All the villages are surrounded by fine orchards of apricot-trees. Walnut and mulberry trees are also common; and at Turtuk I saw a few vines; these latter are, however, by no means generally cultivated in the district. Willows are less frequent than in Nubra, but there are plenty of poplars. The black poplar is the common species, but a white downy-leaved species (_P. alba_), which is cultivated also in Kunawar, and which seems to be indigenous in some of the Himalayan valleys south of Kashmir, occurs for the first time at Turtuk. The fields are everywhere terraced, and water seems to be very abundant.
[Sidenote: ROCKS OF CHORBAT. _October, 1847._]
A very remarkable outburst of granite commences at the junction of the Boghdan ravine with the Shayuk, and continues as far as Siksa, altering the secondary rocks so that they can scarcely be recognized. The granite is frequently in great mass, and usually occupies the lowest part of the valley, sending out gigantic veins or branches into the overlying slates, which are often transformed into a coarse serpentine. The hard conglomerate which is associated with the slate, seems the same as occurs in Lower Nubra, so that probably the slates are also a continuation of the same series, and the whole may even be connected with the conglomerates and slates of the Giah valley and of the Indus below Le, the strike of which to the N.W. or N.N.W. would carry them nearly in the direction of Chorbat. Here the intrusion of the granite renders both dip and strike obscure, the beds being frequently quite vertical.
From Siksa, close to which there is a small fort or castle on an isolated rock, a road leads across the Hanu pass into the valley of the Indus. By this route Mr. Vigne proceeded when he abandoned his intention of penetrating by the Shayuk to Nubra, and it has since been crossed by several travellers at different times. It is, indeed, a route very commonly adopted in travelling from Iskardo to Le, as the lower part of the Shayuk is more open and practicable than the Indus below the junction of the river of Dras.
[Sidenote: PLAIN OF KHAPALU. _October, 1847._]
Below Siksa, the valley of the Shayuk continues narrow for eight or ten miles. It then begins again to expand, and its width continues to increase as far as Khapalu, which is situated near the centre of a wide plain similar to that of Nubra, and, like that, coincident with the junction of a large river from the north. It is certainly worthy of note, that it is always at the point of junction of large tributaries that the valley of the Shayuk is widest, and that the evidences of the former existence of lakes are most evident, while in the intermediate parts of its course the valley is narrow and rugged, and shows no certain indications of having been at any period lacustrine.