NATUKALIST IN INDIA. 301 



like the profoundest regions of the sea, the interior of these 

 great pine-forests contains little or no animal life. There 

 is apparently a similar gradation in the distribution of the 

 fauna of forest tracts as there is between the littoral and 

 abyssal regions of the deep. An occasional nutcracker -was 

 seen, but birds were remarkably scarce in all the forest parts. 

 We plucked abundance of raspberries in the clearings, and a 

 stone-bramble, possibly identical with, if not very closely allied 

 to, the Rubus saxatilis of northern Europe. Wild currants 

 were also plentiful, but sour and unpalatable. One day we 

 encountered a string of natives carrying loads of asafcetida 

 to the markets of Serinuggur. This plant, as before stated, 

 grows in abundance in certain defiles and valleys running 

 southwards, and is most plentiful on the more sheltered ridges. 

 It is a large umbelliferous plant, seldom under 6 feet in 

 height, with yellow flowers and thick stem, apparently the 

 same as that we had met with in the Sonamurg. 



The Lidur river, a moderate-sized mountain torrent of a 

 few yards in breadth, had to be crossed, and to our disappoint- 

 ment we were forced to retrace our steps some distance to 

 enable us to get across, in consequence of the log bridge 

 having been destroyed on the previous day by a party of 

 natives who had fled from the tyranny and oppression of the 

 ruler of Cashmere, and, with their cattle and household gods, 

 had pushed on by this route with the intention of becoming 

 subjects of Sher Ahamid Khan, a neighbouring rajah. On 

 the opposite bank we were shown a heap of stones, from 

 which the fugitives pelted the Maharajah's sepoys who had 

 been sent to bring them back. It was told us, moreover, that 

 with a few old muskets they managed to keep the military 

 at bay whilst their main body was retreating across the Kul- 

 lohoy glacier at the top of the valley. In 1849 this Sher 



