IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
396
NOVITSKIV, NEVE AND STEIN.
In 1899 he travelled from Leh, the Nubra valley, Tigar and up to a top, which he christened Panimik Peak. The glacier in front of him drained to the west into the Pokachu valley, and part into the Chamshing valley, to the east
and south.
In front of us and everywhere cutting off the peaks of our nullah from the central Saser range, was a sheer abyss, 2000 feet deep. The nearest peak had over 25,000 feet, and is somewhat table-topped, with loftier ice-cliffs at the summit overhanging the precipitous sides. The other peaks, each over 24,000 feet, were quite separate, and lay further away, and to the east and south-east. — These great peaks may be regarded as the extreme east termination of the great Mustagh range, which extends from here to the north-west, culminating in the lofty peak known as K2 , or Mount Godwin-Austen , and beyond that blends with the Hindu-Kush.
The only pass at present practicable in this range is the Saser Pass, from the Nubra to the Shayok valley; ... .
About the Shayok River NEVE says:
From the ferry at Tsati to the sources, a distance of perhaps eighty miles, the valley is very wild and seldom if ever traversed, except for the small portion between the Saser and the Karakorum passes on the Yarkund road. A generation ago there was a great flood which has left its mark on the valley for a fortnight's journey down. It appears that a side glacier crossing the Upper Shayok dammed back its waters to a height of two or three hundred feet , forming a vast lake. But the following year the dam gave way suddenly, and a flood-wave of great height, carrying rocks and bushes with it, swept down the gorges, devastating any villages placed near the river, and even sweeping back up the Nubra valley, and ruining extensive tracks of cultivation by the immense deposits of sand.'
In connection with his description of the Zoji-la Dr. Neve says of the mountain
mass as a whole:
There is ridge beyond ridge, wave after wave, each higher than the other, and all culminating in the mighty masses of the Mustagh. Most of these ranges are parallel to one another, and as the mountains rise, so do the valley troughs between. Kashmir is 5000 feet above the sea, then come side valleys of 7000 or 8000 feet, then further northeast the valleys are io,000 or i i,000 feet, beyond which come the great plateaux, really open valleys, of Thibet, at a height of i 6,000 feet or more. 2
Many travellers have crossed the Kara-korum Pass without contributing to our knowledge of the region. PERCY W. CHURCH, for instance, has only the following information to give:
From Brangza there are two roads which meet near the Karakoram. One follows up the Shyok river, and is called the Yepsang route, but the water being rather high it was doubtful if we could get up this way, so we decided to go by the Dipsang way, on which there are no serious water troubles , though it is a day longer, and there are two baddish hills to be surmounted in the valley beetween Murgu and Kizil Langar.3
I Picturesque Kashmir. London 1900, p. 132 et seq.
2 Op, cit., p. 108.
3 Chinese Turkestan with caravan and rifle. London 90 t, p. 24.
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