REPORT ON A BOTANICAL TOUR IN KASHMIR, 1893. 
3 * 
continuing the road through the narrow gorge of the Kishenganga 
valley, which opens out a few miles to the east of Gurais, the latter 
pass could be altogether avoided, to the great advantage of both man 
and beast. 
Starting from Dras the road leads up a valley towards the west. 
It is fairly good until after passing the villages of Holaland Mushki ; 
beyond this the ground is steep and rocky, and rather difficult even 
for coolies. The baggage ponies had to be taken across to the right 
bank of the stream, and by a steep zigzag path along the face of an 
old glacier moraine to the village of Battakulan where it joins the 
other path. The elevation of Battakulan is between 1 1,000 and 12,000 
feet. It lies on the left bank of the stream, and is sheltered by enor- 
mous promontories of moraine debris. There are no other villages 
above this. 
After halting here for the night, I went on up the valley the 
next day to a camping ground called Rimochama. The valley opens 
out very considerably above Battakulan. The ascent is very gradual, 
and the gently flowing stream forms many channels with intervening 
islands covered with Hippophcs salicifolia and different kinds of 
willow. A species of Ephedra {E, Gerardiana) is very abundant 
and conspicuous with its scarlet berries, and the hill sides re tinged 
with the crimson autumnal tint of Polygonum tortuosum. 
As this part of the country has been very little explored, except 
for sport, I determined to make very short marches. Owing to the 
small amount of traffic along this route, and the abundant snowfall 
during the winter months, there is no well-defined track above 
Rimochama ; and what there is, follows the bed of the stream which 
has to be forded several times. There was a good deal of snow 
forming vertical walls on either side of the stream. This is named 
the Koorudgi stream in the Atlas Sheet No. 28, but the name given 
to me for the valley above Buttakulan was Chatpani. There is a 
fine mass of bare precipitous peaks at the head of the valley 
We had now reached an elevation of about 13,000 feet, and as 
the ground looked Very promising for botany, I decided to halt here 
for the night, so as to have the whole of the next day for studying 
the vegetation of the pass. I collected a great number of plants and 
seeds that evening at the head of the valley. 
The next day (August 30th) was beautifully fine, with a cloudless 
sky. The top of the pass was soon leached by a steep but easy 
path over turf. The elevation of this pass is close under 14,000 
feet. I can find no name given for it in any maps, but it is known 
by the Dris people as the Kargeh pass. The view looking dowm 
