further west in Bashahr the higher
peaks range from 16,000 to 22,000 feet.

[Illustration: Fig. 3. Nanga Parvat.]

~The Inner Himalaya or Zanskar Range.~--The division of the Himalaya into
the three sections named above is convenient for descriptive purposes.
But its chief axis runs through all the sections. East of Nipal 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 Zanskar range. For a short distance it is the boundary
between the Panjab and Kashmir, separating two outlying portions of the
Kangra district, Lahul and Spiti, from Ladakh. In this section the peaks
are from 19,000 to 21,000 feet high, and the Baralacha pass on the road
from the Kulu valley in Kangra to Leh, the capital of Ladakh, is at an
elevation of about 16,500 feet. In Kashmir the Zanskar or Inner Himalaya
divides the valley of the Indus from those of the Chenab and Jhelam. It
has no mountain to dispute supremacy with Everest (29,000 feet), or
Kinchinjunga in the Eastern Himalaya, but the inferiority is only
relative. The twin peaks called Nun and Kun to the east of Srinagar
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 Zojila (11,300 feet) on the route
from Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, to Leh on the Indus

The road from Srinagar to Gilgit passes over the Burzil pass at an
elevation of 13,500 feet.

The Zojila is at the top of the beautiful valley of the Sind river, a
tributary of the Jhelam. The lofty Zanskar range blocks the inward flow
of the monsoon, and once the Zojila 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 Ladakh and nowhere more so
than near the Fotula (a pass on the road to Leh to the south of the