* * * * *

Candahar:  May the 2nd, 1839.

“We have seen three changes in the geological structure of the country.

“The Khojah Omrah was chiefly clay slate, and we are now in another formation, which no one seems to know; but it must be different as the outlines of the hills are completely changed.  We are now 3,500 feet above the sea.  The climate is good, and would be delightful in a good house, but in tents the thermometer varies from 60 to 98 degrees and even 105 degrees.

“I have got a decent collection of plants, only amounting however to 650 species.  The flora continues quite European.  I have some of singular interest.  Compositae, Cruciferae, and Gramineae form the bulk of the vegetation.  All fish are very different from those below the Ghats.  I have five or six species of Cyprinidae.  One very inimitable fuscous loach.  There are few birds, and fewer quadrupeds; in fact the country is at a minimum in both these respects.”

* * * * *

Ghuzni:  July 25th, 1839.

“We have been gradually ascending since leaving Candahar, and are here at an elevation of 7,600 feet.  The same features continue.  I have as yet not more than 850 species.  The mountains on every side, and indeed the whole face of the country, is still bare.  Mookloor, a district through which we passed, about seventy miles from this, is well cultivated and inhabited.  There are few birds to be seen, and scarcely any insects, but there are numerous lizards.  The thermometer varies in tents from 60 to 90 degrees.”

* * * * *

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.”

* * * * *

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 a la renommee.  If I can do something unparalleled in the travelling way I shall be content for a year or two at least.