

 retain more of the characters probably typical of the inhabitants of South 

 Arabia, the country which their language indicates as the original home 

 from which they have migrated. 



The Exploration of the Glacial Region of the Karakoram Moun- 

 taiTis. — Report of the GomTnittee, consisting of Colonel GrODWiN- 

 AvSTE^ (Chairman), Professor T. Gr. Bonney (Secretary), and 

 Colonel H. C. B. Tanner. 



The Committee were appointed for the purpose of assisting in the 

 exploration of the Karakoram Mountains, physically, geologically, and 

 hiologically, by Mr. W. M. Conway and companions. 



Previous to the expedition of Mr. Conway's party to the Karakoram 

 Mountains the whole of the Gilgit territory had been surveyed and 

 mapped by parties of the Survey of India. Colonel Godwin-Austen, 

 when making his survey of Baltistan in 1860 or 1861, had surveyed up 

 to the Gilgit and Hunza-Nagyr frontier, while Captain Brownlow, R.E., 

 and other assistants of the Kashmir Survey had roughly sketched from 

 very distant points the Gilgit valley. Subsequently Colonel Tanner and 

 two sub-surveyors had made a detailed survey of Gilgit and surrounding 

 valleys. The latter work was published some twelve years back, on the 

 scale of 2 miles = 1 inch, under the title of 'New Map of Astor and 

 Gilgit.' The Bagrot valley and all the southern waterways from the 

 Rakapushi chain were entered on this map, and the spurs of Rakapushi, 

 extending W. and N.W. down to the Gilgit River, were also laid down 

 with fair accuracy. Mr. Conway's exploration this side includes country 

 already well known and surveyed, though his examination of the Bagrot 

 glacier should be considered new and more detailed work. In the new 

 map of Asijor and Gilgit the glaciers were coloured green by hand, but 

 not drawn hard with pen and ink on the original map, copied by photo- 

 graphy and photozincoed. 



Colonel Tanner's work was a continuation to the westward of Colonel 

 Godwin-Austen's survey, and was picked up (with a small hiatus) from 

 that officer's most northerly and westerly stations of observation. On 

 the publication those features not laid down from actual and accurate 

 survey were entered in dots as a guide to any surveyor who might follow 

 Colonel Tanner's party. 



The exploring pai-ty in the Karakoram Mountains in 1892 consisted 

 of Mr. W. M. Conway, Lieutenant the Hon. C. G. Bruce, Mr. A. D. 

 M'Cormick, Mattias Znrbriggen (an Alpine guide), and four Gurkha 

 sepoys. For part of the time they were accompanied by Messrs. Roude- 

 bush and Eckenstein, also by Colonel Lloyd Dicken. 



The party reached Gilgit, on a tributary of the Indus, and made 

 their first exploring expedition up the Bagrot valley, since the highest 

 ranges were as yet (May) inaccessible owing to the amount of snow still 

 unmelted. Working on a larger scale, the features of the higher ground, 

 particularly the glacier, were much improved in detail, and the names of 

 all the tributary glaciers recorded. An attempt to cross from it into 



