which they are immoderately fond. Both men and* women constantly spin wool as they travel,

These groups of Tibetans are singularly picturesque, from the variety in their parti-coloured dresses,, 8^4 their odd appearance. First comes a middle-aged man or woman, driving a little silky black yak, grunting under his load of 260 lbs. of salt, besides pots, pans, and kettles, stools, chum, and bamboo vessels, keeping up a constant rattle; and perhaps, buried amongst all, a rosy-cheeked and lipped baby, sucking a lump of cheese-curd. The main body follow in due order, and you are soon entangled amidst sheep and goats, each with its two little bags of salt: beside these stalks the huge, grave, bull-headed mastiff, loaded like the rest, his glorious bushy tail thrown over his back in a majestic sweep, and a thick collar of scarlet wool round his neck and shoulders, setting off his long silky coat to the best advantage; he is decidedly the noblest looking of the party, especially if a fine and pure black one, for they are often very ragged, dun-coloured, sorry beasts. He seems rather out of place, neither guarding nor keeping the party together, but he knows that neither yaks, sheep, nor goats, require his attention ; all are perfectiy tame, so he takes his share of work as salt-carrier by day, and watches by night as well. The children bring up the rear, laughing and chatting together; they, too, have their loads, even to the youngest that can walk alone.

The last village of the Limboos, Taptiatok, is large, and occupies a remarkable amphitheatre, apparentiy a lake-bed, in the course of the Tambur. After proceeding

some way through a narrow gorge, along which the river foamed and roared, the sudden opening out of this broad, oval expanse, more than a mile long, was very striking: the mountains rose bare and steep, the west flank terminating in shivered masses of rock, while that on the- right was more imdulating, dry, and grassy: the surface was a flat gravel-bed, through which meandered the rippling stream, fringed with alder. It was a beautiftd spot, the clear, cool, murmuring river, with its rapids and shallows, forcibly reminding me of a trout-stream in the highlands of Scotland.

Beyond Taptiatok we again crossed the river, and ascended over dry, grassy, or rocky spurs to Lelyp, the first Bhotea village; it stands on a hill fully 1000 feet above the river, and commands a splendid view up the Yalloong and Kambachen valleys, which open immediately to the east, and appear as stupendous chasms in the mountains leading to the perpetual snows of Kinchin-junga. There were about fifty houses in the village, of wood and thatch, neatly fenced in with wattle, the ground being careftdly cultivated with radishes, buckwheat, wheat, and millet. A Lama, the head-man of the place, came out to greet us, with his family and a whole troop of villagers; none had ever before seen an Englishman, and I fear they formed no flattering opinion of the specimen now presented to them, as they seemed infinitely amused at my appearance, and one jolly dame clapped her hands to her sides, and laughed at my spectacles, till the hills echoed.

Elaagnm was common here, with Edgeworthia Gard-neri,* a beautiful shrub, with globes of waxy, cowslip-coloured, deliciously scented flowers; also a wild apple, which bears a small austere fruit, like the Siberian crab. In the bed of the river rice was still cultivated, and sub-tropical plants continued. I saw, too, a chameleon and a porcupine, indicating much warmth, and seeming quite foreign to the heart of these stupendous mountains. From 6000 to 7000 feet, plants of the temperate regions blend with the tropical; such as rhododendron, oak, ivy, geranium, berberry, and clematis, which all made their appearance at Loong-toong, another Bhotea village. Here, too, I first saw a praying-machine turned by water; it was enclosed in a little wooden house, and consisted of an upright cylinder containing a prayer, and with the words, " Om Mani Padmi om," (Hail to him of the Lotus and Jewel) painted on the circumference: it was placed over a stream, and made to rotate on its axis by a spindle which passed through the floor of the building into the water, where it was terminated by a wheel.

Above this the road followed the west bank of the river; the latter was a furious torrent, Mnged with a sombre vegetation, dripping with moisture, and covered with long pendulous lichen, and mosses. The road was very rocky and difficult, sometimes leading along bluff faces of cliffs by wooden steps, and single rotten planks. At 8000 feet I met with Firs, whose trunks I had seen strewing the river for some miles lower down : the first that occurred was Abies Brunonianaj

* A kind of Daphne, from whose bark the Nepal pax)dr is manufactured.

k2

a beautiful species, which forms a stately pyramid, with branches spreading like the cedar, and drooping gracefully on all sides. It is unknown on the outer ranges of Sikkim, and in the interior occupies a belt about 1000 feet lower than the silver fir. Many sub-alpine plants occur here, as rose, thistles, alder, birch, ferns, berberry, holly, anemone, strawberry, raspberry, the alpine bamboo, and oaks. The scenery is as grand as any pictured by Salvator Rosa; a river roaring in sheets of foam, sombre woods, crags of gneiss, and tier upon tier of lofty mountains flanked and crested with groves of black firs, terminating in snow-sprinkled rocky peaks.

I now found the temperature getting rapidly cooler, both that of the air, which here at 8,066 feet fell to 32® in the night, and that of the river, which was always below 40° It was in these narrow valleys only, that I observed the return cold current rushing down the river-courses during the nights, which were usually brilliant and very cold, with copious dew: so powerful, indeed, was the radiation, that the upper blanket of my bed became coated with moisture, from the rapid abstraction of heat by the frozen tarpaulin of my tent.

I arrived at the village of Walloong, or Wallanchoon, on the 23rd of November. Its situation is fine and open, the Tambur valley there differing jfrom any part lower down in all its natural features; being broad, with a rapid but not turbulent stream, very grassy, and both the base and sides of the flanking mountains covered with luxuriant dense bushes of rhododendron, rose, berberry, and juniper. There was but little snow on the

,-._ -?:^s

TAMBUK RIVKR AT THE LOWBB LIMIT OF FUW.

mountains around, which are bare and craggy above, but sloping below. Bleak and forbidding as the situation of any Himalayan village at 10,000 feet elevation must be, that of Wallanchoon was rendered more so from the comparatively few trees; for though the silver fir and juniper were both abundant higher up the valley, they had been felled here for building materials, fuel, and export to Tibet. From the naked limbs and gaunt black trunks of those that remained, stringy masses of bleached lichen (Usnea) many feet long, streamed in the wind: both men and women seemed fond of decorating their hair with wreaths of this lichen, dyed yellow with leaves of Symphcos.

The village was very large, and occupied a flat on the east bank of the river, covered with huge boulders: the ascent to it was extremely steep, probably over an ancient moraine, though I did not recognise it as such at the time. Cresting this, the valley at once opened, and I was almost startled with the sudden change from a gloomy gorge to an open flat and a populous village of large and good painted wooden houses, ornamented with hundreds of long poles and vertical flags, looking like the fleet of some foreign port; while swarms of good-natured, intolerably dirty Tibetans, were kotowing to me as I advanced.

The houses crept up the base of the mountain, on the flank of which was a very large, long convent; two-storied, and painted scarlet, with a low black roof, and backed by a grove of dark junipers; and the hillsides around were thickly studded with bushes of deep green rhododendron, scarlet berberry, and withered

SA9TKSPAL.

ChjlP. DC

yellow rose. The village contained about one hundred houses, irregularly crowded together, from ten to

WALLANCUOON VILLAGE.

twenty feet high, and forty to eighty feet long; each accommodating several families. All were built of upright strong pine-planks, the interstices between which

were filled with yak-dung; and tiiey sometimes rested on a low foundation wall: the door, was generally at the gable end; it opened with a latch and string, and turned on a wooden pivot; the only window was»a slit closed by a shutter; and the roofs were very low-pitched, covered with shingles kept down by stones. The paths were narrow and filthy; and the only public buildings besides the convents were Manis and Mendongs; of these the former are square-roofed temples, containing rows of praying-cylinders placed close together, from four to six feet high, and gaudily painted; some are turned by hand, and others by water: the latter are walls ornamented with slabs of clay and mica slate, with " Om Mani Padmi om " well carved on them in two characters, and repeated ad infinitum,

A Tibetan household is very slovenly; the family live higgledy-piggledy in two or more apartments, the largest of which has an open fire on the earth, or on a stone if the floor be of wood. The pots and teapots are earthen and copper; and these, with the bamboo chum for the brick tea, some wooden and metal spoons, bowls, and platters, comprise all the kitchen utensils.

Every one carries in the breast of his robe a little wooden cup for daily use; neatly turned from the knotted roots of maple. The Tibetan chiefly consumes barley, wheat, or buckwheat meal—^the latter confined to the poorer classes—^with milk, butter, curd, and parched wheat; fowls, eggs, pork, and yak flesh when he can afford it, and radishes, a few potatos, legumes,

and turnips in their short season. His drink is a sort of soup made from brick tea, of which a handful of leaves is churned up with salt, butter, and soda, then boiled and transferred to the tea-pot, whence it is poured scaldiug hot into each cup, which the good woman of the house keeps incessantly replenishing, and urging you to drain. Sometimes, but more rarely, the Tibetans make a drink by pouring boiling water over malt, as the Lepchas do over millet. A pipe of yellow mild Chinese tobacco generally follows the meal; more often, however, their tobacco is brought from the plains of India, when it is of a very mferior description. The pipe, carried in the girdle, is of brass or iron, often with an agate, amber, or bamboo mouth-piece.

Many herds of fine yaks were grazing about Wallan-choon: there were a few ponies, sheep, goats, fowls, and pigs, but very little cultivation except turnips, radishes, and potatos. The yak is a very tame, domestic animal, often handsome, and a true bison in appearance ; it is invaluable to these mountaineers from its strength and hardiness, accomplishing, at a slow pace, twenty miles a day, bearing either two bags of salt or rice, or four to six planks of pine-wood slung along both flanks. Their ears are generally pierced, and ornamented with a tuft of scarlet worsted; they have large and beautiful eyes, spreading horns, long silky hair, and grand bushy tails: black is their prevailing colour, but red, dun, parti-coloured, and white are common. In winter, the flocks graze below 8000 feet, on account of the great quantity of snow above that height; in summer they find pasturage as high as

17,000 feet, consisting of grass and small tufted sedges, on which tliey browse with avidity.

The zobo, or cross between the yak and hill cow (much resembling the English cow), is but rarely seen in these mountains, though common in the North West Himalaya. The yak is used as a beast of burden; and much of the wealth of the people consists in its rich milk and curd, which are eaten either fresh or dried^ or powdered into a kind of meal. The hair is spun into ropes, and woven into a covering for their tents, which is quite pervious to wind and rain;* from the same materiial are made the gauze shades for the eyes used in crossing the snowy passes. The bushy tail forms the well-known " chowry " or fly-flapper of the plains of India; the bones and dung serve for fuel. The female drops one calf in April; and the young yaks are very full of gambols, tearing up and down the steep grassy and rocky slopes: their flesh is much richer and more juicy than common veal; that of the old yak is sliced and dried in the sun, forming jerked meat, which is eaten raw, the scanty proportion of fat preventing it becoming very rancid, so that I found it palatable food: it is called schat-tcheu (dried meat). I never observed the yak to be annoyed by any insects; indeed at the elevation it inhabits, there are no large diptera, bots, or gadflies to infest it. It loves steep places, delighting to scramble among rocks, and to sun its black hide perched on the glacial boulders which strew the Wallanchoon flat, and on which these beasts

* The latter, howeyer, is of little consequence in the dry climate of Tibet.

always sleep. Their average value is from two to three-pounds, but the price varies with the season. In autunm, when her calf is killed for food, the mother will yield no milk, unless the herdsman gives her the calf s foot to lick, or lays a stuffed skin before her, to fondle, which she does with eagerness, expressing her satisfaction by short grunts, exactly like those of a pig, a sound wliich replaces the low uttered by ordinary cattle. The yak, though indifferent to ice and snow and to changes of temperature, cannot endure hunger so long as the sheep, nor pick its way so well ufk)n stony groimd. Neither can it bear damp heat,, for wliich reason it will not live in siunmer below 7000 feet, where Kver disease carries it off after a very-few years.* Lastly, the yak is ridden, especially hy the Lamas, who find its shaggy coat warm, and its pace easy; under these circumstances it is always led.. The wild yak or bison (D^hong) of central Asia, the superb progenitor of. this animal, is the largest native animal, of Tibet, in various parts of which country it i& foimd; and the Tibetans say, in reference to its size,.

* Nerertlieless, the yak seems to hare surviTed th^ Toyage to England. I find in Tomer's ** Tibet" (p. 189), tliat a bull sent by that traveller to-Mr. Hastings, reached England alive, and after suffering from languor, so far recovered its healili and vigour as to become the father of many calves. Turner does not state by what mother these calves were bom, an important omission, as he adds that all these died but one cow, which bore a calf by^ an Indian bull. A painting of the yak (copied into Turner's book) by Stubbs, the aidmal painter, may be seen in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. The artist is probably a little indebted to description for the appearance of its hair in a native state, for it is represented much too even in length, and reaching to too uniform a depth from iheflanka

tha^ the liver is a load for a tame yak. The Sikkim Dewan gave Dr. Campbell and myself an animated account of the chase of this animal, which is hmited by large dogs, and shot with a blunderbuss: it is untameable and fierce, falling upon you with horns and chest, and if he rasps you with his tongue, it is so rough as to scrape the flesh from the bones. The horns are used as drinking-cups in marriage feasts, and on other grand occasions. My readers are probably familiar with Messrs. Hue and Gabet's account of a herd of these animals being frozen fast in the headwaters of the Yangtsekiang river.

The inhabitants of these frontier districts belong to two very diflferent tribes, but all are alike called Bhoteas (from Bhote, the proper name of Tibet), andj, have for many centuries been located in what is—in climate and natural features—a neutral ground between dry Tibet Proper, and the wet Himalayan gorges. They inhabit a climate too cold fer either the Lepcha or Nepalese, migrating between 6000 and 15,0QP feet with the seasons, accompanied by their herds. In appearance, religion, manners, customs, and language, they are Tibetahs and Lama Booddhists, but they pay tax to the Nepal and Sikkim Bajahs, to whom they render immense service by keeping up *and facilitating the trade in salt, wool, musk, &c., which could hardly be conducted without their co-operation. They levy a » small tax on all imports, and trade a^ttle on their own account, but are generally poor and very indolent. In their alpine summer quarters they grow scanty crops of wheat, barley, turnips, and radishes; and at their

winter quarters, as at Loongtoong, the better classes cnltiTate fine crops of buckwheat, millet, spinach, &c.; though seldom enough for their support, as in spring they are obliged to buy rice from the inhabitants of the lower regions. Equally dependent on Nepal and Tibet, they very naturally hold themselves independent of both; and I found that my roving commission from the Nepal Bajah was not respected, and my guard of Ghorkas held very cheap.

On my arrival at Wallanchoon, I was conducted to two tents, each about eight feet long, of yak's hair, striped blue and white, which had been pitched close to the village for my accommodation. Though the best that could be provided, and larger than my own, they

,were wretched in the extreme, being of so loose a texture that the wind blew through them: each was formec( of two cloths with a long slit between them, that ran across the top, giving egress to the smoke, and ingress to the weather: they were supported on two short poles, kept to the groimd by large stones, and fastened by yak's hair ropes. A fire was smoking vigorously in the centre of one, and some planks were laid at the end for my bed. A crowd of people soon came to stare and loll out their tongues at me, my party, and travelling equipage; though very civil, and only offensive in smell, they were troublesome, from

. their eager curiosity to see and handle everything; so that I had to place a circle of stones round the tents, whilst a soldier stood by, on the alert to keep them off. A more idle people are not to be foimd, except with regard to spinning, which is their constant occupation.

every man and woman carrying a bmidle of wool in the breast of their garments, which is spun by hand with a spindle, and wound off on two cross-pieces at its lower end. Spinning, smoking, and tea-drinking are their chief pursuits; and the women take all the active duties of the dairy and house. They live very happily together, fighting being almost imknown.

Soon after my arrival I was waited on by the Guobah (or head-man), a tall, good-looking person, dressed in a purple woollen robe, with good pearl and coral ear and finger rings, and a broad ivory ring over the left thumb,* as a guard when using the bow; he wore a neat thick white felt cap, with the border turned up, and a silk tassel on the top; this he removed with both hands and held before him, bowing three times on entering. He was followed by a crowd, some of whom were his own people, and brought a present of a kid, fowls, rice, and eggs, and some spikenard roots (Nar-dostachys Jatamansi, a species of valerian smelling strongly of patchouli), which is a very favourite perfume. After paying some compliments, he showed me round the village. During my walk I found that I had a good many objections to overrule before I could proceed to the Wallanchoon pass, nearly two days* journey to the northward. In the first place, the Guobah disputed the Nepal Bajah's authority to pass me through his dominions; and besides the natural jealousy of this people when intruded upon, they have very good reasons for concealing the amount of revenue

* A broad ring of this material, agate, or chalcedony, is a mark of rank here, as amongst the Man-choos, and throughout Central Asia.

they raise from their position, and for keeping up the delusion that they alone can endure the excessive climate of these regions, or undergo the hardships and toil of the salt trade. My passport said nothing about the passes; my people, and especially the Ghorkas,. detested the keen, cold, and cutting wind; at Mjrwa Guola, I had been persuaded by the Havildar to put off providing snow-boots and blankets, on the assurance that I should easily get them at Walloong, which I now found all but impossible. My provisions were running short, and I had no present hope of replenishing them. All my party had, I found, reckoned on the certainty that I should have had enough of this elevation and weather by the time I reached Walloong. Some of them fell sick; the Guobah swore that the passes were full of snow, and had been impracticable since October; and the Ghorka Havildar respectfully deposed that he had no orders relative to the pass. Prompt measures were requisite, so I told all my people that I should stop the next day at Walloong, and proceed on the following on a three days' journey to the pass, with or without the Guobah's permission. To the Ghorka soldiers I said that the present they would receive, and the character they would take to their commandant, depended on their carrying out this point, which had been fully explained before starting. I told my servants that their pay and reward depended on their implicit obedience. I took the Guobah aside and showed him troops of yaks (tethered by halters ismd toggles to a long rope stretched between two rocks), which had that morning arrived laden with salt from

KoT. 1848. TEMPERATUSB OF WALLANCHOON. S0»

the north; I told him it was vain to try and deceive me ; that my passport was ample, that I should expect a guide, provisions, and snow-boots the next day; and that every impediment and every facility should be reported to the rajah.

During my two days* stay at WaUoong, the weather was bitterly cold : as heretofore, the nights and mornings were cloudless, but by noon the whole sky became murky. At this season the prospect was dreary in the extreme; and the quantity of snow upon the mountains, which was continually increasing, held out a dismal promise for my chance of exploring lofty uninhabited regions. All annual and deciduous vegetation was long past, and the lofty Himalayas are very poor in mosses and lichens, as compared witli arctic regions in general. The temperature fluctuated from 22° at sunrise, to 50° at 10 a.m.; one night it fell to 6i°. Throughout the day, a south wind blew strong and cold up the valley, and at sunset it was replaced by a keen north blast, piercing through tent and blankets^ Though the sun's rays were hot for an hour or two in the morning, their genial influence was never felt in the wind. The sky, when cloudless, was generally a cold blue or steel-grey colour, but at night the stars were large, and twinkled gloriously. In my tent the temperature fluctuated with the state of the fire, from 26° at night to 58° when the sun beat on it; but the only choice was between cold and suffocating smoke.

After a good many conferences with the Guobah, some bullying, persuasions, and the prescribing of pills, prayers, and charms in the shape of warm water, for

the sick of the village, whereby I gained some favour, I was, on the 25th Nov., grudgingly prepared for the trip to Wallanchoon pass, with a guide, and some snow-boots for those of my party whom I took with me.

The path lay north-west up the valley, which became thickly wooded with silver-fir and juniper; we gradually ascended, crossing many streams from lateral gulleys, and huge masses of boulders. Evergreen rhododendrons soon replaced the firs, growing in inconceivable profusion, especially on the slopes facing the southeast, and with no other shrubs or tree-vegetation, but scattered bushes of rose, Spirsea, dwarf juniper, stunted birch, willow, honey-suckle, berberry, and mountain-ash. At 12,000 feet the valley was wild, open, and broad, with sloping mountains clothed for 1000 feet with dark-green rhododendron bushes; the river ran rapidly, and was broken into faUs here and there. Huge angular masses of rock were scattered about, and snowy peaks towered over the surrounding mountains, while among the latter narrow gulleys led up to blue patches of glacial ice, with trickling streams and shoots of stones. Dwarf rhododendrons with strongly-scented leaves (22. anthopogon and setosum), and abundance of a Uttle Andromeda^ exactly like ling, with woody stems and tufted branches, gave a heathery appearance to the hill-sides. The prevalence of lichens, common to the Himalaya and to Scotland (especially L. geo-graphicus\ which coloured the rocks, added an additional feature to the resemblance to Scotch Highland scenery. Along the narrow path I found the two commonest of all British weeds, a grass (Poa annua), and the

shepherd's purse ! They had evidently been imported by man and yaks, and as they do not occur in India, I could not but regard these little wanderers from the north with the deepest interest.

Such incidents as these give rise to trains of reflection in the mind of the naturalist traveller; and the farther he may be from home, the more wild and desolate the country he is exploring, the greater the difficulties and dangers under which he encounters these subjects of his earliest studies in science; so much keener is the dehght with which he recognises them, and the more lasting is the impression which they leave. At this moment these common weeds vividly recal to me that wild scene, and remind me how I went on my way, taxing my memory for all it knew of the geographical distribution of the shepherd's purse, and musing on the probability of the plant having found its way thither over Central Asia, and on the ages that may have been occupied in its march.

On reaching 13,000 feet, ihe ground was everywhere hard and frozen, and I experienced the first symptoms of lassitude, headache, and giddiness ; which, however, were but sKght, and only came on with severe exertion.

We encountered a group of Tibetans, encamped to leeward of an immense boulder of gneiss, against which they had raised a shelter with the salt-bags removed from their herd of yaks, which was grazing close by. They looked miserably cold and haggard, and their eyes, much inflamed and bloodshot, testified to the hardships they had endured in their march from the salt regions : they were crouched round a small fire of

juniper wood, smoking iron pipes with agate mouthpieces. A resting-house was in sight across the stream —a loose stone hut, to which we repaired. I wondered why these Tibetans had not taken possession of it, not being then aware of the value they attach to a rock, on account of the great warmth which it imbibes from the sun's rays during the day, and retains at night. This invaluable property of otherwise inhospitable granite I had afterwards many opportunities of proving; and when driven to such shelter as rude nature might afford on the bleak mountain, I have had my blankets laid beneath " the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."

The name of Dhamersala is applied, in the mountains as in the plains of India, to a house provided for the accommodation of travellers, whether it be one of the beautiful caravanserais built to gratify the piety, ostentation, or benevolence of a rajah, or such a miserable shieling as that of Tuquoroma, in which we took up our quarters, at 13,000 feet elevation. A cheerful fire soon blazed on the earthen floor, filling the room with the pungent odour of juniper, which made our eyes smart and water. The Ghorkas withdrew to one corner, and my Lepchas to a second, while one end was screened off for my couch; unluckily the wall faced the north-east, and in that direction there was a gulley in the snowy mountains, down which the wind swept with violence, penetrating to my bed. I had (calculated upon a good night's rest here, which I much needed, having been worried and unwell at Wallan-choon, owing to the Guobah's obstinacy. I had not

then leamt how to treat such conduct, and just before retiring to rest had further been informed by the Havildar that the Guobah had declared we should find no food on our return. To remain in these mountains without a supply was impossible, and the delay of sending to Mywa Guola would not have answered; so I long lay awake, occupied in arranging measures. The night was clear and very cold; the thermometer fedling to 12® in the night.

On the following morning (Nov. 26th) I started with a small party to visit the pass, continuing up the broad, grassy valley; much snow lay on the ground, which had fallen the previous month; and several glaciers were seen in lateral ravines. After a couple of miles, we struck northward up a narrow, stony, and steep gorge, crossing an immense ancient moraine at its mouth. This path, which we followed for seven or eight miles, led up to the pass, winding considerably, and keeping along the south-east exposures, which, being the most sunny, are the freest from snow. The morning was splendid, the atmosphere over the dry rocks and earth vibrating from the power of the sun's rays, while vast masses of blue glacier and fields of snow choked every gulley, and were spread over all shady places. Although, owing to the steepness and narrowness of the gorge, no view was obtained, the scenery was wild and very grand. Just below perpetual snow, an ugly carved head of a demon, with blood-stained cheeks and goggle-eyes, was placed in a niche of rock, and protected by a glass.

At 15,000 feet, the snow closed in on the path from

all sides, whether perpetual, glacial, or only the October fall, I could not tell; the guide declared it to be perpetual, though now deepened by the very heavy October fall; the path was cut some three feet through it. Enormous boulders cumbered the gorge, which gradually widened as we approached its summit; and rugged masses of black and red rock pierced the snow, and stood out in dismal relief. For four miles continuously we proceeded over snow; which was much honey-combed on the surface, and treacherous from the icy streams which it covered, and into which we every now and then stumbled: there was scarcely a trace of vegetation, and the cold was excessive.

Towards the summit of the pass we followed the course of a small stream which cut through the snow, which was breast high on each side; we here overtook a small party going to Tibet, with yaks laden with planks. All.the party appeared alike overcome by lassitude, difficulty of breathing, a sense of weight on the stomach, giddiness and headache.

Just below the summit was a complete bay of snow, girdled with two sharp peaks of red schists and gneiss, strangely contorted, and permeated with veins of granite. The top itself, or boundary between Nepal and Tibet, was a low saddle between two rugged ridges, with a cairn built on it, adorned with bits of stick and rag covered with Tibetan inscriptions. The view into Tibet was not at all distant, and was entirely of snowy mountains, piled ridge over ridge; three spurs must, it is said, be crossed before any descent can be made to the Chomachoo river (as the Arun is called in

Tibet), on which is the frontier fort of the Tibetans, and which is reached in two or three days. There is no level ground of any kind before reaching that river, of which the valley is said to be wide and flat.

We started at 10 a.m., but did not reach the top till 3^ P.M.; we had halted nowhere, but the last few miles had been most laborious, and the three of us who gained the summit were utterly knocked up. Fortunately I carried my own barometer; it indicated 16*206 inches, giving by comparative observations with Calcutta 16,764 feet, and with Dorjiling, 16,748 feet as the height of the pass. The thermometer stood at 18*^, and the sun being now hidden behind rocks, the southeast wind was bitterly cold. Hitherto the sim had appeared as a clearly defined sparkling globe against the dark blue sky; but the depth of the azure was not 80 striking as I had been led to suppose it would be, by the accounts of previous travellers in very lofty regions. The plants gathered near the top of the pass were species of Compositae, grass, and Arenaria; the most curious was the SavsstMrea gosaypina, which forms great clubs of the softest white wool, six inches to a foot high, its flowers and leaves seeming clothed with the warmest fur that nature can devise. Generally speaking, the Alpine plants of the Himalaya are quite unprovided with any special protection of this kind; it is the conspicuous nature of the exceptions that misleads, and induces the careless observer to generalise hastily.

We descended to tlie foot of the pass in about two hours, darkness overtaking us by the way; the

all sides, whether perpetual, glacial, or only tlie October fall, I could not tell; the guide declared it to be perpetual, though now deepened by the very heavy October fall; the path was cut some three feet through it. Enormous boulders cumbered the gorge, which gradually widened as we approached its summit; and rugged masses of black and red rock pierced the snow, and stood out in dismal relief. For four miles continuously we proceeded over snow; which was much honey-combed on the surface, and treacherous from the icy streams which it covered, and into which we every now and then stumbled: there was scarcely a trace of vegetation, and the cold was excessive.

Towards the summit of the pass we followed tlie course of a small stream which cut through the snow, which was breast high on each side; we here overtook a small party going to Tibet, with yaks laden with planks. All the party appeared alike overcome by lassitude, difficnilty of breathing, a sense of weight on the stomach, giddiness and headache.

Just below the summit was a complete bay of snow, girdled with two sharp peaks of red schists and gneiss, strangely contorted, and permeated with veins of granite. The top itself, or boundary between Nepal and Tibet, was a low saddle between two rugged ridges, with a cairn built on it, adorned with bits of stick and rag covered with Tibetan inscriptions. The view into Tibet was not at all distant, and was entirely of snowy mountains, piled ridge over ridge; three spurs must, it is said, be crossed before any descent can be made to the Chomachoo river (as the Arun is called in

Tibet), on which is the frontier fort of the Tibetans, and which is reached in two or three days. There is no level ground of any kind before reaching that river, of which the valley is said to be wide and flat.

We started at 10 a.m., but did not reach the top till 3^ P.M.; we had halted nowhere, but the last few miles had been most laborious, and the three of us who gained the summit were utterly knocked up. Fortunately I carried my own barometer; it indicated 16*206 inches, giving by comparative observations with Calcutta 16,764 feet, and with Dorjiling, 16,748 feet as the height of the pass. The thermometer stood at 18*^, and the sun being now hidden behind rocks, the southeast wind was bitterly cold. Hitherto the sun had appeared as a clearly defined sparkling globe against the dark blue sky; but the depth of the azure was not so striking as I had been led to suppose it would be, by the accounts of previous travellers in very lofty regions. The plants gathered near the top of the pass were species of Compositae, grass, and Arenaria; the most curious was the Sausswrea gosaypina, which forms great clubs of the softest white wool, six inches to a foot high, its flowers and leaves seeming clothed with the warmest fiir that nature can devise. Generally speaking, the Alpine plants of the Himalaya are quite unprovided with any special protection of this kind; it is the conspicuous nature of the exceptions that misleads, and induces the careless observer to generalise hastily.

We descended to the foot of the pass in about two hours, darkness overtaking us by the way; the

twilight, however, being prolonged by the glare of the snow. Fearing the distance to Tuquoroma might be too great to permit of our returning thither the same night, I had had a few things brought up during the day, and finding they had arrived, we encamped under the shelter of some enormous boulders (at 13,500 feet); part of an ancient moraine, which extended for some distance along the narrow valley. Except an excruciating headache, I felt no ill effects from my ascent; and after a supper of tea and biscuit, I slept soundly.

On the following morning the temperature was 28® at sunrise, and rose to 30° when the sua. appeared over the mountains soon after 8 a.m. : the sky ites brilliantly clear, with a very dry, cold, north wind blowing down the snowy valley of the pass.

DXMOS'S BMAJK

CHAPTER X.

Betnm from Wallanchoon pass—Procnre a bazaar at Tillage—Danee of Lamas—Temple and conyeot—Leave for Eanglachem jmubs —Send part of party back to Dorjiling—Tangma Ghiola—Drunken Tibetans— Guobah of Wallanchoon—Gamp at foot of Ghreat Moraine—View from top—Geological speculations—^Height of moraines—Cross dry lake-bed—Glaciers—More moraines—Terraces—Tangma temples—Jos, books and famiture—^Peak of Nango—^Arrive at Tillage—CultiTation —Scenery—^PAtttos—State of my proTisions—Pass through Tillage-Gigantic boulders—^Terraces—^Wild sheep—Lake-beds—Sun's power —^Piles of graTel and detritus—Glaciers and moraines—Pabuk, eleTa-tion of—Moonlight scene—^Return to Yangma—Temperature, &c —Geological causes of phenomena in Talley—Scenery of Talley on descent.

I RETURNED to the village of WaUanchoon, after collecting all the plants I could around my camp; and, on arriving at the village, I refused to receive the Guobah, unless he opened a bazaar on the following morning, where my people might purchase food; and threatened to bring charges against him before his Bajah. At the same time I arranged for sending the main body of my party down the Tambur, and back to Sikkim, whilst I should, with as few as possible, visit the Kanglachem (Tibetan) pass in the adjacent valley to the eastward, and then, crossing the Nango, Kam-bachen and Kanglanamo passes, reach Jongri, in Sikkim, on the south flank of Einchinjunga.

Strolling out in the afternoon I saw a dance of Lamas; they were disfigured with black paint, and covered with rags, feathers, and scarlet cloth, and they carried long poles with bells and banners; thus equipped, they marched through the village, every now and then halting, when they danced and gesticulated to the rude music of cymbals and horns, the bystanders applauding with shouts, crackers, and alms.

I walked up to the convents, which were long ugly buildings, built of wood, and daubed with red and grey paint. The priests were nowhere to be found, and an old withered nun whom I disturbed husking miUet in a large wooden mortar, fled at my approach. The adjacent temple had a broad low architrave : its walls sloped inwards, as did the lintels; the doors were black, and almost covered with a gigantic and disproportioned painting of a head, with bloody cheeks and huge teeth; it was surrounded by myriads of goggle eyes, which seemed to follow one about; and though in every respect rude, the effect was somewhat imposing. The.similarly proportioned gloomy portals of Egyptian fanes naturally invite comparison; but the Tibetan temples lack the sublimity of those; and the uncomfortable creeping sensation produced by the many sleepless eyes of Boodh's numerous incarnations is very different from the awe with which we contemplate the outspread wings of the Egyptian symbol, and feel as in the presence of him who says, " I am Osiris the Great: no man hath dared to lift my veil."

I had ascended behind the village, but returned down the '^ via sacra,'' a steep paved path flanked by

mendongB or low stone dykes, into which were let rows of stone slabs, inscribed with the sacred ^' Om Mani Padmi om,"—" Hail to him of the Lotus and Jewel ;'* an invocation of Sakkya, who is usually represented holding a lotus flower with a jewel in it.

On the following morning, a scanty supply of very dirty rice was produced, at a very high price. I had, however, so divided my party as not to require a large amount of food, intending to send most of the people back by the Tambur to Dorjiling. I retained nineteen persons in all, selecting the most willing, as it was evident the journey would be one of great hardship; and we took seven days' food, which was as much as they could carry. At noon, I left Wallanchoon, and mustered my party at the junction of the Tambur and Yangma, whence I dismissed those who were to return to Doqi-ling, with my collections of plants, minerals, &c., and proceeded with the chosen ones to ascend the Yangma river. The scenery was wild and very grand, our route lying through a narrow gorge, choked with "pine trees, down which the river roared in a furious torrent; while the mountains on each side were crested with castellated masses of rock, and sprinkled with snow. The path was very bad, often up ladders, and along planks lashed to the faces of precipices, and over-hanging the torrent, which it crossed several times by plank bridges. By dark we arrived at Yangma Guola, a collection of empty wooden huts buried in the rocky forest-clad valley, and took possession of a couple. They were well built, raised onposts, with a stage and ladder at the gable end, and each consisted of one good-sized apartment

l2

During the night, I was startled from my sleep by a blaze of light, and jumping up, found myself in presence of a party of most sinister-looking, black, ragged Tibetans, bearing huge torches of pine, that filled the room with flame and pitchy smoke. I remembered their arriving just before dark, and their weapons diispelled my fears, for they came armed with bamboo jugs of Murwa beer, and were very drunk and very amiable: they grinned, nodded, kotowed, lolled out their tongues, and scratched their ears in the most seductive manner, then held out their jugs, and besought me by words and gestures to drink and be happy too. I awoke my servant (always a work of difficulty), and with some trouble ejected the visitors, happily without setting the house on fire. I heard them toppling head over heels down the ladder, which I had afterwards drawn up to prevent further intrusion, and in spite of their drunken orgies, was soon lulled to sleep again by the music of the roaring river.

On the 29th November, I continued my course up the Yangma valley, which after five miles opened considerably, the trees disappearing, and the river flowing more tranquilly. The Guobah of Wallanchoon overtook us on the road ; on his way, he said, to coUect the revenues at Yangma village, but in reality to see what I was about. He owns five considerable villages, and is said to pay a tax of 6000 rupees (600!.) to the Bajah of Nepal: this is no doubt a great exaggeration, but the revenues of such a position, near a pass frequented almost throughout the year, must be con* siderable. f^very yak going and coming is said to pay

Nov. 1848. ANCIBNT HORAIKES. nt

l8., and every horse 4«.; cattle, sheep, ponies, land, and wool are all taxed: he exports also quantities of timber to Tibet, and various articles from the plains of India. He joined my party and halted where I did, had his little Chinese rug spread, and squatted cross** legged on it, whilst his servant prepared his brick teft with salt, butter, and soda, of which he partook, snuffed^ smoked, rose up, had his traps repacked, and was off again.

We encamped at a most remarkable place: the valley was broad, with little vegetation but stunted tree-jimipers: rocky snow-topped mountains rose on either side, bleak, bare and rugged; and in front, close above my tent, was a gigantic wall of rocks, piled—as if by the Titans—completely across the valley, for about three-quarters of a mile. This striking phenomenon had excited all my curiosity on first obtaining a view of it. The path, I found, led over it, close under its west end, and wound amongst the enormous detached fragments of which it was formed, and which were often eighty feet square : all were of gneiss, schist, and granite. A superb view opened from the top, showing it to be a vast moraine, far below the influence of any existing glaciers, but which at some antecedent period had been thrown across the valley by a glacier descending to 10,000 feet, from a lateral gulley on the east flank. Standing on the top, and looking south, was the Yangma valley (up which I had come), gradually contracting to a defile, girdled by snow-topped mountains, whose rocky flanks mingled with the black pine forest below. Eastward the moraine stretched south of the

t22 BAST NBPAL. Chap. X.

lateral valley, above which towered the snowy peak of Nango, tinged rosy red, and sparkling in the rays of the setting sun: blue glaciers peeped £rom every gnlley on its side, but these were 2000 to 3000 feet above this moraine; they we;^e small too, and their moraines were mere gravel, compared with this. Many smaller consecutive moraines, also, were evident along the bottom of the lateral valley, from this great one up to the existing glaciers. Looking up the Yangma to the north, there appeared a flat grassy plain, hemmed in by mountains, and covered with other stupendous moraines, which rose ridge behind ridge, and cut off the view of aU but the mountain tops. The river meandered through the plain (which was about a mUe and a half broad at the utmost, and perhaps as long), and cut through the great moraine on its eastern side, just below the junction of the stream from the glacial vaUey, which, at the lower part of its course, flowed over a broad steep gravel-bed.

I descended to my camp, full of anxious anticipations for the morrow; while the novelty of the scene, and its striking character, the complexity of the phenomena, the lake-bed, the stupendous moraine, and its remoteness from any existing ice, the broad valley and open character of the country, were aU so many problems conjured up for my unaided solution, and kept me awake for hours. I had never seen a glacier or moraine before, but being familiar with sea ice and berg transport, during my voyages in the South Polar, regions, I was strongly inclined to attribute the formation of this moraine to a period when a glacial

ocean stood high on the Himalaya, made fiords of the valleys, and floated bergs laden with blocks from the lateral gulleys, which the winds and currents would deposit along certain lines.

On the following morning I carried a barometer to the top of the moraine, which proved to be upwards of 700 feet above the floor of the valley, and 400 above the dry lake-bed which it bounded, and to which we descended on our route up the valley. Isolated moraines occurred along both flanks, and a very long one was thrown nearly across from the upper end of another gulley on the east side, also leading up to the glaciers of Nango. This second moraine commenced a mile and a half above the first, and abutting on the east flank stretched nearly across, and then curving round, ran down it, parallel to and near the west flank, from which it was separated by the Yangma river : it was abruptly terminated by a conical hill of boulders, round whose base the river flowed, entering the dry lake-bed from the west, and crossing it in a south-easterly direction to the western extremity of the great moraine.

The road, on its ascent to the second moraine, passed over an immense accumulation of angular fragments, loosely boimd together by felspathic sand. A stream flowed over this debris, dividing into many branches before reaching the lake-bed, where its waters were collected, and whence it meandered southward to fall into the Yangma.

From the top of the second moraine, a very curious scene opened, of another stony and desolate lake-bed,

SAfiRT NEPAL.

Chap. X

through which the Yangma rushed, cutting a channel about sixty feet deep; the flanks of this second lake-bed were cut most distinctly into two principal terraces, which were again sub-divided into others, so that the general appearance was that of many raised beaches, but each so broken up, that, with one exception, none were continuous for any distance. We crossed the valley and river to a broad flat terrace under the black, precipitous, west flank: this gave me a good opportimity of examining this part of the valley, which was filled with an accumulation, probably 200 feet thick at the deepest part, of angular gravel and enormous boulders, both imbedded in the gravel, and strewed on the flat surfaces of the terraces. The latter were always broadest opposite to the lat« eral valleys, perfectly horizontal and very barren; there were no traces of fossils, nor could I assure myself of strati-

fication. The accmnulatioiL was wholly glacial; and a lake had probably supervened on the melting of the great glacier and its recedence, which, confined by a frozen moraine, would periodically lose its waters by sudden accessions of heat melting the ice of the glacier. Stratified silt, no doubt, once covered the lake bottom^ and the terraces have, in succession, been denuded of it by rain and snow. These causes are now in operation amongst the stupendous glaciers of north-east Sikkim, where valleys, dammed up by moraines, exhibit lakes hemmed in between these, the glaciers, and the flanks of the valleys.

Yangma convents stood at the mouth of a gorge which opened upon the uppermost terrace; they consisted of a wretched collection of stone huts, painted red, and enclosed by loose stone dykes. Two shock* ingly dirty Lamas conducted me to the temple, which had very thick walls, but was undistinguishable from the other buildings. A small door opened upon an apartment piled fall of old battered gongs, drums^ scraps of silk hangings, red cloth, broken praying-machines—reHcs much resembling those in the lumber-room of a theatre. A ladder led from this dismal hole to the upper story, which was entered by a handsomely carved and gilded door: within all was dark, except from a little lattice-window covered with oiled paper* On one side was the library, a carved case, with a hundred gilded pigeon-holes, each holding a real or sham book, and closed by a littie square door, on which hung a bag full of amulets. In the centre of the bookcase was a recess, containing a genuine Jos or Fo,

l3

graced with his Chinese attribute of very long pendulous moustaches and beard, and totally wanting that air of contemplative repose which the Tibetan Lamas give to their idols. Banners were suspended around, with paintings of Lhassa, Teshoo-Loombo, and various incarnations of Booddh. The books were of the usual Tibetan form, oblong squares of separate block-printed leaves of paper, made in Nepal or Bhotan from the bark of Daphne, boimd together by silk cords, and placed between ornamented wooden boards. On our way up the valley, we had passed some mendongs and chaits, the latter very pretty stone structures, consisting of a cube, pyramid, hemisphere, and cone placed on the top of one another, forming together the tasteful combination which appears on the cover of these volumes.

Beyond the convents the valley again contracted, and on crossing a third, but much lower, moraine, a lake opened to view, surrounded by flat terraces, and a broad gravelly beach, part of the lake being dry. To the west, the cliffs were high, black, and steep: to the east a large lateral valley, filled at about 1500 feet up with blue glaciers, led to the gleaming snows of Nango. Much snow lay on the ground, and the cold was pinching in the shade; still I could not help attempting to sketch this wonderfully grand scene, especially as lakes in the Himalaya are extremely rare : the present one was about a mile long, very shallow, but broad, and as smooth as glass: it reminded me of the tarn in Glencoe. The reflected lofty peak of Nango appeared as if frozen deep down in its glassy bed,

Dia 1848.

YANGMA VALLEY.

287

every snowy crest and ridge being rendered with perfect precision.

Nango is about 18,000 feet high; it is the next lofty mountain of the Einchinjunga group to the west of Junnoo, and I doubt if any equally high peak occurs

LOOKING ACBOeS IHS TANOMA VALLEY.

again for some distance further west in Nepal. Facing the Yangma valley, it presents a beautiful range of precipices of black rock, capped with a thick crust of snow: below the cliffs the snow again appears continuously and very steep, for 3000 feet downwards, where it terminates in glaciers that descend to 14,000 feet. The steepest snow-beds appear cut into vertical

ridges, whence the whole snowy face is—as it were— crimped in perpendicular, closely-set, zig-zag lines, doubtless caused by the melting process, which furrows the surface of the snow into channels by which the water is carried off: the effect is very beautiful, but impossible to represent on paper, from the extreme delicacy of the shadows, and at the same time the perfect definition and precision of the outUnes.

In the afternoon I reached the village of Yangma, a miserable collection of 200 to 300 stone huts, nestling under the steep flank of a lofty, flat-topped terrace, laden with gigantic boulders, and projecting southward from a snowy mountain which divides the valley.

Near my camp (of which the elevation was 13,500 feet), radishes, barley, wheat, potatos, and turnips, were cultivated as summer crops, and I even saw some on the terrace, 400 feet above; these were grown in small fields cleared of stones, and protected by dykes.

The scenery, though dismal (no juniper ever attaining this elevation), was full of interest and grandeur, from the number and variety of snowy peaks and glaciers all around the elevated horizon; the ancient lake-beds, now green or brown with scanty vegetation; the vast moraines; the ridges of glacial debris; the flat terraces, marking, as it were with parallel roads, the bluff sides of the mountains; the enormous boulders perched upon them, and strewed everywhere around; the little Booddhist monuments of qupint, picturesque shapes, decorated with poles and banners; the many-coloured dresses of the people; the brilliant blue of the

cloudless heaven by day; the depth of its blackness by jiight, heightened by the light of the stars, that blaze and twinkle with a lustre unknown in less lofty regions: all these were objects for contemplation, rendered more impressive by the silence that reigned around. The village seemed buried in repose: the inhabitants had already begun to hybemate; their crops -were stored, the curd made and dried, the passes closed, the soil frozen, the winter's stock of fuel housed, and the people had retired into the caverns of their half-subterranean houses, to sleep, spin wool, and thinV of Booddh, if of anything at all, the dead, long winter through. The yaks alone find anything to do ; so long as any vegetation remains they roam and eat it, still yielding milk, which the women take morning find evening, when their shrill whistle and cries are heard for a few minutes as they call the grunting animals. No other sounds, save the harsh roar and hoUow echo of the falling rock, glacier, or snow-bed, disturbed the perfect silence of the day and night.*

I had taken three days* food to Yangma, and stayed there as long as it lasted : the rest of my provisions I had left below the first moraine, where a lateral valley leads east over the Nango pass to the Kambachen valley, which lay on the route back to Sikkim.

I was premature in complaining of my Wallanchoon tents, those provided for me at Yangma being infinitely worse; mere rags, around which I piled sods as a defence from the piercing night-wind that descended

* Snow covers the ground at Tangma from December till April, and the &118 are said to be yeiy heavy, at times amounting to 12 feet in depth.

from the northern glaciers in light but most keen breezes. There was no food to be procured except a little thin milk, and a few small watery potatos. The latter have only recently been introduced amongst the Tibetans, from the English garden at the Nepalese capital, I believe; and their culture has not spread in these regions further east than Einchinjunga, but they will very soon penetrate into Tibet from Dorjiling, or eastward from Nepal. My private stock of provisions —consisting chiefly of preserved meats from my friend Mr. Hodgson—^had fallen very low; and I here found to my dismay that of four remaining two pound cases, provided as meat, three contained prunes, and one " dindon aux truffes ! " Never did luxuries come more inopportunely; however the greasy French viand served for many a future meal as sauce to help me to bolt my rice, and according to the theory of chemists, to supply animal heat in these frigid regions. As for my people, they were not accustomed to much animal food; two pounds of rice, with ghee and chilis, forming their common daily diet under cold and fatigue. The poor Tibetans, especially, who undergo great privation and toil, live ahnost wholly on barley-meal, with tea, and a very little butter and salt: this is not only the case with those amongst whom I mixed so much, but is also mentioned by MM. Hue and Gabet, as having been observed by them in other parts of Tibet.

On the 1st of December I visited the village and terrace, and proceeded to the head of the Yangma valley, in order to ascend as far towards the Kanglachem pass as practicable. The houses were low, built of

stone, and clustered in groups against the steep fia.ce of the terrace ; filthy lanes wound amongst them, so narrow, that by turning my head, I could look into the slits of windows on either hand, and feel the noisome warm air in whiffs against my feuse. Glacial boulders lie scattered around and beneath the clusters of houses, which it is sometimes difficult to distinguish from the native rock. I entered one house by a narrow low door through walls four feet thick, and foimd myself in an apartment full of wool, jimiper-wood, and dried dung for fuel: no one lived in the lower story, which was quite dark, and as I stood in it my head was in the upper, to which I ascended by a notched pole (like that in the picture of a Kamtschatk house in Cook's voyage), and went into a small low room. The inmates looked half-asleep, they were intolerably indolent and filthy, and were spinning wool and smoking. A door in the wall of the upper apartment led me on to the stone roof of the neighbouring house, from which I passed to the top of a boulder, descending thence by rude steps to the narrow alley. Wishing to see as much as I could, I was led on a winding course through, in and out, and over the tops of the houses of the village, which alternately reminded me of a stone quarry or gravel-pit, and gipsies living in old lime-kilns; and of all sorts of odd places that are turned to account as human habitations.

From the village I ascended the terrace, which is a perfectly level, sandy, triangular plain, pointing down the vaUey at the fork of the latter, and abutting against the flank of a steep, snow-topped mountain to the

nortliward. The surface is very uneven, being worn into hollows, and presenting ridges and hillocks of sand and gravel, with small black tufts of rhododendron. Enormous granite boulders were scattered over the surface; one of the ordinary size was seventy feet in girth, and fifteen feet above the ground, into which it had partly sunk.

From the

southern end I took sketches of the flanks of the valleys east and west. The river was about 400 feet below me, and flowed in a

little flat lake-bed; other teipraces skirted it, cut, as it were, from the side of tliat I was on. On the opposite flank of the valley were several terraces, of which the highest appeared to tally with the level I occupied, and the lowest was raised very little above the river; none were continuous for any distance, but the upper one, in particular, could be most conspicuously traced up and down the main valley, whilst, on looking across to the eastern valley, a much higher, but less distiDctly marked one, appeared on it The road to the pass lay west-north-west up the north bank of the Yangma on the great terrace; for two miles it was nearly level along the gradually narrowing shelf, at times dipping into the deep gulleys formed by torrents from the mountains; and as the terrace disappeared, or melted, as it were, into the rising floor of the valley, the path descended upon the lower and smaller shelf.

I came suddenly upon a flock of wild sheep, feeding on scanty tufts of sedge and grass; there were twenty-five of these enormous animals, of whose dimensions the term sheep gives no idea: they are very long-legged, stand as high as a calf, and have horns so large that the fox is said to take up his abode in their hollows, when detached and bleaching, on the barren mountains of Tibet. Though very wild, I could easUy have killed a couple had I had my gun, but I had found it necessary to reduce my party so uncompromisingly, that I could not afford a man both for my gun and instruments, and had sent the former back to Dorjiling, with Mr. Hodgson's bird-stuffers, who iio/i

broken one of theirs. Travelling without fire-arms sounds strange in India, but in these regions animal life is very rare, and to come within shot of a flock of wild sheep was a contingency I had never contemplated. Considering how very short we were of any food, and quite out of animal diet, I could not but regret the want of a gun, but consoled myself by reflecting that the instruments were still more urgently required to enable me to survey this extremely interesting valley. As it was, the great beasts trotted ofi*, and turned to tantalise me by grazing within an easy stalking distance. I saw several other flocks of thirty to forty, during the day, but never, either on this or any future occasion, within shot. The Ovis Ammon of Pallas stands from four to five feet high, and measures seven feet from nose to tail; it is quite a Tibetan animal, and is seldom seen below 14,000 feet, except when driven lower by snow; and I have seen it as high as 18,000 feet. The same animal, I believe, is found in Siberia, and is allied to the Big-horn of North America.

Soon after descending to the broad and open floor of

the valley, I came on a second dry lake-bed, a mile

long, with shelving banks all round, heavily snowed on

the shaded side; the river meandered through it, and a

fine glacier-bound valley opened into it from the south.

A rather steep ascent through a contracted part of

the valley led to another lake-bed, a quarter of a mile

long and 100 yards broad, covered with patches of

I snow, and facing the stupendous masses of snow and

^ ice which filled the upper part of the Yangma valley.

* This lake-bed (altitude 16,186 feet) was strewed with

r

enormous boulders; a rude stone hut stood near it, where I halted for a few minutes at 1 p.m., when the temperature was 42^.

Following the stream, I soon came to an immense moraine, which blocked up the valley, formed of angular boulders, some of which were fifty feet high. On cresting this a stupendous scene presented itself. A gulf of moraines, and enormous ridges of debris, lay at my feet, girdled by an amphitheatre of snow-clad peaks, rising to 17,000 or 18,000 feet. Black scarped precipices rose on every side; deep snow-beds and blue glaciers roUed down every gulley, converging in the hoUow below; and from each transporting its own materials, there ensued a complication of moraines, that presented no order to the eye. In spite of their mutual interference, however, each had raised a ridge of d6bris or moraine parallel to itself.

We could make no further progress; the pass lay at the distance of several hours* march, up a valley to the north, down which the glacier must have roUed that had deposited this great moraine: it had been closed since October, being very lofty, and the head of this valley was far more snowy than that at Wal-lanchoon. We halted in the snow from 3 to 4 p.m., during which time I again took angles and observations ; the height of this spot, called Pabuk, is 16,088 feet, whence the pass is probably considerably over 17,000 feet, for there was a steep ascent beyond our position. The sun sank at 3 p.m., and the thermometer immediately fell from 35'' to 31°.

After fixing in my note and sketch books the

EANGLACHBM PASS.

287

principal features of this sublime scene, we returned down the yalley: the distance to our camp being folly eight miles, night overtook us before we got half-way^ but a two days' old moon guided us perfectly, a remarkable instance of the clearness of the atmosphere

KANOLACHSK PA88.

at these great elevations. Lassitude, giddiness, and headache came on as our exertions increased, and took away the pleasure I should otherwise have felt in contemplating the varied phenomena, which seemed to crowd upon the imagination. Happily I had noted everything on my way up, and left nothing intentionally to be done on returning. In making such excursions

as this, it is above all things desirable to seize and book every object worth noticing on the way out: I always carried my note-book and pencil tied to my jacket pocket, and generally walked with them in my hand. It is impossible to observe too soon, or too much : if the excursion is long, little is done on the way home; the bodily powers being mechanically exerted, the mind seeks repose, and being fevered through overexertion, it can endure no train of thought, nor be brought to bear on a subject.

Before leaving the Yangma valley, I measured the elevation of the great village-terrace and that of one on the west flank; the former was about 400, and the latter 700 feet above the floor of the valley.

Considering this latter as the upper terrace, and concluding that it marks a water level, it is not very difficult to account for its origin. There is every reason to suppose that the flanks of the valley were once covered, to the height of the upper terrace, with an accumulation of d6bris; though it does not foUow that the whole vaUey was filled to the same depth; the effect of glaciers being to. deposit moraines between themselves and the sides of the valley they fill; as also to push forward similar accumulations. Glaciers from each valley, meeting at the fork, where their depth would be 700 feet of ice, would both deposit the necessary accumulation along the flanks of the vaUey, and also throw a barrier across it. The melting waters of such glaciers would accumulate in lakes, confined by the frozen earth, between the moraines and mountains. Such lakes, on a small scale, are found at the termi-

nations and sides of existing glaciers, and are surrounded by terraces of gravel and small stones; these terraces being laid bare by the drainage of the lakes dunng seasons of unusual warmth. To explain the phenomena of the Yangma valley, it may be necessary to demand larger lakes and deeper accumulations of debris than are now familiar to us, but the proofs of glaciers having once descended to from 8000 to 10,000 feet in every Sikkim and East Nepal valley communicating with mountains above 16,000 feet elevation, are incontrovertible, and the glaciers must, in some cases, have been fiilly forty miles long, and 500 feet in depth. The absence of any moraine, or of blocks of rock in the valley below the fork, is I believe, the only apparent objection to this theory; but the magnitude of the moraines bears no fixed proportion to that of the glacier, and at Pabuk, the steep ridges of d6bris, which were heaped up 200 feet high, were far more striking than the more usual form of moraine.

On my way up to Yangma I had rudely plotted the valley, and selected prominent positions for improving my plan on my return: these I now made use of, taking bearings with the azimuth compass, and angles by means of a pocket sextant. The result of my nmning-survey of the whole valley, from 10,000 to 16,000 feet, I have given along with a sketch-map of my routes in India, which accompanies this volume.

CHAPTER XI.

Ascend Nango mountain—^Moraines—Vegetation—Honey-combed snrface of snow—Perpetual snow—Top of pass—View—Elevation—Distance of sonnd—Plants—Temperature—Scenery—CJliffs of granite and hurled boulders — Gamp — Descent — Pheasants — Larch — Distribution of Deodar—Eambachen village—Cultivation—^Moraines in valley, distribution of—^Picturesque lake-beds, and their vegetation—Tibetan sheep and goats— Cryptogramma crispa —^Ascent to Choonjerma pass —^View of Junnoo—Bocks of its summit—^Misty ocean—Nepal peaks. —Top of pass—Temperature, and observations—Gorgeous sunset— Descent to Yalloong valley—Lose path—Night scenes—Musk deer.

We passed the night a few miles below the great moraine, in a pine-wood (alt. 11,000 feet) opposite the gorge which leads to the Kambachen or Nango pass^ over the south shoulder of the mountain of that name : it is situated on a ridge dividing the Yangma river from that of Kambachen, which latter falls into the Tambur opposite Lelyp.

The road crosses the Yangma (which is about fifteen feet wide), and ascends steeply to the south-east, over a moraine, clothed with a dense thicket of rhododendrons, mountain-ash, maples, pine, birch, juniper, &a. The ground was covered with silvery flakes of birch bark, and that of Bhododendron Hodgsoni, which is as delicate as tissue-paper, and of a pale flesh-colour. I had not before met with this species, and was

astonished at the beauty of its foliage, which was of a bright green, with leaves sixteen inches long.

Beyond the region of trees and large shrubs alpine rhododendrons filled the valley, growing with Potentilla, Honeysuckle, Polygonum, and dwarf juniper. The peak of Nango seemed to tower over the gorge, rising behind some black, splintered cliffs, sprinkled with snow; narrow defiles opened up through these cliffs to blue glaciers, and their mouths were invariably closed by beds of moraines, curving outwards from either flank in concentric ridges.

We followed a valley to the south-east, so as to turn the flank of the peak; our road leading over beds of October snow, and over plashy ground, from its melting. Sometimes the path lay close to the black precipices on our right, under which the snow was deep; and we dragged ourselves along, grasping every prominence of the rock with our numbed fingers.

At a little below 15,000 feet, we reached enormous flat beds of snow, which were said to be perpetual, but now deepened by the October falL They were continuous, and like all the snow I saw at this season, the surface was honeycombed into thin plates, the intervening fissures being about six inches deep. A thick mist here overtook us, and this, with the great difficulty of picking our way, rendered the ascent very fatiguing. Being sanguine about obtaining a good view, I found it almost impossible to keep my temper under the aggravations of pain in the forehead, lassitude, oppression of breathing, a dense drizzling fog, a keen wind, a slippery footing, where I was stumbling at every few

steps, and icy-cold wet feet, hands, and eyelids; the latter, odd as it sounds, I found a very disagreeable accompaniment of continued raw cold wind.

After an hour and a halfs toilsome ascent, I reached the crest, crossing a broad sheK of snow between two rocky eminences: the ridge was unsnowed a little way down the east flank; this was, in a great measure, due to the eastern exposure being the more sunny, to the prevalence of the warm south-east winds that blow up the Kambachen valley, and to the fact that the great snow-beds on the west side are drifted accumulations. The mist cleared off, and I had a partial, though limited, view. To the north the blue peak of Nango was still 2000 feet above me, its snowy mantle falling in great sweeps and curves into glacier-bound valleys. The Yangma valley was quite hidden, but to the eastward the view across the stupendous gorge of the Kambachen, 5000 feet below, to the waste of snow, ice, and rock, piled in confusion along the top of the range of Jimnoo and Choonjerma, parallel to this but higher, was very grand indeed: this I was to cross in two days, and its appearance was such, that my guide doubted the possibility of our doing it, A third and fourth mountain mass (unseen) lay between me and Sikkim, divided by valleys as deep as those of Yangma and Kambachen.

Having himg up my instruments, I ascended a few himdred feet to some naked rocks, to the northward, when I was struck with the distance to which the voice was carried; I could distinctly hear every word spoken 800 to 400 yards off, and did not raise my voice when

I asked one of the men, at that distance, to bring me a hammer.

The few plants about were mostly small tufted Arenarias and wooUy Compositse, with a thick-rooted Umbellifer that spread its short, fleshy leaves and branches flat on the ground; the root was very aromatic, but wedged close in the rock. The temperature at 4 P.M. was 23°, and bitterly cold; the elevation was 15,770 feet.

The descent was to a broad, open valley, into which dipped tremendous precipices, which reared their heads in splintered snowy peaks. At their bases were shoots of debris fully 700 feet high, sloping at a steep angle. Enormous masses of rock, detached by the action of the frost and ice, were scattered over the bottom of the valley; they had been precipitated from above, and gaining impetus in their descent, had been hurled to almost inconceivable distances. All were of a very white,fine-grained crystallized granite, with clean, sharp-fractured edges, while the weathered surface of each block was black, and covered with moss and lichens. The material of which they were composed was so hard that I found it difficult to detach a specimen.

Darkness had already come on, and the coolies being far behind, we encamped by the light of the moon shining through a thin fog, where we first found dwarf-juniper for fuel, at 13,500 feet.

Having no tent-poles, I had some difficulty in getting my blankets arranged as a shelter, which was done by making them slant from the side of a boulder, on the top of which one end was kept by heavy stones; under

m2

this roof I laid my bed on a mass of rhododendron and juniper-twigs. The men did the same against other boulders, and lighting a huge fire opposite the mouth of my ground-nest, I sat cross-legged on the bed to eat my supper; .my face scorchiag, and my back freezing. Bice, boiled with a few ounces of greasy dindon aux truffea was now my daily dinner, with chili-vinegar and tea, and I used to relish it keenly: this finished, I smoked a cigar, and wrote up my journal (in short intervals between warming myself) by the light of the fire: took observations by means of a dark-lantern; and when all this was accomplished, I went to roost.

On looking out the following morning, it was with a feeling of awe that I gazed at the stupendous ice« crowned precipices that shot up to the summit of Nango, their flanks spotted white at the places whence the gigantic masses with which I was surrounded had fallen; thence my eye wandered down their black faces to the slope of d^ris at the bottom, thus tracing the course which had probably been taken by that rock under whose shelter I had passed the previous night.

Meepo, the Lepcha sent by the rajah, had snared a couple of beautiful pheasants, one of which I eat for breakfast; it is a small bird, common above 12,000 feet, but very wild; the male has two to five spurs on each of its legs, according to its age; the general colour is greenish, with a broad scarlet patch surrounding the eye. The crop was distended with jumper berries, of which the flesh tasted strongly, and it was the very hardest and toughest bird I ever did eat.

We descended at first through rhododendron and

juniper, then through black silver-fir (Abiei Webbiana)^ and below that, near the river, we came to the Himalayan larch; a tree quite unknown, except from a notice in the journals of Mr. Griffith, who found it in Bhotan. It is a small tree, twenty to forty feet h^h, perfectly similar in general characters to a European larch, but with larger cones, which are erect upon the very long, pensile, whip-like branches; its leaves— now red—were falling, and covering the rocky ground on which it grew. It is found as far west as the heads of the Cosi river; but does not inhabit Central nor West Nepal, nor the North-west Himalaya.

This larch is one of the few Conifers confined to the Eastern Himalaya, where several of the western ones, as the Deodar, are absent. I have elsewhere stated that the Deodar is possibly a variety of the Cedar of Lebanon. This is now a prevalent opinion, which is strengthened by the fact that so many more Himalayan plants are now ascertained to be European, than had been supposed before they were compared with European specimens. The cones of the Deodar are identical with those of the Cedar of Lebanon: the Deodar has, generally, longer and more pale bluish leaves and weeping branches,* but these characters seem to be unusually developed in our gardens; for several gentlemen, well acquainted with the Deodar at Simla, when asked to point it out in the Kew Gardens,

* Since writiiig the above, I have Been, in the magnificent Pinetun at Dropmore, noble cedars, with the length and hne of leaf, and the pensile branches of the Deodar, and &r more beantiful than that is, and as nnlike the common Lebanon Cedar as possible.

have indicated the Cedar of Lebanon, and when shown die Deodar, declare that they never saw that plant in die Himalaya!

At the bottom of the valley we crossed the river— which was a furious torrent, about twelve yards wide —to the village of Kambachen, on a flat terrace, a few feet above the stream. There were about a dozen houses of wood, plastered with mud, scattered over a grassy plain of a few acres, fenced in, as were also a few fields, with stone dykes. The only cultivation consists of radishes, potatos, and barley: no wheat is grown, the climate being said to be too cold for it, by which is probably meant that it is foggj%—^the elevation (11,380 feet) being 2000 feet less than that of Yangma village, and the temperature 6° to 7° warmer; but of all the mountain gorges I have ever visited, this is by far the wildest, grandest, and most gloomy; and that man should hybemate here is indeed extraordinary, for there is no route up the valley, and all communication with Lelyp, two marches down the river, is cut oflf during the winter, when the houses are buried in snow, and drifts fifteen feet deep are said to be common. Standing on the little flat of Kambachen, precipices, with inaccessible patches of fir-trees, appeared towering over head; while across the narrow vaUey wilder and less wooded crags rose in broken ridges to the glaciers of Nango. Up the valley, the view was cut oflf by bluflf cliffs; whilst down it, the scene was most remarkable: enormous black, roimd-backed moraines, rose tier above tier, from a flat lake-bed, apparently hemming in the river between

the lofty precipices on the east flank of the valley. These had all been deposited at the mouth of a lateral vaUey, opening just below the village, and descending from Junnoo, a mountain of 25,312 feet elevation, and one of the grandest of the Kinchinjunga group, whose top—^though only five miles distant in a straight line—arises 13,932 feet* above the village. Few facts show more decidedly the extraordinary steepness and depth of the Kambachen valley, which, though but 11,400 feet above the sea, lies between two mountains only eight miles apart, the one 25,312 feet high, the . other (Nango) 19,000 feet.

The villagers received me very kindly, and furnished me with a guide for the Choonjerma pass, leading to the Yalloong valley, the most easterly in Nepal; but he recommended my not attempting the ascent till the morrow, as it was past 1 p.m., and we should find no camping-groimd for half the way up. The villagers gave me the leg of a musk-deer, and some red potatos, about as big as walnuts—aU they could spare from their winter stock. With this scanty addition to our stores we started down the valley, for a few miles, till we crossed the stream from the lateral valley, and ascending a littie, camped on its bank.

On reaching the top of the great moraine at a place where it overhung the main river, I had a good c(ywp-d'ceil of the whole scene. The view south-east up the

* Tills is one of the most sndden slopes in this part of the HimaUya, the angle between the top of Jrnmoo and Kambachen being 2786 feet per mile, or 1 in 1 *8. The slope from the top of Mont Blanc to the Ghamouni Talley is 2464 feet per mile, or 1 in 2*1. That from Monte Bosa top to Macugnaga greatly exceeds either.

EAST NBPAL.

Chap. XI.

glacial valley (represented in the accompanying cut) to the snowy peaks south of Junnoo, was particularly grand^ and most interesting from the precision with which one great distant existing glacier was marked by two waving parallel lines of lateral moraines, which formed.

▲KCIEin- MORAINES IN THE KAMBACHBN VALLEY.

as it were, a vast raised gutter, or channel, ascending from perhaps 16,000 feet elevation, till it was hidden behind a spur. With a telescope I could descry many similar smaller glaciers, with huge accumulations of shingle at their terminations; but this great one was beautifully seen by the naked eye, and formed a very curious feature in the landscape. Between the moraines,, near my tent, the soil was

perfectly level, and consisted of little lake-beds strewn • with gigantic boulders, and covered with hard turf of grass and sedge; and little bushes of dwarf rhododendron and prostrate juniper, as trim as if they had been clipped. Altogether these formed the most picturesque little nooks it was possible to conceive; and they exhibited the withered remains of so many kinds of primrose, gentian, anemone, potentilla, orchis, saxifrage, pamassia, campanula, and pedicularis, that in summer ihey must be perfect gardens of flowers. Aroimd each plot of a few acres was the grand ice-transported girdle of stupendous rocks, many from 50 to 100 feet long, crested with black tabular-branched silver firs, conical deep green tree-junipers, and feathery larches; whilst amongst the blocks grew a profusion of round masses of evergreen rhododendron bushes. Beyond were stupendous frowning cliffs, beneath which the river roared like thunder; and looking up the glacial valley, the setting sun was bathing the expanse of snow in the most delicate changing tints of pink, amber, and gold.

The boulders forming the moraine were so enormous and angular, that I had great difficulty in ascending it, and where the large rhododendrons grew amongst the rocks I found it impossible to penetrate. The largest of the moraines was piled to upwards of 1000 feet against the south flank of the lateral vaUey, and stretched far up it beyond my camp, which was in a grove of silver firs. A large flock of sheep and goats, laden with salt, overtook us here on their route from Wallanchoon to YaUoong. The sheep I observed to feed

ic8

on the Rhododendron Thomsoni and campylocarpum. On the roots ^f one species a parasitical Broom-rape (Orobanche) grew abondantly; and about the moraines were more mosses, lichens, &c., than I had elsewhere seen in the loftier Himalaya, encouraged no doubt by the dampness of this grand mountain gorge, which is MO hemmed in that the sun never reaches it until four or five hours aft;er it has gilded the overhanging peaks.

December 5.—The morning was bright and clear, and we started early for the Choonjerma pass. I had hoped the route would be up the magnificent glacier-girdled valley in which we had encamped; but it lay up another, considerably south of it, and to which we crossed, ascending the rocky moraine, in the clefts of which grew abundance of a common Scotch fern, Cryptogramma crispa !

Ascending a lofty spur, 1000 feet above the valley, against which the moraine was banked, we saw the pass, bearing north-west, and the valley we had descended on the previous day, topped by Nango mountain, with four glaciers descending from its perpetual snows.

Further on we reached an open grassy valley, and overtook the Tibetans, who had halted here to feed their sheep. A good-looking girl came to ask me for medicine for her husband's eyes, which had suffered from snow-blindness : she brought me a present of snuff, and carried a little child, stark naked, yet warm from the powerful rays of the sun, at nearly 14,000 feet elevation, in December! I prescribed for the man, and gave the mother a bright farthing to hang

round the child's neck, which delighted the party. My watch was only wondered at; but a little spring xneasuring-tape that rolled itself up, struck them dumb, and when I threw it on the ground with the tape out, the mother shrieked and ran away, while the little savage howled after her.

The path up the ascent was blocked with snow-beds, Bnd for several miles we alternately scrambled among tocks and over slippery slopes, to the top of a ridge of rocks running east and west from a superb sweep of snowy mountains to the north-west, which pre-sented a chaotic scene of blue glacial ice and white snow, through which splintered rocks and beetling crags thrust their black heads. The view into the Kambachen gorge was magnificent, with the black precipices of its opposite flank rising to the glaciers of Nango, amongst which lay the Kambachen pass. Lower down the valley appeared a broad flat, called Jubla, a halting-place one stage below the village of Kambachen, on the road to Lelyp on the Tambur: it must be a remarkable geological as well as natural feature, for it appeared to jut abruptly and quite horizontally from the black cliffs of the valley.

Looking north, the conical head of Junnoo was just scattering the mists from its snowy shoulders, and standing forth to view, the most magnificent spectacle I ever beheld. It was quite close to me, and is much the steepest of all the peaks of these regions. From whichever side it is viewed, it rises 9000 feet above the general mountain mass of 16,000 feet elevation, towering like a blunt cone, with a short saddle on

one side, that dips in a steep cliff: it appeared as if uniformly snowed, from its rocks above 20,000 feet being (like those of Kinchinjunga) of white granite, and not contrasting with the snow.*

As evening drew on, another wonderful spectacle presented itself, similar to that which I described at Sakkiazung, but displayed here on an inconceivably grander scale, with all the effects exaggerated. I saw a sea of mist floating 3000 feet beneath me, just below the upper level of the black firs; the magnificent spurs of the snowy range which I had crossed rising out of it in rugged grandeur as promontories and peninsulas, between which the misty ocean seemed to finger up like the fiords of Norway, or the saltwater lochs of the west of Scotland; whilst islets tailed off from the promontories, rising here and there out of the deceptive elements. I was so high above this mist, that it had not the billowy appearance I saw before, but was a cahn unruffled ocean, boundless to the south and west, where the horizon over-arched it. A little to the north of west I discerned the most lofty group of mountains in Nepal beyond Kinchinjunga, which I believe are on the west flank of the great valley through which the Arun river enters Nepal from Tibet: they were very

* The appeaiance of Mont Oervin, from the Biffelberg, mnch reminded me of that of Jmmoo, from the Ghoonjerma jyass, the former bearing the 8 ame relation to Monte Bosa that the hitter does to Kinchiigmiga. Jonnoo, hongh incomparably the more stupendous mass, is not nearly so remarkable in outline, so sharp, or so peaked as is Mont Genrin: it is a very much grander, but far less picturesque object. The whiteness of the sides of Junnoo adds also greatly to its apparent altitude; while the strong relief in which the black cliffs of Mont Cervin protrude through its snowy mantle greatly diminishes both its apparent height and distance.

Bio. 1848. SUMMIT OF CHOONJBBMA PASS. S58

distant, and subtended so small an angle, that I could not measure them with the sextant and artificial horizon: their height, judging from the quantity of snow, must be prodigious.

From 4 to 5 p.m. the temperature was 24^, with a very cold wind; the elevation by the barometer was 15,260 feet.

I waited for an hour, examining the rocks about the pass, till the coolies should come up, but saw nothing worthy of remark, the natural history and geology being identical with those of Kambachen pass. For about four miles we contrnued at nearly the same level, dipping into the broad head of a snowy valley, and ascending to the second pass, which lay to the south-east.

On the left I passed a very curious isolated pillar of rock amongst the wild crags whose bases we skirted: it resembles the Capuchin on the shoulder of Mont Blanc, as seen from the Jardin. Evening overtook us while still near the last ascent. As the sun declined, the snow at oiu* feet reflected the most delicate peach* bloom hue; and looking west from the top of the pass, the scenery was gorgeous beyond description, for the sun was just plunging into a sea of mist, in a blaze of the ruddiest coppery hue. As it sank, the ^epal peaks to the right assumed more definite, darker, and gigantic forms, and floods of light shot across the misty ocean» bathing the landscape in the most wonderful and indescribable changing tints. While the luminary was vanishing, the whole horizon glowed like copper from a smelting furnace, and when it had disappeared, the

little inequalities of the ragged edges of the mist were lighted up and shone like a row of volcanos in the distance. I have never before or since seen anything, which for sublimity, beauty, and marvellous effects, could compare with what I gazed on that evening from Choonjerma pass. In some of Tumer*s pictures I have recognized similar effects, caught and fixed by a marvellous effort of genius; such are the fleeting hues over the ice, in his "Whalers," and the ruddy fire in his " Wind, Steam, and Rain," which one almost fears to touch. Dissolving views give some idea of the magic creation and dispersion of the colours, but any combination of science and art can no more recal the scene, than it can the feelings of awe that crept over me, during the hour I spent in solitude amongst these stupendous mountains.

The moon guided us on our descent into the Yalloong valley. I was very uneasy about the coolies, who were far behind, and some of whom had been frost-bitten in crossing the Kambachen pass. Still I thought the best thing was to push on, and light large fires at the first juniper we should reach. The change, on passing from off the snow to the dark earth and rock, was so bewildering, that I had great difficulty in picking my way. Suddenly we came on a small tarn, whose waters gleamed illusively in the pale moonlight: the opposite flanks of the valley were so well reflected on its surface, that we were brought to a stand-stiU: it looked like a chasm, and whether to jump across it, or go along it, was the question, so deceptive was the spectral landscape. Its true nature was, however, soon

Dio. 1848. A NIGHT SCENE. m

discovered, and we proceeded round it, descending. Of course we had lost the path, and after some perplexity amongst rocks and ravines, we reached the upper limit of wood, and halted by some bleached juniperi* trees, which were soon converted into blazing fires.

I wandered away to listen for the voices of the men who had lingered, about whom I was most anxious, from the great difficulty they would encounter if, as we did, they should get off the path. The moon was shining clearly; and its bright light, with the pale glare of the surrounding snow, obscured the milky way, and aU the smaller stars; whilst the planets appeared to glow with broader orbs than elsewhere, and the great stars flashed steadily and periodically.

It was a dead calm, and nothing broke the awful silence but the low hoarse murmur of many torrents, whose mingled voices rose and fell as if with the pulsations of the atmosphere; the undulations of which thus appeared to be marked by the ear alone. Some** times it was the faintest possible murmur, and then it rose swelling and filling the air with sound: the effect was that of being raised from the earth's surface, and again lowered to it; or that of waters advancing and retiring. In such scenes and with such accompaniments, the mind wanders from the real to the ideal, the larger and brighter lamps of heaven lead us to imagine that we have risen from the surface of our globe and are floating through the regions of space, and that the ceaseless murmur of the waters is the Music of the Spheres.

Contemplation amid such soothing sounds and

impressive scenes is yery sedactive, and withal very dangerous, for the temperature was at freezing-point, my feet and legs were wet through, and it was well that I was soon ronsed from my reveries by the monosyllabic exclamations of my coolies. They were qnite knocked up, and came along granting, and halting every minate to rest, by supporting their loads, still hanging to their backs, on their stout staves. I had still one bottle of brandy left, which, having been repeatedly begged for in vain, and being no longer expected, was received with unfeigned joy. Fortunately with these people a little spirits goes a long way, and I kept half for future emergencies.

We camped at 13,290 feet, with the air calm and mild to the feeling, though the temperature fell to 82 J°. On the following morning we saw two musk-deer, called " Kosturah" by the mountaineers. The musk, which hangs in a pouch near the navel of the male, is the well-known object of traffic with Bengal. This creature ranges between 8000 and 13,000 feet, on the Himalaya, often scenting the air for many hundred yards. It is a pretty grey animal, the size of a roe* buck, and something resembling it, with coarse fiir, short horns, and two projecting teeth from the upper jaw, said to be used in rooting up the aromatic herbs from which the Bhoteas believe that it derives its odour. This I much doubt, because the animal never frequents those very lofty regions where these herbs are found, nor have I ever seen signs of any having been so rooted up. An Alpine Larkspur {Delphinium glaciale) smells strongly and disagreeably of musk, but it is one of the

most alpine plants in the world, growing at an elevation of 17,000 feet, far above the limits of the Kosturah. The female and young male are very good eating, much better than any Indian venison I ever tasted, being sweet and tender. Mr. Hodgson once kept a female alive, but it was very wild, and continued so as long as I knew it. Two of my Lepchas gave chase to these animals, and fired many arrows in vain after them: these people are fond of carrying a bow, but are very poor shots.

I descended 3000 feet to the deep valley of the Yalloong river: the path was very bad, over quartz, granite, and gneiss, which cut the shoes and feet severely. The bottom of the valley was filled with an immense accumulation of angular gravel and debris of the above rocks, forming on both sides of the river a terrace 400 feet above the stream, which flowed in a furious torrent. The path led over this deposit for several miles ; it varied exceedingly in height, in some places being evidently increased by landslips, and at others apparently by moraines.

CHAPTER XII,

TaUooDg yalley—Find Kanglanamo pass dosed—Change route for the aoathward— Pierarkiza —Gross Talloong range—^View—Descent— Yew—^Yegetation—^Misty weather—Tonghem Tillage—Ehabang— Tropical vegetation—Sidingbah Mountain—^View of Kinchinjunga— Khabili valley—Ghorkha Havildar's bad conduct—Ascend Singalelah —Plague of ticks—Short commons—Gross Islumbo pass—Boundary of Sikkim—Eulhait valley—Lingcham—^Reception by Eajee—Hear of Dr. Campbell's going to meet Rajah—Views in valley—Leave for Teesta river—^Tipsy Kajee—Hospitality—^Murwa beer—Temples— Long Mendong—^Burning of dead—Superstitions—Cross Great Bun-geet—^Purchase of a dog—Marshes—Lamas—Dismiss Ghorkhas— Bhotea house—^Murwa beer.

On arriving at the bottom we found a party who were travelling with sheep laden with salt; they told us that the Yalloong village, which lay up the valley on the route to the Kanglanamo pass (leading over the south shoulder of Kubra into Sikkim) was deserted, the inhabitants having retired after the October fall of snow to Yankutang, two marches down; also that the Kanglanamo pass was impracticable: I was, therefore, reluctantly obliged to abandon the plan of pursuing that route to Sikkim, and to go south, following the west flank of Singalelah to the first pass I might find open.

These people were very civil, and gave me a handful of the root of one of the many bitter herbs called in

Bengal " Teeta," and used as a febrifuge: the present one was that of Picrorhiza^ a plant allied to Speedwell, which grows at from 12,000 to 15,000 feet elevation, and is a powerful bitter. They had with them aboTe 100 sheep, of a tall, long-legged, Boman-nosed breed. Each carried upwards of forty pounda of salt, done up in two leather bags, slung on either side, and secured by a band going over the chest, and another round the loins, so that they cannot slip off, when going up or down hill. These sheep are very tame, patient creatures, travelling twelve miles a day with great ease, and being indifferent to rocky ground.

December 7.—^I ascended the Yalloong ridge to a saddle 11,000 feet elevation, whence the road dips south to the gloomy gorges of the eastern feeders of the Tambur. Here I bade adieu to the grand alpine scenery, and for several days my course lay through Nepal in a southerly direction, parallel to Singalelah, and crossing many spurs and rivers sent off by that mighty range. The latter flow towards the Tambur, and their beds for forty or fifty miles are elevated about 8600 feet. I ascended few of the spurs above 5000 feet, but all of them rise to above 12,000 feet to the westward, where they join the Singalelah range.

Grossing a saddle of the Yalloong range, I clambered to the top of a lofty hummock, through a dense thicket of interwoven Ehododendron bushes, the clayey soil under which was slippery from the quantity of dead leaves. I had hoped for a view of the top of Kinchin-junga, to the north-east, but it was enveloped in clouds, as were all the snows in that direction; to

S60 EAST NEPAL. Chap. XH.

the norih-west, however, I obtained bearings of the principal peaks, &c., of the Yangma and Kambachen valleys. To the south and south-east, lofty, nigged and pine-clad mountains rose in confused masses, and white sheets of mist came driving up, clinging to the mountain-tops, and shrouding the landscape with extreme rapidity. The remarkable mountain of Sidingbah bore south-south-east, raising its rounded head above the clouds. I could, however, procure no other good bearing.

The descent from the Yalloong ridge to the Khabili feeders of the Tambur was very steep, and in some places ahnost precipitous, first through dense woods of silver fir, with Rhododendron Falconeri and Hodgsoni, then through Abies Brunoniana, with yew (now covered with red berries) to the region of Magnolias and Rho-dodendron barbatum and arboreum. One bush of the latter was in flower, making a gorgeous show. Here also appeared the great oak with lamellated acorns, which I had not seen in the drier valleys to the westward; with many other Dorjiling trees and shrubs. A heavy mist clung to the rank luxuriant foliage, tantalising from its obscuring all the view. After so many days of bright sunshine and dry weather, I found this quiet, ^*^°^P> foggy atmosphere to have a most depressing effect: there was little to interest in the meteorology, the atmospheric fluctuations being far too small; geographical discovery was at an end, and I groped my way along devious paths in wooded valleys, or ascended spurs and ridges, always clouded before noon, and clothed with heavy forest.

At the elevation of 5,560 feet I reached a village and spur, called ^'Tonghem*' by the Limboos, and " Yankutang " by the Bhoteas; the winter resort of the inhabitants of the upper Yalloong valley: they received me very kindly, sold me two fowls, and a little rice, and gave me a good deal of information. I found that the Kanglanamo pass had been disused since the Nepal war, that it was very lofty, and always closed in October.

The next day, after crossing the river, a very winding and fatiguing up-and-down march brought me to the village of Khabang, in the magnificent valley of the Tawa, about 800 feet above the river, and 6,500 feet above the sea.

I halted here for a day, to refresh the people, and if possible to obtain some food,

Khabang is a village of Geroongs, or shepherds, who pasture their flocks on the hills and higher valleys during summer, and bring them down to this elevation in winter: the ground was consequently infested with a tick, equal in size to that common in the bushes, and quite as troublesome, but of a different species.

The temperature here was 72°; and Magnolias and various other tropical trees were common, with the herbaceous vegetation of low elevations. Large sugar-canes, palms, and wild plantains grew near the river, and Rhododendron arborevm was very common on dry slopes, with the gorgeous and sweet-scented LtLctdia gratissima.

Up the valley of the Tawa the view was very grand of the magnificent rocky mountain called Sidingba'

SeS BAST NEPAL. Chap. XIL

^ situated on a spur of the Singalelah range which runs

westerly, and forms the south flank of the Tawa, and the north of the Khabili valley. This mountain is fiilly 12,000 feet high, crested with rock and ragged black forest, which, on the north flank, extends to its

^ base: to the eastward, the bare ridges of Singalelah

^ were patched with snow, below which they too were

clothed with black flrs.

From the opposite side of the Tawa I was most fortunate in obtaining a splendid view of Kinchinjunga with its associates, rising over the dark mass of Singalelah, its flanks showing like tier above tier of green glaciers: its distance was ftdly twenty-five miles, and as only about 8000 feet from its simunit were visible, and Kubra was foreshortened against it, its appearance was not grand; added to which, its top was round and hummocky, not broken into peaks, as when seen from the south and east. Villages and cultivation became more frequent as I proceeded southward to the valley

i of the Khabili, and my daily marches were up ridges,

i^ and down into deep valleys, with feeders from the flanks

of Sidingbah to the Tambur. During this part of the journey, though I was day after day marching only seven to ten miles distant from the Tambur river, I did not once see it, so uneven is the country.

The valley of the Khabili is very grand, broad, open,

X and intersected by many streams and cultivated spurs :

the road from Yamroop* to Sikkim, once well frequented, runs up its north flank, and though it had

I long been closed we determined to follow and clear it.

S

Though we passed numerous villages, 1 found unusual difficulty in obtaining provisions, and received none of the presents so uniformly brought by the villagers to a stranger. I was not long in discovering, to my great mortification, that these were appropriated by the Ghorka Havildar, who seemed to have profited by our many days of short allowance, and diverted the current of hospitality from me to himself. His coolies I saw groaning under heavy burdens, when those of my people were light; and the truth only came out when he had the impudence to attempt to impose a part of his coolies' loads upon mine, to enable the former to carry more food, whilst he was pretending that he used every exertion to procure me a scanty supply of rice with my limited stock of money. I had treated this man and his soldiers with the utmost kindness, nursing them and clothing them from my own stock of flannels, when sick and shivering amongst the snows. Though a high caste Hindoo, and one who assumed Brahmin rank, he had, I found, no objection to eat forbidden things in secret; and now that we were travelling amongst Hindoos, his caste obtained him everything, while money alone availed me. I took him roundly to task for his treachery, which caused him secretly to throw away a leg of mutton he had concealed; I also threatened to expose the humbug of his pretension to caste, but it was then too late to procure more food. Having hitherto much liked this man, and fully trusted him, I was greatly pained by his conduct.

I proceeded east for three days, up the valley; first through gloomy forests of tropical trees, and then

ascending to the region of oaks and magnolias. Tl path was soon obstructed, and we had to tear and cut oi way, from 6000 to 10,000 feet, which took two day yery hard work. Ticks swarmed in the bamboo jungl and my body was covered with these loathsome insect which got into my bed and hair, and even attache themselves to my eyelids during the night, when tl constant annoyance and irritation completely banishi sleep. In the daytime they penetrated my trouser piercing to my body in many places, so that I repeated took off as many as twelve at one time. It is indec marvellous how so large an insect can painlessly inse a stout barbed proboscis, which requires great force 1 extract it, and causes severe smarting in the operatioi What the tick feeds on in these humid forests is perfect mystery to me, for they literally swarmed, whei there was neither path nor animal life. They wer however, more tolerable than a commoner species < parasite, from which I found it impossible to escap all classes of mountaineers being infested with it.

On the 14th, after an arduous ascent through tl pathless jungle, I camped at 9,300 feet on a narro spur, in a dense forest, amongst immense loose block of gneiss. The weather was foggy and rainy, and th wind cold. I ate my last supply of animal food, jf miserable starved pullet, with rice and Chili vinegai

jny tea, sugar, and aU other superfluities having bee long before exhausted.

On the following morning I crossed the Islumb pass over Singalelah into Sikkim, the elevation bein 11,000 feet. Above my camp the trees were few an

stunted, and I quickly emerged from the forest on a rocky and grassy ridge, covered with withered Saxifrages, Umbellifers, Pamassia, Hypericum, &c. There were no firs on either side of the pass; a very remarkable peculiarity of the damp mountains of Sikkim, which I have elsewhere had occasion to notice: I had left the long-leaved pine (a far from common tree in these valleys) at 3000 feet in the Tawa three days before, and ascended to 11,000 feet without passing a coniferous tree of any kind, except a few yews, covered with red berries.

The top of the pass was broad, grassy, and bushy, with dwarf Bamboo, Eose, and Berberry in great abundance, covered with moss and lichens: it had been raining hard all the morning, and the vegetation was coated with ice; a dense fog obscured everything, and a violent south-east wind blew over the pass in my teeth. I collected some very curious and beautiful mosses, putting these frozen treasures into my box, in the form of exquisitely beautiful glass ornaments, or mosses frosted with silver.

A few stones marked the boundary between Nepal and Sikkim, where I halted for half an hour, and hung up my instruments: the temperature was 32°.

I descended rapidly, proceeding eastward down the broad valley of the Kulhait river, an affluent of the Great Bimgeet; and as it had begun to sleet and snow hard, I kept on until I reached 6400 feet before camping.

On the following day I continued down the valley, and reached habitations at 4000 feet: passing many

VOL. I. K

k villages and much coltiYation, I crossed the livi

and ascended to the village of Lingcham, just bel< the convent of Changachelling, very tired and hungi Bad weather had set in, and it was pitch dark ai raining hard when I arrived; but the Kajee, or he: man, sent oat a party with torches to conduct me, ai gave me a most hospitable reception, honoured i with a salute of musketry, and brought abundance milk, eggs, fowls, plantains, and Murwa beer. Plen of news was awaiting me here, and a messenger wi letters was three marches further north, at Yoksu waiting my expected arrival over the Kanglanamo pa£ Dr. Campbell, I was told, had left Dorjiling, and w en route to meet the Bajah at Bhomsong on tl Teesta, where no European had ever yet been; and the Sikkim authorities had for sixteen years steadi ' rejected every overture for a friendly interview, ai

had even refused to allow the agent of the Govemo

I General to enter their dominions, it was evident th

grave doings were pending. I knew that Dr. Campb< had long used every exertion to bring the Sikki

* Bajah to a friendly conference, but in vain. It w

hardly be believed that though this chiefs dominioi were redeemed by us from the Nepalese, though ^ had bound ourselves to support him on his thron and though the terms of the treaty stipulated for fr< intercourse, mutual protection, and friendship; yet tl Sikkim authorities had hitherto been allowed obstruct all intercourse, and in every way to tre: the Governor-General's agent and the East Ind Company with contempt. An affectation of timidit

►

i!

mistrust, and ignorance was assumed for the purpose of deception, and as a cloak for every insult and resistance to the terms of our treaty, and it was quoted' by the Government in answer to every remonstrance on the part of their resident agent at Dorjiling.

On the following morning the Kajee waited on me with a magnificent present of a calf, a kid, fowls, eggs, rice, oranges, plantains, egg-apples, Indian com, yams, onions, tomatos, parsley, fennel, turmeric, rancid butter, milk, and, lastly, a coolie-load of fermenting millet-seeds, wherewith to make the favourite Murwa beer. In the evening two lads arrived from Dorjiling, who had been sent a week beforehand by my kind and thoughtful friend, Mr. Hodgson, with provisions and money.

The vaUey of the Kulhait is one of the finest in Sikkim, and it is accordingly the site of two of the oldest and richest conventual establishments. Its length is sixteen miles, from the Islumbo pass to the Great Eungeet, for ten of which it is inhabited, the villages being invariably on long meridional spurs that project from either flank; they are about 2000 feet above the river, and about 5000 feet above the sea. Except where these spurs project, the flanks of the valley are very steep, the mountains rising to 8000 feet.

Looking from any spur, up or down the valley, five or six others might be seen on each side of the river, at very nearly the same average level, all presenting great uniformity of contour, namely, a gentle slope towards the centre of the vaUey, and then an abrupt

n2

descent to the river. They were about a quarter o mile broad at the widest, and often narrower, an< mile or so long; some parts of their surfaces and si were quite flat, and occasionally occupied by mars! or ponds. Cultivation is almost confined to these spi and is carried on both on their summits and sU flanks: between every two is a very steep gulley a water-course. The timber has long since been clea: from the tops, but, to a great extent, still clothes th flanks and the intervening gorges. I have been p ticular in describing these spurs, because it is impossi to survey them without ascribing their comparat uniformity of level to the action of water. Simi ones are characteristic features of the valleys of Sikk between 2000 and 8000 feet, and are rendered c< spicuous by being always chosen as sites for villaj and cultivation: the soil is a vegetable mould, ove: deep stratimi of red clay.

I am far from supposing that any geologically race action of the sea has levelled these spurs; but as t great chain of the Himalaya has risen from the ocej and as every part of it has been subjected to sea-acti( it is quite conceivable that intervals of rest during t periods of elevation or submergence would eflect th< levelling. In a mountain mass so tumbled as is tit of Sikkim, any level surface, or approach to it, deman study; and when, as in the Eulhait valley, we fi] several similar spurs with comparatively flat tops, occ pying about the same elevation, it is necessary to lo< for some levelling cause. The action of denudation still progressing with astonishing rapidity^ under i

annual £edl of upwards of 100 inches of rain; but its tendency is to obliterate all such phenomena, and to give sharp, rugged outlines to these spurs, in spite of the conservative effects of vegetation.

A letter jfrom Dr. Campbell reached me three days after my arrival, begging me to cross the country to the Teesta river, and meet him at Bhomsong, on its west bank: I therefore left on the 30th of December, accompanied by my friend the Kajee, who was going to pay his respects to the Bajah. He was followed by a lad, carrying a bamboo of Murwa beer slung round his neck, with which he kept himself always groggy. His dress was thoroughly Lepcha, and highly picturesque, consisting of a very broad-brimmed round-crowned bamboo-platted hat, scarlet jacket, and blue-striped cloth shirt, bare feet, long knife, bow and quiver, rings and earrings, and a long pigtail. He spoke no Hin* doostanee, but was very communicative through my interpreters.

Crossing a torrent, we came to the next village, where I was met by a deputation of women, sent by the Lamas of Changachelling, bearing enormous loads of oranges, rice, milk, butter, ghee, and the everflowing Murwa beer.

The villagers had erected a shady bower for me of leaves and branches, and had fitted up a little bamboo stage, on which to squat cross-legged, or to hang my legs from, if I preferred: after conducting me to this, the parties advanced and piled their cumbrous presents on the ground, bowed, and retired; they were succeeded by the beer-carrier, who plimged a clean drinking-tube

to the bottom of the steaming bamboo jug and held to my mouth, then placing it by my side, he bowed an withdrew. Nothing can be more fascinating than Hi simple manners of these kind people, who really lo^ hospitality, and make the stranger feel himse welcome. Just now too, the Durbar had ordered ever attention to be paid me; and I hardly passed a village however small, without receiving a present; or cottage, where beer was not oflfered. This I found most grateful beverage; and of the occasional resi under leafy screens during a hot day's march, and sij at the bamboo jug, I shall ever retain a grateful remen brance. Happily the liquor is very weak, and exce] by swilling, as my friend the Kajee did, it would I impossible to get fuddled by it.

At Pemiongchi a superior Lama met me with anoth< overwhelming present: he was a most jolly fat monl shaven and girdled, and dressed in a scarlet gown : m Lepchas kotowed to him, and he blessed them by th laying on of hands.

Hence we descended suddenly to the Great Eungee which we reached at its junction with the Kulhait: tl path was very steep and slippery, and led along tl side of an enormous Mendong,* which ran down tl hill for several hundred yards, and had a large chait t each end, with several smaller ones at interval Throughout its length were innumerable inscriptior

* This remarkable stractnre, called the Eaysing Mendong, is 200 yar long, 10 feet high, and 6 or 8 feet broad; it is built of flat, slaty atone and both faces are covered with inscribed slates, of which there are upwart of 700. A tall stone, nine feet high, covered also with inscriptioD terminates it at the lower end.

THE KAYSING MENDONG.

271

of " Om Mani Padmi om/* with well carved figures of Booddh in his many incarnations, besides Lamas, &c. At the lower end was a flat area, on which are burnt the bodies of people of consequence; the poorer are

PEMIONQCHI GOOMPA AND CUAITS.

buried, the richer burned, and their ashes scattered or interred, but not in graves proper, of which there are none. Nor are there any signs of interment throughout Sikkim; though chaits are erected to the memory of the departed, they have no necessary connection with the remains. Corpses in Sikkim are never cut to

pieces and thrown into lakes, or ex}>osed on hills for the kites and crows to devour, as is the case in Tibet.

We passed some curious masses of crumpled chlorite slate, presenting deep canals or furrows, along which a demon once drained all the water from the Pemiongchi spur, to the great annoyance of the villagers; the Lamas, however, on choosing this as a site for their temples, easily confounded the machinations of the evil spirit.

I crossed the Great Eungeet at 1840 feet above the sea, where its bed was twenty yards in width; a rude bridge, composed of two culms of bamboo and a handrail, conducted me to the other side, where we camped (on the east bank) in a thick tropical jungle, on a gravel flat, about sixty feet above the river.

I thence proceeded west, following a steep ascent up a very long spur, dividing the Great Eungeet from the Teesta. I ascended by a narrow path, accomplishing 2500 feet in an hour and a quarter, walking slowly but steadily, without resting; this I always found a heavy pull in a hot climate.

At about 4000 feet above the sea, the spur became more open and flat, like those of the Eulhait valley, with alternate slopes and comparative flats: from this elevation the view was very fine; the river flowed below, and a few miles up it was the conical wooded hill of Tassiding, rising abruptly from a fork of the deep gorge, crowned with its curious temples and mendongs, and bristling with chaits ; on it is the oldest monastery in Sikkim, occupying a picturesque and prominent position. North of this spur lay that of Eaklang, with

the temple and monastery of the same name. In front, looking west across the Great Bmigeet, were the mo* nasteries of Ghangachelling and Pemiongchi, perched aloft; and south of these were the flat-topped spurs of the Kulhait valley, with their villages, and the great mendong which I had passed on the previous day, running like a white line down the moimtain. To the north, beyond Tassiding, were two other monasteries, Doobdee and Sunnook, both apparently placed on the lower flanks of Kinchinjunga; whilst close by was Dholing, the seventh religious establishment in sight.

We halted at a good wooden house to rejfresh ourselves with Murwa beer, where I bought a little puppy, of a breed between the famous Tibet mastiff and the common Sikkim hunting-dog, which is a variety of the sorry race called Pariah in the plains. Being only a few weeks old, he looked a mere bundle of black fur; and I carried him off, for he could not walk.

We camped at the village of Lingdam (alt. 5550 feet), occupying a flat, and surroimded by extensive pools of water (for this coimtry) containing Sweet-flag, Potamogeton, and duck-weed. I have often met with such ponds on these terraces, and they are very remark* able, not being dammed in by any conspicuous barrier, but simply occupying depressions in the surface.

This being the high road from Tumloong or Sikkim Durbar (the capital, and Bajah's residence) to the numerous monasteries which I had seen, we passed many Lamas and monks on their way home from Timiloong, where they had gone to be present at the marriage of the Tupgain Lama, the eldest son of the

Bajah. A dispensation having previously been procured from Lhassa, this marriage had been effected by the Lamas, in order to coimteract the efforts of the Dewan, who sought to exercise an undue influence over the Bajah and his family. The Tupgain Lama having only spiritual authority, and being bound to celibacy, the temporal authority had devolved on the second son, who was heir-apparent; he, however, having died, an illegitimate son of the Bajah had been favoured by the Dewan as heir-apparent. The bride was brought from Tibet, and the marriage party was feasted for eighteen days at the Bajah's expense. All the Lamas whom I met were clad in red robes, with girdles, and were shaven, with bare feet and heads, or mitred; they wore rosaries of onyx, turquoise, quartz, lapis-lazuli, coral, glass, amber, or wood: some had staves, and one a trident on a long staff, an emblem of the Hindoo Trinity, called Trisool Mahadeo, which represents Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu, in Hindoo ; and Booddh, Dhurma, and Sunga, in Booddhist theology. AU were on foot, indeed ponies are seldom used in this country; the Lamas, however, walked with becoming gravity and indifference to all around them.

The Kajee waited upon me in the evening, full of importance, having just received a letter from his Bajah, which he wished to communicate to me in private; so I accompanied him to a house close by, where he was a guest, when the secret came out, that his highness was dreadftdly alarmed at my coming with the two Nepalese soldiers, whom I accordingly dismissed.

MUEWA BEEB.

275

The house was of the usual Bhotean form, of wood, built on posts, one-storied, containing a single apartment, himg round with bows, quivers, shields, baskets of rice, and cornucopias of Indian com. The whole party were deep in a carouse on Murwa beer, and I saw the operation of making it. The millet-seed is moistened, and ferments for two days; sufficient for a day's allowance is then put into a vessel of wicker-work, lined with India-rubber to make it water-tight; and boiling water is poured on with a ladle of gourd, from a huge iron cauldron that stands all day over the fire. The fluid, when quite fresh, tastes like negus of Cape sherry, rather sour.

81KKIM LAMAS WITH PRAYING CTLINDEB AKD DORJB ; THS LATBBAL HOUBES ABE MONKS OB GYLOKOS.

i

CHAPTEE XIII.

Baklang pass—Uses of nettles—Edible plants—Lepcha war—Do-nu stone—Neongong—Teesta valley—Pony, saddle, &c.—^Meet Gampl —^Vegetation and scenery—Presents—Visit of Dewan—Characters Rajah and Dewan—Accounts of Tibet—Lhas&a—Siling—Tricks Dewan—^Walk up Teesta—Audience of Bajah—Lamas—Eajees Tchebu Lama, his character and position—Effects of interview—He apparent—Dewan's house—Guitar—Tibet officers—Gigantic trees Neongong lake—^Mainom, ascent of—^Vegetation—Camp on snow View from top—Kinchin, &c.—^Vapours—Sunset effect—Tempei ture, &c.—Lamas of Neongong—Temples—Religious festival—^Bamlx flowering—^Recross pass of Raklang—Numerous temples, villages, & —Domestic animals—^Descent to Ghreat Rungeet.

On the following morning, after receiving the usu presents from the Lamas of Dholing, and from a larj posse of women belonging to the village close by, ascended the Baklang pass, which crosses the ran^ dividing tke waters of the Teesta from those of tl Great Eimgeet. The Kajee still kept beside me, an proved a lively companion: seeing me continual] plucking and noting plants, he gave me much loci

t.

i information about them. He told me the uses made <

the fibres of the various nettles; some being twisted fc bowstrings, others as thread for sewing and weaving while many are eaten raw and in soups, especially tl numerous little succulent species. The great yelloT"

flowered Begonia was abundant, and he cut its juicy stalks to make sauce (as we do apple-sauce) for some pork which he expected to get at Bhomsong; the taste is acid and very pleasant. A large succulent fern, called Botrychiimi, grew here plentifully; it is boiled and eaten, both here and in New Zealand. Ferns are more commonly used for food than is supposed. In Calcutta the Hindoos boil the young tops of a Polypo-dium with their shrimp curries; and both in Sikkim and Nepal the watery tubers of an Aspidium are abundantly eaten. So also the pulp of one tree-fern aflfords food, but only in times of scarcity, as does that of another species in New Zealand: the pith of all is composed of a coarse sago.

A thick forest covers the sununit, which is only 6,800 feet above the sea; it is a saddle, connecting the lofty mountain of Mainom (alt. 11,000 feet) to the north, with Tendong (alt. 8,663 feet) to the south. Both these moimtains are on a range continuous with Kin-chinjunga, projecting from it down into the very heart of Sikkim. A considerable stand was made here by the Lepchas during the Nepal war in 1787; they defended the pass for some hours, and then retired towards the Teesta, making a second stand lower down, where rocks on either side gave them the same advantages. The Nepalese, however, advanced to the Teesta, and then retired with little loss.

Unfortunately a thick mist and heavy rain cut off all view of the Teesta valley, and the mountains of Chola to the eastward; which I much regretted.

Descending by a very steep, sUppery path, I came

SIKEIM HIMALATA.

Chap. Xlir.

to a fine mass of slaty gneiss, thirty feet long and thirteen high, lying on the mountain side: on its sloping face was carved in enormous characters, " Om Mani Padmi om; " of which letters the top-strokes afiFord an imcertain footing to the enthusiast who is willing to

DO-MANI 8T0NB.

purchase a good metempsychosis by walking along the slope, with his heels or toes in their cavities. An inscription in one comer is said to imply that this was the work of a pious monk of Eaklang; and the stone is called " Do-mani," literally, " stone of prayer." The rocks of Mainom are said to overhang the descent with grandeur; but the continued rain hid

everything but a curious peak, apparently of chlorite schist, which was close by, and reflected a green colour: it was reported to be of turquoise, and inaccessible.

Lower down, I passed the monastery of Neongong, the monks of which were building a new temple; and came to bring me a large present. Below it is a pretty little lake about one hundred yards across, fringed with brushwood. We camped at the village of Nampok, 4,370 feet above the sea; where on the following morning a messenger arrived from Dr. Campbell, who told me he was waiting breakfast; so I lefk my party, and, accompanied by the Kajee and Meepo, hurried down to the valley of the Eimgoon (which flows east to the Teesta), through a fine forest of tropical trees; passing the villages of Broom* and Lingo, to the spur of that name; where I was met by a servant of the Sikkim Dewan, with a pony for my use. I stared at the animal, and felt inclined to ask what he had to do here, where it was difficult even to walk up and down slippery slopes, amongst boulders of rock, heavy forest, and foaming torrents; but I was little aware of what these beasts could accomplish. The Tartar saddle was imported from Tibet, and certainly a curiosity; once— but a long time ago—^it must have been very handsome ; it was high-peaked, covered with shagreen and silvered ornaments, wretchedly girthed, and with great stirrups attached to short leathers. The bridle and

* On the ridge above Broom a taU stone is erected, covered with marks, indicating the height of various individuals; there was but one mark above 5 feet 7 inches, and that was six inches higher. It turned out to be Campbell^s, who had passed a few days before, and was thus proved to top the natives of Sikkim by a long way.

no fOKKDi HDIALATA. Chaf. Xm.

head-gear were much too complicated for description; there were good leather, raw hide, hair-rope, and scarlet worsted all brought into use; the bit was the ordinary Asiatic one, jointed and with two rings. I mounted on one side, and at once rolled over, saddle and all, to the other; the pony standing quite stilL I preferred walking; but Dr. Campbell had begged of me to use the pony, as the Dewan had procured and sent it at some trouble: I, however, had it led till I was close to Bhomsong, when I was hoisted into the saddle and balanced on it, with my toes in the stirrups and my knees up to my breast; twice, on the steep descent to the river, my saddle and I were thrown on the pony's neck; in these emergencies I was assisted by a man on each side, who supported my weight on my elbows: they seemed well accustomed to easing mounted ponies down hill. Thus I entered Dr, Campbell's camp at Bhomsong, to the pride and de* light of my attendants; and received a hearty welcome from my friend, who covered me with congratulations on the successful issue of a journey which, at this season, and under such difficulties, he had hardly thought feasible.

Dr. Campbell's tent was pitched in an orange-grove, on the west bank of the Teesta, close to a small enclosure of pine-apples, with a pomegranate tree in the middle. The valley is very narrow, and the vegetation wholly tropical; the river is a grand feature, broad, deep, swift, and broken by enormous boulders of rock; its waters were of a pale opal green, probably from the materials of the rocks through which

it flows. A cane bridge crosses it, but had been cut away in feigned distrust of us, and the long canes were streaming from their attachments on either shore down the stream, and a triangular raft of bamboo was plying instead, drawn to and fro by means of a strong cane.

Soon after arriving I received a present from the Bajah, consisting of a brick of Tibet tea, eighty pounds of rancid yak butter, in large squares, done up in yak-hair cloth, three loads of rice, and one of Murwa for beer; rolls of bread,* fowls, eggs, dried pliuns, apricots, jujubes, currants, and Sultana raisins, the latter fruits purchased at Lhassa, but imported thither from western Tibet; also some trays of coarse crystallized salt, as dug in Tibet.

In the evening we were visited by the Dewan, the head and front of all our difficulties, whose influence was paramount with the Bajah, owing to the age and infirmities of the latter, and his devotion to religion. The Dewan was a good-looking Tibetau, very robust, fair, and muscular; he had a very broad Tartar face, quite free of hair; a small and beautifully formed mouth and chin, very broad cheekbones, and a low, contracted forehead: his manners were courteous and polite, but evidently affected, in assumption of better breeding than he could in reality lay claim to. The Bajah himself was a Tibetan of just respectable extraction: his Dewan was related to one of his wives,

* These rolls, or rather sticks of bread, are made in Tibet, of fine wheaten flour, and keep for a long time : they are sweet and good, bnt Tery dirtily prepared.

and I believe a Tihassan by birth as well as extraction, having probably also Kashmir blood in him. Though minister, he was neither financier nor politician, but a mere plunderer of Sikkim, introducing his relations, and those whom he called so, into the best estates in the country, and trading in great and small wares, from a Tibet pony to a tobacco pipe, wholesale and retail. Neither he nor the Rajah were considered worthy of notice by the best Tibet families or priests, or by the Chinese commissioners settled in Lhassa and Jigatzi. The latter regard Sikkim as virtually English, and are contented with knowing that its ruler has no army, and with believing that its protectors, the English, could not march an army across the Himalaya, if they would.

The Dewan, trading in wares which we could supply better and cheaper, naturally regarded us with repugnance, and did everything in his power to thwart Dr. Campbell's attempts to open a friendly communication between the Sikkim and English governments. The Rajah owed everything to us, and was, I believe, really grateful; but he was a mere cipher in the hands of his minister. The priests again, while rejoicing in our proximity, were apathetic, and dreaded the Dewan; and the people had long given evidence of their confidence in the English. Under these circumstances it was in the hope of gaining the Rajah's own ear, and representing to him the advantages of promoting an intercourse with us, and the danger of continuing to violate our treaty, that Dr. Campbell had been authorised by government to seek an

interview with his Highness. At present our relations were singularly infelicitous. There was no agent on the Eajah's part to conduct business at Doijiling, as the Dewan insisted on sending a creature of his own, who had before been dismissed for insolence. Malefactors who escaped into Sikkim were protected, and our poUce interrupted in the discharge of their duties; slavery was practised; and government communications were detained for months under Mse pretences.

In his interviews with us the Dewan appeared to advantage: he was fond of horses and shooting, and prided himself on his hospitality. We gained much information from conversations with him, during which politics were never touched upon. Our queries naturally referred to Tibet, especially its great feature the Yarou Tsampoo river; this he assured us was the Burrampooter of Assam, and that no one doubted it in that country. Lhassa he described as lying in the bottom of a flat-floored valley, surrounded by snowy mountains: neither grapes, tea, silk, nor cotton are produced near it, but in the Tartchi province, one month's journey to the eastward, rice, and a coarse kind of tea are both grown. Two months' journey north-east of Lhassa is Siling, the well-known great commercial entrepot* in west China; and there coarse silk is produced. All Tibet he described as mountainous, and an inconceivably poor coimtry: there are no plains, save flats in the bottoms of the valleys, and the paths lead over lofty mountains. Sometimes,

* The entrep6t is now removed to Tang-Eeou-Enl.—See Hnc and G&bet.

when the inhabitants are obliged from famine to change their habitations in winter, the old and feeble are frozen to death, standing and resting their chins on their staves; remaining as pillars of ice, to fall only when the thaw of the ensuing spring commences.

We remained several days at Bhomsong, awaiting an interview ¥dth the Rajah, whose movements the Dewan kept shroaded in mystery. On Dr. Campbell's arrival a week before, he found messengers waiting to inform him that the Rajah would meet him here; this being half way between Doijiling and Tumloong. Thenceforward every subterfuge was resorted to by the Dewan to frustrate the meeting; and even after the arrival of the Rajah on the east bank, the Dewan communicated with Dr. Campbell by shooting across the river arrows to which were attached letters, containing every possible argument to induce hiT^ to return to Dorjiling; such as that the Rajah was sick at Tumloong, that he was gone to Tibet, that he had a religious fast and rites to perform, &c. &c.

One day we walked up the Teesta to the Rumphiup river, a torrent from Mainom mountain to the west; the path led amongst thick jungles of palm, prickly rattan canes, and a screw-pine, called "Borr," which has a straight, often forked, palm-like trunk, and an immense crown of grassy, saw-edged leaves, four feet long; it bears clusters of imeatable fruit as large as a man's fist, and their similarity to the pine-apple has suggested the name of " Borr " for the latter fruit also, which has for many years been cultivated in Sikkim, and yields indifferent produce. Beautiful pink balsams

covered the ground, but at this season few other showy plants were in flower.

Messengers from the Dewan overtook us at the river to announce that the Bajah was waiting to give us a reception; so we returned, and crossed on the bamboo-raft. As it is the custom on these occasions to exchange presents, I was supplied with some red cloth and beads; these, as well as Dr. Campbell's present, should only have been delivered during or after the audience, but our wily friend the Dewan here played us a very shabby trick; for he managed that our presents should be brought in before our appearance, thus giving to the by-standers the impression of our being tributaries to his Highness!

The audience chamber was a mere roofed shed of neat bamboo wattle, about twenty feet long: two Bho-teas in scarlet jackets, and with bows in their hands, stood on each side of the door, and our own chairs were carried before us for our accommodation. Within was a square wicker throne, six feet high, covered with purple silk, brocaded with dragons in white and gold, and overhimg by a canopy of tattered blue silk, with which material part of the walls also was covered. An oblong box (containing papers) with gilded dragons on it, was placed on the stage or throne, and behind this was perched cross-legged, an odd, black, insignificant looking old man, with twinkling upturned eyes: he was swathed in yellow silk, and wore on his head a pink silk hat with a flat broad crown, from all sides of which hung floss silk. This was the Bajah, a genuine Tibetan, about seventy years old. On some steps

close by, and ranged down the apartment, were his relations, all in brocaded silk robes reaching from the throat to the gromid, and girded about the waist; and wearing caps similar to that of the Bajah. ICajees, counsellors, and mitred Lamas were there, to the number of twenty, all planted with their backs to the wall, mute and motionless as statues. A few spectators were huddled together at the lower end of the room, and a monk waved about an incense pot containing burning juniper and other odoriferous plants.

We saluted, but received no return ; we then seated ourselves, when the Dewan came in, clad in a superb purple silk robe, worked with circular gold figures, and formally presented us. As the Rajah did not understand Hindoostanee, our conversation was carried on through the medium of a little bare-headed rosy-cheeked Lama, named " Tchebu," who acted as interpreter. The conversation was short and constrained: Tchebu was known as a devoted servant of the Bajah; and in common with all the Lamas hated the Dewan, and desired a friendly intercourse between Sikkim and DorjUing. He was, further, the only servant of the Bajah capable of conversing both in Hindoo and Tibetan; and the uneasy distrustful look of the Dewan, who understood the latter language only, was very evident. He was as anxious to hurry over the interview, as Dr. Campbell and Tchebu were to protract it; it was clear, therefore, that nothing satisfEictory could be done imder such auspices.

As a signal for our departure white silk scarfs wer^ thrown over our shoulders, according to the established

custom in Tibet, Sikkim, and Bhotan; and presents were made to us of China silks, bricks of tea, woollen cloths, yaks, ponies, and salt, with worked silk purses and fans for Mrs. Campbell; after which we left. The whole scene was novel and very curious. We had had no previous idea of the extreme poverty of the Bajah, of his utter ignorance of the usages of Oriental life, and of his not having any one near to instruct him. The neglect of our salutation, and the conversion of our presents into tribute, did not arise from ill-will; but was owing to the craft of the Dewan in taking advantage of the Eajah's ignorance of his own position, and of good manners. Miserably poor, without any retinue, and taking no interest in what passes in his own kingdom, subsisting on the coarsest food, effectually abstracting his mind from the consideration of earthly thiugs, and wrapt in contemplation, the Sikkim Rajah has arrived at great sanctity, and is all but prepared for that absorption into the essence of Booddh, which is the aim of all good Booddhists. The conduct of his courtiers, who looked like attendants at an inquisition, and the profoimd attention expressed in every word and gesture of those who did move and speak, recalled a Pekin reception. His attendants treated him as a being of a different nature from themselves; and well might they do so, since they believe that he will never die, but retire from the world only to re-appear under some equally sainted form.

Though productive of no immediate good, our interview had a very favourable effect on the Lamas and

people, who had long wished it; and the congratulations we received thereon during the remainder of our stay in Sikkim were many and sincere. The Lamas we found universally in high spirits, on account of the marriage of the heir-apparent, who was said to possess much ability and prudence, and hence to be very obnoxious to the Dewan, who vehemently opposed the marriage. As, however, the minister had established his influence over the youngest, and estranged the Bajah from his eldest son, and was moreover in a fair way for ruling Sikkim himself, the Church rose in a body, procured a dispensation from Lhassa for the marriage of a priest, and thus hoped to undermine the influence of the violent and greedy stranger. . In the evening, we paid a farewell visit to the Dewan, whom we foimd in a bamboo wicker-work hut, neatly hung with bows, arrows, and round Lepcha shields of cane, each with a scarlet tuft of yak-hair in the middle; there were also muskets, Tibetan arms, and much horse-gear; and at one end was a little altar, with cups, bells, pastiles, and images. He was robed in a fawn-coloured silk gown, lined with the softest of wool, that taken from unborn lambs: like most Tibetans, he extracts his beard with tweezers; an operation he civilly recommended to me, accompanying the advice with the present of a neat pair of steel forceps. He aspires to be considered a man of taste, and plays the Tibetan guitar^ on which he performed some airs for our amusement; the instrument is round-bodied and long-armed, with six strings placed in pairs, and probably comes from Kashmir: the Tibetan airs

were simple and quite pretty, with the time well marked.

Dr. Campbell's object being accomplished, he was anxious to make the best use of the few days that remained before his return to Doijiling, and we therefore arranged to ascend Mainom, and together visit the principal convents; after which he was to return souths whilst I should proceed north to explore the south flank of Kinchinjunga. For the first day our route was that by which I had arrived. We started on Christmas-day, accompanied by two ofl&cers, of the ranks of Dingpun and Soupun, answering to those of captain and lieutenant; the titles were, however, nominal, the Bajah having no soldiers, and these men being profoundly ignorant of the mysteries of war or drill. They were splendid specimens of Sikkim Bhoteas {i.e. Tibetans, bom in Sikkim, sometimes called Arratts), tall, powerful, and well built, but insolent and bullying: the Dingpun wore the Lepcha knife, ornamented ¥dth turquoises, together with Chinese chopsticks. Near Bhomsong, Campbell pointed out a hot bath to me, which he had seen employed; it consisted of a hollowed tree trunk, the water in which wafi heated by throwing in hot stones with bamboo tongs. The temperature is thus raised to 114®, to which the patient submits at intervals for several days, never leaving till wholly exhausted.

We stopped to measure some splendid trees in the valley, and found the trunk of one to be forty-five feet round the buttresses, and thirty feet above them, a large size for the Himalaya: they were a species of Terminalia.

VOL. I. 0

We slept at Nampok, and the following morning commenced the ascent: on the way we passed the temple and lake of Neongong. The latter is a mere pool, about 400 yards romid, and has no outlet; it contained two English plants, the common duckweed, and Potamogeton natans: some coots were swimming in it, and having flushed a woodcock, I sent for my gun, bat the Lamas implored us not to shoot, it being contrary to their creed to take life wantonly.

We left a great part of our baggage at Neongong, as we intended to return there; and took with us bedding, food, &c., for two days. A path hence up the mountain is frequented once a year by the Lamas, who make a pilgrimage to the top for worship. We met with snow at the level of Dorjiling (7000 feet), indicating a colder climate than at that station, where none had fallen; the vegetation was, however, similar, but not so rich, and at 8000 feet trees common also to the top of Sincliul appeared, with Bhododendron Hodgsoni, and a beautiful little winter-flowering primrose, whose stemless flowers spread Uke broad purple stars on the deep green foliage. Above, the path runs along the ridge of the precipices facing the south-east, and here we caught a glimpse of the great valley of the Byott, beyond the Teesta, with; Tumloong, the Eajah's residence, on its north flai&k, and the superb snowy peak of Chola at its head.

One of our coolies, loaded with crockery and various indispensables, had here a severe fall, and was much bruised; he however recovered himself, but not our goods. At 9000 feet the snow became deep and

troablesome, so we encamped 800 feet below the top, in a wood of Magnolia, Bhododendron, and bamboo ; our beds being laid on a thick layer of rhododendron twigs, bamboo, and masses of moss.

On the following morning we reached the summit after an hour's very laborious ascent, and took up our quarters in a large wooden bam-Uke temple (goompa) built on a stone-platform. The summit was very broad, but the depth of the snow prevented our exploring much, and the silver firs were so tall, that no view could be obtained, except from the temple. The great peak of Kinchinjunga is in part hidden by those of Pundim and Nursing, but the panorama of snowy mountains is very grand indeed. The effect is quite deceptive; the mountains assuming the appearance of a continuous chain, the distant snowy peaks being seenungly at little further distance than the nearer ones. The whole range appeared to rise uniformly and steeply out of black pine forests, which were succeeded by russet-brown rhododendron, and that again by tremendous precipices and gulleys, into which descended mighty glaciers and perpetual snows. This excessive steepness is however only apparent, being due to foreshortening.

The upper 10,000 feet of Kinchin, and the tops of Pundim, Kubra, and Junnoo, are evidently of granite, and are rounded in outline: the lower peaks, on the contrary, as those of Nursing, &c., present rugged pinnacles of black and red rocks, in many cases resting on white granite, to which they offer a remarkable contrast. One range presented on every summit a cap of black

0 2

rocks, with precipitons fEures; this was clear to the naked eye, the range in question being only fifteen miles distant, running between Pundim and Nursing.

We enjoyed the view of this superb scenery till noon, when the clouds which had obscured Dorjiling since morning were borne towards us by the southerly wind, rapidly closing in the landscape on all sides. At sunset they again broke, retreating firom the northward, and rising from Sinchul and Dorjiling last of all, whilst a line of vapour seemed to belt the Singalelah range ¥dth a white girdle, darkened to black where it crossed the snowy mountains; and it was difficult to believe that this belt did not really hang upon the ranges from twenty to thirty miles off, against which it was projected; or that its true position was comparatively close to the mountain on which we were standing, and was due to condensation around its cool, broad, flat summit.

As usual from such elevations, sunset produced many beautiful effects. The zenith was a deep blue, darkening opposite the setting sun, and paling over it into a peach colour, and that again near the horizon passing into a glowing orange-red, crossed by coppery streaks of cirrhus. Broad beams of'pale light shot from the sun to the meridian, crossing the moon and the planet Venus. Far south, through gaps in the mountains, the position of the plains of India, 10,000 feet below us, was indicated by a deep leaden haze, fading upwards in gradually paler bands (of which I counted fifteen) to the clear yellow of the sunset sky. As darkness came on, the mists collected around the

top of Mainom, accumulating on the windward side, and thrown off in ragged masses from the opposite.

The second night we passed here was fine, and hot very cold (the mean temperature being 27% and we kept ourselves quite warm by pine-wood fires.

Having taken sketches and observations, and collected much information from our guides, we returned on the 28th to our tents at Neongong; descending 7000 feet, a very severe shake along Lepcha paths. In the evening the Lamas visited us, with presents of rice, fowls, eggs, &c., and begged subscriptions for their temple, which was then being built; reminding Dr. Campbell that he and the Governor-General had an ample share of their prayers, and benefitted in pro-portion. As for me, they said, I was bound to give alms, as I surely needed praying for, seeing how I exposed myself; besides my having been the first Englishman who had visited the snows of Einchinjunga, the holiest spot in Sikkim.