1879. ] passed through by the 2nd Col. Tal Chotiali Field Foree. 105 
places, both well and river, evidently holds salts in solution ; in some places, as 
in Sagar and the Trikh Kuram Pass, it is undrinkable from its saltness. 
Overgrowths.—One of the most distinctive features of Southern Af- 
ghanistan is the want of trees, but this appears to me to be due more to the 
inhabitants than to nature. In the higher regions, 7. e., above 8000 feet, the 
hills and uplands are fairly wooded with junipers and conifers of sorts, and 
wherever from various reasons the country is uninhabited, as in the Surai 
Pass, the Hanumbar Pass and all the land between the Trikh Kuram Pass and 
the Han Pass the country is fairly wooded with olives, bér and babul trees 
with tamarisks and a dwarf palm in the lower and damper grounds. Indeed 
about the Hanumbar Pass there is a forest of bér and babul trees. There 
is, however, another general feature to be observed everywhere after the 
Bolan and Han Passes are once crossed, the presence of southernwood and 
eamel-thorn, which is universal. Grasses also of sorts flourish in most 
places, so that it may be presumed that the soil is the reverse of being un 
productive were any efficient system of irrigation to be introduced. And io 
did not appear that water is really wanting in the country if trouble and 
skill were used in finding it. 
Fossil remains.—After Khwara in the Shor valley testacean fossils 
abound, and the hills about the Hanokai and Han Passes may be described 
as being one mass of fossils, some in a wonderfully complete state of 
preservation, as the accompanying collection will show. They appear to be 
of the post-tertiary period. ‘The same may be said of the hole country 
between the Han Pass and the plains w7@ the Chachar ass. I only saw 
one fossi] of an animal which was picked up near Ningand in the Ghazgai 
valley. (No. 203.) 
Notes en Route. 
North Pishin Valley.—Hills apparently of volcanic origin, basalt and 
shale ; quartz is found in layers between the strata which are irregular, 
faulty, and much folded with dips at great angles. The hills are bare and 
greatly scoured by water. The Pishin isan open valley about 25 miles 
long and 20 miles broad. 
Kala Abdullah Khin.—The hills about this point are bare and some- 
what bleak. 
North Pishin to Badwain.—The country along the road is intersected 
by a series of water channels and torrent-beds carrying down enormous 
quantities of detritus from the hills to the north of the valley, the land 
between them being much water-worn, apparently scoured after every 
shower and liable to sudden and violent floods. 
