3 
1895.] F. A. Shillingford —On the Kusi River. 
San Kusl, or Sankos, i.e ., united Kusi, which runs nearly East and 
West, and into this the other six rivers consti- 
. The Sapta Kaucika. tuting the Sapta Kaueikd of Sanskrit works, 
flow in as tributaries from the North. These 
are, beginning from the East (1) the Tambar, or Tamra; (2) the 
Aran, or Eran ; (3) the Dudh Kusl; (4) the Likhu Kosi ; (5) the Tamba 
Kusi; (6) the Bhotia Kosi. According to the most recent maps, the 
Tambar, called in its higher reaches the Kambachen, drains the western 
slopes of the snow-covered portion of the Kanchinjinga (28,176 ft.) spur, 
containing the high peaks of Janu, 25,304 ft., and Kabru 24,015 ft., and 
has its source in the snowy peaks of Chutangla, in the main ridge of the 
Himalayas, whose southern drainage it also receives from the Kanglachin, 
and the neighbourhood of the Tipta-la Passes. The Aran drains the 
eastern and northern slopes of Everest, 29,002 ft., and its attendant 
snowy peaks, and piercing the main chain of the mountains takes 
its rise in the further snows of Tibet; both these tributaries meet the 
San Kusl just above Barah Chatra. The Dudh, Likhu, and Tamba 
Kusis carry down the drainage of the southern face of the Everest and 
Chumlang (24,020 ft.) blocks of snows, whilst the Bhotia Kusi penetrates 
the main range, and rises in Tibet, draining the eastern slopes of the 
Gosainthan, 26,305 ft., and Dyabang, 23,762 ft. The San Kusl itself 
has its source on the southern face of Dyabang, beyond Katmandu. 
Standing near any one of the rest-houses on the great Singallla range, 
the most elevated spur thrown out southward from the main range, 
in this portion of the Himalayas, the crest of which forms a portion of 
the western boundary of British Sikhim, and looking westwards and 
northwards, one cannot help being struck with the vast extent of the 
work of denudation performed by the Sapta Kusl, in carving out the 
huge valleys and rugged gorges which stretch in a series of stupendous 
waves as far as the eye can reach, over a region of mountainous country, 
extending from Kanchinjinga to beyond Katmandu, and from the allu¬ 
vial plains of Bengal to the further chain of the Himalayas, forming 
the southern watershed of the Brahmaputra,—a tract of country 200 
miles long by 150 miles wide, containing the two highest mountain 
peaks in the world, with their attendant masses of perpetual snow. 
Thus the Kusl drains a larger tract of the Himalayas and delivers a 
greater volume of water as it debouches into the plains than any other 
stream on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, between the Brahmaputra 
and the Pan jab rivers. 
The Singallla spur, as continued from the main range through 
Watershed between Kanchinjinga, Kabru, Singallla, Phalut, 
the G-anges and Brail- Tonglu, Goom, Senchal, Mahalderam, and 
maputra, in Bengal. ending at Sivok, on the Tista. forms in Bengal, 
