The Inner Himálaya or Zánskar Range.—The division of the Himálaya into the three sections named above is convenient for descriptive purposes. But its chief axis runs through all the sections. East of Nipál it strikes into Tibet not very far from the source of the Tsanpo, is soon pierced by the gorge of the Sutlej, and beyond it forms the southern watershed of the huge Indus valley. In the west this great rampart is known as the Zánskar range. For a short distance it is the boundary between the Panjáb and Kashmír, separating two outlying portions of the Kángra district, Lahul and Spití, from Ladákh. In this section the peaks are from 19,000 to 21,000 feet high, and the Baralácha pass on the road from the Kulu valley in Kángra to Leh, the capital of Ladákh, is at an elevation of about 16,500 feet. In Kashmír the Zánskar or Inner Himálaya divides the valley of the Indus from those of the Chenáb and Jhelam. It has no mountain to dispute supremacy with Everest (29,000 feet), or Kinchinjunga in the Eastern Himálaya, but the inferiority is only relative. The twin peaks called Nun and Kun to the east of Srínagar exceed 23,000 feet, and in the extreme north-west the grand mountain mass of Nanga Parvat towers above the Indus to a height of 26,182 feet. The lowest point in the chain is the Zojilá (11,300 feet) on the route from Srínagar, the capital of Kashmír, to Leh on the Indus
The road from Srínagar to Gilgit passes over the Burzil pass at an elevation of 13,500 feet.
The Zojilá is at the top of the beautiful valley of the Sind river, a tributary of the Jhelam. The lofty Zánskar range blocks the inward flow of the monsoon, and once the Zojilá is crossed the aspect of the country entirely changes. The land of forest glades and green pastures is left behind, and a region of naked and desolate grandeur begins.
"The waste of snow ... is the frontier of barren Tibet, where sandy wastes replace verdant meadows, and where the wild ridges, jutting up against the sky, are kept bare of vegetation, their strata crumbling under the destructive action of frost and water, leaving bare ribs of gaunt and often fantastic outline.... The colouring of the mountains is remarkable throughout Ladákh and nowhere more so than near the Fotulá (a pass on the road to Leh to the south of the Indus gorge).... As we ascend the peaks suggest organ pipes, so vertical are the ridges, so jagged the ascending outlines. And each pipe is painted a different colour ... pale slate green, purple, yellow, grey, orange, and chocolate, each colour corresponding with a layer of the slate, shale, limestone, or trap strata" (Neve's Picturesque Kashmir, pp. 108 and 117).
Fig. 4. Burzil Pass.
In all this desolation there are tiny oases where level soil and a supply of river water permit of cultivation and of some tree growth.
Water divide near Baralácha and Rotang Passes in Kulu.—We have seen that the Indus and its greatest tributary, the Sutlej, rise beyond the Himálaya in the Tibetan plateau. The next great water divide is in the neighbourhood of the Baralácha pass and the Rotang pass, 30 miles to the south of it. The route from Simla to Leh runs at a general level of 7000 to 9000 feet along or near the Sutlej-Jamna watershed to Narkanda (8800 feet). Here it leaves the Hindustán-Tibet road and drops rapidly into the Sutlej gorge, where the Lurí bridge is only 2650 feet above sea level. Rising steeply on the other side the Jalaurí pass on the watershed between the Sutlej and the Biás is crossed at an elevation of 10,800 feet. A more gradual descent brings the traveller to the Biás at Lárjí, 3080 feet above sea level. The route then follows the course of the Biás through the beautiful Kulu valley to the Rotang pass (13,326 feet), near which the river rises. The upper part of the valley is flanked on the west by the short, but very lofty Bara Bangáhal range, dividing Kulu from Kángra and the source of the Biás from that of the Ráví. Beyond the Rotang is Lahul, which is divided by a watershed from Spití and the torrents which drain into the Sutlej. On the western side of this watershed are the sources of the Chandra and Bhága, which unite to form the river known in the plains as the Chenáb.