is still bare. Mookloor, a district through
which we passed, about seventy miles from this, is well cultivated and
inhabited. There are few birds to be seen, and scarcely any insects, but
there are numerous lizards. The thermometer varies in tents from 60 to
90 degrees."

* * * * *

_Cabul_: _August 11th_, 1839.

"I am encamped close to Baber's tomb, lulled by the sound of falling
water, and cooled with the shade of poplar and sycamore trees, with
abundance of delicious fruit, and altogether quite happy for the nonce. I
have not yet seen the town which is a strange place, buried in gardens:
but nothing can exceed the rich cultivation of the valley in which we are
encamped. Beautiful fields on every side, with streamlets, rich verdure,
poplars, willows, and bold mountain scenery, which contrasts most
favourably with the dreary barren tracts to which we have been
accustomed. I go with the Engineers to Bamean in the course of a few
days, when we shall cross ridges of 12,000 to 13,000 feet high.

"I can only find three kinds of fish in this neighbourhood. I have been
making some drawings, and collecting a few plants which continue to be
entirely European."

* * * * *

_Peshawur_: _November 17th_, 1839.

"I hope some day or other to turn out a real traveller. I am now in
hopes of becoming a decent surveyor, and before many years have passed a
decent meteorologist. I leave the Army here, and shall part with it,
particularly Thomson and Durand of the Engineers, with regret. I start
in a short time to travel up the Indus with little before me but
difficulties, however _a la renommee_. If I can do something
unparalleled in the travelling way I shall be content for a year or two
at least.

"I have obtained some few specimens of fossil shells from the shingly
beds of the Khyber Pass. They seem to be a Spirifer with a very square
base, quite different from the common species of the Bolan Pass, which is
like a large cockle, and of which I have one beautiful specimen. How I
regret not seeing Bukkur, for with a few days' leisure, a number of
fossils might be obtained. The older I grow the less content am I
scientifically: would that I had received a mathematical education. I
was much interested with some quotations from Lyell's Elements in a late
_Calcutta Courier_, especially about the Marine Saurian from the
Gallepagos. What further proof