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0602 Southern Tibet : vol.7
Southern Tibet : vol.7 / Page 602 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000263
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CONWAY.

428

in the Kara-korums and opening a new era of exploration. In the history of this exploration his name belongs to the most famous.

July 11th, Conway set out on his march over the Hispar Glacier , starting from a height of 10,320 feet. From its frontal moraine the glacier had retired one mile comparatively recently. »Such a small oscillation is of no importance, so that practically the Hispar Glacier may be considered to have been stationary during the historic period, for the cultivated Hispar fan has been deposited since the main retreat of the ice.»'

At his first camp Conway was at a height of I 1, 7 7 o feet. The range opposite, at the northern side, culminated in a peak upwards of 24,000 feet. Next day he passed several tributary glaciers and reached a height of 13,070 feet. July i 3th he crossed the mouth of the Makorum Glacier, over which there is an easy col to Chogo Lungma. On the northern side is the Churi Glacier which had swollen greatly, although its neighbour, Lak, had shrunk. He explains this from some heavy snowfall having caused a strong development of the Churi, whereas the same effect was not yet noticeable on the Lak, which is much longer.

It had long been known that there was a road over the mountains between Skardo and Nagyr (Nagar). But it had been abandoned for some time. In September 1861 GODWIN-AUSTEN tried to find this Nushik-la road. Major CUNNINGHAM made a similar attempt. Both started from the Shigar valley, ascended to Arundo at the foot of the Chogo Lumba and by the Kero Lumba Glacier went to Nushik-la. Neither of the two Englishmen went down on the northern side to the Haigutum, but returned south. That's why Conway sent BRUCE up from Hopar, west of Hispar, to try from the north. June 3oth Bruce arrived at Haigutum. July 3rd he started for the pass. He was told nobody had been over it for 20 years. With its 16,80o feet it proved to be a difficult pass, but Bruce was successful. The glacier had changed its appearance very much since Godwin-Austen's time.

However, July 15th Conway continued up the Hispar. Nushik-la could be seen in the distance and looked difficult. Opposite the Kanibasar Glacier he describes

the landscape thus:

a series of snowy peaks, belonging to a range yet further to the north, peeping over a portion of the ridge that bounds the snowfields in that direction. Thus it is in this country — northwards the high mountains seem to have no end. Ridge behind ridge, crest behind crest, glacier behind glacier, they stretch away in monotonous parallellism, through regions uninhabited and even unvisited by man.

The Kanibasar Glacier has a great double »Firnmulde», shut in by grand peaks. The right side of the Hispar Glacier was much covered with gravel. The height of the camp was 14,11 o feet. July 16th he continued on clean ice in the

. cit., p. 331.