Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 1).djvu/34

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14
MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND PLAINS
[ch. ii]

Tibetan plateau. The next great water divide is in the neighbourhood of the Baralacha 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 Hindustan-Tibet road and drops rapidly into the Sutlej gorge, where the Lurf bridge is only 2650 feet above sea level. Rising steeply on the other side the Jalauri pass on the Watershed between the Sutlej and the Bias is crossed at an elevation of 10,800 feet. A more gradual descent brings the traveller to the Bias at Larji, 3080 feet above sea level. The route then follows the course of the Bias 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 Bangahal range, dividing Kulu from Kangra and the source of the Bias from that of the Ravi. Beyond the Rotang is Lahul, which is divided by a watershed from Spiti and the torrents which drain into the Sutlej. On the western side of this watershed are the sources of the Chandra and Bhaga, which unite to form the river known in the plains as the Chenab.

Mid Himalaya or Pangi Range.— The Mid Himalayan or Pangi range, striking west from the Rotang pass and the northern end of the Bara Bangahal chain, passes through the heart of Chamba dividing the valley of the Chenab (Pangi) from that of the Ravi. After entering Kashmir it crosses the Chenab 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 Kagan glen in Hazara.