On the 5th of May I continued my journey to Islamabad, which is about eleven miles from Avantipura. The peak of Wasterwan is the termination of a long mountain ridge, which separates two large valleys from one another. Immediately to the eastward, therefore, the mountains recede from the river, and the road traverses a marshy tract, a great part of which, from the late heavy rains, was still under water, while the remainder was laid out in fields, prepared for the cultivation of rice. Further on, cliffs of lacustrine clay again rose perpendicularly from the river. Several streams joined the Jelam from both sides, some of them deep and sluggish, with straight banks like canals, while others were almost as large as the main stream, and broad and shallow, with a sandy bed and gently flowing current. Near Bijbehara, a considerable village, with many timber-built houses and a substantial bridge of deodar, the banks are beautifully wooded with shady trees. Above this village the Jelam is much smaller, often shallow, and the banks lower, though still eight or ten feet above the water, and not swampy, but either fringed with willow and mulberry trees, or bare and covered with fields of green corn, or of rape now in full flower. The bridge of Islamabad, which is the limit of navigation, is nearly a mile from the town, which is a considerable place, the next in importance to the capital, though very much smaller. It lies on low ground close by the river, but immediately behind it a long promontory of the lacustrine formation stretches back for several miles, rising abruptly out of the finely cultivated and well-wooded valley on the left, in steep, rugged cliffs, which are worn into irregular ravines by the action of rain. These formations attain here a thickness of at least 150 feet, and well deserve the particular attention of the geologist. The ancient temple of Martand, the most perfect of its class of ruins in the valley, is built on the upper and back part of this platform.
Leaving Islamabad, I crossed immediately one branch of the Jelam, which descends from the west. It had already lost the tranquil character of the stream lower down. There were pebbles in its bed, and it had a more rapid current. After crossing this stream, the country was for some distance quite flat, and entirely covered with rice-fields, now bare; some of them had been ploughed, but most were still just as they had been left after harvest. They were traversed by numerous ditches or canals for irrigation, in all of which a proportion of fresh-water shells, chiefly Lymnææ, were seen. Further on, the appearance of the country began to change: there were still plenty of rice-fields, but they rose in steps one above another, and the water in the irrigation canals flowed rapidly over pebbly beds. Crossing another branch of the Jelam, which had a broad channel full of large boulders, but shallow and easily fordable, the road began gradually to ascend a low range of hills covered with grass and bushes where it was dry, but still laid out in rice-fields wherever water was procurable. These hills, which are the termination of a long range which descends from the snow-clad mountains at the east end of the valley, are composed of a very hard limestone, the strata of which are much bent, sinuated, and fractured. On the south side of this ridge is the valley of Shahabad, which is watered by the principal branch of the Jelam. It contains numerous villages, surrounded with fine orchards, and its rice-fields are arranged in terraces. Water being plentiful, the whole valley is cultivated with rice, and the district appears to be one of the richest in Kashmir.
SHAHABAD.
May, 1848.
The general character of the vegetation continues the same as further west, and the more advanced season enabled me to recognize a few common Himalayan plants. The scandent white rose (R. Brunonis) was one of these, also Lonicera diversifolia and a shrubby Indigofera. I also observed Viola serpens, Thymus Serpyllum, Lactuca dissecta, and Fragaria Indica. Among the rice-fields several plains plants occurred, such as Potentilla supina, Convolvulus arvensis, Mazus rugosus, Salvia plebeia, and Marsilea quadrifolia. Nor were the plants of a Tibetan climate altogether wanting, for Rosa Webbiana was everywhere common, and a species of Myricaria grew plentifully among the boulders on the banks of all the streams.
FOUNTAIN OF VERNAG.
May, 1848.
From Shahabad I made, on the 7th, a short march to Vernag, a celebrated fountain near the bottom of the Banahal pass. Crossing the river, the road lay up the open valley of the Jelam, still among rice-fields, rising step by step behind one another, as the valley sloped upwards. Vernag lies close to the mouth of a little lateral valley, up which our further course lay. The fountain, which is built of marble, is large, contains many fish, and supplies a considerable stream. It is the reputed source of the Behat or Jelam, but the main branch of that river descends from the mountains a good way further to the south-west. The hills on both sides of the Shahabad valley are of limestone, the strike of which seemed to be west-south-west, or nearly in the direction of the valley. It is very much indurated, and its colour is bluish-grey; it has all the appearance of having been much altered by heat. The dip appeared different on the opposite sides of the valley: on the north it was east of north, on the other side southerly; the inclination of the beds varied much, and they were often very much distorted. I did not see any eruption of igneous rock on any part of the day's journey.
On the hills above Vernag there was a good deal of brushwood, consisting chiefly of Fothergilla involucrata, two species of Viburnum, Cotoneaster, Lonicera, and a few trees of Pinus excelsa, yew, and deodar. The opposite hills were bare and grassy. In the forests of Kashmir (as was first pointed out by Dr. Falconer) we do not find the oak, Andromeda, and Rhododendron, which are so abundant at similar elevations in the outer Himalaya. The appearance of the woods is, therefore, remarkably different, as these trees, which, in the temperate zone of the mountains near the plains, constitute almost all the forest, give the woods there a peculiar character.
BANAHAL PASS.
May, 1848.
On the 8th of May I passed from the valley of Kashmir into the basin of the Chenab, crossing the Banahal pass, the summit of which is not more than 10,000 feet above the sea: it is a very narrow ridge, separating two deep valleys. Starting through rice-fields, and passing at the upper limit of cultivation a few fields of barley and rape, I soon entered brushwood, the same as on the hills above Vernag. In the ravines on the left hand, snow descended below 7000 feet. Ascending rapidly on a ridge, the brushwood gave place to a fine wood of maple, horse-chesnut, cherry, hazel, and elm, all just bursting into leaf. The dip of the limestone rocks was exceedingly variable, at one time southerly, at another northerly, but the strike was, I believe, the same as the day before. The ascent continuing rapid, the shady side of the ridge was soon covered with snow; but the road kept on the southern exposure, which was sometimes bare of forest. Birch at last appeared among the other trees, and, as the elevation increased, it began to predominate. About the same time, the limestone gave place to a slaty rock, which was almost immediately followed by an amygdaloid, which continued to the summit. Both the slate and the limestone appeared to have been upheaved by the igneous rock, and I thought the slate seemed inferior to the limestone.
On the upper part of the ascent the birch gradually became more and more stunted; it was here almost the only tree, with the exception of a few specimens of Picea Webbiana, at the limit of forest a little below the summit. Here the hills were bare and rocky; but the forest did not cease on account of elevation, because on the opposite hill, which had a northern exposure, a shady wood, chiefly consisting of pines, rose to a level considerably higher than that of the pass, which was a depression in the ridge, considerably overtopped by the hills on both sides. The crest of the pass was undulating, and covered with green-sward, among which a few spring plants were in flower; these were a Corydalis, an Anemone, and Primula denticulata. A large patch of snow occupied the northern slope, just below the top.