Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/258

54 We then scrambled up the cliffs to regain the pathway; thenceforward the road was good all the way to Krabathang and Basho, the road to which branches off at the former place, ascending over the very high spur, called the Kutchi Bore La, the camping-spot being on the summit. Between this pass and Mendi Khur the mountains of the south bank begin to be more wooded. Pinus excelsa, the tall silver-fir, and birch, are seen in dense patches wherever the slope admits of their growth.

The camp being pitched at Basho, I ascended a low spur above the village to get a view of the large stream which here joins the Indus. Glacier action of former times, was here very apparent in the great masses of angular rocks above the village: the stream comes rushing down over these for about a mile and a half above it, winding down a gently sloping valley, with high mountains on either side. This enormous collection of angular rocks is the terminal moraine of a large glacier, the remains of which are to be sought higher up, and where now it is only some four or five miles long, with broad feeders from the mountains on the west side.

On the 24th we still followed the left bank upwards, as far as Kutzurah. There is very curious ground near Kutzurah, which is situated at the western end of the Skardo Basin, where the Indus begins to flow through a confined channel: the features which attract attention are low undulating rounded hills, composed entirely of angular rocks, but no surface-earth whatever nor sand. In the midst of these and close to the village is a pretty green lake, about 600 yards long by 250 broad, of beautiful clear water, from which the mountains around are reflected as from a mirror: its stillness is only broken by the occasional rise of some fish. This lake is called the Forok Tso.

The country around Kutzurah is well wooded and clothed with verdure. We now left the Indus valley to proceed up a large tributary which it receives from the south. Two miles above the village we entered a level valley, about half a mile broad, between steep mountains, the river flowing through it in a succession of deep pools and winding reaches. At the end of this valley is the small village of Tsok, beyond which the valley narrowed to 200 or 300 yards, and was dotted with large clumps of willow-trees, the stream flowing in four or five channels. On the following day (25th) our march still lay up the valley: the level bit soon ended, and two miles further the waters of the stream came roaring down over and among the large angular blocks of an ancient moraine. As we ascended, the hills became better wooded, and the cher (P. excelsa) here was of tall growth. About 9 we reached the village of Stokchŭn, and by noon arrived at Shigarthang, a wild dreary-looking place, at the junction of three large streams—the Dora Loombah from the direction of the Boorje La, the Munder Loombah