the Himálaya drops rapidly to the Siwálik foot-hills and to the plains. Jakko, the deodár-clad hill round which so much of the life of the summer capital of India revolves, attains a height of 8000 feet. The highest peak within a radius of 25 miles of Simla is the Chor, which is over 12,000 feet high, and does not lose its snow cap till May. Hattu, the well-known hill above Narkanda, which is 40 miles from Simla by road, is 1000 feet lower. But further west in Bashahr the higher peaks range from 16,000 to 22,000 feet.
The Inner Himálaya or Zánskar Range.—The division of the Himálaya into the three sections named above is convenient for descriptive purposes. But its chief axis runs through all the sections. East of Nipál it strikes into Tibet not very far from the source of the Tsanpo, is soon pierced by the gorge of the Sutlej, and beyond it forms the southern watershed of the huge Indus valley. In the west this great rampart is known as the Zánskar range. For a short distance it is the boundary between the Panjáb and Kashmír, separating two outlying portions of the Kángra district, Lahul and Spití, from Ladákh. In this section the peaks are from 19,000 to 21,000 feet high, and the Baralácha pass on the road from the Kulu valley in Kángra to Leh, the capital of Ladákh, is at an elevation of about 16,500 feet. In Kashmír the Zánskar or Inner Himálaya divides the valley of the Indus from those of the Chenáb and Jhelam. It has no mountain to dispute supremacy with Everest (29,000 feet), or Kinchinjunga in the Eastern Himálaya, but the inferiority is only relative. The twin peaks called Nun and Kun to the east of Srínagar exceed 23,000 feet, and in the extreme north-west the grand mountain mass of Nanga Parvat towers above the Indus to a height of 26,182 feet. The lowest point in the chain is the Zojilá (11,300 feet) on the route from Srínagar, the capital of Kashmír, to Leh on the Indus
The road from Srínagar to Gilgit passes over the Burzil pass at an elevation of 13,500 feet.
The Zojilá is at the top of the beautiful valley of the Sind river, a tributary of the Jhelam. The lofty Zánskar range blocks the inward flow of the monsoon, and once the Zojilá is crossed the aspect of the country entirely changes. The land of forest glades and green pastures is left behind, and a region of naked and desolate grandeur begins.
"The waste of snow … is the frontier of barren Tibet, where sandy wastes replace verdant meadows, and where the wild ridges, jutting up against the sky, are kept bare of vegetation, their strata crumbling under the destructive action of frost and water, leaving bare ribs of gaunt and often fantastic outline. … The colouring of the mountains is remarkable throughout Ladákh and nowhere more so than near the Fotulá (a pass on the road to Leh to the south of the Indus gorge). … As we ascend the peaks suggest organ pipes, so vertical are the ridges, so jagged the ascending outlines. And each pipe is painted a different colour … pale slate green, purple, yellow, grey, orange, and chocolate, each colour corresponding with a layer of the slate, shale, limestone, or trap strata" (Neve's Picturesque Kashmir, pp. 108 and 117).
In all this desolation there are tiny oases where level soil and a supply of river water permit of cultivation and of some tree growth.
Water divide near Baralácha and Rotang Passes in Kulu.—We have seen that the Indus and its greatest tributary, the Sutlej, rise beyond the Himálaya in the Tibetan plateau. The next great water divide is in the neighbourhood of the Baralácha pass and the Rotang pass, 30 miles to the south of it. The route from Simla to Leh runs at a general level of 7000 to 9000 feet along or near the Sutlej-Jamna watershed to Narkanda (8800 feet). Here it leaves the Hindustán-Tibet road and drops rapidly into the Sutlej gorge, where the Lurí bridge is only 2650 feet above sea level. Rising steeply on the other side the Jalaurí pass on the watershed between the Sutlej and the Biás is crossed at an elevation of 10,800 feet. A more gradual descent brings the traveller to the Biás at Lárjí, 3080 feet above sea level. The route then follows the course of the Biás through the beautiful Kulu valley to the Rotang pass (13,326 feet), near which the river rises. The upper part of the valley is flanked on the west by the short, but very lofty Bara Bangáhal range, dividing Kulu from Kángra and the source of the Biás from that of the Ráví. Beyond the Rotang is Lahul, which is divided by a watershed from Spití and the torrents which drain into the Sutlej. On the western side of this watershed are the sources of the Chandra and Bhága, which unite to form the river known in the plains as the Chenáb.
Mid Himálaya or Pangí Range.—The Mid Himálayan or Pangí range, striking west from the Rotang pass and the northern end of the Bara Bangáhal chain, passes through the heart of Chamba dividing the valley of the Chenáb (Pangí) from that of the Ráví. After entering Kashmír it crosses the Chenáb near the Kolahoi cone (17,900 feet) and the head waters of the Jhelam. Thence it continues west over Haramukh (16,900 feet), which casts its shadow southwards on the Wular lake, to the valley of the Kishnganga, and probably across it to the mountains which flank the magnificent Kágan glen in Hazâra.
Outer Himálaya or Dhauladhár-Pir Panjál Range.—The Outer Himálaya also starts from a point near the Rotang pass, but some way to the south of the offset of the Mid Himalayan chain. Its main axis runs parallel to the latter, and under the name of the Dhauladhár (white ridge) forms the boundary of the Chamba State and Kángra, behind whose headquarters, at Dharmsála it stands up like a huge wall. It has a mean elevation of 15,000 feet, but rises as high as 16,000. It passes from Chamba into Bhadarwáh in Kashmír, and crossing the Chenáb is carried on as the Pír Panjál range through the south of that State. With an elevation of only 14,000 or 15,000 feet it is a dwarf as compared with the giants of the Inner Himalayan and Muztagh-Karakoram chains. But it hides them from the dwellers in the Panjáb, and its snowy crest is a very striking picture as seen in the cold weather from the plains of Ráwalpindí, Jhelam, and Gujrát. The Outer Himálaya is continued beyond the gorges of the Jhelam and Kishnganga rivers in Kajnág and the hills of the Hazára district. Near the eastern extremity of the Dhauladhár section of the Outer Himálaya it sends out southwards between Kulu and Mandí a lower offshoot. This is crossed by the Babbu (9480 feet) and Dulchí passes, connecting Kulu with Kángra through Mandí. Geologically the Kulu-Mandí range appears to be continued to the east of the Biás and across the Sutlej over Hattu and the Chor to the hills near Masúrí (Mussoorie), a well-known hill station in the United Provinces. Another offshoot at the western end of the Dhauladhár passes through the beautiful hill station of Dalhousie, and sinks into the low hills to the east of the Ráví, where it leaves Chamba and enters the British district of Gurdáspur.
River Valleys and Passes in the Himálaya.—While these principal chains can be traced from south-east to north-west over hundreds of miles it must be remembered that the Himálaya is a mountain mass from 150 to 200 miles broad, that the main axes are linked together by subsidiary cross chains dividing the head waters of great rivers, and flanked by long and lofty ridges running down at various angles to the gorges of these streams and their tributaries. The typical Himalayan river runs in a gorge with mountains dipping down pretty steeply to its sides. The lower slopes are cultivated, but the land is usually stony and uneven, and as a whole the crops are not of a high class. The open valleys of the Jhelam in Kashmír and of the Biás in Kulu are exceptions. Passes in the Himálaya are not defiles between high cliffs, but cross the crest of a ridge at a point where the chain is locally depressed, and snow melts soonest. In the Outer and Mid Himálaya the line of perpetual snow is at about 16,000 feet, but for six months of the year the snow-line comes down 5000 feet lower. In the Inner Himálaya and the Muztagh-Karakoram, to which the monsoon does not penetrate, the air is so dry that less snow falls and the line is a good deal higher.