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
488 SIR SIDNEY BURRARD.
range has been broken on the frontispiece to Part I to denote uncertainty.' It is possible that the Kailas range has clashed with the Ladak west of Sajum peak, and that for a short length the two ranges are here welded together. It is also possible that vertical subsidences have destroyed the continuity of the Kailas near Pangong. West of the junction of the Nubra and Shyok the Kailas range runs parallel to its northern neighbour, the Karakoram; the long troughs occupied by the Biafo, Hispar and Chogo Lungma glaciers lie between the Kailas and Karakoram ranges.2
Though in 19 I o I quite agreed with Sir Sidney Burrard in his proposal to abolish the name Mus-tagh which is given to a certain part of the Western Kara-korum, I now think, after a more careful consideration, that YOUNGHUSBAND is quite right in his wish to establish the name.3 It does not matter in the least that it is no noiuien jro -ium at all, but simply a signification used for all Ice Mountains, but in these regions it was known to Europeans for 2 00 years. It is, therefore, of historical value and should not be abolished by European map-makers. Whatever may be determined in Europe, the name will always remain alive amongst the natives. The surroundings of K 2 and the great glaciers will always be the Mustagh pal- préférence, and only to that region, or the High Kara-korum, should it be attached. The opinion of YOUNGHUSBAND, the only man who so far has crossed the Mustagh Pass, must be regarded as of great weight.
Burrard regards the Kara-korum and the Hindu-kush as different sections of the same crustal fold. He proposes to call the part of the chain which is situated in Tibet and Hunza the Kara-korum, and the portion which falls within Gilgit, Chitral and Afghanistan the Hindu-kush. The dividing line would thus be formed by the water-parting between the Hunza and Gilgit rivers.
The Shyok, Hunza, Gilgit and Kunar rivers drain the trough behind the Karakoram range; the Nubra river rises in the Karakoram, the glacier at its source having cut a notch in the crest-zone .... A length of 104 miles of the Karakoram crest carries great peaks against one of 93 miles of the Great Himalaya. The Karakoram rises as it leaves Tibet, culminates in K2, and then slowly declines: its crest does not show the surgings of the Great Himalaya.
Of very great importance and interest are Col. Burrard's views regarding the eastern extension of the Kara-korum. Whereas the western termination of the chain is the Hindu-kush, he says that »of its eastern termination we know nothing». It is true that the Aling Kangri has been supposed to mark the continuation of the Kara-korum fold, but between the well-known eastern extremity of the chain near Panggong and Rudok, and the Aling Kangri, no range is so far known to exist. This part of the country is, however, very little known. Burrard suggests that here a portion of the Kara-korum may have subsided vertically, an opinion in which I believe he is right. The superficially missing link of the chain does not, of course,
I This is the gap of which I have spoken above.
2 Op. cit., p. 95.
3 Geographical Journal, August 191 o, p. 193.
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