Notes and Correspondence. 251 



he eventually discovered that it was piercing the main Karakoram 

 range by an unknown gorge and that it was in fact an important 

 feeder of the Indus. This discovery shows that the upper basin 

 of the Indus is not limited, as has been supposed, by the Kara- 

 koram range. The newly discovered glacier is about forty- 

 eight miles long, ten miles longer than the Biafo, which has 

 hitherto been regarded as the largest glacier of the Himalaya- 

 Karakoram mountains. The perpetual solitude of these high 

 glacial valleys is brought home to us when we reflect that the 

 greatest glacier outside polar regions had not been seen by 

 living man till Dr. Longstaff's party reached it, and that though 

 it has been for centuries one of the main sources of our river 

 Indus, it has been unknown to geography till 1909. 



Dr. Longstaff took clinometers with him, and he has measured 

 many new altitudes. He discovered an immense chain of moun- 

 tains to be standing north of his new glacier — a chain that is not 

 shown upon any map. 



The highest peak of the new chain was observed by Dr. 

 Longstaff from three different places, and its height appears to 

 be between 27,500 and 28,000 feet. This height is only surpassed by 

 four known peaks. No mountain exceeding 27,000 feet in altitude 

 has been discovered since 1858, and the elevations of the only 

 mountains hitherto found to surpass 27,000 feet were all brought 

 to hght by the scientific operations of the Great Trigonometrical 

 Survey. Dr. Longstaff has named the newly discovered peak 

 Teram-Kangri. — Alpine Journal for February, 19 10. 



The Duke of the Abruzzi in the Himalayas. 



In recent addresses to the Alpine Club at Turin, and to the 

 Royal Geographic Society of Rome, the Duke of the Abruzzi 

 spoke on his Himalayan explorations of 1909. May and June 

 were passed in unsuccessful efforts to ascend the huge pyramidical 

 mountain known as From the base camp at Rdokass, near 

 the center of the Baltero glacier, an advance bivouac was made 

 at the foot of the southern wall of K^ Unavailing efforts were 

 made to locate practicable trails on the east and west sides, but 

 everywhere were either very steep ridges of loose, broken rock or 

 sheer precipices and impassable glaciers. 



However, the Duke attempted an ascent up the east-southeast 

 ridge, where the conditions were so difficult and dangerous as to 

 cause him to turn back at an altitude of about 16,000 feet. A 

 second unsuccessful attempt was made on the west flank. The 

 upper basin of the Austen-Goodwin glacier was surveyed, and 

 the Duke was enabled to get views of the north side of and 

 of the hitherto unknown district to the east. 



