Cabul: August 11th, 1839.
“I am encamped close to Baber’s tomb, lulled by the sound of falling water, and cooled with the shade of poplar and sycamore trees, with abundance of delicious fruit, and altogether quite happy for the nonce. I have not yet seen the town which is a strange place, buried in gardens: but nothing can exceed the rich cultivation of the valley in which we are encamped. Beautiful fields on every side, with streamlets, rich verdure, poplars, willows, and bold mountain scenery, which contrasts most favourably with the dreary barren tracts to which we have been accustomed. I go with the Engineers to Bamean in the course of a few days, when we shall cross ridges of 12,000 to 13,000 feet high.
“I can only find three kinds of fish in this neighbourhood. I have been making some drawings, and collecting a few plants which continue to be entirely European.”
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Peshawur: November 17th, 1839.
“I hope some day or other to turn out a real traveller. I am now in hopes of becoming a decent surveyor, and before many years have passed a decent meteorologist. I leave the Army here, and shall part with it, particularly Thomson and Durand of the Engineers, with regret. I start in a short time to travel up the Indus with little before me but difficulties, however à la renommée. If I can do something unparalleled in the travelling way I shall be content for a year or two at least.
“I have obtained some few specimens of fossil shells from the shingly beds of the Khyber Pass. They seem to be a Spirifer with a very square base, quite different from the common species of the Bolan Pass, which is like a large cockle, and of which I have one beautiful specimen. How I regret not seeing Bukkur, for with a few days’ leisure, a number of fossils might be obtained. The older I grow the less content am I scientifically: would that I had received a mathematical education. I was much interested with some quotations from Lyell’s Elements in a late Calcutta Courier, especially about the Marine Saurian from the Gallepagos. What further proof can be wanted of the maritime and insular nature of the world during the reigns of the Saurian reptiles? What more conclusive can be expected about the appearance of new species? This point would at once be settled if the formation of these islands can be proved not to have been contemporaneous with the Continents. Then the animal nature of chalk!
“I am doing nothing in botany, but learning Persian, and the use of the theodolite, with nothing but difficulties to look at all around. I begin to feel of such importance, (do not think me conceited in relation to my collections and information on geographical botany,) that I am not overpleased with the idea of facing dangers alone: however I suppose every thing is as usual exaggerated.”
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Bamean: August 3rd, 1840.