Western Himalaya and Tibet / A Narrative of a Journey Through the Mountains of Northern India During the Years 1847-8

by Thomas Thomson

JUNCTION OF SHAYUK WITH INDUS.
November, 1847.

The junction of the Shayuk and Indus rivers takes place a little way below Kiris. The Shayuk is considerably wider and more rapid than the Indus, but much less deep, so that neither river so decidedly preponderates over the other as to enable their relative size to be determined at a glance. Probably the discharge of the two will be found nearly equal. The direction of the united streams is the same as that of the Shayuk, which the Indus joins nearly at a right angle.

The granitic and slate rocks of the district of Chorbat are continued unaltered as far as the junction of the Indus and Shayuk. In many places the granite so predominates as to form almost the whole mass of the mountains, but more generally there is also a good deal of slate. The schists are of very various appearance; a very hard black slate is the most common, but in contact with and near the granite many portions of the slaty mass are quite undistinguishable from gneiss. The direction and inclination of the dip vary extremely. In general the granitic veins appear to be parallel to the strata of schist, but instances are not unfrequent where vertical strata of schist are cut through by horizontal veins of granite.

NAR.
November, 1847.

On the 9th of November I encamped at Kiris, and next day I passed the junction of the Indus and Shayuk. The direction of the united streams soon becomes nearly due north, and it flows for many miles through a very narrow ravine, along which the road is of a most difficult nature, partly high on the mountains, partly on platforms of alluvium, and occasionally over angular blocks of rock, which are piled in enormous heaps along the banks of the river. At the most northerly point of the river, where the ravine is narrowest, I passed through the cultivated lands of the village of Nar, which extend for more than two miles on the surface of an alluvial platform many hundred feet above the bottom of the valley. Leaving this village, I continued to ascend, and entirely lost sight of the Indus, which flowed to the south-west, while the road kept winding among rocky hills, gradually ascending to the crest of a low pass, among rocks of black slate, which entirely prevented me from seeing the nature of the surrounding country. From the summit of the ascent I descended gradually down a narrow valley, and emerging at last rather suddenly on an open plain, I found myself in sight of the valley of Iskardo, which presented to the eye an expanse of level ground much greater than I had seen since leaving Khapalu, to which and to Nubra the district round Iskardo bears a very close resemblance.

When the road entered the open country, at the north-east corner of the plain of Iskardo, it lay for miles over loose sand, utterly barren, forming low undulating hills, which rested upon a deposit of pure white clay. Three miles from Iskardo, a spur from the northern mountains advances close to the river, and the road skirting the latter is for a short distance rocky and uneven. Soon, however, it again enters a tract of bare sand, which extends as far as the ferry immediately above the town of Iskardo. The river, being here unfordable, is crossed by means of a flat-bottomed boat.

ISKARDO.
November, 1847.

The plain of Iskardo, which surrounds the junction of the Shigar river with the Indus, is nearly twenty miles in length, and has an average breadth of about five miles. It is elevated about 7200 feet above the level of the sea. In its very centre, on the south bank of the Indus, and opposite to the junction of the Shigar river, an isolated rock of black slate rises to the height of nearly a thousand feet, directly overhanging the Indus, parallel to which it stretches for nearly a mile. It is faced on all sides by perpendicular cliffs, inaccessible except at the west end, where a steep and difficult path leads to the summit, which is a long narrow ridge.

The name Iskardo is a Mahommedan corruption of a Tibetan name Skardo, or Kardo, as it is very commonly pronounced; but as the first-mentioned name is most familiar to foreigners, and is likely to become universal, as well from the inhabitants of the district being all Mahommedans, as from the country being now subject to Kashmir, it is better, I think, to retain it, than to attempt to substitute the more pure Tibetan pronunciation.