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CHAPTER XIV. 



Journey with the Army of the Indus. From Loodianah to 

 (Kandahar through the Bolan Pass. 



I reached Loodianah on the 10th December 1838, after a dawk 

 journey of fourteen and a half days. After passing the Rajemahal 

 Hills, the country presents an uniform aspect, but becoming more 

 sandy as one proceeds to the northward. The hills alluded to, form a 

 low range, the only one of any height being that called Pursunath. 

 They are well wooded, the under- vegetation being grassy. Undulat- 

 ing ground bare of trees, but provided with shrubs, is passed before 

 coming on the wooded tracts, the vegetation of these present 

 much similarity with that of even 31° N. The Dhak, Pommereulla, 

 Zizzyphus, occurring. The Mahooa occurs in abundance on the 

 hills, but does not reach much beyond Cawnpore. The country from 

 the hills upwards, is almost entirely cultivated ; very few trees 

 occurring, and those that do, are almost entirely mango. The Boras- 

 sus does not extend in abundance much beyond Benares, but the 

 Khujoor is found everywhere in sandy soil. 



Loodianah is situated about five miles south of the Sutledge, in 

 the midst of a sandy country, very bare of trees. The fort and Capt. 

 Wade's house are situated on a rising ground, at the base of which 

 runs a nullah, a tributary of the Sutledge. There is much cultivation 

 about the place, chiefly of grain, barley and wheat, bajerow, cotton, 

 the latter bad, but there is much land uncultivated. The surface is 

 often flat and somewhat broken ; in such places there is much of a 

 low prickly Bheir, much used for making fences. This and Dhak 

 jungle, which occurs in strips, form two marked features, the Dhak 

 occurs in patches. The grasses, which occasionally form patches, are 

 Andropogoneous ; Anathericum, Pommereulla, and Eleusine occur. 



Sugar-cane occurs ; it is cultivated in thick masses, it is poor, and 

 always fenced with the Bheir. 



The most common trees are the mango, Parkinsonia, Babool, Aca- 

 cia altera babooloides, a Leguminous Mimosoid tree, Tamarisk, a 

 middling sized tree and very pretty, Ficus. 



The hedges about the cantonments, etc. are formed by prickly pear ; 

 much Ricinus occurs in waste places, and it appears to me to be 

 different from that to the south. 



2 s 



