very frequently over the hills in
most directions, together with flocks of sheep. A large road leading off
to the south-west from the summit is seen; from this our road is well-
marked.

_29th_.--Halted: every tillable spot is made use of about Yonutt, where
there is a fort with forty families. The crops are chiefly wheat and a
four-awned barley, the grain is fine though scanty, and the plants are of
stunted growth. Ravens the same, round-tailed eagle as at Urghundee, and
Percnopterus, wagtails, three kinds of Conirostres, and an Alauda are
found here, one or two Sylviae. The sward about this place is abundant,
affords good pasturage for a few horses, and water is plentiful. This
sward is chiefly occupied by a Leguminous Caraganoid shrub, rather
thorny, and not unlike some species of Barberry in habit, this is
abundant, and is first met with in the ravines beyond the Oonnoo pass,
Cyperaceae, viz. 2-3, Carices, small grasses, Leontodon, Astragaloid
caerulens, Trifolium album, Composita corona, Cnicus acaulis, and
Gentiana pusilla, compose the sward chiefly; in the drier parts of it
there is a very fine Carduacea, which appears very local.

The hills about are all either clay slate, pure slate, or micaceous
slate, the strata generally vertical.

Descended the ravine which the rivulet passes down, to where it joins the
Helmund, the hills bounding it are of no great height, but the slips are
sometimes bold. The Helmund runs between rocky cliffs, its bed not much
broader than the stream, the water is clear, rapid, and the column
considerable.

This gorge is picturesque, the sides being generally precipitous.

The plants of these hills are, Umbelliferae very common, Statice 2,
Carduacea, Ephedra, Labiatae of Karabagh vel similia, Arenarioid out of
flower in the crevices, a large Mattheoloid, Leucades, Dianthoides foliis
undulatis, Artemisiae two or three, one a peculiar one, No.--a shrubby
Astragalus, stunted scraggy Polanisia of Cabul? Campanula of Karabagh in
the bed of the stream, Cnicus of Kot-i-Ashruf, and Salvia are excessively
common, Artemisia pyramidalis, two or three: mosses occur on the banks,
and several Gramineae, see Catalogue 1,005, etc. Cnicus alius,
Verbascum.

[Helmund gorge: m393.jpg]

_30th_.--We continued ascending gradually, crossing a low ridge covered
with sward, and then descended to surmount another ridge, which appeared
to me to be as high as the top of the Oonnoo. We thence descende