55G Journal of a trip through Kunawur, fyc. [No. 102. 



and unproductive of ought, save furze. How cautious therefore should 

 the traveller be, lest noting down too hastily his first impressions, he 

 be lead to pronounce that country barren, which at another and more 

 favourable season, he would find rich in plants and cultivation. Such 

 indeed, I am told, has been the case at this very mountain of Hun- 

 grung; M. Jacquemont, who crossed it in summer, when all was 

 " blythe and gay," having passed some severe critical remarks on 

 Messrs. Herbert and P. Gerard, who crossing it some years previously 

 in autumn, when all the beauty of the scene was over, had pro- 

 nounced it wanting in botanical treasures. Both parties were some- 

 what hasty, the one seeming to think the district always rich in flow- 

 ers, and the other, that it never was so; neither seem to have taken 

 into consideration the effects to be expected from change of seasons, and 

 truly when I first crossed the Pass in June, I was inclined to adopt an 

 equally hasty conclusion; for the very look of the place, so still and 

 lonely, so bare and sad, seemed to strike a chill upon me, and to depress 

 my spirits, so that on my return, the beauty that every where met the 

 eye appeared to have been conjured up by magic, or like the sud- 

 den and well managed shifting of a winter scene, to one of smiling 

 summer. 



From Hungo we ascended to the Hungrung Pass, which is the 

 boundary between Kunawur and the Tartars of " Hungrung within." 

 In place of the cold sheet of snows that was every where spread 

 around when I last travelled over this ground, the Chinese furze, 

 the wild shalot, yellow potentilla, rhubarb, and several other plants 

 now enriched the scene, and the delicate flowers of " Saxifraga 

 ciliata" were abundant. 



On recrossing the Hungrung Pass, I once more entered Kuna- 

 wur, and bid a long adieu to Tartary and Tartars. 



I am far from thinking, with the late Dr. Gerard, that " the Tartars 

 are the finest fellows I ever met with," — nor can I give them the 

 preference over the Kunawurrees. That they are frank and free 

 enough in their manner, I allow ; but I often found them too much 

 so, and so troublesomely curious and inquisitive were they, that 

 it was sometimes only by threatening them with the stick, that I 

 could keep my tent free from them. As to their honesty, it appeared 

 to me very like the honour which is said to exist among thieves; 



