PITI.
September, 1847.
The district of Piti, which was formerly almost independent, but paid tribute to, or exchanged presents with, all the Tibetan countries in its neighbourhood, namely, with Garu, Ladak, and Lahul, as well as with Kunawar, followed in 1846 the fortunes of Lahul in being transferred to British rule. It is a very thinly populated valley, the villages being small and distant, and the arable tracts of no great extent. The mountains on its southern border, by which it is separated from Kunawar, are so very elevated that they entirely intercept all access of humidity from the districts to the northward of them, and render the climate entirely rainless. The houses are in consequence very generally built of unburnt bricks, made of the fine lacustrine clay so common in the valleys, and their flat roofs are thickly covered with a layer of the same material.
CHAPTER V.
Leave Valley of Piti river—Kibar—Cultivation above 14,000 feet—Vegetation of mountains—Rocky gorge—Encampment at 17,000 feet—Parang Pass—Snow-bed and glacier—First plants at 16,500 feet—Parang valley—Gorge leading to Chumoreri Lake—Kiang, or wild horse—Chumurti—Remarkable grassy plain—Lanak Pass—Granite boulders—Plants above 18,000 feet—Undulating hilly country—Hanle plain—Vegetation—Monastery of Hanle.
Our last occupation in the valley of the Piti river was to make the necessary arrangements for the transport of our baggage through the deserts which were to be traversed before we should again arrive at inhabited tracts. The principal part of our effects were carried by men, but our party was so large that it was not easy to provide porters for the necessary amount of food during a journey of a week in an uninhabited country. A motley group of ponies, asses, and yaks therefore formed part of the train which accompanied us into the desert country between Piti and the Indus.
Three miles north-west of our encamping ground opposite Rangrig, we left the Piti river on the morning of the 5th of September, turning up the valley of a considerable stream which here joined the main river. The platform of alluvium on which we had been travelling continued for about half a mile up the lateral valley, and was covered with large boulders of angular fragments. The rock was limestone, the same as had occurred everywhere since leaving Lara. A little village called Ki, and a large monastery, situated on a curious, seemingly isolated, conical hill above the village, were passed on the right hand. Soon after, the ascent became rapid on a steep ridge to the east of the stream, and the Piti valley was completely shut out from view as we got in among the mountains. The ridge by which we ascended was barren and stony, and produced little vegetation. A curious broad-leaved Allium was the only novelty. We continued to ascend along the stream till we reached the village of Kibar, at which we encamped, at an elevation of 13,800 feet, in a narrow valley surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains.
KIBAR.
September, 1847.
Kibar is rather a pleasing-looking village, remarkable for its houses being all built of stone, instead of the mud or unburnt brick so commonly used in the valley of Piti. It is situated on the summit of a limestone rock, on the right bank of the stream. Our tents were on a patch of green-sward on the opposite bank, separated from the village by a deep ravine. Crossing this on the morning of the 6th, we ascended the slope of the hill above the village, among cultivation which rose on the hill-side fully 300 feet higher. Except one field of oil-seed, the crops were all barley, which was ripe, and partly cut: it was apparently very poor, being thin and deficient in ear. After leaving the cultivation, we continued to ascend on the ridge, till we attained an elevation of nearly 15,000 feet, at which height the road wound round the sides of hills, without any considerable change of level, for two or three miles. It was still early morning, and the air was very frosty. Every little rill was covered with a thick coating of ice, and some small swamps which we passed were crisp with frost.
VEGETATION.
September, 1847.
Notwithstanding the considerable elevation, I noticed but little in the vegetation different from that common in Piti. The forms were by no means so alpine as on the passes between Kunawar and Hangarang, though the elevation was greater than on any of these. It was probably owing to the aridity of the climate that the flora, at elevations of 15,000 feet, instead of being composed of delicate alpine plants, was much the same as it had been 4000 feet lower. The rose, the common Rhamnus of Piti, a little shrubby Potentilla, a spinous Astragalus, and several Artemisiæ, were the common shrubs, and two species of rhubarb grew abundantly on the dry hills above Kibar. The Dama, which shuns the level country, the Allium first observed the day before, and Lamium rhomboideum of the Hangarang pass, were almost the only striking plants observed; all the others were those of the ordinary flora of the dry hills and gravelly plains of the Piti valley. It is necessary, of course, in comparing this vegetation with that of the passes, to recollect that we were here in a valley, on slopes surrounded on all sides by lofty ridges, not on the summit of a range overlooking everything around, or only surpassed a very little by the continuation of the same ridge; so that the temperature of the summer months must be considerably higher than on the more exposed though less elevated passes.