On the 25th of May, I proceeded along the side of the ridge in an easterly direction, passing several small flat-bottomed depressions, apparently the sites at a former period of small lakes, similar to that from which I had commenced my march. The road was rocky and rugged, and gradually rose several hundred feet to the crest of the ridge. Pine-trees were generally plentiful. On reaching the top, shortly after daybreak, a fine wide undulating valley was seen below, bounded on the north at the distance of about ten miles by a third range of mountains, and traversed by several streams, which had excavated for themselves deep perpendicular-sided ravines in the sandstone strata. All these streams had a westerly course to join the Tawi, which, issuing from a deep valley behind the third range, crossed the open plain in a south-west direction.
[Sidenote: SANDSTONE RANGES. _May, 1848._]
Leaving the ridge, the road descended gradually to the plain, and after crossing a deep ravine, with precipitous walls, continued through a fine level country to the village of Thalaura, about a mile from the third range of hills. The sandstone frequently contained a few waterworn pebbles scattered through it; and a bed of coarse conglomerate, with an indurated matrix, capped the cliff above this ravine. Some strata of indurated clay and soft slate also alternated, but rarely, with the sandstone. The plain was well cultivated, being chiefly laid out in rice-fields; and the people were all busy ploughing, sowing rice, and harrowing with a log of wood, drawn by bullocks and kept down by the weight of a man.
On the earlier rocky part of the road, the vegetation was much the same as the day before. _Dodonæa_ was common, as it is in most parts of this hilly tract, never, however, rising out of the tropical belt. I do not know how far to the eastward of Jamu this plant extends; but as it does not seem to occur to the east of the Sutlej, and probably stops much sooner[18], it appears to prefer a rather dry climate, and will, I think, be found limited to the drier portion of the Peninsula, from which it probably extends through Central India, and along the hilly country west of Sind. On the open plain the pines entirely disappeared, and the aspect of the vegetation was entirely that of the plains of India.