REPORT ON A BOTANICAL TOUR IN KASHMIR, 1892 
7 
The first pass we came to is called the Sh^tung L^, about 13,500 feet. 
There was a good deal of snow here in a melting state, which made 
walking rather difficult. The descent is into a valley watered by a 
stream called the Tikatsichu. From here the path ascends to the 
pass leading into the Kharbula nullah. There is a small lake at the 
summit of this pass, and a good view of the Deosai Plains can be seen 
from here. The path descends steeply from here into the Satpur 
nullah^ at the head of which is the camping ground called Ronishikar 
or Jalna Brinsa. It occupies a small piece of flat ground on the 
spur of a mountain, and the elevation is about 12,500 feet. Looking 
down the valley a view is obtained of some distant mountains on the 
further side of the Indus. 
The floor of my tent was carpeted with edelweiss, Anemone 
albana^ and other interesting-specimens. 
The path down this valley is very steep and very stony. My 
intention was to have gone on to Skdrdu from here, but finding the 
botany so interesting I decided to halt halfway near the village of 
Satpur, Several bushes of a handsome Spiraea ( 5 . hy per tcif olio) 
were met with on the way down. This species is not included in the 
Flora of British India. My friend Captain Hunter Weston, RJB., 
brought me flowering specimens of this shrub discovered by him in 
Baltistdn three years ago. The plant, however, is well known to the 
natives who call it SaberJ* The wood is hard and the bark is of 
a reddish-brown colour and smooth, Native shikiris from Kashmir 
nearly always take back with them a bundle of sticks eut from this 
shrub. Many other rare plants were also collected. 
There is a good deal of cultivation in the neighbourhood of Sat- 
pur, The fields which have been skilfully terraced contained fine 
crops, especially of wheat and barley, nearly ready for the harvest. 
Other crpps are peas, called here kukan^ beans or bakla, the Balti 
name of which is bararak^ and turnips {gonglu) ; wheat is called 
kanak^ and barley is nas. The general name for all kinds of grasses 
is ka$h. Several kinds of fruit-trees are also grown here, such as 
walnuts, mulberries, and apricots. 
After leaving Satpur the road follows the bed ot the river, and 
then over grassy and more or less marshy land until the lake is 
reached. The path then ascends and is carried along the east side 
of the valley at some distance above the lake. The lake occupies 
the whole width of the valley, which is about a mile across, and its 
length is nearly two miles. It contains fish. We passed a curious 
old wall which extends down the side of the mountain and ends in a 
fort overlooking the lake. After passing the lake the path (a very 
bad one) keeps more or less by thexiver until it suddenly emerges 
