Pushut, 1st march beyond Kooner: January 29th, 1840.
“This will be a letter of odds and ends, you know I was to return to Jallalabad; well I reached that place, but left the encampment and crossed the river, where an advance road making partly for the Kooner expedition were employed, and having originally determined on going to Kooner, I accompanied them two marches, when they were overtaken by the army, to avoid which, I halted one day, and on the next proceeded onwards by the north bank of the river, thus saving all the fords of this horrid river. I should call it beautiful at any other season. The road was bad, and the last one and a half mile into camp most difficult, the path winding round and over spurs of sharp limestone rocks which must have had abundance of silex in them they were so very hard. At the very worst part, my headman being in front, all of a sudden I heard three shots in quick succession with the usual hallooing, and then I was called on in advance, meeting my headman wounded: he has lost the two fore-fingers of his right hand. All I saw was three men scrambling up the face of the hill, on whom I opened a fire as soon as my guns came up, and had the pleasure of hitting one on the shield.
“Such a scene ensued! for when there are three or four on such occasions we may reasonably expect thirty or forty, and my object was to get out of the bad road, and so be close to camp. Some of, or rather all, my people became dismayed, I had therefore to cheer, to point my double barrels, and in fact to enact a whole legion. One fellow tried to shoot me but his powder proved faithful, the others were wounded: however they kept in sight, and to make matters worse, in one place within twenty yards, six or seven of my loads were thrown; evening drawing on, and prospects disgusting, when at last having passed over one bad part and got down into a ravine, a number of people were seen closing down on us, but my man had run off to camp, and by shouts succeeded in calling five or six sepahis, part of the rear-guard, to our relief, and so we escaped bag and baggage, the rascals making off when the red coats appeared. I was sick at heart at the loss of poor Abdool Rozak’s fingers: he is an Arab with an English heart, bearing his loss most manfully, and when his fingers were removed expressed anxiety alone about me and my Sundoogs (collections). Well then, where should I have been had I been assailed as Abdool Rozak was, I should have been unprepared, and if riding, my mare would certainly have jumped into the river beneath. Thomson [{0a}] said when he left me, G---, you are rash and Abdool Rozak is rash, take care or you will get into trouble. My moving about without a guard was imprudent, and I now return to Jallalabad to get one, or if not successful to wait there until the spring and its floral excitements call me out: what I dislike is danger without any recompense, not a flower is to be had; with excitement it is nothing. I have now had two escapes, one from the buffalo in Assam, and this, which is a greater one, because had not the army been delayed by accident at the ford, it would have been eight or ten miles in advance, and consequently there would have been no rear-guard at hand.
“The country is disturbed, and one can only stir out in the valley itself close to camp, which is the more tantalizing as the mountains are accessible, and covered with forest. Our halt here should put us in possession of much information respecting these forests. As it is, I shall leave probably as wise as I came, except in having ascertained that the change from the well-wooded Himalaya mountains to those of the Hindoo-koosh, without even a shrub five feet high, takes place to the east of this. My employment is surveying and collecting data for ascertaining the heights of the hills around. But wherever I turn, the question suggests itself, what business have I here collecting plants, with so many in Calcutta demanding attention? How I am living! alone, without a table, chair, wine, or spirits, with a miserable beard, and in native clothes! but one thus saves much time; how unfortunate that mine now is not worth saving!
“I have been reading Swainson’s volumes in Lardner’s Cyclopædia, in which there is a little to which severe critics may object, but a vast deal more that is beautifully sound. I am quite certain I never appreciated them before. How wonderful that no one before Macleay and Swainson thought that living beings were created on one plan. I have imbibed all the important parts with the hope of bringing them to bear on Botany, which is in a shameful state. One talks of the typical nature of polypetalous or monopetalous plants; another ridicules the idea, because as he wisely says, some polypetalous plants are monopetalous, and vice versa!! he objects, in fact to what constitutes the great value of a character, its mode of variation. All Swainson’s propositions appear to me philosophical and highly probable, but none of the present generation have eyes young enough to bear such a flood of light as he has thrown upon them. There are faults I acknowledge, but a man who writes for money does not always write for fame; rapid writing and much more rapid publishing is a vast evil, but one which is too often unavoidable. I have four or five drawings of fish, one of the spotted carnivorous carp, the most carnivorous type of all except Opsarion, and perhaps a new subgenus; [{0b}] one of the Sir-i-Chushme and Khyber Oreinus, and a Perilamp with two long cirrhi on the upper lip. I intend in my travels now I am alone, to stop at every fertile place. I am ascertaining the limit of the inferior snow in these latitudes, which I fancy will be 3,500 feet. Is it not curious that here 1,000 feet above Jallalabad we have had no snow, while at Jallalabad there has been abundance. I attribute it to the narrowness of the valley at this place, and to the forest. When I glance at the subject of botanical geography, how astounding appears our ignorance! we have no data, except to determine the mere temperature and amount of rain yet men will persist in the rage for imperfect description of undescribed species, and pay no attention to what is one of the most important agents in preserving things as they are in our planet,—i.e. vegetation. On this point Swainson is less happy than on others when he ascribes such importance to temperature, and points out the fact that countries in the same latitudes, and having the same temperatures, produce different animals.”
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Cabul, September 25th, 1839.
“I am just on the eve of re-entering Cabul from a visit to Bamean, a singular place on the other side of the Hindoo-koosh, celebrated for its idols and caves. It has amply repaid a march of 106 miles and back again. I never saw a more singular place, and never enjoyed myself more: we crossed several high ridges between 11 and 13,000 feet, but so poor is the flora that I have only added 200 species to my catalogue, now amounting to 1200 species instead of 2,400 as I fully expected. But I must say I was as much pleased at the acquisition of a genuine Salmo in the Bamean river (which is a tributary of the Oxus,) as at any thing.
“Unfortunately we were so hurried, that I had only one afternoon and that an unfavourable one, for indulging in my fishing propensities: the chief fish seems to come very near the English trout, and so far as I can judge, is not found on this side the Himalaya. The other fish of these rivers are a fine Schizothorax or Oreinus, allied to the Adoee, a flat-headed Siluroid, a loach, and a small Cyprinus. This is a singular country, quite unlike any thing I have seen, and as distinct from the Himalaya in its vegetation, etc. as can well be imagined. Generally it is very barren, and after travelling over so much of the country I have yet seen only three parts of it decently cultivated. It is reported to be rich in minerals.
“But it will never bear comparison with Hindoostan. It is however capable of much improvement. It consists of a succession of barren valleys, divided from each other by barren ridges, and is generally deficient in the great fertilizer of all things—water. There is scarcely an indigenous tree in the whole country, and generally very few cultivated ones, except about Cabul, although they have poplars and willows well suited to the climate. It has been subjected to so much misrule that the natives have become indifferent to its improvement, (if they ever felt alive to any such interest.) The Zoology is very poor, quite at zero. There is a species of Ibex, an Ovis, and a Capra, which from the frequency of their heads and horns about sacred places and gateways of towns, must be common; but I have never seen more than a portion of one fresh specimen of the sheep. Furs are brought from the Hindoo-koosh, but are all too mutilated to be of any use, except to a Zoologist with antiquarian eyes: one Jerboa. Hares are rather common in some parts, and about here there is a Lagomys. Of birds there are but few, but as the vegetation is chiefly vernal, these creatures may perhaps be abundant. The game birds are quail, three species of partridge, a huge Ptarmigan? Pterocles of Loodianah. The fauna is richest in Saurian reptiles, and of these one might make a very good collection. I have only seen two snakes, and both are I believe lost.”