26 
poplar. He says, “ I noticed that all the .Popuhis balsamifera, which have all their branches 
“ cut off and are much mutilated, have in the lower part of the stems very thin leaves, much 
“ like those of the willow, while the ordinary form of leaves is only seen near the top. I 
“ have taken some branches with two entirely different kinds of leaves. Palaeontologists 
would make two different genera out of these leaves. Why should these lower leaves he so 
“ narrow ? It is evidently a want of development ; some of the poplar hushes have only 
these narrow leaves. It is the same thing as with the mulberry when on the lower 
“ undeveloped branches all the leaves are much slit and emarginated.” 
In a letter to Mr. A. B. Wynne, dated 30th May, he says : “ The worst news I can give 
you is that I am on my way back, already two marches out of Yarkand, and all this 
“ without having seen Aksu or Farfan ; hut I went across the Pamir to Waklian and back 
with a party under Colonel Gordon. The geology is all very meagre, nothing but gneiss 
“ and old rocks without fossils ; with the exception of a few Triassic and very few Car- 
“ boniferous brachiopods, I got nothing. My volume on the geology of the Yarkand 
“ Embassy will not he a brilliant one, but I intend supplementing it by work to the south 
“ of the Indus, in Bupshu and Spiti, through which I shall return to Simla.” 
Here and there there are indications in this diary, of which, indeed, other evidence is not 
wanting, that Stolickza’s enthusiasm as a naturalist had become infectious, and that some of 
his companions had become, to some extent, his competitors in the search for rarefies. And 
though he says occasionally that he should have liked certain specimens which one or other of 
them had obtained, he did so in the interest of the Indian Museum, where he thought such 
would he most fittingly preserved. 
Kufelang was reached on the 12th of June, and here, so far as is known, he wrote the last 
letters which were received by any of his correspondents. The following, addressed to the 
writer of this memoir, arrived in Calcutta hut a few days before the news of Stoliczka’s death 
brought sorrow to the hearts of so many of his friends. In it there is no trace of anything 
but confident resolution as regards the future, hut the last paragraph hut one gives a slight 
insight into what he had gone through, and what his sufferings before the final and fatal 
attack must have been 
“ My Deab Bael, “ Kufelang, 12th June 1384. 
Since I answered your letter I got two more of yours. How good of you to write 
“ so regularly ; hut do not blame me if I am a little tardy ; the fact is we often get our 
“ letters in a lump, some a month in advance of others. 
“ I shall he at Leh about 1st J ulv, write there my preliminary report, leave about the 13th, 
“ and go through Itupshu, Spiti, and Kulu, so as to be at Calcutta about the 1st of November, 
“ when I hope to see you all. 
“We had a very tough journey from Yarkand by the Koggar route, first heat, then any 
“ amount of water and cold. Here at the camp you would not find a single flowering plant, 
“ except Myricaria gallica, sticking 6 inches above ground ; the higher bushes do not 
“ flower at all. Our baggage animals are dreadfully reduced by want of provisions, but we 
“ hope to reach more stores to-morrow at Aktagh. If we do not our animals will he reduced 
“ bv half over the Karakoram passes, and our journey a very tough one. With the exception 
“ of a few hot days at Yarkand, I had not a pleasant warm day for the last 10 months, so I 
will be glad of a few days’ recess at Leh. I hear Shaw is coming up to take his appointment 
“ at Kashgar, the former Envoy to India is coming over to Calcutta, but it is said he will also 
“ proceed to Constantinople. 
