Himalayan Journals, vol 2 by J. D. Hooker (great reads TXT) 📖

Lecanora ventosa, physodes, candelaria, sordida, atra, and the beautiful Swiss L. chrysoleuca,

also European species.] also some barren mosses. At 18,300 feet, I

found on one stone only a fine Scotch lichen, a species of

Gyrophora, the "tripe de roche" of Arctic voyagers, and the food of the Canadian hunters; it is also abundant on the Scotch alps.

Before leaving, I took one more long look at the boundless prospect; and, now that its important details were secured, I had leisure to

reflect on the impression it produced. There is no loftier country on the globe than that embraced by this view, and no more howling

wilderness; well might the Singtam Soubah and every Tibetan describe it as the loftiest, coldest, windiest, and most barren country in the world. Were it buried in everlasting snows, or burnt by a tropical

sun, it might still be as utterly sterile; but with such sterility I had long been familiar. Here the colourings are those of the fiery

desert or volcanic island, while the climate is that of the poles.

Never, in the course of all my wanderings, had my eye rested on a

scene so dreary and inhospitable. The "cities of the plain" lie sunk in no more death-like sea than Cholamoo lake, nor are the tombs of

Petra hewn in more desolate cliffs than those which flank the valley of the Tibetan Arun.

On our return my pony strained his shoulder amongst the rocks; as a remedy, the Lachoong Phipun plunged a lancet into the muscle, and

giving me his own animal, rode mine down.* [These animals, called

Tanghan, are wonderfully strong and enduring; they are never shod,

and the hoof often cracks, and they become pigeon-toed: they are

frequently blind of one eye, when they are called "zemik" (blind

ones), but this is thought no great defect. They average 5 pounds to 10 pounds for a good animal in Tibet; and the best fetch 40 pounds to 50 pounds in the plains of India, where they become acclimated and

thrive well. Giantchi (Jhansi-jeung of Turner) is the best mart for them in this part of Tibet, where some breeds fetch very high prices.

The Tibetans give the foals of value messes of pig's blood and raw

liver, which they devour greedily, and it is said to strengthen them wonderfully; the custom is, I believe, general in central Asia.

Humboldt (Pens. Nar. iv. p. 320) describes the horses of Caraccas as occasionally eating salt meat.] It drizzled and sleeted all the way, and was dark before we arrived at the tent.

At night the Tibetan dogs are let loose, when they howl dismally: on one occasion they robbed me of all my meat, a fine piece of yak's

flesh. The yaks are also troublesome, and bad sleepers; they used to try to effect an entrance into my tent, pushing their muzzles under the flaps at the bottom, and awakening me with a snort and moist hot blast. Before the second night I built a turf wall round the tent;

and in future slept with a heavy tripod by my side, to poke

at intruders.

Birds flock to the grass about Momay; larks, finches, warblers,

abundance of sparrows, feeding on the yak-droppings, and occasionally the hoopoe; waders, cormorants, and wild ducks were sometimes seen in the streams, but most of them were migrating south. The yaks are

driven out to pasture at sunrise, and home at sunset, till the middle of the month, when they return to Yeumtong. All their droppings are removed from near the tents, and piled in heaps; as these animals,

unlike their masters, will not sleep amid such dirt. These heaps

swarm with the maggots of two large flies, a yellow and black,

affording abundant food to red-legged crows, ravens, and swallows.

Butterflies are rare; the few are mostly _Colias, Hipparchia,

Polyommatus, and _Melitaea; these I have seen feeding at 17,000

feet; when found higher, they have generally been carried up by

currents. Of beetles, an Aphodeus, in yak-droppings, and an

Elaphrus, a predaceous genus inhabiting swamps, are almost the only ones I saw. The wild quadrupeds are huge sheep, in flocks of fifty, the Ovis Ammon called "Gnow." I never shot one, not having time to pursue them for they were very seldom seen, and always at great

elevations. The larger marmot is common, and I found the horns of the "Tchiru" antelope. Neither the wild horse, fox, hare, nor tailless

rat, cross the Donkia pass. White clover, shepherd's purse, dock,

plantain, and chickweed, are imported here by yaks; but the common

Prunella of Europe is wild, and so is a groundsel like _Senecio

Jacobaea, Ranunculus, Sibbaldia, and 200 other plants. The grasses are numerous; they belong chiefly to _Poa, Festuca, Stipa, and other European genera.

I repeatedly attempted to ascend both Kinchinjhow and Donkia from

Momay, and generally reached from 18,000 to 19,000 feet, but never

much higher.* [An elevation of 20,000 and perhaps 22,000 feet might, I should think, easily be attained by practice, in Tibet, north of

Sikkim.] The observations taken on these excursions are sufficiently illustrated by those of Donkia pass: they served chiefly to perfect my map, measure the surrounding peaks, and determine the elevation

reached by plants; all of which were slow operations, the weather of this month being so bad that I rarely returned dry to my tent; fog

and drizzle, if not sleet and snow, coming on during every day,

without exception.

I made frequent excursions to the great glacier of Kinchinjhow.

Its valley is about four miles long, broad and flat: Chango-khang*

[The elevation of this mountain is about 20,560 feet, by the mean of several observations taken from surrounding localities.] rears its

blue and white cliffs 4,500 feet above its west flank, and throws

down avalanches of stones and snow into the valley. Hot springs*

[Supposing the mean temperature of the air at the elevation of the

Momay springs to be 26 degrees or 28 degrees, which may be

approximately assumed, and that, as some suppose, the heat of thermal springs is due to the internal temperature of the globe; then

according to the law of increment of heat in descending (of 1 degree for fifty feet) we should find the temperature of 110 degrees at a

depth of 4,100 feet, or at 11,900 feet above the level of the sea.

Direct experiment with internal heat has not, however, been carried beyond 2000 feet below the surface, and as the ratio of increment

diminishes with the depth, that above assigned to the temperature of 110 degrees is no doubt much too little. The Momay springs more

probably owe their temperature to chemical decomposition of

sulphurets of metals. I found pyrites in Tibet on the north flank of the mountain Kinchinjhow, in limestones asasociated with shales.]

burst from the ground near some granite rocks on its floor, about

16,000 feet above the sea, and only a mile below the glacier, and the water collects in pools: its temperature is 110 degrees, and in

places 116 degrees, or 4 degrees hotter than that of the Yeumtong

hot-springs, though 4000 feet higher, and of precisely the same

character. A Barbarea and some other plants make the neighbourhood of the hot-springs a little oasis, and the large marmot is common,

uttering its sharp, chirping squeak.

The terminal moraine is about 500 feet high, quite barren, and thrown obliquely across the valley, from north-east to south-west,

completely hiding the glacier. From its top successive smaller

parallel ridges (indicating the periodic retirements of the glacier) lead down to the ice, which must have sunk several hundred feet. This glacier descends from Kinchinjhow, the huge cliff of whose eastern

extremity dips into it. The surface, less than half a mile wide, is exceedingly undulated, and covered with large pools of water, ninety feet deep, and beds of snow, and is deeply corroded; gigantic blocks are perched on pinnacles of ice on its surface, and the gravel cones*

[For a description of this curious phenomenon, which has been

illustrated by Agassiz, see "Forbes's Alps," p. 26 and 347.] are

often twenty feet high. The crevassing so conspicuous on the Swiss

glaciers is not so regular on this, and the surface appears more like a troubled ocean; due, no doubt, to the copious rain and snow-falls throughout the summer, and the corroding power of wet fogs.

The substance of the ice is ribboned, dirt-bands are seen from above to form long loops on some parts, and the lateral moraines, like the terminal, are high above the surface. These notes, made previous to reading Professor Forbes's travels in the Alps, sufficiently show

that perpetual snow, whether as ice or glacier, obeys the same laws in India as in Europe; and I have no remarks to offer on the

structure of glaciers, that are not well illustrated and explained in the abovementioned admirable work.

Its average slope for a mile above the terminal moraines was less

than 5 degrees, and the height of its surface above the sea 16,500

feet by boiling-point; the thickness of its ice probably 400 feet.

Between the moraine and the west flank of the valley is a large lake, with terraced banks, whose bottom (covered with fine felspathic silt) is several hundred feet above that of the valley; it is half a mile long, and a quarter broad, and fed partly by glaciers of the second order on Chango-khang and Sebolah, and partly by filtration through the lateral moraine.

Illustration--GNEISS-BLOCK WITH GRANITE BANDS, ON THE KINCHINJHOW

GLACIER.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Donkia glaciers -- Moraines -- Dome of ice -- Honey-combed surface --

Rocks of Donkia -- Metamorphic action of granite veins -- Accident to instruments -- Sebolah pass -- Bees, and May-flies -- View --

Temperature -- Pulses of party -- Lamas and travellers at Momay --

Weather and climate -- Dr. Campbell leaves Dorjiling for Sikkim --

Leave Momay -- Yeumtong -- Lachoong -- Retardation of vegetation at low elevations -- Choongtam -- Landslips and debacle -- Meet Dr.

Campbell -- Motives for his journey -- Second visit to Lachen valley -- Autumnal tints -- Red currants -- Lachen Phipun -- Tungu --

Scenery -- Animals -- Poisonous rhododendrons -- Fire-wood -- Palung -- Elevations -- Sitong -- Kongra Lama -- Tibetans -- Enter Tibet --

Desolate scenery -- Plants -- Animals -- Geology -- Cholamoo lakes --

Antelopes -- Return to Yeumtso -- Dr. Campbell lost -- Extreme cold -- Headaches -- Tibetan Dingpun and guard -- Arms and accoutrements -- Temperature of Yeumtso -- Migratory birds -- Visit of Dingpun --

Yeumtso lakes.

On the 20th of September I ascended to the great Donkia glaciers,

east of Momay; the valley is much longer than that leading to the

Kinchinjhow glacier, and at 16,000 or 17,000 feet elevation,

containing four marshes or lakes, alternating with as many transverse moraines that have dammed the river. These moraines seem in some

cases to have been deposited where rocks in the bed of the valley

obstructed the downward progress of the ancient glacier; hence, when this latter finally retired, it rested at these obstructions, and

accumulated there great deposits, which do not cross the valley, but project from each side obliquely into it. The rocks in situ on the floor of the valley are all moutonneed and polished on the top,

sides, and face looking up the valley, but are rugged on that looking down it: gigantic blocks are poised on some. The lowest of the

ancient moraines completely crosses the river, which finds, its way between the boulders.

Under the red cliff of Forked Donkia the valley becomes very broad, bare, and gravelly, with a confusion of moraines, and turns more

northwards. At the angle, the present terminal moraine rises like a mountain (I assumed it to be about 800 feet high),* [This is the

largest and longest terminal