MAJOR CUNNINGHAM'S LADAX.* ALTHOUGH to a considerable extent the result
of personal observa- tion, this volume rather falls under the head of geographical me- moir than of travels. There are occasional incidents, descriptions of considerable force, with glimpses of the people and their cus- toms. As a whole, the information, whether collected by the author himself, or drawn from a very wide range of study as well native as European, is summed up in results. The book is there- fore of a special kind; more interesting to persons of a scientific bent, or to Anglo-Indians whose associations are with the country, than to the general reader. Ladak is that region which lies to the North-east of the Hima- layan range between 32 and 351 degrees North latitude. "The territory of Leda is one of the most elevated regions of the earth. Its different vallies lie along the head-waters of the Indus, the Sutluj, and the Chenab; and the joint effects of elevation and of isolation amidst snowy mountains produce perhaps the most singular climate in the known world. Burning heat by day is succeeded by piercing cold at night, and everything is parched by the extreme dryness of the air. The rarefied atmosphere offers but little impediment to the sun's rays, which during a short summer are sufficiently powerful to ripen barley at an elevation of 15,000 feet, although the temperature falls below the freezing-point every night. This climate is equally favourable to animal life. The plains between 16,000 and 17,000 feet are covered with wild horses and hares and immense flocks of domestic goats and sheep ; and the slopes of the hills up to 19,000 feet abound with marmots and Alpine hares. Such is the extreme dryness of the atmosphere, that no rain falls and but little snow, and both meats and fruits are cured by mere exposure to the air."
Besides the peculiarities induced by the physical features of the country, Ladak, under other names, has some antiquarian and his- torical connexions with classieo-commercial lore, the observations of an early Chinese traveller, Buddhism in certain of its stages, and the Grand Lama. These, however, are too alight and too remote, or else of too controversial a nature, to excite much general interest. If we had faller light upon the subject of the early history of all
• LadSk, Physical, Statistical, and Historical; with Notices of the Surrounding Countries. By Alexander Cunningham, Brevet Major, Bengal Engineers. Puh- lished by Allen and Co.
this high table-land, it might indeed become of great importance in the history of mankind. Major Cunningham maintains that Graucasus is a Tibetan word. Some later or existing customs or institutions resemble those of the Teutonic races. They practised the ordeal, and they have a jury.
" The administration of justice in Ladak was truly patriarchal. When any one was injured or aggrieved, he proceeded straight to the Gvalpo or Kahlon of his district, or to the Gobs of his village, and represented Ids case. An assembly of five or of seven elders of the community was then called to hear and to decide upon the case. In the capital, the proceedings were con- ducted with the observance of more form. The complainant made his case known to the Lonpo or mayor, who reported it to the Kahlon or prime min- ister. The Shakspon or chief justice was then directed to assemble a regu- lar court, composed either of five or of seven members, according to the im- portance of the case. The members were selected, as in the provinces, from amongst the Gatpas or elders' ; but to them were joined two or more Khrimpons or ' sitting magistrates,' whose duty it was to expound the lul- khrim, that is, the law of the land' or civil law."
The leading subject of Ladak, is geography in a large sense. Besides the extent and general features of the country, Major Cunningham minutely describes its mountains, rivers, lakes, springs, roads, passes, bridges, and natural productions, which from the singular nature of the region are all remarkable. The commerce of Ladak is fully exhibited; so are the government, the people, and the religion—a Tibetan system of Buddhism. There is also a notice of the history of Ladak and a sketch of its lan- guage. In each division of his subject Major Cunningham has brought together a large mass of information, presented in a way which combines fulness with breadth, and in a style that upon oc- casion rises to eloquence from the clearness with which extraordi- nary natural features and images are presented. The remoteness and insignificant power of the country, even before the Sikhs and the English had divided the territory, and, so far as we have any proof, the slender influence of Ladak upon the progress of the human race, militate against the popular interest of the book. Still there is matter of very considerable interest. The people seem to be a jolly good-humoured set, with many singular cus- toms, closely resembling, as we have already said, those of our Teutonic ancestors, and one at least akin to ours,—in a case of trim. con. the gallant is mulcted, though when a husband is the offender he must return the wife's dowry. The nature of the coun- try, consisting of Tallies, mountain-ranges, and rivers, compels the people to the exercise of ingenuity, and some of their suspension- bridges spanning rapid torrents are singular works of art, how- ever rough they may be and terrible to weak nerves. N atural phenomena are the most remarkable feature of Ladak. In that country some of the principal rivers of India have their source ; for instance, the Indus and the Sutlej. Fed from the regions of perpetual snow, with a bed falling rapidly owing to the heights whence they originate, the waters rush along through rock-bound vallies that present the picture of stern and gloomy desolation. The Himalayan system of glaciers sometimes places an icy ob- stacle across the river ; the waters accumulate above the barrier, and eventually force their way through. A similar result has taken place in the Alps of Europe, but with the difference in magnitude
between the Alps and the Himalayas.
"In these cold and lofty regions, almost every ravine is filled with a gla- cier, which, except during a very warm summer, never moves, but is bound to the rocks every night by the icy chains of frost. A glacier is melted on its under surface by the high temperature of the soil, and on its upper surface by the thawing of the snow under the direct rays of the sun. The heated stones that lie on the top form hollows and clefts that ad- mit the external air, and little rills of water trickle over the sides in all directions. The glacier is thus furrowed by holes, penetrated by cracks, and undermined below, until it becomes narrower than the ravine which contains it. It then descends by its own weight, and is either rent to pieces by un- equal pressure, or checked by some opposing obstacle. In a very warm and dry summer, the glaciers in the lateral ravines of the Khundan would be so much diminished by melting and evaporation, that they would be impelled onwards by their own gravity right across the channel of the river. This I suppose to have been the case towards the end of September 1826; from which time the channel of the Khundan river has never been clear, and the accu- mulated waters have formed a lake of considerable size, to which the people have given the name of Nubra Tsho, or the Nubra Lake. The accounts which Vigne received were 'various and most conflicting, but all agreed that it was very large' ; and he concluded that it might be three or four miles in length and lees than a mile in width.' My informant, who had seen the lake, said it was four or five kos (eight or ten miles) iu length, and less than a quarter of a kos (half a mile) in breadth ; and such is the shape, that I should suppose it must take in the confined channel of the Khundan ricer. • • • •
" The expected cataclysm occurred in June 1841; but it was immensely greater in volume and more devastating in its effects than the previous in- undation of 1833.
" During December 1840 and January 1841, the Indus was observed to be- unusually low between Torbela and Attock. In February and March it be- came lower, and was even fordable not far above Attock ; but in April and May, though still very low, it was no longer fordable, as the depth of the stream had been much increased by the melted snows. Early in June the barrier was burst, and the collected waters of nearly six months rushed with overwhelming violence down the narrow valley of the Shayok, sweeping everything before them. Houses and trees, men and women, horses and oxen, sheep and goats, were carried away at once - and all the alluvial flats in the bed of the river, which had been irrigated with laborious care, were destroyed in a moment. This happened in the middle of the month of
i
Jyeth in the Sambat year 1898, or about the 1st June A. D. 1841. " According to the testimony of the people of Chulung and Tartuk, on the Western boundary of Chhorbad, the wave of inundation passed their village/ at two o'clock in the afternoon. As these villages stand on opposite sides of the river, and are ten miles apart, the concurrence of testimony may be taken as a proof of its correctness. Two days afterwards, and exactly at the same hour, the flood passed by Torbela, a distance of 550 miles. The rate is 11.4583 miles per hour, or 16.81 feet per second ; being only just half that of the flood-wave of the Val de Bagnes in 1818 at its first burst into the valley of the Rhone. The fall from the Khundan glacier to Torbela is 16,000 fee; OT just 20 feet per mile."
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