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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.”

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