On the 2nd of July I crossed the Zanskar river to the village of Yulchung (13,700 feet). At Nira, besides the usual crops of barley, there was a good deal of buckwheat, which was just above ground. The fields were bordered, as usual, by a rank vegetation. A Nepeta, very like N. Sibthorpiana, was quite new to me, and a tall erect Wahlenbergia, with very large pale greenish-blue flowers, and coarse, somewhat fetid leaves, was very abundant, just coming into flower; the rest of the plants observed were the same as in the upper part of Zanskar. The stream which ran by the village had in some places spread out into a marshy meadow, in which a large pink-flowered Cardamine or Dentaria occurred plentifully, with Orchis latifolia? a white Juncus, and many common plants.
Below the village the descent was bare and stony, and extremely abrupt the whole way down to the river; the Tibetan rose was in full flower on the road-side. The river did not come into sight till it was close at hand, the bottom of the ravine through which it flowed being narrow and rocky. A common wooden bridge, without side-rails, forty or fifty feet above the surface of the water, was thrown over at the narrowest part, where the stream was hemmed in by high rocky walls, and was, I think, not more than forty feet broad. The current was rapid, and the water much discoloured. The course of the river at the bridge was easterly, but below, after a slight bend to the south of east, the valley seemed to take a more northerly direction, and above the bridge it came from the south-west. The banks of the river did not seem to be at all practicable, and I was informed that it was only when the river was frozen that travellers could proceed down it to Le. Accounts differed much as to the length of time required for the journey, and I could not discover that any of my party had ever travelled it, so that I presume the route is not very much frequented.
Immediately after crossing the river, a long, steep, utterly barren ascent commenced over stones and shingle. A deep ravine, with a small stream at the bottom, lay to the right of the road, beyond which were the lofty rugged precipices which had been so conspicuous from the heights the day before. At about 13,000 feet I gained the summit of a projecting ridge, which rose, a little to the right, into a rocky peak, and then sank abruptly down to the ravine. The road then dipped into a hollow filled with large boulders and fragments of rock, perhaps of glacial origin, and rose again more gradually to a second ridge, in the hollow beyond which lay the village at which I had determined to encamp, its lowest houses overhanging the deep ravine on the right. The elevation not being materially different from that of Nira, the plants of the cultivated grounds were the same. Potentilla anserina was very plentiful, and remarkably luxuriant.
The rocks during the ascent were chiefly a very hard but very brittle quartz or schist, alternating with loose crumbly slates, and a little limestone. I diverged a little from the direct road, to visit an iron mine, and to see the process of smelting. The ore was yellow ochre, occurring in a breccia-looking conglomerate situated on the flanks of a steep narrow ravine. There were two smelting furnaces, built of stone, of a conical shape, three feet in height, and about six inches in diameter at the top. The fuel employed was charcoal, and no flux was mixed with the ore.
SINGHI PASS.
July, 1848.
On the 3rd of July, I crossed Singhi La, the pass which I had seen so distinctly on the 1st. The ascent commenced at once from the village of Yulchung, over dry rounded hills, at the same time receding considerably from the deep ravine on the right. No rock in situ was visible on the earlier part of the ascent, the hills being entirely covered with coarse gravel and small stones, among which a spinous Astragalus and a species of Polygonum were the predominant plants; a glabrous Artemisia, a little Euphorbia, and the prickly Statice, were also frequent. After about 1000 feet of ascent, plants of the alpine zone began to appear. Afterwards the ascent was more gentle, over similar ground, till I attained an elevation of about 15,000 feet; at which height the road was for some distance nearly level, winding round a deep bay or hollow in the mountains, with high hills rising on the left hand, and the deep ravine still on the right. Several small streams were crossed, and many alpine plants seen, all familiar to me, except a species of rhubarb, which grew among the shingle in considerable quantity, and which is probably an undescribed species.
After completing the circuit of the deep bay, the ascent recommenced, but was not at all rapid, till within a few hundred yards of the top, when a short steep pull occurred. On the latter part of the ascent, from the loose, stony nature of the soil, vegetation was very scanty; and at the top, which was rounded, there was absolutely none. The elevation was 16,500 feet. Several large patches of snow occurred on the south side when close to the top, but not continuously. The view was extensive to the south, embracing a considerable portion of the great snowy range north of the Chenab, which, from the great elevation of the spot on which I stood, as well as of the intermediate ranges, and from the much smaller quantity of snow on its northern face, looked much less imposing than it does when viewed from the Indian side. Right and left were huge rocky peaks, and in front the view was obstructed by mountains close at hand, except to the north-west, in which direction a long gently-sloping valley was visible, running between two steep ridges, along which, I was informed, the next day's journey lay. From the top of the pass I attempted to form an estimate of the height of the neighbouring ranges, taking the quantity of snow as a guide, and it appeared to me that they were in general between 19 and 20,000 feet, a few isolated peaks only exceeding that altitude. Such guesses, however, are necessarily extremely vague.
Quartzy rock, slate, and limestone, alternated during the ascent; and near the summit of the pass the limestone evidently contained organic remains, perhaps coralline, though the traces were not sufficiently distinct to enable me to decide the point. The fossils were not observed in situ, but the angular fragments in which they occurred did not appear to have been transported from any distance.
On the north side of the pass a snow-bed commenced at the very crest, down which the descent was very steep for a few hundred yards. The snow was very soft, and was rapidly melting, but it possibly covered a permanent mass of ice, as it terminated abruptly, and the valley at its base was wide and but little inclined, with only a few patches of snow. The ground near the snow was swampy, owing to the rapid thaw. Here a little sweet-scented Primula was abundant, with one or two more alpine plants. The road followed the course of a wide arid valley, descending very gently. Two species of rhubarb were common, and a dwarf willow fringed the margins of the stream.
PHUTAKSHA.
July, 1848.