ALLUVIAL PLATFORMS.
July, 1848.
On the 21st I proceeded to Karsar, a village on the bank of the Shayuk river, distant about nine miles. A few hundred feet above the village of Kardong the alluvial boulder clay had begun to occur in the valley, and around the village, which occupied the end of a lateral ravine, it was already very thick. From Kardong to the Shayuk this alluvium continued in great quantity, forming elevated platforms, sloping very gently from the mountains, and faced by steep, often quite perpendicular cliffs. Where lateral ravines joined the main valley the alluvium was deeply excavated by the little streams which traversed them, and the road descended abruptly by steep and curiously winding paths down the cliffs of clay, and among piles of boulders, to re-ascend to the platform beyond the stream. Such a ravine, of great depth, occurred just below Kardong. After crossing it the road lay over the surface of the clay platform, which was nearly level, and consequently at an increasing height above the bottom of the Kardong valley, which rapidly diminished in elevation. This platform was extremely barren, and quite devoid of water. Here and there isolated rocky masses rose up through the alluvium. The rock was peculiar, being very hard, and, as it were, porphyritic, with a black, basaltic-looking matrix, quite homogeneous, in which numerous white specks were diffused. In hand specimens and boulders, and even on a near view of the hills, this rock appeared quite an igneous rock, but when an extensive section was exposed, it could be seen to be distinctly stratified.
KARSAR.
July, 1848.
When within a short distance of the Shayuk valley, though still high above it, the road turned to the left, and, leaving the alluvial platform, proceeded among rugged rocky hills, in a direction parallel to that river, at the same time descending somewhat rapidly to a platform of modern lacustrine clay and conglomerate, which filled up the whole of a deep recess in the mountains facing the Shayuk, to a thickness of at least 1000 feet. The village of Karsar, at which I encamped, lies in a deep ravine, excavated out of the clay formation by a considerable stream, on both sides of which, for nearly a mile, there is a belt of cultivation, very narrow where the stream issues from the mountains, but gradually widening as it descends. Owing to the sheltered situation, from the great height of the cliffs of clay on both sides, the crops were exceedingly luxuriant, and fruit-trees were plentiful, principally apples and apricots. Some very fine walnut-trees also occurred.
From the same cause the herbaceous vegetation was particularly rich, and I met with many species which were new to me. The banks of the stream, from the point where it issued from among the mountains, were everywhere bordered by large bushes of Myricaria elegans, now adorned with masses of sweet-scented rose-coloured flowers. In the lower part of the village-lands there were shady plantations of poplar and willow, which seemed to be occasionally irrigated, in order that they might produce a rich natural pasture. In these groves Euphrasia officinalis, species of Gentiana, Ranunculus, Potentilla, and Carum grew most luxuriantly; a tall but very small-flowered Pedicularis was also very common. No less than three species of Orchideæ occurred, a family which more than any other dislikes dryness: these were Orchis latifolia, an Epipactis, and an Herminium. Many of the weeds of the cultivated fields were also new and interesting: a Hypecoum, an Elsholtzia, and some species of Polygonum, were those I particularly noted.
LACUSTRINE DEPOSIT.
July, 1848.
The lacustrine formation of Karsar consists mostly of very pure white clay, horizontally stratified; but at the lower end of the ravine, where it is about to expand into the open plain of the Shayuk, a tolerably solid but still very friable sandstone, the strata of which were also quite horizontal, occurred under the clay. I saw no fossils, but when the clay is examined with care, they will probably be occasionally detected. At all events, as this clay formation is at least a thousand feet thick, if we take into consideration the open nature of the whole valley of Nubra, there can be no doubt that it must have been deposited from the same waters with the very similar clay which I found at Tertse, in lower Nubra, in October, 1847, and that it is therefore lacustrine. If this be admitted, it seems impossible to escape from the conclusion, that the deposits in the Kardong valley, (of which I have given an imaginary section in page [398],) though different in appearance, belong to the same lake. Now, these attain an elevation of 13,500 feet and upwards, as they commence above Kardong: the level of the surface of the Nubra lake can therefore hardly have been less than 14,000 feet; so that it must have extended up the Tanktse valley, almost as far as the low pass by which that district is separated from the Pangong lake.
DISKIT.
July, 1848.
From Karsar, I marched on the 25th of July, down the valley of the Shayuk, to Diskit. The earlier part of the road, after ascending abruptly out of the Karsar ravine, lay over the clay platform, which was perfectly flat; but after about four miles, it descended nearly to the level of the river, whose wide gravelly plain now extended on the south side to the very foot of the mountains, the lacustrine beds having been entirely removed. The plain was traversed by several small streamlets, apparently derived in a great measure from the river, the water of which seemed to sink among the gravel and sand of its bed, and to spring up again at a distance from the main channel. One of these streams ran at the extreme edge of the plain, close under the cliffs, which here rose almost precipitously to a great height. Its banks were very saline, and in the neighbourhood of Diskit a great part of the plain was encrusted with soda.
The cultivated lands of the village, which is of considerable size, lie on a sloping bank, rising rather steeply out of the plain. Many apricot-trees grow among the houses, some of which were large enough to afford a shade under which a tent could be pitched. The vegetation was in general the same as at Karsar, but a white-flowered Allium was new, as well as a species of Chloris, which was abundant in the pastures. A very small Cyperus, which grew in the water-courses, appeared to be a dwarf state of a species common in the plains of India, and, with the Chloris, which is a tropical grass, was interesting as an indication of the considerable heat of the summer climate in the valley of the Shayuk, notwithstanding its great elevation.