Unsettled evening, snow during night on all the ridges about us with frozen sleet in camp. Thermometer at 6 A.M. 31°.
Large round-tailed eagle seen.
Barometer 20.164, thermometer 61°; boiling point of Wollast. new thermometer; barometer 650, old ditto 555.3.
Swardy plants. Parnassia, Swertia, Gentiana, Carices, Composita coronata, Primula, Labiata, Menthoides, Caprifoliacea! Pedicularis, Umbelliferæ.
Plants of hill sides Asphodelus, Leguminosæ alter, a Nakhood Moschata, Nakhood Labaria violacea, Mulgedioid, Euphorbia, Astragalus prior, alter., Pedicularis, Onosma versicolor, Boraginea, stamens exserted.
9th.—Proceeded to Kurzar, eight miles up a ravine to the left or eastward, about one and a half mile, then the steep ascent of the pass; thence the descent was as steep for 800 feet, then gradually down a swardy ravine until we came to the Kurzar ravine, which we followed till we reached the Choky. The road good; the ascent for 1,000 feet is very steep, the soil good, hills rounded, here and there slate rocks outcropping. No change in vegetation. Passed a mass of snow: abundance of snow on the summit where the mercury in the Bar. stood at 19.200; thermometer 58°; boiling point of Wollast. new thermometer; Bar. 648.5, old 539.1, this being the highest spot we have visited.
The vegetation of the summit presents no change from that of the rocks and hill sides 1,500 feet below. There is a good deal of vegetation, Carduaceæ, Statices, Astragali, a few tufted grasses forming the great bulk, Nakhood rare on the Kurzar side, 500 feet down, Statice becomes most abundant, it is curious that on the sward of this side, neither Fumariaceæ, nor Campanula were observed, Silene fimbriata one species.
Caragana all about, even at Kurzar in ravines; Primula abundant, also Swertiæ, generally all four plants are found at the Hajeeguk snow ravine, and may be found between this and Erak, with some interesting novelties. The distance to Bamean by both routes is within two miles of the same, the Kulloo-Rood being the shorter, but Hajeeguk the best road. That of the Kulloo river is followed to Zohawk. The weather unsettled with showers of hail, clouds and sunshine: and heavy gusts of wind occasionally from Kohi-Baba, whose eastern extremity comes in sight after entering the Kurzar ravine. No view from the summit of the pass.
Pedicularis, Campanula, Rubiaceæ, Hippuris in flower, Phleum, Carduacea of Yonutt, Cnicus of Koti-Ashruf, Pulmonaria, corolla tubiform. Euphorbia linearifolia, Composita dislocata, Cardamina lutea.