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Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The by William Griffith

W >> William Griffith >> Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The




"I commence with a list of the fish of this place. I have only to
mention that several species are confounded under the name Bhoor, all the
Chandras under Chunda Begla, Loaches under Pote, all the Perilamps except
the Chulwa, which may be from its flavour a _Clupeia_, etc. The fact is,
that the fishermen are aware of genera, but not of species, excepting
when the distinctive marks are very strong. The fisherman enumerates
forty species, but I have only twenty-six, I have promised him one rupee
when he completes the list:

Native Name. Family. General size.

1. Khaila, ) ( 6.
2. Bhoor, ) ( mature.
3. Rewa, ) Cyprins, ( mature.
4. Bangun, ) ( 18 inches, called also Kala Bhans.

5. Chund Bigla, mature.
6. Ditto ditto, ditto.
7. Ditto ditto, ditto.
8. Pote, Loach, ditto.
9. Mailoa, Perilamps, ditto.
10. Khurda, ditto Trichopterus?
11. Puttra, Salurida, 20 seers.
12. Kuttoa, Ditto, 6 inches.

13. Ghichila,) Macrognathus( 7 ditto.
14. Bham, ) ( 3 feet.

15. Nunghree,) ( 6 inches.
16. Nowhan, ) Cyprins, ( ditto.
17. Pootea, ) ( 12 inches.

18. Seengh, Silurida, 8 inches.
19. Bugarlea, ditto.
20. Mootunna, nearly mature.
21. Bardul, 6 inches.
22. Chilwa, Perilamp,? mature.
23. Nuwha, Esox, ditto.

24. Gwalee, ) Silurus, ( 2 maunds,
25. Ruttgull,) ( nearly mature.

26. Chundee Clupeia, ditto ditto.

* * * * *

_Candahar_: _May the 2nd_, 1839.

"We have seen three changes in the geological structure of the country.

"The Khojah Omrah was chiefly clay slate, and we are now in another
formation, which no one seems to know; but it must be different as the
outlines of the hills are completely changed. We are now 3,500 feet
above the sea. The climate is good, and would be delightful in a good
house, but in tents the thermometer varies from 60 to 98 degrees and even
105 degrees.

"I have got a decent collection of plants, only amounting however to 650
species. The flora continues quite European. I have some of singular
interest. Compositae, Cruciferae, and Gramineae form the bulk of the
vegetation. All fish are very different from those below the Ghats. I
have five or six species of Cyprinidae. One very inimitable fuscous
loach. There are few birds, and fewer quadrupeds; in fact the country is
at a minimum in both these respects."

* * * * *

_Ghuzni_: _July 25th_, 1839.

"We have been gradually ascending since leaving Candahar, and are here at
an elevation of 7,600 feet. The same features continue. I have as yet
not more than 850 species. The mountains on every side, and indeed the
whole face of the country, 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 can be wanted of the maritime and insular
nature of the world during the reigns of the Saurian reptiles? What more
conclusive can be expected about the appearance of new species? This
point would at once be settled if the formation of these islands can be
proved not to have been contemporaneous with the Continents. Then the
animal nature of chalk!

"I am doing nothing in botany, but learning Persian, and the use of the
theodolite, with nothing but difficulties to look at all around. I begin
to feel of such importance, (do not think me conceited in relation to my
collections and information on geographical botany,) that I am not
overpleased with the idea of facing dangers alone: however I suppose
every thing is as usual exaggerated."

* * * * *

_Bamean_: _August 3rd_, 1840.

"Yesterday I crossed the Hindoo-koosh by my former route, and this
morning while out, i.e. trout fishing, was most agreeably interrupted by
the post. The fishing was ended forthwith. Indeed the sun in this
country even at elevations of 12,000 feet is very hot, and has excoriated
my hands, beautifully white as they were after my sickness, but not
before I had caught 3 barbels, evidently different from those of the
other side of the range. I caught some trout yesterday evening, it is a
most beautiful fish, I was particularly struck with the size of the eye,
its prominence, and expressive pupil, in opposition to the sluggishness
of the eyes of carps.

"It is strange that Botany has always been the most favoured of the
natural sciences, it is strange that in spite of what all do say it is
the least advanced of any. How can I reconcile my own splendid
opportunities with those of more deserving naturalists in other branches?
and I would willingly share them on the principle of common fairness with
others, who I know would turn them to a better account. Oreinus takes
the worm greedily; in the Helmund, 11,000 feet above the sea, it is
abundant. It is the same species I think as that in the Cabul river; but
in the Cabul river, Barbus is the predominant fish: in the Helmund it is
the reverse. How can one account for the small elevation at which fish
are found in the Himalayan? I cannot imagine it is owing as some think
to the relative impetuosity of the rivers, which after all is only an
assumption.

"This Bamean valley is the strangest place imaginable, its barrenness and
the variegated colours of the rocks convey the idea of its volcanic
origin, and give it a look as if it had come out of the furnace. I
cannot make out where the stones so universally found all over the slopes
of the mountains, came from, for very generally they seem water-worn. I
find no great peculiarity in the flora of this side of the range, except
an abundance of odd-looking Chenopodiaceous plants, probably resulting
from the saline saturation of the soil. There is a very singular spring
on the other side of the range, about 11,000 feet above the sea: the
water very clear, with no remarkable taste, but every thing around is
covered with a deposit of a highly ferruginous powder. I shall write
next from the fossil locality, which is said to be about forty miles from
this. I am as stout as ever, but by no means so strong."

* * * * *

_Bamean_: _August 21st_, 1840.

"I am now out of the region of trees, excepting a poplar, of which I will
send you a bit, as the same tree grows in much lower places. The want of
rings in wood is by no means unusual in tropical vegetation. For the
production of rings, some annual check to vegetation is required: their
absence is particularly frequent in climbers. The walnut will not be a
good instance, because even if you can get it from Java, it is a tree
that requires cold, and must consequently be found at considerable
altitudes. Your instances must be taken from subjects that can bear a
great range of climate: you have some in the apricot, vine, etc. I will
not fail in sending you what you want from Cabul, and also from Peshawur,
in which almost the extremes of temperature can be contrasted. I will
also get the woods of apricots, cherries, etc., at the highest elevations
on my road back, as I hope to pass through the grand fruit country of
Affghanistan. No Jungermannias are obtainable in this part, nor anywhere
indeed, except towards the true Himalayas. I do not remember having seen
the pomegranate growing at Cabul: the place is too cold for it. I think
however, I can get some from Khujjah, where snow lies in winter. I leave
for the Provinces early in October, and shall travel 30 miles a day. I
want to get to Seharunpore, 15 or 20 days in advance of my time, as I
must run up to Mussoorie and fish in the Dhoon. I shall be in Calcutta
in all February."

* * * *

_Cabul_: _September 26th_, 1840.

"I despatch to-morrow the first of the bits of wood, the duplicates will
be sent on the 28th or 29th: on this latter day I leave for Peshawur, and
right glad am I that the time has come at last. I will send you the same
woods from Peshawur, but shall scarcely be able to send you pomegranate
from any thing like a cold place.

"On receiving your specimens of vine, the following question occurred to
me. If wood is a deposit from the leaves or fibres sent down from the
leaves, how is the presence of wood to be accounted for in tendrils,
which have no leaves, but yet which are evidently branches? The theory
of the formation of wood, which considers it as above, is deemed
ingenious, but it will not I think be found to be true. The bark
evidently has a great deal to say to the matter.

"I shall be most rejoiced at a remote prospect of again setting to work.
I take no interest now in the vegetation of this country. I hope to be
at Loodianah _early_ in November; my present intention is to run up to
Simla, thence to Mussoorie, and descend on Seharunpore. If I do this, I
shall only leave one point unfinished, and that is the Hindoo-koosh
Proper, where however I shall have the advantage of Major Sanders of the
Engineers, who will pick up a few plants for me. I wish much to take
notes of the vegetation about Simla and Mussoorie, this I can do at a bad
season. I shall afterwards be able to compare the Himalayan chain at
very distant points."

* * * * *

_Serampore_, -- 1841.

"I will send you to-morrow dissections of Santalum if I can get a small
bottle for them: under .5 inch lens you can easily open the pistillum of
Santalum having previously removed the perianth: it is a concial body;
you must take care to get it out entire, especially at the base, then
place it in water, and dissect off the ovula of which there are three or
four, as per sketch. I shall not say what I see, as I want to have your
original opinion unbiassed, etc.; but whenever you see the tubes with
filaments adhering to their apices, pray mark attentively what takes
place, both at the point and at the place where the tube leaves the
ovulum; your matchless 1/1500 would do the thing. Try iodine with all
such, after having examined them in water.

"Should you find any difficulty in dissecting away the ovula, light
pressure under glass will relieve you. I shall be very anxious to know
what your opinion is, particularly with regard to the tubes and all
adhering filaments; the question now occupying botanists, being this, is
the embryo derived directly from the boyau or is it derived from some
parts of the ovulum?

"I hope you can understand these sketches."

* * * * *

_Peshawur_: _13th December_, 1839.

"What a shame it is that botanists should know nothing whatever of the
formation and structure of wood! They look at a section of a piece of
oak, and imagine they have discovered the secret, and write volumes on
this imagination, yet they have been told over and over again, that
nothing is to be learnt on such subjects without beginning at the
commencement, which they are too idle to do. To name an abominable
Aster, is among them of much higher importance than to discover the cause
of the growth of wood. Medullary rays are most difficult, because they
are very often deficient particularly in climbers. I am horridly idle,
and yet what can I do without books; yet with regard to books, the more
originality we possess, the less we require them? There is nothing to be
got here except a few marsh plants coming into flower. One beautiful
Chara, which might disclose the secret, had I good glasses, it is a most
graceful pellucid form, an undescribed duckweed, a floating
Marchantiaceae. Would that I was settled with a Ross on one hand, and a
Strongstein on the other, around my collections with good health and good
spirits. Tell ---- I have in view the division of the vegetable kingdom
analagous to radiata, they include all the Marchantiaceae, and are, to
all intents and purposes, Vegetable Radiata."

* * * * *

_Pushut_, _1st march beyond Kooner_:
_January 29th_, 1840.

"This will be a letter of odds and ends, you know I was to return to
Jallalabad; well I reached that place, but left the encampment and
crossed the river, where an advance road making partly for the Kooner
expedition were employed, and having originally determined on going to
Kooner, I accompanied them two marches, when they were overtaken by the
army, to avoid which, I halted one day, and on the next proceeded onwards
by the north bank of the river, thus saving all the fords of this horrid
river. I should call it beautiful at any other season. The road was
bad, and the last one and a half mile into camp most difficult, the path
winding round and over spurs of sharp limestone rocks which must have had
abundance of silex in them they were so very hard. At the very worst
part, my headman being in front, all of a sudden I heard three shots in
quick succession with the usual hallooing, and then I was called on in
advance, meeting my headman wounded: he has lost the two fore-fingers of
his right hand. All I saw was three men scrambling up the face of the
hill, on whom I opened a fire as soon as my guns came up, and had the
pleasure of hitting one on the shield.

"Such a scene ensued! for when there are three or four on such occasions
we may reasonably expect thirty or forty, and my object was to get out of
the bad road, and so be close to camp. Some of, or rather all, my people
became dismayed, I had therefore to cheer, to point my double barrels,
and in fact to enact a whole legion. One fellow tried to shoot me but
his powder proved faithful, the others were wounded: however they kept in
sight, and to make matters worse, in one place within twenty yards, six
or seven of my loads were thrown; evening drawing on, and prospects
disgusting, when at last having passed over one bad part and got down
into a ravine, a number of people were seen closing down on us, but my
man had run off to camp, and by shouts succeeded in calling five or six
_sepahis_, part of the rear-guard, to our relief, and so we escaped bag
and baggage, the rascals making off when the red coats appeared. I was
sick at heart at the loss of poor Abdool Rozak's fingers: he is an Arab
with an English heart, bearing his loss most manfully, and when his
fingers were removed expressed anxiety alone about me and my _Sundoogs_
(collections). Well then, where should I have been had I been assailed
as Abdool Rozak was, I should have been unprepared, and if riding, my
mare would certainly have jumped into the river beneath. Thomson {0a}
said when he left me, G---, you are rash and Abdool Rozak is rash, take
care or you will get into trouble. My moving about without a guard was
imprudent, and I now return to Jallalabad to get one, or if not
successful to wait there until the spring and its floral excitements call
me out: what I dislike is danger without any recompense, not a flower is
to be had; with excitement it is nothing. I have now had two escapes,
one from the buffalo in Assam, and this, which is a greater one, because
had not the army been delayed by accident at the ford, it would have been
eight or ten miles in advance, and consequently there would have been no
rear-guard at hand.

"The country is disturbed, and one can only stir out in the valley itself
close to camp, which is the more tantalizing as the mountains are
accessible, and covered with forest. Our halt here should put us in
possession of much information respecting these forests. As it is, I
shall leave probably as wise as I came, except in having ascertained that
the change from the well-wooded Himalaya mountains to those of the Hindoo-
koosh, without even a shrub five feet high, takes place to the east of
this. My employment is surveying and collecting data for ascertaining
the heights of the hills around. But wherever I turn, the question
suggests itself, what business have I here collecting plants, with so
many in Calcutta demanding attention? How I am living! alone, without a
table, chair, wine, or spirits, with a miserable beard, and in native
clothes! but one thus saves much time; how unfortunate that mine now is
not worth saving!

"I have been reading Swainson's volumes in Lardner's Cyclopaedia, in
which there is a little to which severe critics may object, but a vast
deal more that is beautifully sound. I am quite certain I never
appreciated them before. How wonderful that no one before Macleay and
Swainson thought that living beings were created on one plan. I have
imbibed all the important parts with the hope of bringing them to bear on
Botany, which is in a shameful state. One talks of the typical nature of
polypetalous or monopetalous plants; another ridicules the idea, because
as he wisely says, some polypetalous plants are monopetalous, and vice
versa!! he objects, in fact to what constitutes the great value of a
character, _its mode of variation_. All Swainson's propositions
appear to me philosophical and highly probable, but none of the present
generation have eyes young enough to bear such a flood of light as he has
thrown upon them. There are faults I acknowledge, but a man who writes
for money does not always write for fame; rapid writing and much more
rapid publishing is a vast evil, but one which is too often unavoidable.
I have four or five drawings of fish, one of the spotted carnivorous
carp, the most carnivorous type of all except Opsarion, and perhaps a new
subgenus; {0b} one of the Sir-i-Chushme and Khyber _Oreinus_, and a
Perilamp with two long cirrhi on the upper lip. I intend in my travels
now I am alone, to stop at every fertile place. I am ascertaining the
limit of the inferior snow in these latitudes, which I fancy will be
3,500 feet. Is it not curious that here 1,000 feet above Jallalabad we
have had no snow, while at Jallalabad there has been abundance. I
attribute it to the narrowness of the valley at this place, and to the
forest. When I glance at the subject of botanical geography, how
astounding appears our ignorance! we have no data, except to determine
the mere temperature and amount of rain yet men will persist in the rage
for imperfect description of undescribed species, and pay no attention to
what is one of the most important agents in preserving things as they are
in our planet,--i.e. vegetation. On this point Swainson is less happy
than on others when he ascribes such importance to temperature, and
points out the fact that countries in the same latitudes, and having the
same temperatures, produce different animals."

* * * * *

_Cabul_, _September 25th_, 1839.

"I am just on the eve of re-entering Cabul from a visit to Bamean, a
singular place on the other side of the Hindoo-koosh, celebrated for its
idols and caves. It has amply repaid a march of 106 miles and back
again. I never saw a more singular place, and never enjoyed myself more:
we crossed several high ridges between 11 and 13,000 feet, but so poor is
the flora that I have only added 200 species to my catalogue, now
amounting to 1200 species instead of 2,400 as I fully expected. But I
must say I was as much pleased at the acquisition of a genuine _Salmo_ in
the Bamean river (which is a tributary of the Oxus,) as at any thing.

"Unfortunately we were so hurried, that I had only one afternoon and that
an unfavourable one, for indulging in my fishing propensities: the chief
fish seems to come very near the English trout, and so far as I can
judge, is not found on this side the Himalaya. The other fish of these
rivers are a fine Schizothorax or Oreinus, allied to the _Adoee_, a flat-
headed Siluroid, a loach, and a small Cyprinus. This is a singular
country, quite unlike any thing I have seen, and as distinct from the
Himalaya in its vegetation, etc. as can well be imagined. Generally it
is very barren, and after travelling over so much of the country I have
yet seen only three parts of it decently cultivated. It is reported to
be rich in minerals.

"But it will never bear comparison with Hindoostan. It is however
capable of much improvement. It consists of a succession of barren
valleys, divided from each other by barren ridges, and is generally
deficient in the great fertilizer of all things--water. There is
scarcely an indigenous tree in the whole country, and generally very few
cultivated ones, except about Cabul, although they have poplars and
willows well suited to the climate. It has been subjected to so much
misrule that the natives have become indifferent to its improvement, (if
they ever felt alive to any such interest.) The Zoology is very poor,
quite at zero. There is a species of Ibex, an _Ovis_, and a _Capra_,
which from the frequency of their heads and horns about sacred places and
gateways of towns, must be common; but I have never seen more than a
portion of one fresh specimen of the sheep. Furs are brought from the
Hindoo-koosh, but are all too mutilated to be of any use, except to a
Zoologist with antiquarian eyes: one Jerboa. Hares are rather common in
some parts, and about here there is a Lagomys. Of birds there are but
few, but as the vegetation is chiefly vernal, these creatures may perhaps
be abundant. The game birds are quail, three species of partridge, a
huge Ptarmigan? Pterocles of Loodianah. The fauna is richest in Saurian
reptiles, and of these one might make a very good collection. I have
only seen two snakes, and both are I believe lost."

* * * * *

_Mirzapore_: _April 26th_, 1841.

"Request --- to refrain from abusing compound microscopes. Why should
not compound and simple microscopes each have their merits? Valentine,
who is a great authority, and an unrivalled dissector, says, the simple
lens must be suspended. I only wish I could dissect with a compound
microscope: what things might not one get access to. The simple lens is
quite useless with opaque objects; it only does for transmitted light.
Now dissections of opaque objects have been too much neglected. How odd
it is that all improvements are ridiculed at first.

"I enclose a bit of Sphagnam, a curious moss, with curious incomplete
spiral cells in the leaves. I dare say it will bear preservation in
Canada balsam. I have received a new microscope, a queer-looking thing,
very portable; one object glass of a quarter inch focus, by Ross; two eye-
pieces magnifying linearly 200 to 300 times. I have put it up, but I am
not well enough to decide on its merits. Now that I have arranged all my
things, I am literally frightened at the work I have to do.

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