The summit of the ridge was not less than 14,700 feet above the sea. At this elevation, the snow, on southern exposures, had, by eleven A.M., quite melted, under the influence of a bright sun. Along the ridge, tufts of a prickly Statice, still displaying the remains of flowers, were very common, and a few stunted trees of juniper occurred at intervals. The descent from the ridge was exceedingly abrupt (three thousand feet in less than a mile), into a narrow valley, in which I encamped among the fields of a summer village named Boghdan, now, like the one I had left in the morning, deserted by its inhabitants, who had gone for the winter to the village of Chulungka, nine miles distant, on the banks of the Shayuk. I was now in the district of Chorbat, the ridge which I had just crossed being the boundary of Nubra on the west.
BOGHDAN RAVINE.
October, 1847.
The Boghdan ravine, though very narrow and tortuous, is well wooded with small trees of poplar and willow, and with shrubs, chiefly of Hippophaë and Myricaria. These plants are entirely confined to the level bottom of the ravine, forming a belt, ten or twenty feet wide, on each side of the little stream. After a descent of three miles, I again joined the Shayuk, along which a journey of four days brought me to Siksa, the principal village of Chorbat, encamping on the way at the villages of Chulungka, Turtuk, and Pranu.
DISTRICT OF CHORBAT.
October, 1847.
The district of Chorbat is a dependency of the government of Iskardo, which, like that of Le, is subject to Kashmir. The desert country by which Nubra and Chorbat are separated has, for the present, acted as a barrier to the further extension eastward of the Mahommedan religion, which is now universally that of the people of the whole of the Iskardo (or Balti) district, as well as of Dras. On the Indus, and in the valleys south of it, there is no uninhabited tract between the two, so that the Mahommedan and Buddhist population are in direct contact. The result is, that Mahommedanism is in that part gradually, though very slowly, extending to the eastward.
In this part of its course the Shayuk river is in general very rapid, and is hemmed in so closely by the mountains on both sides, that little space is left for the accumulation of alluvium, except where considerable lateral streams join the main river. The barrier by which Chorbat is separated from Nubra is the most contracted part of the valley, and the general ruggedness by degrees becomes less marked as we continue to descend the river. The mountains, everywhere steep, rocky, and inaccessible, close in general to within a quarter of a mile of one another, and their projecting spurs, at short intervals, advance quite to the centre of the valley, forming deep bays, either filled with sand or occasionally occupied by platforms of conglomerate, on the top of which, where water is procurable, there is generally a village. The river, winding from one side of its channel to the other, washes the foot of each rocky spur, so that the road frequently quits the level of the river to ascend abruptly the rocky hills, which are often so steep as to be only accessible by means of scaffoldings of wood, propped up against the face of the perpendicular cliffs by trunks of trees. Once or twice the road lay at a great height above the river for several miles, without descending at all to its level.
BRIDGES.
October, 1847.
The channel of the Shayuk is generally formed of coarse gravel or large rolled stones, and immense boulders are everywhere scattered on the level banks. The stream is rapid and deep, and the fall much more considerable than in Nubra, Siksa being only about 9000 feet above the sea. It is nowhere in the whole distance fordable; and as the villages lie alternately on opposite sides of the river, I had occasion to cross it three times before reaching Siksa. In every case a narrow and rapid part of the river is selected, the bridges being composed of poplar trunks, stretching from bank to bank, with a light and rude hand-rail of hurdles to give support. Opposite Turtuk, the bridge, which rests upon piers projecting on each side eight feet into the river, measures twenty-five paces, so that the river is not more than eighty feet wide.
Where platforms of alluvium occupy the lateral ravines, they attain a very great thickness, seldom less than two hundred feet, and occasionally at least twice as much. They are generally cut off in steep cliffs by the river, beautifully showing the structure of the alluvium. In the sections of these masses of boulders and clay, I several times observed that the strata, instead of being horizontal, were highest in the middle and sloped gently downwards on either side. This would indicate, I think, a local origin of these deposits, which probably commenced under water, close to a ravine on the mountain-side, and gradually extended, by the addition of successive layers, till they met similar accumulations, derived from the opposite side of the valley.
VILLAGES.
October, 1847.