1 2 Kashmir, if. 206.
2 3 Moorer, i. 268;
3 Vigne, ii. 261.
4 4 As. Res. xvili.
5 264, Gerard, Obs.
6 on the Spiti
7 Valley.
8 5 Vigne, i. 275;
9 Moorer. Punj.
10 Bokh, ji. 109,
11 6 Voyage, v. 315.
12 7 Hough’s Narr.
13 Exp. in Afg. 338-
14 345; Elph. Acc.
15 of Caubul, 78.
16 8 Burnea’ Bokh. i.
17 03.
18 118 PUNJAB.
19 bank of that river the summits of the Diarmul exhibit an ele-
20 vation and grandeur scarcely inferior to any in the Himalaya.
21 As seen by Vigne,? ‘‘ mountain seemed piled upon mountain to
22 sustain a most stupendous confusion of mist and glacier glisten-
23 ing with the dazzling and reciprocated brightness of snow and
24 sunbeam, and whose outlines, pre-eminently bold, precipitous,
25 and majestic, were rendered still more so by being discernible
26 only for an instant.”
27 The mountains inclosing the valley of the Indus are generally
28 of primitive formation, granite,5 felspar, quartz, gneiss, mica
29 slate, roofing slate. The elevated table-land of Deotsun is of
30 granite. In Rupshu, Spiti, and the adjacent part of Ladakh,
31 mountain ranges of great extent and vast height have been ascer-
32 tained to consist of secondary formations, in many places abound-
33 ing with fossil remains.4 In Kashmir and the adjacent regions,
34 the prevailing rocks are those generally attributed to volcanic
35 action, such as basalt, trap, and gypsum, and these are overlaid
36 in some parts with vast masses of limestone, containing numerous
37 organic relics. Jacquemont® enumerates, as the prevailing
38 rocks of this region, sienitic granite, quartz of various colours,
39 grauwacke, limestone, schistose rocks of various forms, in general
40 in transition from grauwacke to limestone, oolitic iron ore.
41 If a line be drawn in a north-westerly direction from the Sut-
42 lej, close to Ropur, and in lat. 31°, long. 76° 30’, to Torbela, on
43 the Indus, in Jat. 34° 18’, long. 72° 44’, the section of the Sikh
44 territory to the north-east of it, comprising about three-sevenths
45 of the portion east of the Indus, will, with little exception, be
46 found to be an Alpine region, with an elevation scarcely any-
47 where short of 5,000 feet, for the most part varying from
48 10,000 to 20,000, fnd in some instances approaching to
49 30,000. South-west of the supposed line, the surface slopes
50 rapidly to the alluvial plain of the Punjab, which stretches
51 in that direction several hundred miles, with scarcely any con-
52 siderable eminences, except the salt range, connected with the
53 southern base of the Himalaya by a maze of hills, forming a very
54 rough, rocky, and difficult country.’ Burnes,’ who describes it
55 as ‘a mountainous and rugged country, of great strength,” says
56 —‘ Our road lay in ravines. The chaos of rocks, their vertical
57 strata terminating in needles from decomposition, the round
58 pebbles that lay imbedded in the sandstone, and the wild scenery,