Himalayan Journals — Volume 1: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
History
Himalayan Journals — Volume 1: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains
We encamped at a most remarkable place: the valley was broad, with
little vegetation but stunted tree-junipers: rocky snow-topped
mountains rose on either side, bleak, bare, and rugged; and in front,
close above my tent, was a gigantic wall of rocks, piled--as if by
the Titans--completely across the valley, for about three-quarters of
a mile. This striking phenomenon had excited all my curiosity on
first obtaining a view of it. The path, I found, led over it, close
under its west end, and wound amongst the enormous detached fragments
of which it was formed, and which were often eighty feet square: all
were of gneiss and schist, with abundance of granite in blocks and
veins. A superb view opened from the top, revealing its nature to be
a vast moraine, far below the influence of any existing glaciers, but
which at some antecedent period had been thrown across by a glacier
descending to 10,000 feet, from a lateral valley on the east flank.
Standing on the top, and looking south, was the Yangma valley (up
which I had come), gradually contracting to a defile, girdled by
snow-tipped mountains, whose rocky flanks mingled with the black pine
forest below. Eastward the moraine stretched south of the lateral
valley, above which towered the snowy peak of Nango, tinged rosy red,
and sparkling in the rays of the setting sun: blue glaciers peeped
from every gulley on its side, but these were 2000 to 3000 feet above
this moraine; they were small too, and their moraines were mere
gravel, compared with this. Many smaller consecutive moraines, also,
were evident along the bottom of that lateral valley, from this great
one up to the existing glaciers. Looking up the Yangma was a flat
grassy plain, hemmed in by mountains, and covered with other
stupendous moraines, which rose ridge behind ridge, and cut off the
view of all but the mountain tops to the north. The river meandered
through the grassy plain (which appeared a mile and a half broad at
the utmost, and perhaps as long), and cut through the great moraine
on its eastern side, just below the junction of the stream from the
glacial valley, which, at the lower part of its course, flowed over
a broad steep shingle bed.
Illustration--ANCIENT MORAINE THROWN ACROSS THE YANGMA VALLEY, EAST
NEPAL (Elevn. 11,000 ft.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account