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
I;
TROTTER, BELLEW, BIDDULPH, CHAPMAN AND GORDON.
I Op. cit., p. 295-46o.
2 Op. cit., p. 421.
3 Op. cit., p. 426.
4 Op. cit., P. 474.
3 The Roof of the World, etc. Edinburgh 1876, p. 17 et seq.
285
summer the traveller ascends the Nubra valley, and the caravans from Yarkand often
halt a week at Panamik. Just above the Changlung village a precipitous hill of
dk 4,000 feet in 5 miles has to be ascended. Crossing the Karaol Pass the road de
scends into the Saser stream and then again ascends the snow and glacier pass
Saser La in the Kara-korum Range between Nubra and Shayok. The road goes
down from it to the Shayok which has to be crossed. At Murgho the road joins
a stream from the Dipsang plains, and proceeds to the Kara -korum Pass. »The
Kårdkorum Pass, though 18,550 feet above the sea, is by no means so formidable an obstacle as is generally supposed. It is always free from glaciers, and in summer from snow. The ascent on both sides is gentle, and the road good, so that, although it forms the water-shed between Hindûstån and Central Asia, it is less of an obstacle to the merchant, than the Digar, the Khardung, the Saser or the Sanju Passes.» On its north side the road follows a headwater of the Yarkand River to Ak-tagh where the roads again diverge. The winter road proceeds to Yangi-davan in Hay-ward's Western Kuen - lun, the summer road passes over a spur of the same range by the Suget-davan.
There is a great amount of valuable geographical material in Trotter's Narrative, Latitudes, Longitudes, Heights, Magnetic and Meteorogical observations and
Routes.' The road from Yarkand to Leh viâ Sanju and the Kara-korum Pass is described by Dr. BELLEW, who made it in October and November, 1 8 7 3.2 The same author gives us the itinerary Yarkand to Ladak viâ Kok-yar, accomplished in June 1874. Captain BIDDULPH gives the stations and characteristic features of his
road from Leh to Shahidullah, passing the Chang-chenmo in September and October
1873,3 and Captain TROTTER, those of his road from Gogra to Shahidullah made
t in the same months. Finally Captain CHAPMAN has a chapter on commerce between
India and Central Asia across the Kara-korum.4
Lieutenant Colonel T. E. GORDON, has given some more details about the Kumdan glaciers and especially some very good and instructive sketches of the
different glaciers as they were in 1873.5 His own words must be quoted:
We passed the lower Kumdan glacier the first day. It comes from the high peaks to the north-west, and continues down the right bank of the stream for over two miles, forming a perfect wall of ice rising from the water about i 20 feet, and showing a surface covered with countless pinnacles and points. Portions of it yet stand at several places on the opposite bank , where the original mass was forced against the great up-rising red cliffs, and blocked up the stream, thus forming a lake, which at last burst this ice barrier by the increasing pressure of its collected waters. We camped that night at Kumdan
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