The vegetation of the country between Jamu and Sirohi Sar was entirely of a tropical character. The rocky hills were in many places covered with thinly scattered pines, all of small size, and generally with much-contorted trunks, but apparently healthy and vigorous. In the cultivated grounds the plants were identical with those of the plains, but, as is usual in all hilly countries, the barren tracts produced a flora of a different character. Nerium odorum was abundant on the banks of streams, and I met with Cassia fistula, Punica, species of Rhus and Casearia, as well as the curious Euphorbia pentagona, and now and then the beautiful Bauhinia Vahlii. Acacia modesta and a Zizyphus were the most common trees. The lake produced a great variety of water-plants, but except an Alisma and Dysophylla, both of which were new to me, the species seemed all natives of the plains.
On the 25th of May, I proceeded along the side of the ridge in an easterly direction, passing several small flat-bottomed depressions, apparently the sites at a former period of small lakes, similar to that from which I had commenced my march. The road was rocky and rugged, and gradually rose several hundred feet to the crest of the ridge. Pine-trees were generally plentiful. On reaching the top, shortly after daybreak, a fine wide undulating valley was seen below, bounded on the north at the distance of about ten miles by a third range of mountains, and traversed by several streams, which had excavated for themselves deep perpendicular-sided ravines in the sandstone strata. All these streams had a westerly course to join the Tawi, which, issuing from a deep valley behind the third range, crossed the open plain in a south-west direction.
SANDSTONE RANGES.
May, 1848.
Leaving the ridge, the road descended gradually to the plain, and after crossing a deep ravine, with precipitous walls, continued through a fine level country to the village of Thalaura, about a mile from the third range of hills. The sandstone frequently contained a few waterworn pebbles scattered through it; and a bed of coarse conglomerate, with an indurated matrix, capped the cliff above this ravine. Some strata of indurated clay and soft slate also alternated, but rarely, with the sandstone. The plain was well cultivated, being chiefly laid out in rice-fields; and the people were all busy ploughing, sowing rice, and harrowing with a log of wood, drawn by bullocks and kept down by the weight of a man.
On the earlier rocky part of the road, the vegetation was much the same as the day before. Dodonæa was common, as it is in most parts of this hilly tract, never, however, rising out of the tropical belt. I do not know how far to the eastward of Jamu this plant extends; but as it does not seem to occur to the east of the Sutlej, and probably stops much sooner[18], it appears to prefer a rather dry climate, and will, I think, be found limited to the drier portion of the Peninsula, from which it probably extends through Central India, and along the hilly country west of Sind. On the open plain the pines entirely disappeared, and the aspect of the vegetation was entirely that of the plains of India.
From Thalaura I marched, on the 26th of May, to Ramnagar, crossing the third range of hills, the ascent of which was at first very steep and rocky, over a made road, paved with large stones, in many places much out of repair. This range was also sandstone, dipping to the north at a gentle angle; some strata of indurated clay occurred between the beds of sandstone. These hills were precipitous to the south, and sloped gently towards the north, in the direction of the dip. The tree Euphorbia, which, with its stiff fleshy branches springing in verticils of five from the stem, forms a striking feature in the vegetation of the lower hills, was common on the ascent, and the yellow spinous Astragalus, which I had observed between the Chenab and Jamu a fortnight before, was frequent on both sides of this ridge; but even at the top, except one species of Indigofera, no plants indicating elevation were met with: on this account I omitted to determine the height of the range by the boiling-point of water, but comparing its elevation with that of Ramnagar, which was in sight, I estimated that it might be about 3600 feet. To the north lay another valley, considerably more rugged than that crossed the day before, and evidently much more highly inclined, as its eastern termination was not far distant. This valley was traversed by the principal branch of the Tawi, the source of which is in the mountains east of Ramnagar.
RAMNAGAR.
May, 1848.
The descent from this range was very gradual, the road running obliquely to the eastward, among scattered pine-trees, over bare sandstone rocks, till it reached the bank of a small stream separated from the Tawi by a low range of hills. During the descent, a number of plants of Himalayan forms made their appearance, which had not occurred before: these were a berberry, Rubus flavus, and Myrsine bifaria. Olea cuspidata was seen lower down, and a species of alder grew in shady ravines along the edge of the stream. In the bottom of the valley, the mixture of the forms of the middle and lower zones was curious and interesting. Pinus longifolia occurred with Phœnix sylvestris, alder with Rondeletia and Rottlera, pear with Sissoo, and Fragaria Indica and Micromeria with Trichodesma and Solanum Jacquini. At the same time, it was evident that in this dry stony valley the tropical species, which formed the majority, were more at home than the stragglers which had descended from above.
After ascending for a short distance along the banks of the little stream, the road crossed it, and after a short steep ascent from the right bank, the remainder of the day's journey was nearly level, along the sides of hills, or over a high table-land to Ramnagar, a small town and fort, formerly the residence of Rajah Suchet Sing, since whose death the place has been rapidly falling to decay, most of the shops of its well-built bazaar being now empty. There were in the neighbourhood one or two large gardens, in which the trees and plants were nearly all Indian, Sissoo and Melia Azedarach being the most common. A single plane-tree was scarcely an exception; for though undoubtedly more at home at greater elevations, the plane (like the poplar and many of the fruit-trees of temperate climes) does not refuse to grow even in the plains, as is proved by the occurrence of a number of trees of it of considerable size and apparently healthy in gardens at Lahore.
GARTA.
May, 1848.