- 
658 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
of my future movements, and in which direction I shall wend my 
way. However, though two despatches have arrived, they have 
contained only newspapers, so that I infer an intermediate packet 
has gone astray. This want of information, however, completely 
puts it out of my power to tell you anything of my future 
motions; and I do not know whether I shall find myself in a con- 
dition to write you regularly or not for the next month or two. 
* My last letter was from Nubra, dated the twentieth ult. The 
course of my journey from that date has been simple enough. I 
followed the course of Shayük river the whole way to its junction 
with the Indus, and thence along the united stream to this place, 
surveying as I went along, so as to lay down the course of the river. 
I was rather unfortunate in weather; the end of autumn being 
the unsettled season in this part of the world, and I had dull 
cloudy weather almost the whole way. Occasionally it cleared up 
for a day or two, but the clouds soon returned, while much snow 
fell on the mountains all round: but I have had the good luck 
to get down without having any myself, except a very slight fall 
on two occasions, just enough to whiten the ground. The snow 
seems to avoid the valleys even when of no great breadth. The 
great elevation of the mountains is doubtless the cause. The valley 
of the Shayük presents few features of interest, the mountains are 
- bare, rugged, and desolate. At Nubra and one or two other 
places the valley of the river is wide and and gravelly, but in 
general it is very narrow; the mountains closing on the river. 
The road was, in consequence, frequently difficult. Where pro- 
jecting rocks jutted into the river, and were impassable at the base, _ 
there were deep ascents over rather awkward-looking places. 
There are numerous villages along the banks, generally with a great 
quantity of fruit trees. The Apricot everywhere most abundant, as 
were Walnuts, Mulberries and other fruit trees, the numbers of 
these becoming greater as the elevation diminished. I saw a few 
Vines occasionally, but nowhere in any quantity. During the last- 
eight days Plane trees made their appearance. "The corn has of 
course been long ago cut, and as the trees have now almost en- - 
tirely lost their leaves, the appearance of the country is very 
