28th.—To Oostadkote, nine and a half miles. The road is not a made one for the latter one-third. Crossed the Naree about two miles from our encampment: the country appeared the same. On arriving near our halting place, green wheat fields, intermixed with much fresh Chenopodium, Gramen Panicum, Reseda were most abundant, Chloroideum, Sinapis, Raphanus cultivated with Taira meera, two Cruciferous plants common, Salsola lanata also occurs. Water abundant in a channel of fifteen yards wide and three feet deep, clear and tasteless. Furas the most common shrub. No grass occurs but the remains of Panicum. Wheat is here sown in drills, in some places the crop is promising. The country is evidently occasionally overflowed, witness the indurated surface and the fissures, which away from the road, renders it bad for camels, being full of holes.
There are several villages visible round our camp, all of the usual miserable description, and there is a good deal of Bagree cultivation. The water does not extend more than a mile; it is eight feet deep, and about twenty yards wide towards the head, where the bund is thrown across.
March 1st.—To Bagh nine and a half miles. The country is quite similar: the chief plants continue to be Chenopodium cymbifolium, Kureel, a Rairoo, Ukko, Joussa, and Salsola robusta, but occur in no great plenty, they and all the face of the country exhibit marks of inundation. Bagh is visible a long way off from its being ornamented with a gamboge, or ochre-wash, otherwise its aspect is poor and muddy. We came on the Naree about three miles from the town, and as it has been bunded, it is full of clearish blue water, to a good depth. We encamped about one and a half mile on the south side of the town. About the head of the bund there is a good deal of wheat cultivation, and some mustard. In these khets Reseda is very abundant, Heliotrope is also common; I picked up a Matthiola and a Pommereulla. The banks of the Naree are clothed with small Furas, which in these parts are always encrusted with saline matter, or, as it would seem, pure salt. Rock pigeons both sorts, Loodianah rats, etc.
Bagh is celebrated for gunpowder; it is a largish, straggling, but poor place, though thickly tenanted. Its latitude is 29° 1' 20", and is placed thirty miles too far south in Tassin’s last map. Sugar-candy from Bussorah and cloth, are the principal articles sold.
4th.—Marched sixteen miles to Mysoor: direction at first NNW. and latterly west, close to the Brahorck hills. Water is plentiful in bunds and river, but the country is very very bare, Salicornia robusta uncommon, Plantago canescens, Poa, Cynodon, Ukko is very common, otherwise Kureel is the predominant plant. A good deal of wheat cultivation, every thing depends on water: the wheat along watercourses is luxuriant, but where water is less plentiful, stunted: soil the same, a tenacious sandy clay when wet: fields very free from weeds. Reseda very common, but very small, Heliotropium ditto, Crucifera hispida ditto. Green wheat a maund for a rupee. The road or rather country, is intersected here and there by ravines.
5th.—Halted. The nearest range of hills are six miles off, they have a very peculiar irregular brown appearance. The higher ones also have a similar appearance; these appear quite precipitous, and have in some parts a curious crenated outline. The chief vegetation about this place is Kureel, especially along the river and towards the bund, which last is well filled with water. Kureel, Furas, Ukko, very common, Cynodon, Prenanthoid, Poa minima, Joussa, Fagonia, Saccharum, Nerioid. In the water Scirpus, Cyperaceus, Charæ two species, Potomogeton two species, Valisnaria, Typha. On banks, Plantago cana, a curious Sileneacea, a splendid Orobanche, and a Brassicacea.
The birds continue the same: there is abundance of Fulica, swarms of waterfowl, herons, plovers, etc.; starlings re-appear.
Some wheat fields well irrigated; most luxuriant Khujoors, radishes.
6th.—Marched to Nowshera, sixteen miles: five first miles across a plain scantily furnished with Kureel. Sturt tells me the country looks quite a desert to the eastward from one of the hills. Thence we came on the hills, through which and the dividing valleys we proceeded for two miles, thence emerging into a narrow valley in which Nowshera is situated, drained by the river of Mysoor, which is an insignificant running stream.
The hills are very curious, totally bare of vegetation, not more than two or three stunted Chenopodium cymbifolium being seen on or about them. They do not exceed 300 feet in height; their composition is various; they are much worn by rain, and the outline although generally sharp, is often rounded. They present great variety, but chiefly are of a soft clayish looking substance, distinctly enough stratified, the uppermost strata being indurated and often quite smooth, and of a sub-ochreous appearance. The outer ridges on each side of the range slope gradually outwards, and the surface in these slopes is smooth. Inside, or towards the inner part of the range, they are generally precipitous, but beyond the uppermost strata, the exposed face is not indurated, hence this can scarcely arise from exposure to the weather. In these places they look much like sandstone, the fragments at the base of the cliffs are clayey, mixed with brown angular masses, occasionally shingle, and indeed, a low ridge near the north side of the range is chiefly of shingle. The direction is NNE., the angle of inclination of the slopes say 30°. The hills are highest towards the centre, and here some of the strata are curved.