mica black and highly crystalline. The stratified rocks
are always highly metamorphic, and are shattered and
dislocated by the intrusion of the granite to a very great
extent.
Below Thawar and the fort of Rondu, the valley of
the Indus continues extremely narrow and difficult, and
ceases to be inhabited at the village and fortified post of
Tok, at which place a few soldiers are stationed, to keep
up the communication with Gilgit, and to give notice of
any incursions from that side. Thence, as far as the
mountain range which bounds the Gilgit valley on the
east, the valley is said to be quite desert. The disturbed
state of Gilgit had made me abandon my original intention
of continuing my journey in that direction; I
therefore made only one march to the westward of
Thawar, and found the ravine, along which the river
flowed, so barren and uninteresting, that I did not
consider it necessary to visit Tok, but retraced my
steps towards Iskardo, which I reached on the 11th of
March.
I should have been glad to have had an opportunity
of observing the nature of the vegetation of the valley of
Rondu, but the season of the year was unfortunately not
favourable for that purpose. The cultivated plants were
not different from those of Iskardo, and much of the
shrubby vegetation was the same as that common higher
up the Indus. An ash, of which the flowers were just
expanded, but which was still quite leafless, appeared a novelty
; but it was probably the same species which I had
already collected in Kunawar and Piti. The only subtropical
plants of which I saw any traces, were Linaria
ramosissima, a shrubby Plectranthus, now leafless, but
which I guessed to be P. rugosus, and some withered
steftis of tall reedy grasses, species of Saccharum and
Erianthus. In summer, no doubt, many more would
have occurred, and a complete fist of the plants of Rondu
would be of very great interest, as illustrative of the
connection between the alpine flora of Ladak, which
passes into that of Siberia, and the vegetation of the
mountains of Affghanistan, the plants of which are in
a great measure the same as those of Persia and Asia
Minor. There is also a transition through this country,
down the valley of the Indus, to a third flora, that of the
hot dry plains of-the Punjab and of Sind, which extends
with little variation along the littoral districts of Belu-
chistan and Persia, into Arabia and Egypt.
On my return to Iskardo, I found the plain almost
free from snow, a little only remaining on banks facing
the north. The mountains on the south side of the
valley were, however, still snow-clad to the very base,
and the fruit-trees had scarcely begun to show any signs
of vegetation. Along the watercourses there was more
appearance of spring; a little gentian and Hutchinsia
were already in flower, and most of the spring plants
had begun to grow rapidly.
The return of spring set the whole population of the
district to work in their fields; and both in Rondu and
in the neighbourhood of Iskardo, I had an opportunity
of seeing the mode in which the processes of agriculture
are carried on. As soon as the ground is clear of snow,
the manure, which has been accumulated during the preceding
year, consisting of the contents of the cowhouse