formation, clinging in a remarkable position on the flank
of a very steep rocky cliff, not less than 1000 or 1200
feet above the river. Several other patches came into
sight soon after, all high up on the mountain-sides; one
above the village of Golochu, and others at intervals
all the way to the junction of the Indus and Shayuk. I
cannot, therefore, doubt that the lake in which the clay
beds of Kiris were deposited, was the same as that which
occupied the Iskardo basin; nor does it seem easy to fix
its exact boundaries. The great height of the patches of
clay, in the narrow channel above Nar, show that the
depth of the lake had been very considerable; and if
we assume a depth of 1500 feet, which seems necessary,
and at the same time admit the arrangement of the
ancient rocks to have been the same as at present, we
must either suppose some great barrier to have existed
in the narrow passage below Khapalu, or must admit
that the Khapalu lake was also continuous with that of
Iskardo. I did not, however, observe any beds of fine
clay higher up than Kuru, in the narrow part of the
ravine of the Shuyak, which would warrant the drawing
such a conclusion; although vast masses of alluvium
certainly abound there, piled at great heights above the
river. Is it possible that these may at one time have
been continuous, and have blocked up the whole valley,
and that the portions now seen capping ridges, whose
origin is otherwise inexplicable, are the last remnants of
a continuous mass which occupied the whole interspace ?
and if so, to what are we to ascribe the deposition of
such an enormous mass of alluvium-like accumulation ?
To the eastward of the village of Gol the valley of
the Indus again becomes a little wider, an open sandy
plain extending round the junction of the two rivers.
The cultivation round Gol is on a high platform of
alluvium; but the road descends, soon after leaving
the village, nearly to the level of the river, and continues
over the low ground, skirting the mountains of
the southern bank, till it reaches the junction of the two
rivers, where it turns abruptly to the south, ascending
the left bank of the Indus, which runs nearly due
north in a narrow rocky ravine. A bluff projecting
ridge of granite, sixty or eighty feet high, polished on
the surface by aqueous action, and of a brilliantly brown-
black colour, so that the nature of the rock is only
discoverable by breaking it, here advances close to the
river, and is crossed by a steep sinuous path, eked out
by flights of steps, with wooden supports, where it
would otherwise be impracticable. The Indus is here
very narrow and deep, and runs with an extremely rapid
current. The path, after crossing this ridge, again descends
to the level of the river. Even in this narrow
ravine I was surprised to find the fine cream-coloured
clay of the lacustrine formation, similar to many of the
beds of the same deposit round Iskardo. It was here
quite on a level with the river.
The mountains rise on both sides of the Indus very
abruptly, being almost always precipitous. From the
narrowness of the valley the great elevation of these is
not seen, and the lesser height of those on the right bank
of the Indus, which form the termination of the chain
separating that river from the Shayuk, is not brought
prominently to notice. For more than two miles, the
Q 2