This Loach is a Cobitis propria, it has the usual form of that genus, the spots are disposed irregularly, rarely becoming banded.  The shape of the head is curious, the forehead being prominent, this gives the mouth an appearance of unusual depression. {479}

The country both on the east and west sides of Cabul may have been formerly a lake.  Such indeed would seem to have been the origin of all the valleys in which there is an expanse of tillable ground, and not mere strips confined to the banks of the draining streams.

The eastern valley is indeed partly occupied by the large sheet of water to the north, and the west is very marshy.  The eastern one is interspersed with low detached ranges of hills.

The birds are a magpie, a dove, Oriolus, Pastor roseus, Pastor alter, sparrow, water-wagtail, Hirundo, Hoopoe, Lanius, Sylvia sp., water-hen, wild ducks on the lake, and Merops; almost all these as at Khujgal, but no minas, or Edolia.

At Urghundy occurs Potentilla quinquifolia, repens radicans pubescens, stipulis oblongis.

28th.—­Halted at Koti-Ashruf.  The most common plants on the Khak-i-Sofaid pass are two or three of the small pulvinate Statices, Senecionoides glaucescens.  The yellow Asphodelus is very common, and I also saw A. mesembryanthemifolia.  At the foot of the pass, I saw Scabiosa, which also occurred on the summit.

First march on the Cabul side of Ghuznee.  Whole tracts blue with the Labiata Plectranthoides; at Urghundy, along a watercut, are planted several willows of the common large-leaved kind, the bark of these on all the older parts is cracked longitudinally, and the trunk has the appearance of being twisted, which I have no doubt is the natural state, the spire is from left to right.  The prevailing winds are easterly.

Bean cultivation is very common in the valley of the Cabul river to the west beyond the Khak-i-Sofaid pass; I suspect it requires a greater altitude than most of the other cultivated plants of Affghanistan, it abounds in the high ground about Shaikhabad.

29th.—­Proceeded in the morning from Julraize to Sir-i-Chushme.  The fish of the place are the same, the Silurus being common.  The two sorts of Oreinus vary much in the length of the intestinal canal,—­the yellowish and large one having it five times:  the small and less yellowish, three and a half lengths of the body.  Both these species come close to Barbus, showing that the spinosity of the dorsal fin is a more valuable character than that of the form of the mouth.

The cartilaginous disc of Oreinus is a reflection outwards of the osseo-cartilaginous part of the mouth, the fleshy part alone is the lips.  Oriolus, Upupa, and Percnopterus, continue with Columba.  Grapes and apricots khar see, and the common ones reach as far as this, but are very inferior to those of Cabul; rice cultivated here and there.  The chief trees are Populus lombardensis, Salix magnifolia, and S. pendula, Hippophae.