BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 661 
writing regularly: if I go down the Indus, I shall write you a 
few lines again before I leave this, so that you may have further 
information.” 
“ Dras, Dec. 15, 1847. 
“ I write at present three lines to say that I left Iskardoh on 
the 2nd for Kashmir; but on arriving here, the day before yes- 
terday, find that it is impracticable to proceed further, and there- 
fore I shall start to-day on my return to Iskardoh, to remain 
there for the winter. The snow is three feet deep, and, on the 
pass twenty miles a-head, indefinitely deep, so that I do not know 
whether this note will be forwarded a fortnight or a month hence : 
hence it is needless to write at length. Iam quite well, and shall 
have plenty of occupation for two months in arranging my collec- 
tions, &c. 
* You may not hear from me again for some time, as I do not 
wish to send despatches, which would be only risking people’s 
lives needlessly. 
** Iskardoh, 24th Feb. 1848. 
“Though more than a month has now elapsed since the despatch 
of my last letter,* yet I think it almost certain that this will reach 
you at the same time, as I have reason to believe that the messen- 
ger by whom I forwarded it, has not yet left Dras. Nor 
have I very much information of a positive kind to communicate 
to you, long as the interval is, having been shut up here by snow 
since the date of my last. At that time I was in great hopes that 
the worst of the season had passed. On the contrary, by much 
the coldest, as well as (from the frequent and heavy snow) the 
most unpleasant part has been during the past month. The 
duration of the cold weather and the quantity of snow are both 
considered by residents something unusual, and for me they have 
been very unfortunate, as in consequence of my expecting all along 
that I should be able to start, I have been kept in a state of com- 
parative idleness ; with the greater part of my things packed up 
and ready. Even now that the spring may, I trust, be considered 
fairly set in, we have so little sun, that the snow has hardly begun 
* The letter above alluded to, seems never to have reached its place of destination. 
4x2 
