Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/223

( 19 ) III.—On the Glaciers of the Mustakh Range. By H. H., Bengal , late H.M. 24th Regt., Assistant in the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India.

My duties as assistant in the great trigonometrical survey of Kashmir first took me amongst the wild valleys of Baltistan in 1860, and during the summer of that and the following year I was occupied in surveying the vast glacier-system of the Karakorām Range. I shall not here detail the march of 20 days from Srinagar in Kashmir to Skardo in Thibet. It is a well-known road, long since described by Mr. Vigne and Dr. Thompson, and is now very frequently travelled over.

The mountain-survey work of 1860 did not begin till the 5th of August; on that day, my party and I crossed the rapid currents of the Indus and Nubra rivers, on a zŭlks or native raft, made of goatskins filled with air, over which are laid a few light poles of poplar. From the village of Kiris we commenced the ascent of Bianchu, starting on the 6th a little before sunrise. The pull up to the peak was most laborious work; 16,000 ft. elevation, that of Kiris below being 6800, giving a good 9000 ft. for the ascent. From Kiris I next followed up a large stream for a day and a half, and at the head of the valley crossed the pass, over a glacier into the Thǔllè valley, which, at its upper end, branches off in three directions. At the extremities of two of these are passes into Shigar. I crossed over both, and found that they have small glaciers. The third branch presents a much more imposing mass of ice, which comes tumbling down a steep descent, and at its termination is split into three by projecting masses of rock. I remained at this place till the 13th. In its lower ground the Thǔllè valley is well cultivated for wheat; but it looks bare, as there are no trees except a few willows; the river is a tributary to the Nubra. For two days my march lay along the Nubra River, whence I turned off up a ravine on the left, leading towards a pass over a ridge into the Hushè valley. From this ridge we had to climb two pretty high hills, one 