and tenanted by vast numbers of hares. The gravel on
which this jungle grows is almost on a level with the
river, so that it is very generally swampy, and traversed
here and there by little streamlets of water. The Hip-
pophae is here a small tree, attaining a height of fifteen
feet, with a short thick trunk and stiff crooked spinous
branches.
In several parts of the course of the Nubra river, low
hills rise in the valley, isolated, or nearly so, from the
mountain ranges behind, and forming, therefore, a remarkable
feature. On one of these, on the right bank
of the river, is situated the little fort and village of Chi-
rasa, a considerable mass of houses, of a class a little
better than those usual in the district, and conspicuous
from their elevated position. The rock on which they
stand is composed of a hard porphyry, which has been
injected from below, and has displaced the black slate,
which is the more usual rock in the lower part of this
valley.
In the lower part of the ravine behind the town of
Chirasa, the alluvium is more extensively developed than
usual in this valley, where aqueous action seems in a
great measure to have removed the accumulation of detritus,
which once, no doubt, occupied the whole valley.
Beds of gravelly conglomerate, at times passing into fine
clay, may here be seen, at a height of perhaps 1000 feet,
on the mountain-sides in isolated patches, generally faced
by cliffs, in which a tendency to horizontal stratification
is observable.
The lower part of the Nubra valley is very fertile, and
on the east side cultivation extends, with little interruption,
from Tirit as far as Panamik, in a belt varying in
width from a few hundred feet to nearly a mile. The
villages are large, and seem populous. Many of the
houses are very substantially built, and the long sacred
walls, called Mané, are numerous, and of great length and
size. Several watercourses, which are carried along the
sides of the hills at an elevation of several hundred feet
above the cultivation, and are easily recognizable by the
fringe of Hippophae bushes, which forms an impenetrable
belt along their margins, indicate a degree of industry
and energy very unusual in Tibet, where, however, the
amount of cultivable land is seldom sufficient to promise
much reward to any extensive and elaborate system of
irrigation.
As the advanced period of the year rendered exploration
at great elevations scarcely practicable, and made it
desirable to reach a lower level as soon as possible, I did
not remain more than a week in Nubra. On the 22nd
of October I started from Lyakjung, at the mouth of the
Nubra river, towards Iskardo, following the course of
the Shayuk river. The district of Nubra extends about
thirty miles below the junction of the river of that name
with the Shayuk; but I found the level valley gradually
to diminish in width as I descended. On the 22nd of
October I encamped at Hundar; on the 23rd, at Tertse;
and on the 24th at Unmaru, beyond which village there
is no cultivation, and the valley becomes extremely narrow.
On the 25th of October I reached an encamping
ground called Kuru, at the termination of the Nubra
district, where the mountains, which for three days had
gradually been encroaching on the valley, completely