BIOGKAPIIICAL SKETCH. XXXlll 



to tlie gi'eat risk not only of his health, hut of his life,' and 

 from Falconer's diary it ajDpears that during his trip to 

 Jumnootree he was so seriously ill that on two occasions he 

 thought it necessary to bleed himself to a large amount. 



Not content with investigating the Natural History pro- 

 ductions of the country surrounding Suharunpoor, Dr. Fal- 

 coner had repeatedly expressed a desire to visit Cashmeer 

 for the same object. Accordingly in June 1837, on the 

 occasion of Burnes's second mission to Caubul, which pre- 

 ceded the Afghan war, Dr. Falconer, along with Lieutenant 

 Mackeson, was ordered by Lord Auckland, on the recom- 

 mendation of Captain Wade and Dr. N, Wallich, to join the 

 party, and then proceed into Cashmeer and the countries north 

 of that valley. United at Peshawur, the party consisted of 

 Burnes, Mackeson, Leech, Lord, Wood, and Falconer. Of 

 these six officers, Wood, the explorer of the Oxus, alone 

 survives. Li his journey from Loodianah to Peshawur, Dr. 

 Falconer found the Sewalik fossils all along the Sub-Hima- 

 lajan range from Jhelum on to Rawul Pindee. After ex- 

 ploring the neighbourhood of Peshawur he detached himself 

 from the rest of the party and proceeded westward to Kohat 

 and the lower part of the Valley of Bunguish, in order to 

 examine the Trans-Indus portion of the Salt-Range, and 

 then, in company with Lieutenant Mackeson, who many 

 years later was cruelly assassinated by a fanatic at Peshawur, 

 he made for Cashmeer, reaching the town of Cashmeer at the 

 latter end of September. Soon after their arrival Lieutenant 

 Mackeson received instructions to return at once to Peshawur, 

 but Dr. Falconer remained at Cashmeer, where he passed 

 the winter and spring examining the natural history of the 

 valley and making extensive collections. He lived in the 

 same house which had formerly been occupied by the cele- 

 brated traveller, Moorcroft, and here, for many weeks in 

 December and January, he suffered from an alarming illness, 

 which reduced him to a state of extreme prostration. The 

 following summer (1838) he crossed the mountains to 

 Iskardoh in Bulkistan, and by the aid of Rajah Ahmud Snah 

 traced the Shiffo'ur branch of the Indus to its source in the 

 glacier on the southern flank of the Mooztagh range, now 

 ascertained to be 28,200 feet above the level of the sea. 

 Having examined the great glaciers of Arindoh and of the 

 / VOL. I. b 



1 



