CHAPTER XVIII.
From Peshawur to Pushut.
January 8th.—At Ichardeh. Between Busoollah and Lalpoor are three curious low ridges, none above sixty feet high, and all of small extent; they are covered with fractured masses of rock of the same size as those strewn so liberally about the shingly slopes; but they are much cleaner or fresher looking, and appear to me less worn. Whence do they derive their singular situation? They occur in such numbers, that one would at first think they originated from a mass of ruins, but the ridges present scarcely any surface for buildings to stand upon, certainly not to such extent as would account for the abundance of these fragments.
About Huzarnow and on both sides, low ridges of sand occur. In this sand graves are usually dug, and in some places to an extent indicating dreadful devastations from disease, each grave is headed by a stone, and about every ramification of the irregular size of the burial ground, there is a building of the usual mud structure, designed for a mosque, but not domed as is customary in Mussulman cemeteries, but ornamented with flagstaffs bearing white bits of cloth. These low sand ridges are often very much undulated; they consist of a very fine powder, and at Huzarnow are evidently of the same nature as the cultivated soil: they are neither in attachment as it were to the neighbouring hills, nor distinct from them, but always have some communication with the shingly slopes, to which they are evidently inferior.
So that the base of Khorassan may be taken to be the tillable portions, over which occur, to a vast extent, the shingly very barren slopes, which every section shows to be nothing but a mass of debris, resting on the mountain rocks.
9th.—Ali-Baghan. To this the road is good, along the right bank of the river, wherever it does not wind along over the spurs forming a considerable part of the march. To the first point where this occurs, it extends over the same sort of plain as that about Ichardeh; keeping rather close to the bank of the river, it is good, also through the valley of Gundikuss, and from near the Choky, to Ali-Baghan.
The first rocky ridge is about three-quarters of a mile in length, and is not very difficult; at the end near Gundikuss, is a curious ruin built into the stream, where the latter runs with violence on the rocky bank: it consists of a broadish pathway, with a wall on the river side, breast high; the masonry is good and solid, of the usual Bactrian materials, but well cemented; it has mostly been ruined by the river, only one end being perfect. Although the materials are Bactrian, the contour is Mussulman, and I was told by some people that it was a Mussulman erection: originally it perhaps extended all along this part, as slight traces here and there are discernible; for what use the original structure was intended I know not, as there are no remains visible of a fort.
The inlet of Gundikuss is well cultivated, the village itself a large straggling one, built close under a ridge.
From this to the Choky the path is rocky, and in many places very bad, consisting of a series of ascents and descents, and winding round spurs; in the worst place, the path almost overhangs the river 200 feet above its bed, and it is very hard and very rocky. The distance between ten or eleven miles, the road is impracticable for guns, etc. nor could our camels with loads well get over it.
10th.—To Camp at the Bussout river, nothing remarkable occurred; immense quantities of Serratuloides on the sandy raviny parts of the road. Crossed the river on the usual mussuck rafts, the animals forded it, at the quiet head of a rapid, water breast deep: this river is smaller than that from Kooner.
11th.—To Bussout, five miles. A village passed about one and quarter mile up Kooner ghat, here a mile broad. No change in the features of the country, which throughout is well cultivated; here and there abundance of sedges, in the low ground; plenty of watercuts, but none of any great size: road worse at the entrance of the ghat rounding the east boundary, but guns might avoid this ground by keeping towards centre of the ghat.
12th.—To Sha-i-wa, distance 8 miles. The road after turning the angle of Bussout ghat, passed entirely through cultivation, villages, trees and inhabitants more numerous than in any other place, cuts numerous, but the road altogether from this cause and the cultivated fields very bad. Rubus found along cuts at Chunar-Bukkeen. Toot, Phænix. Vines numerous, of large size, running up mulberry trees; forests seen on Kooner mountain? Umlook and Julghogal, very common grain, very dear. The women are generally clothed in dark blue Noorgul. The road now extends up a gorge to our front, named Durrah.
Gooraiek fort on the opposite side.
13th.—Halted. River much clearer than that of Jallalabad; its bed affords abundance of large grass.
14th.—Rejoined camp, keeping on the north bank of river. The road passed over tillable recesses among the hills forming the north boundary of Kooner valley, and over the spurs dividing these, of which the first is short but bad, the last is a mile long, road infamous, narrow, rocky, and in some places overhanging the river. I was attacked about a mile and a half from camp, my servant Abdool Boyak, the bravest and most trustworthy Asiatic I ever saw, wounded, losing the two first fingers of his right hand; this was opposite the old Fort, Noorgul, which is a dilapidated kafir ruin on a low island in the centre of the valley and river, a strong position. [{435}] Other ruins occur on the road, one near Sek-Syud, the spur being covered with its remains.
After leaving Deh-Syud, the valley becomes contracted; the river occupying almost all its level portion, being much spread out, and with numerous grassy islands; the cultivation occurring in the recesses between the banks of the rivers and the glacis slopes.
15th.—To Kooner, the road passes to Noorgul, an old kafir fort, done up and occupied by Kooneriles, to its south-west, three-quarters of a mile a hostile fort is situated. The ferry is about two miles from Noorgul, and is with difficulty fordable: the streams, three in number, the last almost brim full, and very rapid; thence to Kooner is over a cultivated country.
Noorgul is on a commanding position, the ground rising gradually on all sides to it; the valley here is very narrow. Observed Cnicus, Fumaria, Lotus, Anagallis cærulea, and Veronica agrestis, springing up: trees continue the same to about Kooner: some fine plane trees observed.
All the mountains are wooded at a certain height, and in greater quantities, very different however from Himalayan forests, being dotted in parts, rather than uniformly clothed with forest, Andropogon one of the ordinary spring forms: the churs or islands in the river are also covered with Andropogoneous vegetation.
16th.—To Pushut, or rather to within one mile of it, rain throughout the day accompanied by an unpleasant wind down the valley. Road except for the first mile, during which it passed through cultivation, troublesome, otherwise with the exception of two ravines, at one of which the horses were taken out of the guns, very good: valley narrow, say three miles, the boundary ridges to the north presenting as it were, truncate faces to the valley, all the mountains at certain heights are well wooded.
17th.—Rain continued since, almost without intermission, very dirty weather, but no wind.
Snow on the hills around, almost within 1,500 to 2,000 feet of this, the mountains to the south are well wooded, the woods occurring here and there in forests; snow is said to fall here occasionally.
18th.—The attack took place this morning, and failed on account of the weather, which was sufficient to damp any thing, and which prevented the powder bags from exploding, as well as a second cask of cartridges. The men were withdrawn about twelve, rain pouring down, ammunition of the guns being expended, and that for musquetry quite useless; a few more rounds would have demolished the entrance gateway and brought it down bodily; loss severe, twenty five men killed, thirty-two wounded, several dangerously. The fort was well defended, and evidently by a mere handful of people.
19th.—Last night the fort was evacuated as well as that on the opposite side, and the Syud has made off into the hills. It cleared up in the morning but is now as threatening as ever, the ditch of the fort is twelve or fifteen feet deep, but like all Affghan ditches it is narrow. The parapets were very slight, so that a more powerful battery would have kept down their fire completely; no injury had occurred to the inner gate except its being off one of its hinges, or rather out of one of its sockets. The entrance was thus round the gate, not through the gateway: it was protected by a thick screen of brushwood and mud, all of the shots from the second position had lodged in the wall close to the side of the gate; every thing was carried off, except a little grain, and some gunpowder.
20th.—Continued rain.
21st.—Snow within 500 feet.
22nd.—Moved camp.
23rd.—Continued rain and sleet, almost passing into snow.
Desideratum.—Required to ascertain positively whether the shingle and boulders are in all cases not derived from the boundary mountains: that they are not in many cases is clear, witness the declivities of slate rocks, totally incapable of assuming the form of boulders. The proportions of the cultivated to the uncultivatable land is previously given rather in favour of the tillable portion, this is always a light, almost impalpable powder, consistent when wetted: generally the soil owes any fertile qualities it has here, to the presence of water; thus the Dusht-i-Bedowlut produces nothing beyond its indigenous plants from having no water.
The transition from the extremely bare mountains of the Hindoo-koosh as seen on the road to Bamean, to the well wooded ones of the Himalaya, takes place at Jugdulluck, the hills, round which, produce plenty of Baloot: in this direction, the forests become much thicker as we proceed to the eastward. There is a mountain near Jallalabad, which at once arrests the attention from its being wooded. Nothing like it occurring between this and Cabul, on any part of the chain of mountains distinctly referrable to the Himalayas. Wooded as this is, it is nothing to the woods on the mountains about Pushut, the size of these has been well demonstrated by the late snows: some bare places occur, which appearances, Abdool says are from cultivation of Kohistanes. Baloot abounds, Dodonea also is now coming into flower! a curious fact pointing out its northern qualifications, although in form it is very like a Mergui Dodonea.
24th.—A clear day after a night of heavy rain, still no appearance of settled weather; walked in the afternoon towards the Dhurrah at the south side of the valley. The bouldery slope presented an abrupt bank of a considerable angle, and its limits were most marked from that of the tillable soil; as we approached the foot of the ghat, the fragments became larger, they are angular, and have been little if at all worn; thence I walked eastwards to a small isolated ridge of limestone, perhaps a mile from the foot of the boundary chain, and returned to camp. In this direction, which is that of the torrents, occasionally rushing out of the Dhurrah, the transition between the mountain slope, and the tillable soil, was gradual, the action of water carrying farther down small fragments, and turning some of the fields into a sandy shingly soil: the depth of the beds of these torrents here, is perhaps four feet, the section being a mass of very unequal fragments.
I am not certain whether these fragments are derived from the mountains or not, they seem to be too varied, and too widely spread for that, although the course of the occasional torrents must vary very much.
Another puzzling thing is, that in the section afforded by the ditch of the fort, and which is seventeen feet deep, the shingle underlies the tillable soil.
The vegetation of the slopes here partakes of the nature of the Khyber pass, the prevailing feature consists in coarse tufts of Andropogonous grasses, Lycioides occurs, also Periplocea, also Cryptandoid, Euonymus, these are on the cliffy ridge of limestone alluded to, 2 sp. of Astragalus, Solanum jacquini? Schænanthus, Sedoides pictum very common, a small fern, apparently a Cryptogramma, Grimonia, Tortula, a Bryum, three or four lichens, one Marchantiacea found under boulders or in crevices of rocks, one Salsola, Fagonia, Dianthoid, Statice common, Onosma, Artemisia one or two, a large Cnicoid.
The only new feature is a shrubby dwarf fragrant Composita, foliis albis subobovatis, dentatis grossiusculi margine revolutis.
24th.—A break after a very wet night, cloudy throughout the day.
25th.—A fine day, particularly towards evening, beautifully clear.
26th.—No rain, but very cloudy, cold north-east wind.
27th.—Rain very threatening, a disgusting country in which it is impossible to take exercise without a strong guard: no means of access to the beautiful forests visible in several directions, and the natives are so intractable that it is impossible to induce them to bring in specimens of their various trees, the only things about which I am anxious.
In the meantime I have begun to use the theodolite, and getting approximations to the height of those peaks remarkable for their features of vegetation.
It is curious that no pines are visible on any range south of the Kooner river, until we reach those heights on the opposite side of a very conspicuous ravine, up which the Bajore road runs. To the north, on all the ranges of sufficient height, fine forests are visible, especially of firs, other large-crowned trees exist, forming the bulk of the forests, below the limit of the pines, but never grouped as those are, but occurring isolatedly, these I call generally, Baloot woods, i.e. Quercus Baloot.
The only means I have of gaining any idea of the composition of these forests, are derived from the twigs and branches, which are used by the natives as pads for the loads of wood which they bring into for sale, and which almost consequently are from the lowermost limits of woody vegetation. To go among the woods unguarded, is impossible, and secondly, the weather is very bad.
Memoranda.—That it cannot always be deficiency of soil which causes the extreme barrenness of the usual Khorassan mountains, because on the Kalo Pass to Bamean, nearly 13,000 feet high, the soil is abundant; but in this case, height may interfere.
It is obvious between Kooner and Cabul, that the transition from absolutely treeless mountains to well-wooded ones occurs nearer to Kooner than Cabul, because the Hindoo-koosh about Cabul, and to the eastward, is said to be treeless.
How interesting will the examination of these woods be, how different will be their flora from that of Khorassan proper!
To define the Khorassan Province also, by its being destitute of wood or trees. Note its passing off from this character between Ghuzni and Quettah, see Marryott’s letter about Kooner, compare with Mazenderam forests. Fine plane trees occur here, all the vines are trained on mulberries. What is Burnes’ holly oak, or lily oak?
Rubus occurs, Ranunculus stolonifolia, a cold season plant, Euphorbia ditto, and the usual Peshawur forms.
28th.—Fine weather; clouds however, still flying about.
29th.—A fine morning; in the afternoon threatening, night cloudy, all the clouds come down the ravine! except when the wind occasionally shifts to west.
30th.—Fine weather, although still unsettled. I procured the other day a few specimens of trees from the hills to the south of this, among these which amount only to a few, are one Myrtus, an Olenia, both of which bear me out in assuming that the woody vegetations of these hills will present a curious transition between the genuine Australio-European and the Himalayan forms.
31st.—Almost every isolated rock in this country is covered with ruins which vary much in extent, and are often barely perceptible, but careful looking will detect them in all situations about gorges, and such places. From the rivers running under rocks, the paths which must be resorted to, at least at this season, are very difficult. It would be curious to speculate on the different state of preservation of these ruins, and the singular people to whom they are due.
The soil of this valley is very deep in places: in one place on the opposite side of the river, it is twenty-five feet at least, the depth obviously diminishing towards the bed of the river, or the lowest part of the valley.
In this valley, at least about here, curious round thatched huts are visible about villages, intended for religious females, they are closed except at a small door.
Cotton much cultivated.
The Jala, or float skins used for crossing rivers, are inflated by bellows of the usual description, this causes delay as some require to be inflated very often owing to the eagerness of those who want to be ferried over, and who rush indiscriminately on the Jala which, from the rafts being few and far apart, occasion delay; such ferries were not intended for impatient travellers; nothing can show the want of intelligence of the people more than this abominably slow method of crossing rivers; here, there is little excuse for it, as wood is abundant.
The Culminating peak to the west of the north Dhurrah, shows that here, as elsewhere, snow lies longer on the north than south sides: it also affords a curious instance of the various disposition of snow: those angles of its faces presented to the south having none, or little snow; or does this depend upon the faces having different declivities?
February 1st.—First part of last night clear; but the wind shifting from west to north-east, has again thoroughly clouded the sky, night beautifully clear, no rain, and no wind during the day.
2nd.—A windy but clear night, succeeded by a beautiful morning, wind as usual, north-east or thereabouts, i.e. down the river.
I have seen it mentioned somewhere, that in arid climates the only support of vegetable life exists in the dews, which are hence, at least in the cases alluded to, supposed to be providential adaptations to supply certain deficiencies. But considering that dews consist of nothing but a deposition of moisture: it follows that in very arid climates, as there is no moisture, so there can be no dews. For the deposition of a dew, the fist essential thing, is moisture, either in the ground or in the air, this last may have been derived from the ground. If neither the ground nor the air contain moisture, no dews can exist, this is the case in Khorassan.
Throughout the whole campaign no dews were noticed, although the nights were almost uniformly serene and calm, and the time chosen for marching, would have certainly brought us in contact with them had they been deposited. Dews therefore do not form in Khorassan, with these exceptions, that wherever from the nature, and the level of the soil, water was found very near the surface, dews were deposited; as on the Chummums or low marshy pasturages at Candahar, Cabul, etc.
But even these were trifling, the aridity of the air being too great as compared with the small extent of Chummums, to allow the deposit of any considerable portion of the moisture it had derived from the ground.
So that aridity, instead of being adapted to dews, is a serious obstacle to their ever appearing. With the rarity of dew, that of hoarfrost which is nothing but frozen dew, may be associated; nor does hoarfrost often occur, because in Khorassan it rains in the winter too freely, particularly in all such places whose elevation is not sufficient to cause the formation of snow, and hence where other circumstances are favourable for hoarfrosts, they are too much watered as it were, and seldom occur. With extreme aridity, Khorassan unites extreme electricity, the casual friction of woollen cloths, especially those of camels’ hair being accompanied by discharges sufficiently startling. The same thing happens when caressing dogs or horses. I could never fill the barometer without experiencing a shock as the mercury approached the bottom end of the tube, which (when nervous) used to endanger it.
It is this extreme aridity that gives Khorassan so rich a spring flora, this season being that of rain, of melting of snow, and the ground being well moistened.
It is this extreme aridity that necessitates the abundance of bulbous plants in Khorassan, these deposits of nutrition existing even in several of its Compositæ.
Query—Why are Carduaceæ, (Artemisia) so adapted to aridity?
The region of Carduaceæ, commences about Ghuzni, and extends to Maidan or Cabul, it is at its maximum about Shaikabad and Huftasya. The abundance of Carduaceæ on the higher grounds, as for instance towards Bamean, belong rather to a vernal flora.
I hope to be particular in hereafter comparing the floras of all the deserts? and to notice the absurd remarks of some travellers in Khoristhan, on the domesticated parasitic nature of the watermelon plant, on the Hedysarum Alhagi, Shooturkari.
3rd.—Fine moderate north-east wind, very clear.
4th.—Over-clouded.
5th.—Rain.
6th.—Unsettled.
7th.—Rain, thunder, distant lightning occasionally last night.
8th.—Fine: ice in the morning, thermometer five feet from the ground 35° at 7 A.M.
9th.—Fine diffused clouds last night, succeeded by a strong northeast wind.
10th.—Fine.
11th.—Fine in the morning, then threatening.
12th.—Quite over-clouded, north-east wind. The inferior level of snow is now several hundred feet above that which it was at first.
Oxalis corniculata in abundance, what an universal plant this is.
All the natives of these parts wear sandals, those about the Khyber being made of the leaves of a small Chamærops, which is common on the rocks of those mountains.
A proof of the extreme want of useful plants is seen in the fact, that baskets are scarcely ever seen, all the loads of flour, etc. being invariably carried in skins.
Leopards’ skins for the purpose are obtained from Chugur Serai, Pullung and also Sofaid-Koh.
16th.—The troops marched on their return. A lark very much like the English species occurs in flocks; it is a stupid bird, although obviously aware of its resemblance to clods of earth, which it makes use of on every occasion when a little frightened. The Gypaëtos is also found here; it feeds principally on carrion. I observed Trichrodroma for the first time here to-day, this bird is by no means a powerful climber; indeed the individual seen to-day could only cling, he was employed about sand banks of the irrigating canals, etc. hopping from one likely spot to another, clinging here and there momentarily, and always aiding himself in his inclined position by a flutter of his wings; holes seemed always to attract him. It is by no means a shy bird. I should observe however that I have seen this species running up and down cliffs, so that perhaps the rather loose sand would not give firm hold to his claws.
As I mentioned elsewhere, this bird is allied, at least in analogy to Upupa, it has its precise habit of flight and a good deal of its habits in looking for food, although the Hoopoe pokes about in the ground, or rather hammers the ground alone. It is however fond of building in holes of walls, it breeds at Punukka, in April.
I observed, and shot a weasel, or a mungoose to-day, whilst it was employed feeding on the cast away skin of a goat or sheep, so that some of these creatures evidently feed occasionally on carrion, although they are said to live upon live prey.