Page:Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet (1879).djvu/25

Rh The chain then’ continues in an easterly and north-easterly direction, forming the northern watershed of the Brahmaputra, throwing up lofty peaks, one of which is reported by the explorer of 1872 to be at least 25,000 feet high; while the pass by which he crossed the range to the inland plateau was 17,200 feet above the sea. The name given to the eastern section of this most northern of the ranges by Mr. Brian Hodgson is Nyenchhen-tang-la; and the same name is referred by the explorer of 1872 to one of the peaks. Mr. Trelawney Saunders has proposed as the name of this range, Gang-ri, the Tibetan for “snowy mountain,” by which the Kailas Peak is known in Tibet. But perhaps the most convenient way of distinguishing this important but almost unknown mountain chain will be by referring to it as the inner or northern chain of the Himalayan system. Parallel to the Northern Range runs the Central Range of the Himalaya, which is also little known, and but very partially explored. The section of this range with which we have to deal commences at the Mariam-!a pass, near the Kailas or Gangri Peak. Here a comparatively low saddle connects the Northern and Central ranges, and separates the valley of the Sut!ej from that of the Brahmaputra. To the eastward this Central Chain, on its northern side, forms the southern watershed of the Brah- maputra, while on its southern slopes are the sources of many important rivers, which, forcing their way through the Southern Chain of the Himalaya, eventually join the Ganges or the Brah- maputra, Such are the rivers Kal, Karnali, Narayani, Buria -Gandak, Tirsuli Gandak, Bhotia Kosi, and Arun, in Nepal; pos- sibly some of the feeders of the Monass, in Bhutan, and the Lepra-cachu, or Subanshiri, farther east. Only three English- men have ever crossed the Central Chain to the eastward of the Mariam-la pass (all at the same point), namely, Bogle, Turner,