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
J. WALKER'S MAP TO VIGNE'S BOOK.
181
extent, and then swelling upwards until it met the horizon, and thereby gradually diminished the elevation of the mountain-tops by which it was bounded». He passed
a night on the glacier. »The next two or three nights were to be passed in
a similar manner on the ice, and two lofty and difficult ridges were to be crossed upon the way.» The glacier still rose gradually and majestically, seeming to rise
in height with the giant peaks on either side of it, and completely hiding all that was beyond it. On account of the late season of the year, our traveller had to return. Thereby he »ascended a defile» leading from the Saltoru valley to the village of »Kor Chondus».
Vigne's map Pl. XL' completed by J. Walker in 1842 and taken principally from the MSS surveys of himself, is of considerable interest, as it very clearly and distinctly points out the Kara-korum Mountains. To the east, however, it terminates rather abruptly and in its eastern prolongation is written: »Long open slopes free from snow in summer.» We find a »Pass to Yarkund» i. e. the Kara-korum Pass south of which there are the two source branches of the »Shai Yok or Northern branch of the Indus». The eastern source branch comes down from the pass, the other from the »Nubra or Khundun Tsoh Lake,» or, as we should write it: The Kumdan-tso. Where the Kichik Kumdan glacier goes down to the valley we only read the word »Glacier». South of it is »Sisur Hill» or Saser-davan, and two other mountains on the road from Nubra to Kara-korum. There we also read the legend: »This path, from Nubra to Yarkund, is used only when the bed of the River is too full to be crossed and recrossed by wading.»
The Nubra valley is also marked in its correct direction. North of the Karakorum Pass Walker has the source of the Yarkand River. The valleys north of Khopalu join the »Northern Branch of the R. Indus or Shyk Yak R.» One of them, which is called Khondur, must be the Kondus joining the Saltoro valley at Domsum (Dansam). The glacier Vigne ascended must be the Bilafond, judging from its situation and from the legend: »Way over Glacier by Alibransa pass to Yarkund». Near the junction of the Saltoro valley with the Shayok, a northern tributary joins the Saltoro and has the legend: »River whose sources are in the spurs of the Mustak».
Farther west we have the »Shighur Valley». Its eastern branch, »Brahal Doh» has a »Way to foot of Mustak 8 or i o days for a footman,» and at its source: »Pass to Hunzi,» and just beyond, on the north side of the Mustak, and its »Pass to Yarkund» we read along a river: »7 days march to the Junction with the Karakurum road to Yarkund».
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I Map of Kashmir; I Vith its Passes; Ladak d Little Tibet, the Mountain Course of the Indus; and the Alpine Panjab generally taken principally from the MSS. Surveys of G. T. Vigne, Esq. F. G. S. Compiled by Order of the Court of Directors of the East India Company. By John Walker.
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