LA DAK. 
43 
but I Dever succeeded in securing a specimen. About 
Kirkichu the red currant grows wild in great abun- 
dance ; it is not cultivated in any part of Laddk, so 
far as I have observed. Beyond this, a striking 
feature in the landscape was the tall Lombardy 
poplar, which is grown at every village ; and its 
appearance is the more noticeable that there are 
almost no other trees to be seen. About midway 
between Tashgam and Kirkichu there is one clump 
of pencil-cedar trees with stems four feet in girth 
and twenty to thirty feet highland this and the 
Elaagnus are the only large indigenous trees I saw 
in Ladak. 
On the 25th we marched to Paskyum, thir- 
teen miles. Our road lay first down the narrow 
rocky gorge of the Drds river for five miles, to where 
this joins the Kargil river, and then we turned up 
along the left bank of this stream to Kargil, where 
there is a fine open valley with a good deal of barley 
cultivation, and numerous clumps of large willows 
and poplars. The Kargil river flows through the 
valley from south to north, and is about the same 
size as the Dras river, which it joins two miles below 
the village. We crossed the stream by a wooden 
bridge, near the point where it is joined by another 
stream from the east, and along which our road lay 
to Paskyum. Kargil, like Dras, is the head-quarters 
of a district, and a number of the Maharajah's officials 
reside there. As at Dras, there is a small square 
loopholed fort, with round turrets at the corners. The 
fort is garrisoned by about twenty Kashmir soldiers. 
Passing Kargil, we proceeded towards the east, 
and after about seven miles came to Paskyum, a 
