38 SCIENTIFIC MISSION 
both Deodars and Pinus Gerardiana re-appear, though in very 
small quantity, and miserably stunted. Beyond Soongnum, on 
my way up the Hungarung Pass, a solitary and wretched Gerard’s 
Pine was seen, and this kind of tree had wholly vanished from 
the northern face. Now, I have selected these trees as the most 
marked and prominent features of the change of vegetation ; but 
in herbaceous species the alteration is yet more complete. It is 
obviously impossible to enumerate them. As we advanced, As- 
tragali, Artemisia, and Chenopodiaceae increased in numbers, and 
sometimes almost usurped the soil, each kind of plant growing in 
large patches. The Junipers, Astragali, and Caragana formed 
round tufts: the others sprang up among the rocks and stones, 
and in the coarse gravel which generally covers these mountains. 
The most prevalent and tenacious among Indian plants seems to 
be a Cynoglossum, which has followed us even here, and Salvia 
rubicola, which only ceased a week ago. 
“On the 24th, we arrived at Sio, on the right bank of the Piti 
river, elevated about 9,000 feet above the level, but where luxu- 
riant crops of Millet, Buck-wheat, and Apricot Trees grow in the 
greatest profusion. J have purposely abstained from noticing the 
Alpine plants, with which the summits of the Passes presented me 
in vast abundance, because, generally speaking, I have been 
unable, through want of time, to examine and name them; and 
my ignorance of the Himalayan productions, at similar altitudes, 
forbids my drawing any comparison between them. I may, how- 
ever, state that the vegetation of the three Passes, near as they are 
to one another, is strikingly different, both in the number of 
species, and of individual plants. In the latter, particularly, the 
diminution was exceedingly marked. 
* At Sio, we crossed the Piti river, and ever since, our course 
_ has led through a country, much resembling the Hungarung Pass, 
and its immediately adjacent districts. We have been gradually 
rising as we advance, and the bed of the river, at this place, 
having an elevation of 11,000 feet above the sea, we cannot, of 
um * ourrse, go below that level. Ever since crossing the Piti, we 
E have kept very near its left bank. The face of the country, from À 
