116 Notes on the Pangong lake district of Ladalch. [No. 2, 



while the cold was yet intense enough to preserve those around 

 and above Skardo. Though the vast accumulations of detritus m 

 the Skardo basin were, I conceive, due to the glaciers from the high 

 ranges, both to the north and south of the Indus near Basho -which 

 glaciers must have extended close down to and dammed up the river, 

 —it does not follow as some might be led to suppose that the whole 

 mass of such a mighty barrier should be formed of ice. It >was 

 the debris of moraines that would have composed this, from its 

 continued accumulation in so narrow a gorge as the Indus there 

 presents. These exuviae there piled up, would have raised the bed of 

 the gorge, and the bed of the lateral valley as well, also elevating 

 the active cause, viz., the glacier itself; and in course of time the 

 whole valley level would have been brought up to the height of 

 the great deposits around Skardo. The section below (Fig. 6.) will, 

 I hope, explain my meaning, in which a, a', a!' represent the successive 

 levels of the gorge and corresponding lateral glaciers. 



Fig. 6. 



Innumerable other instances can be seen of ice action throughout 

 the Kashmir territory ; I will instance near the Fotu La, on the road 

 to Leh a spot now far removed from such causes in action. Even m 

 the valley of the Jhelum, below Bara Mula, the effects of a glacial 

 period can be seen. That glaciers filling lateral ravines have extend- 

 ed across the main valleys at some periods of their existence is most 





