OBSERVATIONS ON HIMALAYAN CONIFEES. 



249 



vegetation on the Choor, the Changsheel, Shallee, and the snowy 

 range of Busehur, forming almost invariably the belt next below 

 Abies Webbiana. In the absence of more civilized mattresses 

 the " spray" of each affords no mean bedding, and is in frequent 

 requisition for this purpose ; like Picea balsamea, in Canada, 

 where " the Indians, in their winter journeys, scrape the snow 

 together with their shoes, thus making a kind of wall to their 

 lair, and then strewing the ground with branches of this fir, 

 wrap themselves in their blankets. Defended in this manner, 

 they sleep in security when the thermometer is many degrees 

 below zero ; and in this way did Captain Thompson sleep be- 

 tween two Indians in his unsuccessful attempt to overtake Cap- 

 tain Franklin in his Arctic journey." 



The Pindrow appears not to have been hitherto traced be- 

 yond Kashmeer, where Mr. Winterbottom and other botanists 

 found it plentifully on the Peer Punjal, and all the southern 

 and eastern ranges, still exhibiting its preference for northern 

 and western aspects. It probably exists with Abies Smithiana 

 in the mountains of Kafir istan. 



Dr. Griffith has somewhere expressed his resolution, in the 

 event of any new pine being discovered in our mountains, to 

 consecrate it to the memory of Captain Herbert ; and should no 

 such discovery be made, to apply his name to the very best of 

 those already known. The Nepalese larch, being intended to 

 commemorate himself, the local and barbarous term Pindroiv, 

 applied to this tree, meets the want almost equally well ; and it 

 would be no more than a merited compliment to botli these 

 gentlemen were it to be distinguished henceforth as Picea Her- 

 bertiana. 



The names of the conquerors and explorers of the Himalaya, 

 Ochterlony, Lawtie, Hodgson, Herbert, Griffith, Hooker, Fal- 

 coner, Strachey, might thus be associated with the scenes 

 and the objects which their zeal, science, or military skill have 

 opened to our residence and knowledge : and that in a more 

 pleasing and even permanent manner than by the creation of 

 monuments in Bengal, a country which has so little in common 

 with the Himalaya, except the Ganges. 



" While kings, in dusky darkness hid, 

 Have left a nameless pyramid ; 

 Thy heroes, though the general doom 

 Have swept the column from their tomb, 

 A mightier monument command, 

 The mountains of their native land." 



The term Pindrow is chiefly used in the petty state of Kom- 

 harsen (Nagkunda) ; in Kotgooroo and Bhujee, the name is 

 Boorool, JBoorra, and Booldoo : in the Tiroch (Ootroj) moun- 



