GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 145 



Colonel Tanner's description* of the wilderness of mountains and 

 peaks of every possible form by which he was surrounded is 

 exceedingly graphic, and gives a good idea of the remarkable and 

 lofty region in which he was working. He was very anxious to 

 get a near view of the great mountain of Nangaparbat, near Astor, 

 and after a most perilous passage over a narrow, rugged ridge 

 surrounded by enormous precipices, which tried his nerves to the 

 utmost, he found himself confronted by what is probably the most 

 magnificent snow view on the globe, embracing as it does a slope 

 of very nearly 24,000 feet (vertical measurement), with glaciers, 

 snow-fields, ice-cliffs, and jagged needles of naked rock extending 

 from the summit of this king of mountains down to the Indus, 

 which flows in a deep channel at its base. Colonel Tanner says he 

 is unable to convey an adequate description of the superb and 

 impressive view which he contemplated from the edge of a tre- 

 mendous precipice, whose summit is 16,000 feet above the sea, and 

 which rises sheer and unbroken from the forests and vineyards of 

 Gor, situated at an immense depth below. 



During the season 1880-81 the survey of Gilgit was completed 

 by the sub-surveyor Ahmed Ali Khan, who also continued the 

 map of the Astor country towards the chief passes which lead into 

 the Indus valley on the one hand, and those leading into Kashmir 

 on the other. All the passes leading out of the Gilgit valley into 

 Darel, Chilas, and the adjacent parts of the Indus basin were also 

 mapped. His work during the following season (1881-82) lay 

 about the Indus-Kishenganga watershed, and in 1882-83 he com- 

 pleted the survey of Chilas and fixed the position of the passes 

 leading from the valley of the Indus into the Kaghan, Kishenganga, 

 Astor, and Gilgit basins, as well as the positions of all villages and 

 forts. His survey of Dardistan, as this region has been sometimes 

 called, includes an area of about 2,000 square miles, mapped on 

 the J-inch scale, an out-turn reflecting much credit on Ahmed Ali 

 Khan, as on several occasions he had to pass the night without 

 a tent, on ground buried in snow, at heights from 14,000 to 16,000 

 fe$t above the sea.f His survey of the upper part of the 

 Kishenganga valley was completed in the following year (1883-4). 



* Appendix to Surveyor- General's Report for 1879-80, p. 42. 



| An account of Dardistan, the nature of the country, trees, produce, and cattle, the 

 religion, customs, dress, arms, dwelling - places, and commerce, will be found at 

 page xxiv. of the Indian Survey Report for 1 883-84. 

 i Y 20321. ]£ 



