210 Proceedings oftlie Asiatic Society. [No. 2, 



which rise to upwards of 26,000 feet above the sea. The most re- 

 markable glaciers in the Saltoro valley, taking them from east to west, 

 are the Sherpogong glacier 16 miles and the Koondoos 24 miles in 

 length ; in the Hushe valley the Naug glacier 14 miles in length 

 and the Atosir glaciers 13 and 11 miles in length. 



The next group referred to was that of the Mustak on the Braldo 

 and Basha branches of the Shigar river. The Braldo boasting of the 

 Baltoro glacier no less than 36 miles in length, with a breadth of from 

 1 to 2| miles ; the Punmah and Nobundi Sobundi glaciers, the longest, 

 of which is 28 miles in length and the Biafo gause or glacier with 

 a direct length of 33 miles without reckoning its upper branches. 

 The Biafo gause forms, with a glacier on the opposite slope towards 

 .Miggair, a continuous river of ice of 64 miles running in an almost 

 straight line, and without any break in its continuity beyond those 

 of the ordinary crevasses of glaciers. 



The Biafo glacier is supplied in a great measure from a vast dome 

 of ice and snow about 180 square miles in area, in the whole of which 

 only a few projecting points of wall are visible. 



Further west the Hoh valley produces a fine glacier 16 miles in 

 length. 



The Basha valley contains the Kero glacier 11 miles in length, 

 the Chogo glacier 29 miles in length, besides, many branches and 

 minor glaciers. The Braldo and Basha, in fact, contain such a galaxy 

 of glaciers as can be shewn in no other part of the globe, except it 

 be within the Arctic circle. 



Captain Montgomerie pointed out that the Baltoro, with its main 

 glacier 36 miles in length and its 14 large tributary glaciers of from 

 3 to 10 miles in length, would form a study in itself, and give employ- 

 ment for several summers before it could be properly examined. The 

 small photograph of the Baltoro glacier (taken from a sketch by 

 Captain Austen) shews at a glance the wonderful number of gigantic 

 moraines which streak the Baltoro glacier with 15 lines of various 

 kinds of rock, viz., grey, yellow, brown, blue, and red, with variations 

 of the same, all in the upper part quite separate from one another, 

 but at the end of the glacier covering its whole surface so as to hide 

 the upper part of the ice entirely. In the centre of these moraines 

 there was a line of huge . blocks of ice which had not been observed 

 on other glaciers, and which it is difficult to account for. The Baltoro 



