alluvial platform of large size. Round Kiris there is
a very extensive deposit of lacustrine clay, very fine,
and horizontally stratified. Good sections of this,
sometimes at least fifty feet in thickness, are exposed
east of Kiris, not far from the Shayuk. I did not observe
any fossils; but in so cursory an inspection as I
was able to make, it is very probable that I may have
overlooked them.
The junction of the Shayuk and Indus rivers takes
place a little way below Kiris. The Shayuk is considerably
wider and more rapid than the Indus, but much less
deep, so that neither river so decidedly preponderates over
the other as to enable their relative size to be determined
at a glance. Probably the discharge of the two will be
found nearly equal. The direction of the united streams
is the same as that of the Shayuk, which the Indus joins
nearly at a right angle.
The granitic and slate rocks of the district of Chorbat
are continued unaltered as far as the junction of the
Indus and Shayuk. In many places the granite so
predominates as to form almost the whole mass of the
mountains, but more generally there is also a good deal
of slate. The schists are of very various appearance; a
very hard black slate is the most common, but in contact
with and near the granite many portions of the slaty
mass are quite undistinguishable from gneiss. The
direction and inclination of the dip vary extremely. In
general the granitic veins appear to be parallel to the
strata of schist, but instances are not unfrequent where
vertical strata of schist are cut through by horizontal
veins of granite.
On the 9th of November I encamped at Kiris, and
next day I passed the junction of the Indus and Shayuk.
The direction of the united streams soon becomes nearly
due north, and it flows for many miles through a very
narrow ravine, along which the road is of a most difficult
nature, partly high on the mountains, partly on platforms
of alluvium, and occasionally over angular blocks of rock,
which are piled in enormous heaps along the banks of
the river. At the most northerly point of the river,
where the ravine is narrowest, I passed through the
cultivated lands of the village of Nar, which extend for
more than two miles on the surface of an alluvial platform
many hundred feet above the bottom of the valley.
Leaving this village, I continued to ascend, and entirely
lost sight of the Indus, which flowed to the south-west,
while the road kept winding among rocky hills, gradually
ascending to the crest of a low pass, among rocks of
black slate, which entirely prevented me from seeing the
nature of the surrounding country. Prom the summit
of the ascent I descended gradually down a narrow valley,
and emerging at last rather suddenly on an open
plain, I found myself in sight of the valley of Iskardo,
which presented to the eye an expanse of level ground
much greater than I had seen since leaving Khapalu, to
which and to Nubra the district round Iskardo bears a
very close resemblance.
When the road entered the open country, at the northeast
corner of the plain of Iskardo, it lay for miles
over loose sand, utterly barren, forming low undulating
hills, which rested upon a deposit of pure white clay.
Three miles from Iskardo, a spur from the northern