Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/254

50 whole way up, with less débris on one side than on the other, but much fissured. The slopes were covered with grass, and near the glacier was plenty of willow and juniper, forming little woods at the junctions of the streams. The tracks of bears were to be seen in every direction in the sand and mud in the hollows between the glacier and the mountain-side, but they were probably at this time high up among the ravines.

Next day (Sept. 9) we crossed a large glacier from the north, 1 mile beyond which, the hill being accessible, I ascended some 2000 feet to a fine knob. But the clouds prevented my doing any good work. It was quite dark when we reached the level of the glacier in the evening, and finding our camp men were not there, had to bivouac out.

The bounding ridge had been fixed by the previous day’s ascent, and with the exception of a few lateral ravines and glaciers on the left bank, the survey of the whole of the Basha valley was now complete; so after a more detailed examination of the left bank of the glacier we returned to Arundu under a drenching rain. I made halt the next day, and the morning of the 12th saw our camp struck. It was a lovely day, and our path lay down the left bank and over the level sands below Arundu, afterwards along the hill-sides to the pretty village of Doko.

The whole of the valley drained by the Shigar River was now surveyed, presenting on the plane-table as curious and wonderful a map as can be well imagined. The district may be described as one great area of ice-bound mountains, with long trains of ice debouching out into the drainage lines. The Glacier of Biafo forms the striking feature of this region. The average slope of this glacier is about 3·5° to 4°. I found that the slopes of these glaciers seldom attained 5°, and 3·4° may be taken as the medium. On the Chogo Loombah glacier, the ribboned structure is best seen, though it is visible in all; these bands of coloured ice run continuously with the glacier in its length, and cross sections show them dipping towards the centre. On the sides of the glacier this slope was frequently from 32° to 40°, and increased towards the centre, where the bands were almost, if not quite, perpendicular.

The present thickness of the ice is a point not easily determined; but, judging from striæ in the sides of ravines from which glaciers have retired, from 300 to 400 feet is not an exaggerated allowance for what they once have been. I am inclined to think that it may have been more for parts nearer the river. The ice of these glaciers is many feet higher in the centre than on the sides; it also differs considerably in texture.

Whilst engaged in the work described in the preceding pages,