ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 



329 



courses is luxuriant, but where water is less plentiful, stunted : soil 

 the same, a tenacious sandy clay when wet : fields very free from 

 weeds. Reseda very common, but very small, Heliotropium ditto, 

 Crucifera hispida ditto. Green wheat a maund for a rupee. The road 

 or rather country, is intersected here and there by ravines. 



5th. — Halted. The nearest range of hills are six miles off, they 

 have a very peculiar irregular brown appearance. The higher ones 

 also have a similar appearance ; these appear quite precipitous, and 

 have in some parts a curious crenated outline. The chief vegetation 

 about this place is Kureel, especially along the river and towards 

 the bund, which last is well filled with water. Kureel, Furas, Ukko, 

 very common, Cynodon, Prenanthoid, Poa minima, Joussa, Fagonia, 

 Saccharum, Nerioid. In the water Scirpus, Cyperaceus, Charse two 

 species, Potomogeton two species, Valisnaria, Typha. On banks, 

 Plantago cana, a curious Sileneacea, a splendid Orobanche, and a 

 Brassicacea. 



The birds continue the same : there is abundance of Fulica, swarms 

 of waterfowl, herons, plovers, etc. ; starlings re- appear. 



Some wheat fields well irrigated ; most luxuriant Khujoors, radishes. 



6th. — Marched to Nowshera, sixteen miles : five first miles across 

 a plain scantily furnished with Kureel. Sturt tells me the country 

 looks quite a desert to the eastward from one of the hills. Thence 

 we came on the hills, through which and the dividing valleys we 

 proceeded for two miles, thence emerging into a narrow valley in 

 which Nowshera is situated, drained by the river of Mysoor, which is 

 an insignificant running stream. 



The hills are very curious, totally bare of vegetation, not more 

 than two or three stunted Chenopodium cymbifolium being seen on 

 or about them. They do not exceed 300 feet in height ; their 

 composition is various ; they are much worn by rain, and the outline 

 although generally sharp, is often rounded. They present great 

 variety, but chiefly are of a soft clayish looking substance, distinctly 

 enough stratified, the uppermost strata being indurated and often 

 quite smooth, and of a sub-ochreous appearance. The outer ridges 

 on each side of the range slope gradually outwards, and the surface 

 in these slopes is smooth. Inside, or towards the inner part of the 

 range, they are generally precipitous, but beyond the uppermost 

 strata, the exposed face is not indurated, hence this can scarcely 

 arise from exposure to the weather. In these places they look much 

 like sandstone, the fragments at the base of the cliffs are clayey, 



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