318 



DESCENT OF THE SUTLEDGE. 



has long white thorns. The small Sissoo still occurs. Snake bird 

 seen, black crowned tern. 



The river remains most uninteresting ; the banks are low and 

 covered chiefly with Jhow. In many places recent shells are very 

 abundant, but do not appear to be composed of more than three spe- 

 cies. Reseda, Oligandra in fields. 



\6th. — No change in the country. Heavy fog yesterday morning; 

 to-day strongish north-east winds. Grass and Jhow about equal. 



\7th. — Cloudy, drizzling, raw weather ; river more sluggish ; more 

 villages and more cultivation : Phascum, and Gymnostomum common 

 on tenacious sand banks. 



18th. — Weather unsettled, windy and rainy. Jhow and grass jungle 

 continue, Tamarisk, Furas fine specimens, Fumaria continues in fields, 

 Capparis aphylla, which has something of a Cactoid habit, and whose 

 branches abound with stomata, Reseda. 



\$th. — Weather finer but still cloudy, north-east wind still preva- 

 lent, and impeding our progress in some of the reaches very much. 

 Salvadora, Capparis aphylla, Phulahi, Bheir, large Babool, Furas, 

 Ranunculus sceleratus : Jhow and grass jungle are the prevailing 

 features. Current much the same, only occasionally sluggish. Pelicans, 

 black-headed adjutants, (Ardea capita,) wild geese, ducks very numer- 

 ous in the j heels formed by alteration in the course of the river ; 

 the country is more cultivated, but as dreary looking as imaginable. 

 Phoenix becoming more frequent and finer, P. acaulis ? likewise 

 occurs occasionally, rather young Khujoors. We passed Khyrpore 

 about 3 p. m., it seems a straggling place, stretching along the bank 

 of the Sutledge ; there are a great many Khujoor trees about it, and 

 indeed about all the villages near it. A little below this large tract, 

 the banks were covered with a thick Sofaida shrubby jungle, 

 which looked at a distance like dwarf Sissoo. The country is much 

 improved, and there is a great deal of cultivation, especially on the 

 left bank. 



20th. — Continued — the river is very winding, and its banks pre- 

 sent the same features : the immediate ones being covered with short 

 Jhow or grass, or both intermixed ; the extreme ones well wooded, 

 and well peopled. Khujoor very common. Yesterday near Khanpore, 

 caught a glimpse of the descent, and to-day again the ground appears 

 uneven, and almost entirely barren. It must be within a mile of 

 the Sutledge. The left bank continues well cultivated. In some of 

 the fields I noticed Medicago vera, Anagallis, Fumaria, Chenopodium 



