662 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
to disappear, though quite spongy and ready to melt with a couple 
of sunny days. The roads or pathways are free of snow, so I have: 
made up my mind, unless it snows heavily, to commence my 
travels to-morrow. It is my intention to make eight or ten 
marches, according to circumstances, down the Indus, so as to 
be back here about the 13th of next month. I shall then be 
guided entirely by what I may hear from India, from which 
quarter, so soon as the pass is practicable, I ought to receive a 
very large packet ; but as I have no more information than when 
T last wrote, I need not speculate much on that subject. With 
about one foot and a half of snow upon the ground, I have, of 
course, been in a great measure a prisoner. In the morning and . 
forenoon I generally took a good walk, till a sharp thaw commenced, 
since which time the roads have been a mixture of snow and 
water. Neither the cold, nor the quantity of snow is by any 
means so great as at Ghuzné. The lowest temperature which I 
have observed here has been 17° Cent. To-day the thermometer 
rose to 43° F., and at sunset was at 34°. It is rather remarkable 
that the snow disappears so very slowly with such a temperature. 
For four days the temperature has risen above 40°, and yet the 
apparent change is confined to spots round houses, and to foot- 
paths ; the mass of snow, however, though not diminished in 
depth, has evidently melted considerably. 
“ Iskardoh, March 30, 1848. 
“T have not written since the 24th ult., for evident reasons. 
On the 25th of February I left this place on an exploring expedi- 
tion down the Indus. As soon as I got beyond the open country 
which forms the plain of Iskardoh, I found that the river entered 
an exceedingly rugged, narrow valley, the mountains on each side 
very precipitous, and the villages few in number, situated on ter- 
races of alluvial conglomerate, at considerable elevations above 
the stream. The nature of the country made my progress slow, — 
the road consisting of a succession of ascents and descents from the 
bank of the river, 500, 1000, or sometimes 2000 feet up, and — 
then down again; so that the horizontal distance did not amount — 
