In descending the southern face of this mountain, the road at once entered a forest of silver fir, in the upper part of which I saw one tree of _Quercus semecarpifolia_, a species which I had not met with on the Kashmir passes, or anywhere since leaving the Sutlej. About 8000 feet, the pines were replaced by the holly-leaved oak, forming open woods, in the glades of which patches of cultivation soon occurred; I encamped at about 7000 feet, at the village of Katti. During the day the sandstone rock occurred uninterruptedly, partly, as the day before, of a reddish-brown colour, partly grey, or nearly white. On the descent large angular fragments of this rock were everywhere scattered over the surface, almost always more or less imbedded in the soil: these had somewhat the appearance of a former moraine, but the surface was so much covered with wood, and the boulders were so much buried, that I could not trace their arrangement in a satisfactory manner.
Next morning I continued the descent, which was rapid, so that I soon arrived at tropical vegetation. There was but little forest, except in ravines, and the heat soon became very great. About three miles from Katti I passed the fort of Landar, built on an almost isolated cliff, overhanging the ravine; and a little further on I descended abruptly to a small stream, running towards the Chenab, the elevation of whose bed was about 3000 feet. The descent, which was almost precipitous, led down the face of a mass of clay, in some respects like the alluvial deposits so common in Tibet. Similar masses of alluvium, all table-topped, and very steep, and much worn by ravines, had occurred throughout the whole of the descent from Katti. A few pines grew on this steep bank, and all the shrubs which I had found on the banks of the Chenab at Nasmon were again met with. After crossing this stream, the bed of which was filled with large water-worn boulders, I again ascended to about 5000 feet, chiefly among cultivation, and encamped at _Mir_, a small village close to the crest of the main range south of the Chenab, the elevation of which was now very inconsiderable.
[Sidenote: OPEN VALLEYS OF THE OUTER HIMALAYA. _May, 1848._]
Next day, a gentle ascent of half an hour brought me to the crest of this range. The mountain slopes were bare and grassy, but in the ravines there was now and then some brushwood. _Andromeda ovalifolia_ and _Rhododendron arboreum_ were both noticed; and, much to my surprise, I observed at intervals a few trees of _Fothergilla_, for I had not expected to find this Kashmir tree so close to the plains, and in a district the flora of which was so completely that of the Simla hills. On the summit of the pass, which was not more than 6000 feet, I found a beautiful gentian (_G. Kurroo_ of Royle) and a yellow spinous _Astragalus_, seemingly the same species which I had found at Nasmon, on the Chenab. It was curious to find a representative of the spiny-petioled group of this genus in so hot a climate and so near the plains; for in the rainy parts of the mountains, and in the more humid parts of the Indian plain, the genus is almost wanting, and this particular section entirely so.