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
| 478 THE DUKE OF THE ABRUZZI. range which bounds the Siachen on the east and probably culminates in Teram Kangri. A good part of this range was already known, for it runs from the Sasser pass, for more than r oo miles south-eastwards to the Pangong Lake, and is cut through by the precipitous gorge of the Shyok, in the reach which lies above the sharp elbow formed by this river, a little below its junction with the Chang-chengmo. The range of K 2 runs south-west of this, and although the complexity of its geological composition — for granites, schists and various sedimentary rocks take part in it — has a very sensible influence in multiplying and increasing the accidents of relief, it has not rendered less evident the orographical continuity, which is obvious enough in many parts. The two chains of K 2 and Teram Kangri, are, therefore, well distinct, and the resemblance between the Karakoram and the double chain of the Hindu Kush, already suspected by some, has a real basis. The latest discoveries have revealed the importance of the Teram Kangri range, which is promoted from the position of a secondary spur of the presumed watershed range, to that of a primary range of the system. The continuation of this range, to the northwards, is certainly that row of peaks, which the Italian expedition observed from Windy Gap, and which will now become the object of fresh journeys of exploration. This was written in 191 I and has not been surpassed. According to OLDHAM the case for regarding the limestones as belonging to the sedimentary series, either as a continuation of the Gasherbrum exposure or as an outlier, is stronger than is represented by NOVARESE. He, therefore, on different grounds, especially the observations of CONWAY, finds it at least possible that we have to deal with an exposure of the limestone series, penetrated by intrusive veins of syenite and gneissose granite. Regarding the classification of the mountain ranges, Oldham does not agree with Novarese. The view advocated by Drs. Longstaff and Neve is rejected on the ground that there is no structural continuity between the Siachen, Baltoro and Biafo valleys, such as would give them a geological unity and justify the mountains on either side being regarded as forming two separate ranges; but, if this argument is allowed to prevail, it would equally militate against the view which regards the mountains on either side of the Oprang-Nubra trough as forming a pair of parallel ranges, for this orographical depression certainly does not follow, but runs obliquely to, the general strike of the leading feature in the geological structure of the district, namely, the Karakoram syncline of sedimentary rocks. Oldham does not regard the argument as final, as the movements of elevation occurred during a long period, and it may well be that the latest of them, those which determined the rows of peaks as they now stand, did not exactly follow the earlier ones, by which the leading features of geological structure were marked out. Moreover, the case for the classification adopted in the note is stronger than is there set forth, for not only is the Oprang-Nubra trough similar to the much larger depression formed by the Sutlej and Sanpo valleys, on the northern side of the Himalayas, but there is an apparent connection between the two, for the former is continued south-eastwards, by the Shyok valley up to the elbow, where it bends from a southerly to a north-westerly course, and thence by the lower part of the | |||
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