National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

74

KID—KIL : ROUTES 107, 108.

Route No. 107.

From KIDARNATH (Gârhvâl) to GANGÔTRI (Gärhvâl).

Capt. T. Skinner, in his "Excursion in India", Vol. II., pp. 60, 61, alludes to the existence of a pass which would lead directly from Kidarnath to Gangôtri in about four marches.

In September 1855, when I happened to be at Kidarnath, I made frequent inquiries about

this route, about which, however, no one knew the least. Nevertheless, as I found many of my people most willing to accompany me, I made an attempt to discover the pass.

From Kidarnath (11,794 ft.) I ascended in two marches the Kidarnath glacier to a height of

15,449 ft., which we found then so much crevassed

as to render any further progress quite impossible. If the pass exists at all it must be situated E. of

the Sargorôin peak. My brother Adolphe, who, at

the time when I made my unsuccessful attempt, was near Gangôtri, made also frequent inquiries about

this route independent of my own, the result of which

tended to prove that no passage exists. The eldest Brahmans at Gangôtri and Mnkba did not remem-

ber ever to have seen any one who was said to

have macle this direct route, and they believed that no one had ever done so. The rumour current

about the possibility of this route arose, as they thought, from the circumstance that efforts had been repeatedly made to discover the passage but always without success.

The discovery of this pass, so earnestly desired on account of its shortness, would be one of the finest feats a Himalayan traveller could achieve.

The route, now generally taken from Kidarnath to Gangôtri is a very long and circuitous one,

viz. by Trijugi Narain, Bhéti, Barahat, Râital, Sûkhi, and Mnkba (see Routes Nos. 232, 24, 15, 17, 172, 210, and 144).

Another road, somewhat shorter, is the following, but it is, except in a few places, impassable

for horses: by Trijugi Narain, Mangu, Salung, Sûkhi, and Mûkba (see Routes Nos. 232, 62, 135, 181, 210, and 144).

Geographical co-ordinates:

,   O   ,

Route

from KIDARNATH to MÂSSÛRI, see
MÂSSÛRI to KIDARNATH.

Route

from KIDARNATH to NAINITÂL, see NAINITÂL to KIDARNATH.

Route

from KIDARNATH to OKIMATH,
see No. 161.

Route

from KIDARNATH to TRIJUGI NARAIN,
see No. 232.

Route No. 108.

From KILIAN (Turkistan) to KÂRGALIK (Turkistan).

A principal route, passable for horses, and even for camels.. Road good and almost level.

Kilian, a large town.

Hdcssan Bôyra, on a river which Bows past the villages Oitokrab and Kbsh, and loses itself in the sand of the desert of Gobi.