RIVER INDUS.
September, 1847.
So sluggish was the stream at the point where we joined it, that we were for a long time uncertain in which direction the current was flowing; and though we were prepared to find the Indus at the end of our day's journey, the river on whose banks we were encamped was so much less than our anticipations, that we were very unwilling to be convinced that we had really arrived at the great river, to which we had so long looked forward as one of the most interesting objects of our journey. The island in the centre of the channel was a bank of very fine sand or mud, on which large flocks of wild-fowl were resting; it was very little elevated above the surface of the water, which must frequently, I should think, rise sufficiently to cover it. The bank on which we were encamped, though rather higher, was not more than four feet above the water; it was quite vertical, and composed of fine clay, without any intermixture of stones or gravel.
UPPER COURSE OF THE INDUS.
September, 1847.
The course of the river Indus, from its source to Le, has hitherto been less known than any other part in Tibet; but as Captain Strachey, a month or two after our visit, descended along it from the Chinese frontier, as far as Le, the unknown portion is now very much reduced. It rises in the mountains north of the lakes of Mansarawer and Rawan Rhad, and runs in general towards the north-east. Moorcroft has described its appearance at Garu or Gartop, where it is a very insignificant stream; but the intervening country is so little known, except by native report, that we can scarcely be said to have an exact knowledge of the upper part of its course. There is in some maps an eastern branch laid down, but of that we have no definite information. From the arid and snowless nature of the country through which it must flow, it is probably a very small stream, but its length may be considerable.
Immediately above the open plain in which we joined the Indus, it would appear to have a very rocky and rugged channel. Such, at least, was the description given to us by our guides of the lower course of the Hanle river, which we left only a few miles before it joined the Indus; and as the mountains to the south-west appeared to close in very abruptly within a very short distance of our encampment, we could not doubt that the open and level plain which we found in this portion of the river's course was of limited extent, and quite an exceptional feature in the character of the country through which the Indus flows. From the great elevation and abrupt slope of the range which runs parallel to the Hanle river on the east, there can be no doubt that the spurs which it sends down on its north-east slope, towards the Indus, must be bold and rocky; and though the hills on the left bank of the Hanle river are much less elevated, yet they rise as they advance to the eastward. The descent of this river too, though very gentle in the upper part of its course, while its valley is broad, is probably very abrupt in the last few miles, where its channel is rocky and its ravine narrow. The elevation of its junction with the Indus is, I believe, about 13,800 feet above the level of the sea.
INDUS VALLEY.
September, 1847.
On the 19th of September our road lay in a westerly direction down the Indus. The weather was still extremely unsettled, the sky being cloudy and a violent north or north-west wind continuing to blow in frequent gusts. No rain, however, fell. The plain gradually narrowed as we advanced, and the mountains on the left approached by degrees close to the river. Low grassy plains, covered with a saline incrustation, quite dry, and without any brushwood or tall herbaceous vegetation, skirted the river, the course of which we followed very closely. Indeed, notwithstanding the considerable diminution of altitude, the aspect of the valley of the Indus was more dreary and barren than we had for some days been accustomed to. The rocky spurs were quite bare; and even on the level tracts no vegetation was seen, excepting on the very lowest banks, which were moistened by the river. This utter sterility was no doubt due to the absence of lateral rivulets, the hills which rose on our left hand being stony and steep, and not rising to a sufficient elevation to be covered with perpetual snow, or to accumulate and retain snow-beds in their ravines till a late period of the year.
The rock on the left-hand mountains during the day was quite different from any that had hitherto occurred, being a conglomerate, with rounded stones of various sizes, many of them granite. The matrix was of a very dark colour, and generally extremely hard; more rarely it was a coarse sand, crumbling to pieces. This conglomerate was everywhere stratified, the beds dipping to the south-west, at an angle of about forty-five degrees. During the day the river varied much in width, being seldom less than twenty-five yards, and sometimes as much as eighty. The stream was generally very gentle, not exceeding two miles an hour, except in a few rapids, and the river was in most places fordable. We encamped on the left bank, in a place where it was shallow and wide.
On the 20th of September we continued at first to follow the left bank of the Indus, which gradually assumed a more northerly direction. The mountains on both sides approached much more closely to the river than they had done the day before, and those on the right continued extremely lofty. The river now flowed more rapidly, and was often wider and more shallow; one rapid was not less than 150 yards in width. Banks of alluvial clayey conglomerate were usually interposed between the mountains and the river, forming cliffs which attained not unfrequently an elevation of fifty feet. These were separated by projecting spurs, over which the road passed wherever they advanced so close to the centre of the valley as to prevent a passage along the level plain. Some small streamlets were crossed during the day, and in consequence the vegetation was at times more varied, and at the same time more luxuriant, than it had been the day before. A few bushes of Myricaria were seen on the bank of the river; and in the lateral ravines the ordinary shrubs and herbaceous vegetation were common. The only new plant was a species of Labiatæ, a coarse-growing under-shrub, probably a species of Ballota.
PUGHA RAVINE.
September, 1847.