[Sidenote: UPPER COURSE OF THE INDUS. _September, 1847._]
The course of the river Indus, from its source to Le, has hitherto been less known than any other part in Tibet; but as Captain Strachey, a month or two after our visit, descended along it from the Chinese frontier, as far as Le, the unknown portion is now very much reduced. It rises in the mountains north of the lakes of Mansarawer and Rawan Rhad, and runs in general towards the north-east. Moorcroft has described its appearance at Garu or Gartop, where it is a very insignificant stream; but the intervening country is so little known, except by native report, that we can scarcely be said to have an exact knowledge of the upper part of its course. There is in some maps an eastern branch laid down, but of that we have no definite information. From the arid and snowless nature of the country through which it must flow, it is probably a very small stream, but its length may be considerable.
Immediately above the open plain in which we joined the Indus, it would appear to have a very rocky and rugged channel. Such, at least, was the description given to us by our guides of the lower course of the Hanle river, which we left only a few miles before it joined the Indus; and as the mountains to the south-west appeared to close in very abruptly within a very short distance of our encampment, we could not doubt that the open and level plain which we found in this portion of the river's course was of limited extent, and quite an exceptional feature in the character of the country through which the Indus flows. From the great elevation and abrupt slope of the range which runs parallel to the Hanle river on the east, there can be no doubt that the spurs which it sends down on its north-east slope, towards the Indus, must be bold and rocky; and though the hills on the left bank of the Hanle river are much less elevated, yet they rise as they advance to the eastward. The descent of this river too, though very gentle in the upper part of its course, while its valley is broad, is probably very abrupt in the last few miles, where its channel is rocky and its ravine narrow. The elevation of its junction with the Indus is, I believe, about 13,800 feet above the level of the sea.