xiv 



NOTICE OF WILLIAM GRIFFITH. 



has excoriated my hands, beautifully white as they were after my 

 sickness, but not before I had caught 3 barbels, evidently different 

 from those of the other side of the range. I caught some trout 

 yesterday evening, it is a most beautiful fish, I was particularly 

 struck with the size of the eye, its prominence, and expressive pupil, 

 in opposition to the sluggishness of the eyes of carps. 



" It is strange that Botany has always been the most favoured of 

 the natural sciences, it is strange that in spite of what all do say 

 it is the least advanced of any. How can I reconcile my own 

 splendid opportunities with those of more deserving naturalists in 

 other branches ? and I would willingly share them on the principle of 

 common fairness with others, who I know would turn them to a 

 better account. Oreinus takes the worm greedily ; in the Helmund, 

 11,000 feet above the sea, it is abundant. It is the same species 

 I think as that in the Cabul river ; but in the Cabul river, Barbus is 

 the predominant fish : in the Helmund it is the reverse. How can 

 one account for the small elevation at which fish are found in the 

 Himalayan ? I cannot imagine it is owing as some think to the rela- 

 tive impetuosity of the rivers, which after all is only an assumption. 



" This Bamean valley is the strangest place imaginable, its barren- 

 ness and the variegated colours of the rocks convey the idea of its 

 volcanic origin, and give it a look as if it had come out of the furnace. 

 I cannot make out where the stones so universally found all over the 

 slopes of the mountains, came from, for very generally they seem 

 water- worn. I find no great peculiarity in the flora of this side of the 

 range, except an abundance of odd-looking Chenopodiaceous plants, 

 probably resulting from the saline saturation of the soil. There is a 

 very singular spring on the other side of the range, about 1 1 ,000 

 feet above the sea : the water very clear, with no remarkable taste, 

 but every thing around is covered with a deposit of a highly ferrugi- 

 nous powder. I shall write next from the fossil locality, which is 

 said to be about forty miles from this. I am as stout as ever, but 

 by- no means so strong," 



Bamean : August 21 st, 1840. 

 " I am now out of the region of trees, excepting a poplar, of which 

 I will send you a bit, as the same tree grows in much lower places. 

 The want of rings in wood is by no means unusual in tropical vege- 

 tation. For the production of rings, some annual check to vegetation 

 is required : their absence is particularly frequent in climbers. The 



