Halting at Dadu on the 30th of May, my road on the 31st lay up the valley towards the snowy range to the eastward. Cultivation did not continue beyond the village; and after a steep, somewhat rocky ascent and descent over a bare spur, I followed the course of the stream as nearly as the precipitous nature of its banks would permit, through a forest of sycamore, walnut, alder, horse-chesnut, and holly-leaved oak. Pines also were abundant, of the four common species: namely, deodar, spruce, silver fir, and Pinus excelsa. After following the course of the river for about a mile, the road crossed a large lateral tributary descending from the right, and ascended a steep bare spur between it and the main stream for perhaps 500 feet, after which it ran for some distance through fields of wheat still green, at first at a considerable distance above the stream, the bed of which, however, rose so rapidly that a very short descent brought me again to its banks. I then re-entered a beautiful forest, principally pine, in which the Pindrow was now the most common tree, bearing in abundance its erect purple cones. As the road rose rapidly, the vegetation soon began to change: Syringa Emodi, a currant, and other plants of the sub-alpine zone, making their appearance. The most common shrubby plants were Viburnum nervosum and Spiræa Lindleyana, both of which occurred in vast quantity. For perhaps a mile and a half, the valley was extremely beautiful; the torrent being rocky and rapid, and the forest very fine. The road then crossed the stream by a good wooden bridge, and a steep ascent commenced. As the forest was confined to the bottom of the valley, I soon emerged on dry grassy slopes. The precipitous nature of the banks rendered it necessary to ascend nearly 1000 feet, after which the road was again level along the dry mountain slope facing the south. The bed of the stream rose very rapidly, so that the road soon re-approached it; and when nearly on a level with it, I again entered forest, in which Quercus semecarpifolia, the alpine oak of Himalaya, was the prevailing tree. After about a mile, having attained an elevation of 10,000 feet, I encamped on an open grassy spot in the forest. The ravines facing the north had for some time been full of snow, but I had got close to camp before any appeared in those on the right bank, along which the road lay. A snowy peak, the upper part of which was high above the level of trees, lay to the south-east.
ASCENT TOWARDS PASS.
May, 1848.
In the lower part of the ascent, the rock was clay-slate; but near my camp it was succeeded by the same gneiss, with large crystals of felspar, which I had found (in boulders) around Dadu. In general appearance, this gneiss was very similar to that observed on the mountains north of Nasmon, on the Chenab; and as these two places have nearly the same relative position as the usual line of strike in the north-western Himalaya, it is very probable that the rock is the same in both.
On the morning of the 1st of June, I continued to follow the course of the stream, ascending now very gently. The valley was open, and the road lay over undulating grassy ground, the forest having receded to some distance on both sides. Round my camp I had noticed very little in the vegetation different from what was common one or two thousand feet lower; but almost immediately after starting, I found myself among numerous bushes of Rhododendron campanulatum in full flower, and many other alpine plants appeared very shortly afterwards: of these, perhaps the most lovely was the elegant Primula rosea, which was extremely plentiful in hollow marshy spots from which snow had recently melted.
PASS SOUTH OF BADARWAR
June, 1848.
The ascent continued exceedingly gentle till close to the end, when, turning suddenly to the left into a pine-clad ravine, a few steps brought me to the crest of the ridge over which my road ran,—a lateral spur from the great snowy mass, which (as is often the case) was a good deal lower where it branched off than at a greater distance from the main range. After gaining the crest of the ridge, I followed it for a few hundred yards previous to commencing the descent. I had unfortunately somewhat rashly concluded, the day before, that the ascent during the day would be very trifling, and therefore did not carry with me the means of ascertaining the elevation of the pass; I believe, however, that it a little exceeded 11,000 feet. It was still in the forest zone. The trees were mostly the alpine oak, with a few scattered individuals of Pinus excelsa. At a short distance, on the more shady slope, and still higher than the pass, Picea was plentiful. The highest level of trees only rose a few hundred feet above me, and the lofty snowy peak which lay to the southward, attaining a height of probably little under 14,000 feet, was quite bare.
BADARWAR.
June, 1848.
I reached the summit of the ridge between nine and ten A.M., at which time a dense mass of heavy clouds filled the whole of the valley below, while the sky above was perfectly clear. Vivid flashes of lightning were seen, accompanied by loud thunder, and the clouds were in violent commotion, being driven about by violent gusts of wind; but in less than half an hour they had entirely disappeared, disclosing a most magnificent view, bounded only by the grand snowy range beyond the Chenab, stretching in both directions as far as the eye could reach. Much nearer lay a second range of snowy mountains, evidently that which runs parallel to the Chenab on the south. Still nearer were other ranges of mountains, which, from the elevation at which I stood, looked like gently undulating hills. Immediately below, lay the rich and fertile valley of Badarwar, to which the descent was extremely rapid, down the face of a projecting spur, densely covered for the upper half of the way with forest. At the top of the pass, there were here and there, on slopes facing the north, large patches of snow, especially under the shade of trees, but on the descent it appeared only in the most shady ravines. As the elevation diminished, the same change in the forest was observed as during the ascent. The alpine oak and spruce gave place to horse-chesnut, sycamore, and holly-leaved oak, with deodar and spruce. Lower down, cultivation appeared, and the road, lying on the southern slope of the spin, was generally bare and grassy, with only a few scattered deodar-trees of small size. At the base of the descent, clay-slate rocks replaced the gneiss.
The town of Badarwar is of considerable size, containing, I should think, not less than from three to four hundred houses, all, however, small and without any indication of wealth. It lies at the elevation of 5800 feet, in the upper part of a valley watered by a tributary of the Chenab, from which it is distant, according to Vigne, twelve or fourteen miles. Round the town the valley is two or three miles in width, and completely covered with fields, rising in terraces one above another. Some rice is cultivated, but millet and Indian corn, neither of which were yet sown, are, I was informed, the principal produce.
The vegetation of the valley of Badarwar was hardly at all different from that of the one which I had just left, and the few new forms which occurred were for the most part Kashmir species. Quercus lanata, and the trees usually associated with it, did not occur; but Fothergilla was plentiful in the woods on the hill-sides, and in open exposed sunny places a Kashmir Daphne and Zizyphus were common: both of these species, however, are natives of the Sutlej valley. In the shady ravines a species of Philadelphus, and the Nima of Hamilton, were met with. Vines were cultivated near the town, as well as a few trees of Populus nigra, and a rough small-leaved elm, which grew to a gigantic size.