310 Visit to the Niti pass. £ Apri ti> 



to the Khalif. When they reached Sham they shewed the box to the 

 king, who ordered it into the seraglio, opening it in the presence of the 

 daughters of Da'iiik, to whom he said, " Behold how absolute is my 

 power, and how I treat such servants as Bin Kassim." The women 

 replied, " Oh king, just men ought not to be precipitate in great affairs, 

 or be too hasty to act, either upon the representation of friends or foes." 

 The king asked their meaning, they said, " We made this accusation 

 against Bin Kassim because of the hatred we bore him, seeing that he 

 slew our father, and through him we lost all our property and posses- 

 sions, and became exiles from our own country ; but Bin Kassim was 

 like a father and brother to us, he looked not on us for any bad pur- 

 pose, but when our object was revenge for the blood of our father, we 

 accused him of this treachery ; this end attained do with us as you wilh" 

 The Khalif on hearing this, suffered great remorse : he ordered the two 

 women to be tied to horses, and dragged to death, and they buried Bin 

 Kassim in the burial place at Damascus. 



Ill — Note of a visit to the Niti pass of the grand Himalayan chain. 



By J. H, Batten, Esq. C. S. 



[Extracted from a letter to, and communicated by, Captain P. T. Cautley.] 



Joshindth, 22nd Dec. 1837. 

 Having just returned from the Spiti pass, I think that an account of 

 my expedition thither, however brief, will not fail to interest one whom 

 I look upon, now that the admirable Falconer is far away absent from 

 India Proper, as the chief scientific authority of the Upper Provinces. 

 You are entitled to the first tribute of information gleaned in my trip, 

 because you have been ever ready to give the benefit of your instruct 

 tion to your pupils ; and secondly, because Falconer and yourself 

 have rendered the geological School of Sehdranpur illustrious, by the 

 well-deserved medals which you have won for its professors / 



Above the junction of the Dhauli and Alaknanda branches of the 

 Ganges at Vishnuprdg a mile below this place, (which is the chief seat 

 of the Badrina'th RaVal and his priests,) the glen of the Dhauli 

 continues for 35 miles up to Niti village. Near Joshindth and the whole 

 way to the junction of the Kini river, which comes from the north- 

 west face of Natidi Devi, this glen is characterised by the most exquisite 

 scenery ; the southern mountains sloping down to the river covered by 

 forests of Quercus semicarpifolia, Rosa webbiana (wild red rose), yew, 



