, is occasionally very sandy, but beyond that it is easily
traversed by hackeries. Being much less cultivated and overrun with
grasses, among which Andropogons are the most numerous and conspicuous,
these grasses are either coarse and stout or wiry and fine, should afford
excellent cover for game, which however, does not seem to be very
abundant. Very few trees are visible in any direction, and although
neither very much cultivation nor many villages are visible, it would
appear from charts that the country is very populous. The most
interesting plant was a species of Fagonia.

Durrumkote is the largest of the villages we passed, and has a
respectable looking mud and brick fort. Inside the village is filthy;
the houses wretchedly small, and the streets very narrow. It is much the
same sort of village as other Seikh ones. In the bazars cocoanuts were
noticed. All the Seikhs eat opium, and very often in a particular way by
infusing the poppy-heads, from which the seeds have been extracted by a
hole in the side; great numbers of these are found in the bazars.

Hurreekee is on Runjeet's side. I crossed the Sutledge, which is between
400 to 500 yards broad with a sufficiently rapid stream, by a bridge of
boats built by the Seikhs, under the superintendence of Mr. Roobalee. It
contained 65 boats, placed alternately up and down the river; the boats
were moored to posts: over them were placed, both lengthwise and across,
timbers, then grass, then soil; many elephants passed over, until it gave
in, but was quickly repaired, and since many more hundreds of camels,
horses, and thousands of people have passed. The right bank is thirty
feet high, the left low and sandy. The country where uncultivated, is
clothed with grasses, and the only trees visible are perhaps the Pipul;
the _Jhow_ occurs but not the Parhass; a few Bukeens are visible,
Ricinus, Salvadora, which is occasionally a climber, especially at
Tiraia. The river rose suddenly on the night of the 6th and carried away
the bridge. The Himalayas had been seen very distinctly throughout the
day, so that the rain must have been local: the height of the rise was
three feet.

We left Hurreekee on the 8th at 10 A.M., the river up to this time (9th)
presents the same monotonous appearance--sandy banks clothed with
grasses, intermixed with _Jhow_ here and there, and occasionally
AEschynomene, and Typha. Very few villages have been passed, nor does
the rare occurrence