The hills about are all either clay slate, pure slate, or micaceous slate, the strata generally vertical.

Descended the ravine which the rivulet passes down, to where it joins the Helmund, the hills bounding it are of no great height, but the slips are sometimes bold.  The Helmund runs between rocky cliffs, its bed not much broader than the stream, the water is clear, rapid, and the column considerable.

This gorge is picturesque, the sides being generally precipitous.

The plants of these hills are, Umbelliferae very common, Statice 2, Carduacea, Ephedra, Labiatae of Karabagh vel similia, Arenarioid out of flower in the crevices, a large Mattheoloid, Leucades, Dianthoides foliis undulatis, Artemisiae two or three, one a peculiar one, No.—­a shrubby Astragalus, stunted scraggy Polanisia of Cabul?  Campanula of Karabagh in the bed of the stream, Cnicus of Kot-i-Ashruf, and Salvia are excessively common, Artemisia pyramidalis, two or three:  mosses occur on the banks, and several Gramineae, see Catalogue 1,005, etc.  Cnicus alius, Verbascum.

[Helmund gorge:  m393.jpg]

30th.—­We continued ascending gradually, crossing a low ridge covered with sward, and then descended to surmount another ridge, which appeared to me to be as high as the top of the Oonnoo.  We thence descended, crossing several small ridges; and, at about the distance of five miles from the commencement of the day’s journey, suddenly turned north, entering a gorge of the usual structure, drained by a small stream, and thence came on the Helmund, not much increased in size as compared with the point at which we had seen it first, but in a comparatively wide and partly cultivated ravine, containing three or four ruined forts.  We continued a quarter of a mile down the Helmund, then ascended up a considerable stream through a similar gorge, until we reached an encamping spot, after performing thirteen and a half miles.  The barometer at the Helmund stood at 21.206, thermometer 63 degrees in sun.

Kohi-Baba is first seen from the first ridge, but it is seen beautifully from the second, and still better from some distance beneath this; it is a noble three-peaked ridge, the eastern peak is the largest, and of angular, conical shape.  The other two are rugged; the central one is perhaps the highest; the lower portions cliffy, evidently slaty.

The river up which we came after leaving the Helmund, is fully equal to that in size; it is very rapid:  the ravine is very narrow, occasionally widening into swardy spots.  We encamped nearly opposite Kohi-Baba, the conical peak of which here seems a huge rounded mass, with heavy patches of snow, particularly along the northern ridge:  the second range to the south is very precipitous and cliffy:  at this place a small streamlet falls into the river from the direction of Kohi-Baba.

No particular change in vegetation is observed:  two or three Umbelliferae, a Scrophularia, Geranium, Ranunculus aquaticus, Herba immersa, foliis anguste loratis, Potentilla, Panserina, a new Graminea.