26 GRIESBACH : GEOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL HIMALAYAS. 



Tsaprang, etc. In plate 12, I have given a view of the Hundes plain 

 with Dongpu, which will illustrate the peculiar feature of this deep 

 valley, so totally different from any thing seen in the Himalayas. 

 I have since observed similar deep valleys which have been eroded 

 by the Central Asian rivers, as, for instance, the Murghab, below 

 the fort of Bala Murghab, or the Tejend (Hari rud) north of 

 Pul-i-Khatun, where the steep sides of the rivers consist of upper 

 tertiaries. Amongst the numerous tributaries, which flow into 

 the Sutlej from the southern margin of Hundes, I will here only 

 name the Shanki river, the Dongpu river and the Hop Gidh ; 

 they have eroded deep gorges through the triassic and younger 

 mesozoic systems nearer their sources, entering further north 

 into the softer and more or less horizontally bedded tertiary 



rocks. 



Within British limits in the Himalayan belt, the Sutlej receives 

 many important tributaries. Amongst them I may name on the left 

 side : the Taklakar stream ; the Todung-gar and the Baspa river. 

 From the right side join the Spiti with its many confluents ; the 

 Thanam stream. 



All the streams which together form the sources of the Ganges 



river rise within the area described in this me- 



Ganges drainage. . 



& moir. the water parting between the Ganges 



and the Sutlej basin has already been dealt with in its outlines. I may 

 add that a spur of hills running from east of Nilang through the Chini 

 peaks to Simla completes the divide between the two basins. Great 

 groups of peaks separate the confluents of the Ganges west of the 

 Nepal frontier into four distinct drainage basins, but according to the 

 native geographers only the two central groups form the holy Ganges, 

 the two outer ones being the Jumna on the west, and the KAW river 

 on the east. The Ganges head-waters rise in the fine groups of the 

 Nanda Devi (25,660 feet), Kamet (25,443 feet), the Badrinath (22,901 

 feet) and Kedarnath (22,844 feet) peaks and consist chiefly of two 

 great branches, the Alaknanda and the Bhagirathi rivers, each with 

 several large confluents. 



( 26 ) 



