Southern Tibet : vol.7 / Page 653 (Color Image)

0653	Southern Tibet : vol.7

477

Longstaff's supposition that the Teram Kangri was formed of limestone, has
attained a certain probability from the Italian observation in the Gasherbrum massif.
It rises about S. E. of Broad Peak. The extension of the Siachen Glacier to the
vicinity of the mountains at the head of the Baltoro increases the importance of the
Italian observations.

Longstaff and Neve supposed that the Siachen was in communication with
the Baltoro directly over a saddle at the base of Hidden Peak, in the same way as
the Biafo and the Hispar. But such a continuity does not exist. The Kondus Glacier,
south of the Broad massif, comes in between them. It is not impossible, however,
that, in spite of the interruption, Baltoro and Siachen lie in the same tectonic furrow.
But the analogy in the two cases does not exist.

The course of the water-parting between the Indus and Yarkand-darya has been
proved by the Italians to be much more complicated than shown on the maps.

Novarese gives the following résumé of the orography:

The Karakoram, like the Himalaya of which it is the western portion, consists of
a series of chains parallel to each other, and also approximately parallel to the course
of the geological zones and leading tectonic features, ill-known as yet, of the whole great
system. The rivers flow in open valleys between these chains, and narrow, deep-cut
channels, frequently reduced to impassable gorges, by which the rivers pass from one
valley to the next, sever the chains in pieces. Consequently, although the lines of peaks
appear continuous on the map and exhibit a sensible parallelism, the principal watershed,
and many of the secondary ones, have a very different course, proceeding by stretches as
they pass from one range to another by means of transverse ridges, which separate the
divergent slopes of each of the furrows contained between a pair of ranges. — On the
whole then, as this passage of the watershed from one chain to the next takes place for
long stretches in a regular manner, always from a more forward range to one further
back, the complex course of the line of watershed cuts, at a very acute angle, the general
direction of the ranges, so that it is easy, in ill-known parts of the system, to confound
two quite distinct members with each other and regard them as only one. Just this
confusion was made in all maps anterior to 1910 in the country between the Upper Baltoro
and the Karakoram pass. — The discovery of the Upper Siachen, and of Teram Kangri,
has shown the existence of a great longitudinal furrow, occupied by a glacier, and of
a chain, parallel to that, well known and fixed, which runs from K 2 to Hidden Peak and,
up to now, was called the main range of the Karakoram. The ridge by which the watershed
crossed from this to that of Teram Kangri is formed by that saddle between the head
of the Kondus and the Siachen which was seen from Chogolisa. The chain of K 2 is
truncated by the Kondus valley, whose tortuous course in the upper part indicates a breach
of continuity, filled with ice, but where this disappears, exhibiting itself as one of those
impassable gorges in which the Karakoram is rich. It is probable that the continuation
of the chain of K 2 is that in which the peaks K 9 and K 10—11 are found, these latter
over 25,000 feet in height, and in the Saltoro chain to K 12 and beyond.

In conclusion, Novarese finds it certain

that the water-parting between the Indus and the Central Asian drainage, after
passing the peaks of K 2, Broad, Gasherbrum and Hidden, turns eastwards to a parallel

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

Citation Information

OCR Text

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