The seeds, which axe extremely small, are produced in
great abundance on all the upper part of the plant, and
are ripe in September.
For about a mile after leaving the village of Kotgarh,
the descent was trifling, but the remainder of the road
to the Sutlej was very steep, so that the change in the
vegetation was sudden, commencing just at the point
where Quercus incana disappeared; before which few
plants indicating heat occurred. The want of wood, no
doubt, assisted the rapidity of the change, for the heat
soon became considerable. In the course of the descent,
I noted all the new forms as they occurred; but the exact
order in which each individual species makes its appearance,
depends so much upon accidental and unimportant
circumstances, and is so likely to be affected by errors of
observation, unless many series are obtained in different
aspects of the same slope, that it would lead to no advantage
to enumerate the species as they were met with.
Nearly 1000 feet above the bed of the river, or at an elevation
of about 4000 feet, the vegetation had become
quite subtropical, species of Mollugo, Polanisia, Cor-
chorus, Leucas, Euphorbia, Microrhynchus, and the ordinary
grasses and Cyperacecu of the plains, being the common
weeds. The descent continued very abrupt, the
heat increasing rapidly, till the road reached the bank of
the Sutlej, at the village of Kepu, which occupies a flat
piece of land overhanging the river.
Having commenced our day’s journey before daybreak,
in order to complete the march before the e^ftreme heat
had commenced, we stopped here to breakfast, under the
shade of a fine mango-tree. The neighbourhood of the
village was well cultivated, with extensive rice-fields and
a fine grove of tropical trees—mango, Ficus Indica and
religiosa, Melia Azedarach and Azadirachta, Grewia,
oranges, and plantains. Our late residence in a cool
climate made us feel the heat much, though the temperature
at nine in the morning was not much more
than 80°. After breakfast, we continued our journey
up the valley, to Nirt or Nirat, a distance of six or seven
miles, and next day we reached Rampur, the capital
of Basehir, twelve miles further, and still in the Sutlej
valley.
The district of Basehir is an independent hill state,
governed by a rajah, whose dominion also extends over
Kunawar; it commences a very little north of Kotgarh,
and occupies the south side of the river Sutlej and the
mountain slopes above it, as far east as the confines of
Kunawar. The valley of the Sutlej, in the western part
of Basehir, from Rampur downwards, has an elevation
of little more than 3000 feet, Rampur (140 feet above
the bed of the river) being 3400 feet above the level of
the sea*. The river, at the season of our journey, which
was the height of the rains, at which time it is at its
largest, is an impetuous torrent, of great size, but very
variable in breadth, foaming along over a stony bed, with
generally very precipitous rocky banks, and filled with
large boulders. During the rainy season it is extremely
muddy, almost milky, and deposits in tranquil parts of its
course a considerable amount of white mud. The valley
is generally very narrow, with steep bare hills on either
side, quite devoid of trees and covered only with a few
* Gerard’s ‘ Koonawur,’ Appendix, Table 3.
E 2