The mountain ranges which bound the valley in which the town of Le is situated, though not lofty, are very generally rocky and inaccessible. They consist partly of distinctly stratified gneiss, but principally of a fine white granite, which decays with great rapidity, and contains many irregular nodules of an iron grey colour, much finer in the grain than the rest. The width of the fertile plain of Chashut, over which I made the last two marches down the Indus, had prevented me from ascertaining the nature of the rocks on the mountains to the left, so that I cannot fix the exact point where the granitic eruption comes in contact with the slates and conglomerates of the Giah ravine.
[15] I have made over all my specimens of the borax and other saline products of Tibet to Dr. R. D. Thomson, of Glasgow, who is at present engaged in examining them.
Departure from Le -- Sabu Valley -- Pass between Le and Nubra -- Snow -- Encamp at 15,500 feet -- Digar -- Valley of Shayuk -- Alluvium -- _Populus Euphratica_ -- Tsatti -- Nubra river -- District of Nubra -- Villages -- Irrigation -- Saline soil -- Isolated rocks -- Chirasa -- Panamik -- Lower Nubra -- Platforms of Alluvium -- Traces of a great flood -- Unmaru -- Kuru -- Great contraction of valley -- Mountain pass of Waris -- Boghdan ravine -- Chorbat -- Mahommedan population -- Villages -- Outburst of granite -- Siksa -- Khapalu -- Open plain of Khapalu -- Junction of Shayuk and Indus -- Nar -- Iskardo plain -- Description of Iskardo -- Aqueduct -- Fort -- Lacustrine clay formation -- Vegetation.
While we were at Le there was a good deal of unsettled weather, and two very slight falls of snow. On the 9th of October we had an opportunity of observing an eclipse of the sun, which was welcomed by the inhabitants of the town with a most discordant beating of drums, intended to frighten away the demons who had taken possession of the sun. After a week's halt, Major Cunningham and myself started in different directions; Major Cunningham following the course of the Indus, and proceeding by Dras to Kashmir, while I crossed the range of mountains to the north into the valley of the Shayuk, and descended along that river to its junction with the Indus. The mountain range which separates these two rivers barely rises into the region of perpetual snow, a very few peaks only retaining any snow throughout the year. It is therefore crossed by passes at the head of each valley; but the pass nearest to Le having a small but very steep glacier on its northern face, is difficult and dangerous in autumn, after the snow has entirely melted from the surface of the ice. I was, therefore, recommended to cross into Nubra, by a pass a few miles further east, at the head of the valley of Sabu, which is separated from that in which the town of Le lies, by a steep ridge of granite hills.