326 VALLEY ABOVE DADU. [May,
a steep bare spur between it and the main stream for
perhaps 500 feet, after which it ran for some distance
through fields of wheat still green, at first at a considerable
distance above the stream, the bed of which, however,
rose so rapidly that a very short descent brought
me again to its banks. I then re-entered a beautiful
forest, principally pine, in which the Pindrow was now the
most common tree, bearing in abundance its erect purple
cones. As the road rose rapidly, the vegetation soon
began to change : Syringa Pmodi, a currant, and other
plants of the sub-alpine zone, making their appearance.
The most common shrubby plants were Viburnum
nervosum and Spiraea Lindleyana, both of which occurred
in vast quantity. Tor perhaps a mile and a half,
the valley was extremely beautiful; the torrent being
rocky and rapid, and the forest very fine. The road
then crossed the stream by a good wooden bridge, and
a steep ascent commenced. As the forest was confined
to the bottom of the valley, I soon emerged on dry
grassy slopes. The precipitous nature of the banks rendered
it necessary to ascend nearly 1000 feet, after which
the road was again level along the dry mountain slope
facing the south. The bed of the stream rose very
rapidly, so that the road soon re-approached it; and
when nearly on a level with it, I again entered forest,
in which Quercus semecarpifolia, the alpine oak of Himalaya,
was the prevailing tree. After about a mile,
having attained an elevation of 10,000 feet, I encamped
on an open grassy spot in the forest. The ravines facing
the north had for some time been full of snow, but I
had got close to camp before any appeared in those on
the right bank, along which the road lay. A snowy peak,
the upper part of which was high above the level of trees,
lay to the south-east.
In the lower part of the ascent, the rock was clay-
slate ; but near my camp it was succeeded by the same
gneiss, with large crystals of felspar, which I had found
(in boulders) around Dadu. In general appearance, this
gneiss was very similar to that observed on the mountains
north of Nasmon, on the Chenab; and as these
two places have nearly the same relative position as the
usual fine of strike in the north-western Himalaya, it is
very probable that the rock is the same in both.
On the morning of the 1st of June, I continued
to follow the course of the stream, ascending now
very gently. The valley was open, and the road lay
over undulating grassy ground, the forest having receded
to some distance on both sides. Round my camp
I had noticed very little in the vegetation different from
what was common one or two thousand feet lower; but
almost immediately after starting, I found myself among
numerous bushes of Phododendron campanulatum in full
flower, and many other alpine plants appeared very
shortly afterwards: of these, perhaps the most lovely
was the elegant Primula rosea, which was extremely
plentiful in hollow marshy spots from which snow had
recently melted.
The ascent continued exceedingly gentle till close to
the end, when, turning suddenly to the left into a pine-
clad ravine, a few steps brought me to the crest of the
ridge over which my road ran,—a lateral spur from the
great snowy mass, which (as is often the case) was a good