average depth, of about two feet. A little further down
it is joined by the Machulu, and it does not appear to be
anywhere fordable in its further course, even in winter,
so that probably the influx of water brought by that
stream is very considerable. I did not, however, see the
junction, which is situated on the north side of the
plain, quite out of the direct road towards the town of
Khapalu.
Where the valley is widest, the mountain ranges on
both sides of the river are well seen. The range south
of the Shayuk rises close at hand into a very steep
mountain mass, now much snowed. A pass which
leads from Khapalu to Kartash was (I was informed)
already shut up by snow, and impracticable for travellers.
To the north, up the wide valley of the Machulu, the
mountains are more distant, and the main chain of the
Muztagh is evidently -fully in sight; the absence of
hills close at hand allowing a considerable extent of it to
be seen; it was very heavily snowed. The nearest,
and apparently loftiest peak, bore N. 13 W. (Magn.) from
Surmu.
The principal villages of this open tract are Surmu
and Khapalu, both on the south side of the Shayuk, and
separated from one another by a high alluvial ridge, which
rests on a bold scarped rock rising immediately out of the
river. Surmu has a very long and narrow tract of cultivation,
skirting the gravelly river-bed. It occupies the
slopes of a projecting platform of alluvium of no great
height. In this village many fields, on a level with the
river, have evidently been destroyed by the flood of
1842, as fruit-trees were still standing among the gravel
and shingle of the river-beds. Khapalu, on the other
hand, which is situated at the point of junction of a
considerable stream, occupies the surface of a thick bed
of alluvium of great extent, sloping very steeply from
the apex of the triangle in a recess among the mountains
to its base, which is formed by the Shayuk. The fort
of Khapalu is perched at a great height on a remarkable
projecting scarped rock, just at the mouth of the ravine
behind the village. The cultivation has a width of not
less than two miles, and, as it abounds in fruit-trees, it
must in summer, when the fields are green and the trees
are in leaf, be a place (for Tibet) of considerable beauty.
From the abruptness of the slope of the alluvial platform,
the terrace-walls of the fields are very high, often as
much as six feet. The fruit-trees are the same as those
commonly cultivated in Nubra and Chorbat; the elm
and Elceagnus of Nubra are also common, as well as the
white poplar. At Khapalu there are also a few plane-
trees, which do not extend further east.
The Lycium of Nubra, which had entirely disappeared
in the narrow and rocky parts of the Shayuk, reappeared
as soon as the valley spread out into a gravelly plain,
being common at Abadan, and abundant at Surmu and
Khapalu. A species of berberry, a genus wanting in
the higher parts of the Shayuk (except in the mountains,
where a small alpine species is occasionally seen), was
found in Surmu. The species was apparently identical
with the common berberry of Europe, which extends
even into the drier valleys of the Himalaya. I also recognized
a few other new plants—a small, almost herbaceous
Sophora was one of these, and, still more remarkable,
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