LE- [September.
feet apart, and covered sometimes with small planking,
but more generally with brushwood, over which is laid
a thick coating of clay, so as to form a flat roof, to which
there is usually access by a small stair or ladder.
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.
187
CHAPTER VII.
Departure from Le—Sabu Valley—Pass between Le and Nubra—Snow
—Encamp at 15,500 feet—Digar—Yalley of Shayuk—Alluvium—
Populus Euphratica— Tsatti—Nubra river—^District of Nubra—
Villages—Irrigation—Saline soil—Isolated rocks— Chirasa—Pana-
mik—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—Kbapalu—Open plain
of Khapalu—Junction of Shayuk and Indus—Nar—Iskardo plain—
Description of Iskardo—Aqueduct—Fort—Lacustrine clay formation
—Vegetation.
W h i l e 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 sepa