558 



REPORT OF EXPEDITION 



Burnes liad already arrived at Kala Bagh, and was en route 

 to Attock, which information induced me to urge upon His 

 Highness the favour of an early departure from Lahore, so as 

 to give me the chance of joining the Caubul Mission party 

 before they crossed the Indus. My request was acceded to, 

 and on the 17th I was admitted to an audience of leave. 

 On the 18th I set out for Attock. 



4. It had been my intention, originally founded on the 

 information which I got from Captain Wade regarding the 

 progress of Captain Burnes up the Indus, to proceed from 

 Lahore to Pind Dadun Khan, and thence to Kala Bagh 

 with the object of examining the structure and productions 

 of the salt range, so remarkable a feature in the physical 

 geography of the Punjab ; but the advance of the mission 

 compelled me to forego this object, and to follow the direct 

 route to Attock. I reached Vazeerabad on the Chenab in 

 three marches, and thence I went to Rotas ' via Buerwal 

 and Jlnelum ; fi'om. Rotas I proceeded by Bukrala Bish- 

 endour and Maukejalla to Rawul Pindee, and thence by 

 Kale Sura to Hussein Abdul, where I had the satisfac- 

 tion of joining Captain Burnes' j)arty, and of meeting with 

 Lieutenant Mackeson, the companion of the journey which I 

 had in prospect. 



5. My farther movements were now dependant on those of 

 Lietitenant Mackeson, and I found that that officer, in pur- 

 suance of instructions from Captain Wade, purposed to proceed 

 to Peshawur. This decision caused me some perplexity. Hus- 

 sein Abdul is a point where the road diverges respectively to 

 Cashmeer and to Peshavnir. Cashmeer was the destination 

 which the Government pointed out for my investigations in 

 Natural History ; and the season for collecting with advan- 

 tage in botany was already far advanced, and, as regarded the 

 hill tracts around Cashmeer, it was rapidly passing by. If 

 I went on to Peshawiu-, and subsequently got to Cashmeer, I 

 could, at the best, but expect to arrive there about the end 



' ' I beg to inform 3'ou that one of the 

 most interesting results at which I have 

 arrived has been the finding of fossil 

 bones and other organic remains along 

 all the points of the Sub-Himalaj-an 

 range on which I have touched, from 

 Jhehim on to near Rawul Pindee, and 

 that these fossil bones have proved iden- 

 tical with those which are found in the 

 Sewalik or Sub-Himalayan range be- 

 tween the Jumna and Sutlej, thus estab- 

 lishing tlie identity of the tertiary for- 

 mations along the foot of the Himalayahs 

 from the Ganges to near the Indus, a 

 point of much interest in the physical 



history of the mountain range.' — Extract 

 from Official Bcport by Br. F. to Captain 

 Wade, July, 1837. 



' I got our Sewalik fossils on beyond 

 the Jhelum, proving the protraction of 

 the range as far nearly as the Indus, 

 and I got fossil shells, apparently recent, 

 like our Sewalik casts, in a superficial 

 bed of the salt formation near Rotas, 

 in a sandstone associated with crocodi- 

 lean remains. I had only half an hour 

 one evening to give to the inquiry.' — 

 Letter from Br. F. to Captai7i Cauthy, 

 Cashmeer, January 11, 1838. — [Ed.] 



