Desideratum.—­Required to ascertain positively whether the shingle and boulders are in all cases not derived from the boundary mountains:  that they are not in many cases is clear, witness the declivities of slate rocks, totally incapable of assuming the form of boulders.  The proportions of the cultivated to the uncultivatable land is previously given rather in favour of the tillable portion, this is always a light, almost impalpable powder, consistent when wetted:  generally the soil owes any fertile qualities it has here, to the presence of water; thus the Dusht-i-Bedowlut produces nothing beyond its indigenous plants from having no water.

The transition from the extremely bare mountains of the Hindoo-koosh as seen on the road to Bamean, to the well wooded ones of the Himalaya, takes place at Jugdulluck, the hills, round which, produce plenty of Baloot:  in this direction, the forests become much thicker as we proceed to the eastward.  There is a mountain near Jallalabad, which at once arrests the attention from its being wooded.  Nothing like it occurring between this and Cabul, on any part of the chain of mountains distinctly referrable to the Himalayas.  Wooded as this is, it is nothing to the woods on the mountains about Pushut, the size of these has been well demonstrated by the late snows:  some bare places occur, which appearances, Abdool says are from cultivation of Kohistanes.  Baloot abounds, Dodonea also is now coming into flower! a curious fact pointing out its northern qualifications, although in form it is very like a Mergui Dodonea.

24th.—­A clear day after a night of heavy rain, still no appearance of settled weather; walked in the afternoon towards the Dhurrah at the south side of the valley.  The bouldery slope presented an abrupt bank of a considerable angle, and its limits were most marked from that of the tillable soil; as we approached the foot of the ghat, the fragments became larger, they are angular, and have been little if at all worn; thence I walked eastwards to a small isolated ridge of limestone, perhaps a mile from the foot of the boundary chain, and returned to camp.  In this direction, which is that of the torrents, occasionally rushing out of the Dhurrah, the transition between the mountain slope, and the tillable soil, was gradual, the action of water carrying farther down small fragments, and turning some of the fields into a sandy shingly soil:  the depth of the beds of these torrents here, is perhaps four feet, the section being a mass of very unequal fragments.

I am not certain whether these fragments are derived from the mountains or not, they seem to be too varied, and too widely spread for that, although the course of the occasional torrents must vary very much.

Another puzzling thing is, that in the section afforded by the ditch of the fort, and which is seventeen feet deep, the shingle underlies the tillable soil.