Rangamutty, Bhooruwa.

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CHAPTER XIV.

Journey with the Army of the Indus. From Loodianah to Candahar through the Bolan Pass.

I reached Loodianah on the 10th December 1838, after a dawk journey of fourteen and a half days.  After passing the Rajemahal Hills, the country presents an uniform aspect, but becoming more sandy as one proceeds to the northward.  The hills alluded to, form a low range, the only one of any height being that called Pursunath.  They are well wooded, the under-vegetation being grassy.  Undulating ground bare of trees, but provided with shrubs, is passed before coming on the wooded tracts, the vegetation of these present much similarity with that of even 31 degrees N. The Dhak, Pommereulla, Zizzyphus, occurring.  The Mahooa occurs in abundance on the hills, but does not reach much beyond Cawnpore.  The country from the hills upwards, is almost entirely cultivated; very few trees occurring, and those that do, are almost entirely mango.  The Borassus does not extend in abundance much beyond Benares, but the Khujoor is found everywhere in sandy soil.

Loodianah is situated about five miles south of the Sutledge, in the midst of a sandy country, very bare of trees.  The fort and Capt.  Wade’s house are situated on a rising ground, at the base of which runs a nullah, a tributary of the Sutledge.  There is much cultivation about the place, chiefly of grain, barley and wheat, bajerow, cotton, the latter bad, but there is much land uncultivated.  The surface is often flat and somewhat broken; in such places there is much of a low prickly Bheir, much used for making fences.  This and Dhak jungle, which occurs in strips, form two marked features, the Dhak occurs in patches.  The grasses, which occasionally form patches, are Andropogoneous; Anathericum, Pommereulla, and Eleusine occur.

Sugar-cane occurs; it is cultivated in thick masses, it is poor, and always fenced with the Bheir.

The most common trees are the mango, Parkinsonia, Babool, Acacia altera babooloides, a Leguminous Mimosoid tree, Tamarisk, a middling sized tree and very pretty, Ficus.

The hedges about the cantonments, etc. are formed by prickly pear; much Ricinus occurs in waste places, and it appears to me to be different from that to the south.