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| 0283 |
Southern Tibet : vol.2 |
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CHAPTER XXIX.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GLACIER SOURCES.
Comparatively recently, not yet a hundred years ago, the important part played
by Himalayan glaciers as feeders of the great rivers began to be realised. The
Indus, Satlej, Karnali, Ganges, Brahmaputra, have all for hundreds of years been
derived from the sacred lake. I have proved that the Satlej is a glacier-born
river. ¹ The Indus, as not coming from glaciers, is, compared with the upper Satlej,
Tsangpo, Shayok and others, a mere brook. Should only the volume of water be
considered, the Tibetan branch of the Indus, i. e. the Singi-tsangpo, should only be
regarded as a tributary.
The Himalayan glaciers have advanced extremely slowly to the important place
they really occupy as feeders of great rivers. It would take us too far were we to
follow the history of exploration in this direction. But to give an idea of the stand-
point of European knowledge at different epochs during the last hundred years, I
will quote the views of three prominent explorers.
Captain J. A. Hodgson who, forgetting the Capuchins and Desideri, claimed
to have been, on June 21st, 1816, the first European who ever effected a passage
over the great Himalaya, had an opportunity, in 1817, to explore and survey the
Ganges to a considerable distance beyond Gangotri and to the very place where
its head is concealed by masses of snow which never melt. ² But as Captain Ra-
per's account of Captain Webb's survey in 1808 had already been published he only
refers to new ground.
Proceeding up from Gangotri he saw many snow beds, some of which he had
to pass. He found the Bhagirathi or holy and celebrated Ganges issuing from under
a very low arch at the foot of the grand snow bed; — the river is here bounded
to the right and left by high snow and rocks. In front, the mass of snow was per-
fectly perpendicular and had an estimated thickness of some 300 feet of solid frozen
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