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0635 Southern Tibet : vol.7
Southern Tibet : vol.7 / Page 635 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000263
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THE OROGRAPHY OF THE KARA-KORUM ACCORDING TO NEVE.   461

The view he got from Panamik peak towards the north, amongst other things the Murgisthang Glacier, induced him, in 1908, to continue his exploration. His intention to ascend the Siachen and try to get around to the Saltoro was frustrated by the rivers. In company with Captain OLIVER, he therefore decided to investigate the Murgisthang Glacier which seemed a possible route to the main ridge of the Kara-korum. To begin with, the Monzthang Glacier was explored. To the N. E. the pale-pink granite cliffs of K32 were seen, the highest peak being 24,690 feet high. Proceeding north to the »middle glacier)) they saw to the north and west many lofty peaks of 2 3,000 feet or more, most of them not yet triangulated.

One peak he felt able to identify as the Teram Kangri. »But what our view chiefly established was that the large glacier basins near us to the north belonged to the upper Shyok system, probably to the Remo glacier, which must therefore be of great size, over 2 0 miles in length.» Much remains to explore at the sources of the Shayok. He mistrusts the map of this region, including the alignment of the water-parting west of the Kara-korum Pass. And he believes in the existence of some very high peaks east of the Teram Kangri. While the Baltoro Glacier is very well known, the great glaciers of the Hushé and the Konduz are nearly unknown. The water-parting is not even approximately mapped and there may be a pass to the north at the head of the Sher-pi-gan. On the north side of the Saltoro Pass there is much unknown country. He thinks it probable that a pass to the Oprang valley may be found at the upper Siachen Glacier.'

In his article The Ranges of the Kara-koranz Dr. Neve has given a brilliant and, so far as I can see, perfectly correct description of the principal features and of the frame-work and skeleton of the western part of the Kara-korum System.2 Whilst other mountaineers have directed their attention to certain glaciers with their surroundings of peaks and ridges, or simply have been hunting for records in absolute heights, Dr. Neve has done his very best to penetrate this very complicated orography, which, if compared with the Alps, is so little known.

He regards as the most striking new fact that the glacier which feeds the Nubra River is some 45 miles in length, and lies in a geotectonic trough, with a very lofty range to its north in which there are peaks over 25,000 feet high, amongst which Teram Kangri has »probably over 2 7,000 feet». Between the Baltoro and Siachen is still a terra incognita. These two and Biafo and Hispar, all four lie »almost in a line stretching from Nubra to Hunza, a distance of nearly 200 miles». Another parallelism is the Shimshal Glacier lying in a line with the Oprang valley, »of which the upper portion is in a direct line with the upper Siachen glacier».

I I had the pleasure to say a few words after the paper. Cf. Geogr. Journal, loc. cit., p. 356 et seq. 2 Geographical Journal. November 1910. Vol. XXXVI, p. 5 7 I et seq.