Correspondence. 569 



fennel, lavendar, and a thousand other well known plants, perfumed the 

 air, or recalled our recollections to our native land. The morning was 

 calm, grey, and autumnal. We were filled with a tranquil pleasure. 



" It struck us not a little singular, that amidst so great a profusion of 

 vegetables, animal life seemed all but totally extinct, a few magpies, spar- 

 rows, and pigeons, with an occasional chikor (Tetrao rufus) were the sole 

 representatives- of the winged tribes, as were a small lizard and a frog of 

 the reptiles. The greater number we were told had emigrated for the 

 winter towards the warmer regions of Jalalabad and Peshawar, and even 

 some, as the Kulung or Indian crane, to the plains of Hindostan. The 

 thermometer in our tents at this time, ranged between 45° and 65° Fahr." 



In regard to the migrations of birds throughout Asia, we know 

 nothing, and this department presents a wide and interesting field for 

 investigation. The magpie mentioned by Dr. Lord, is identical * with 

 the Pica vulgaris of Europe. What the sparrows and pigeons are we 

 cannot say, but his chikor, erroneously named Tetrao rufus, is, if iden- 

 tical with the chikor of the Himalayas, the Perdix chukar, (Gould.) 

 Having spent a few days on the lower hills, but finding that the snow 

 had commenced to fall above them, they were forced to hurry on, or 

 relinquish for a season their attempt to reach the Hindu Kush. 



"The entrance," says he, " of the Ghorbund Pass, which we meant to 

 penetrate, was but 4 or 5 miles in a N. W. direction from the town of 

 Charikar, but though the foot of the mountains was thus near, the 

 road through them was no less than 50 miles in length before it 

 led us to the top of the pass over Hindu Kush, by which the great 

 Caravans from Tartaiy or Turkhistan annually arrive in Cabul. As 

 the Usbeks at the other side of the pass are notorious slave dealers, 

 secrecy and dispatch were alike advisable; accordingly on the morn- 

 ing of the 18th October, equipped as Affghan horsemen, and accompani- 

 ed by four mounted attendants, and a guide to whom alone we had 

 entrusted our plan, we marched from Charikar, and halting an hour 

 at noon to rest the horses, succeeded by sunset in reaching Gherikze, 

 the last inhabited spot at this side of the pass, from which however it 

 was distant 18 miles." 



The summit of the pass Dr. Lord found to be composed of syenitic 

 granite, resting upon it gneiss, which was succeeded by mica slate and 

 clay slate, all of which passed imperceptibly into each other. At Sokht- 

 i-chenar he found imbedded in the gneiss a large and valuable bed of 

 sparry iron ore, which however is not worked; the iron afforded by this 

 ore is admirably adapted for making steel. In the mica slate, immedi- 

 ately over the entrance of the pass, and on the very summit of the 

 mountain, he found a small vein of silver ore, of but little value ; he 



