HE MINERVA LIBRARY
OF
FAMOUS BOOKS
HIMALAYAN
JOURNALS
SIR J.D. HOOKER
DS
485
H6
H78
1897
EDITED BY
GTEETPANY MA
WARD LOCK & CO.
LONDON
YORK
RNE
THE MINERVA LIBRARY OF FAMOUS BOOKS
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
SIR J. DE HOOKER,
K.C.S.I., M.D., D.CL. PRS.
EDITED BY G-T BETTANY MA

ARTES
LIBRARY
*****
18371
VERITAS
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
E-PLURIBUS UNUM
AURORA OKOROMTALAN
BOR
SCIENTIA
OF THE
SI QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAMŰ
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West


M
少
​GRESSETTARE. AF
IIIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
DS
485
•#6
H78
1891
THE MINERVA LIBRARY.
1. DARWIN'S JOURNAL IN THE "BEAGLE."
2. THE INGoldsby Legends.
3. BORROW'S BIBLE IN SPAIN.
4. EMERSON's Prose Works.
5. GALTON'S Tropical South Africa.
6. MANZONI'S THE BETROTHED LOVERS.
7. GOETHE'S FAUST (Complete). Bayard Taylor.
8. WALLACE'S TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON.
9. DEAN STANLEY'S LIFE OF DR. Arnold.
10. POE'S TALES.
II. COMEDIES BY MOLIERE.
12. FORSTER'S LIFE OF GOLDSMITH.
LANE'S Modern EgypTIANS.
Torrens' Life of Melbourne.
15. THACKERAY'S VANITY FAIR.
13.
14.
16. BARTH'S TRAVELS IN AFRICA.
17. VICTOR HUGO: SELECT POEMS, &c.
18. DARWIN'S CORAL REEFS, &c.
19. LOCKHART'S LIFE OF ROBERT Burns.
20. BARTH'S Travels in Africa (II.)
21. LYRA ELEGANTIARUM. Locker-Lampson.
22. CARLYLE'S SARTOR RESARTUS, &c.
23.
Life and Letters of Franklin.
24. BECKFORD's Vathek, and Travels.
25. MACAULAY'S HISTORICAL AND LITERARY ESSAYS.
26. YONGE'S LIFE OF WELLINGTON.

27. CARLYLE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION.
28. WILLS' LAND OF THe Lion and Sun.
29. MARY BARTON. By Mrs. Gaskell.
30. INGRAM'S LIFE OF POE.
31. SHIRLEY. By Charlotte Brontë.
32. HOOKER'S HIMALAYAN Journals.
London: WARD,
WARD, LOCK, BOWDEN & CO.

SIR JOSEPH HOOKER, K.C.S.I., F.R.S.
THE MINERVA LIBRARY OF FAMOUS BOOKS.
Edited by G. T. BETTANY, M.A., B.Sc.
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS;
Or,
NOTES OF A NATURALIST
*P
IN BENGAL, THE SIKKIM AND NEPAL HIMALAYAS,
THE KHASIA MOUNTAINS, &c.
BY
SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER,
K.C.S.I., C.B., M.D., D.C.L., F.R.S.
WITH MAPS AND FULL-PAGE AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS.
WARD, LOCK, BOWDEN AND Co.,
LONDON, NEW YORK, AND MELBOURNE.
1891.
[All rights reserved.]
033 277 644
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.
THE "Himalayan Journals " of Sir Joseph Hooker at once took
rank, on their first publication, with the most interesting and in-
forming books of travel in existence. The book was, however,
inaccessible to the general public on account of its price, but has
long been one of those works that every science student would like
to have on his shelves. The Editor was therefore specially gratified
when Sir Joseph Hooker consented to the publication of this inex-
pensive edition, and Mr. Murray agreed to supply copies of the
original woodcuts, many of them from original drawings by Sir
Joseph. The book will speak for itself. It is reprinted from the
first (unabridged) edition, with the omission of some of the appen-
dices which were only of limited general interest.
A slight sketch of the career of the author will be welcome to
many readers. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker is the second son of
the late Sir W. J. Hooker, Director of Kew Gardens, his mother
having been a daughter of Mr. Dawson Turner, F.R.S., of Yar-
mouth. He was born in 1817, at Halesworth, Suffolk, and after
the usual course of medical study, graduated M.D. in 1839, at
Glasgow University, where his father was then Regius Professor of
Botany. When only twenty-two he went as assistant-surgeon, and
practically, though not officially, as naturalist, with the famous
Antarctic Expedition of 1839-43, under Sir James Clark Ross, in
H.M. ships Erebus and Terror. The botanical results of the
expedition were published during subsequent years by Sir Joseph
(then Dr.) Hooker in six splendid quarto volumes, which included
the flora of the Auckland Islands, New Zealand, and Tasmania. In
vi
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.
this work the comparison of new plants with those already known
in other parts of the world led to many novel conclusions as to the
laws governing the distribution of plants over the earth's surface.
Having turned aside to fossil botany in connection with the Geo-
logical Survey, he contributed in 1846 a valuable memoir on the
vegetation of the coal measures as compared with that of the
present flora.
Being eager to enlarge his knowledge of the various kinds of
plants in their natural situations, Dr. Hooker was in 1847 persuaded
by Dr. Falconer, then acting as botanist to the Indian Govern-
ment, to visit the Himalayas, where a great variety of floras might
be studied at successive altitudes. Sikkim, previously unvisited
by British explorers, was the territory in which he made his
advance upon the great Indian range. The story of the expedi- -
tion is told in the "Himalayan Journals," first published in
two volumes in 1854. While yet in India, in 1849-51, he had
published his magnificent illustrations of the rhododendrons of
the Sikkim Himalaya, most of which he himself introduced into
England. He has since, in conjunction with the late Dr. Thom-
son, published the first volume of a great "Flora Indica," and his
more condensed "Flora of British India" is now approaching
completion. The English student is indebted to him for an
excellent "Flora of the British Islands," which was prepared afresh
from the best specimens and authorities. It is a singular fact that
the Eastern Nepal passes into Tibet, which Dr. Hooker explored
in 1849, have never since been approached by a European.
In 1855 Dr. Hooker was appointed Assistant-Director of Kew
Gardens, and on his father's death in 1865, succeeded to the
Directorship, which he held for twenty years. Every one knows
and admires the arrangements and visible treasures of Kew
Gardens, but few, are aware of the priceless herbaria carefully pre-
served there, containing type-specimens, often unique-all being
gradually described and illustrated by the corps of able botanists
congregated at work there.
In 1868 Dr. Hooker was President of the British Association
at its Norwich meeting. His address on that occasion attracted
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.
vii
very great attention, as it included a full consideration of Mr.
Darwin's views on the evolution of living creatures, and an endorse-
ment of them based on considerations of the geographical distribu-
tion of plants, and many other phenomena of plant life. Dr. Hooker
also claimed for science a field of study in which theologians must
be content not to pronounce, and advocated the friendly pursuit by
both science and theology of objects which they have in common.
This reference to evolution and Darwin, recalls the frequent men-
tion of Dr. Hooker in the life of Darwin. He was Darwin's earliest
confidant in his speculations on the "Origin of Species." All
through the long incubation and maturation of Darwin's ideas,
Dr. Hooker acted the part of friendly critic, suggesting difficulties
for solution, and searching out botanical facts, and finally, with Sir
Charles Lyell, persuading Darwin to bring out his celebrated paper
in 1858, which was read to the Linnean Society on the same night
as Mr. Wallace's independent memoir. He was afterwards able to
give the new theory most valuable support in his "Introduction to
the Tasmanian Flora." Those only who have read Darwin's life
will be able to appreciate the great influence Dr. Hooker had with
his friend, and the value which his botanical knowledge gave to his
advice.
In the spring of 1871 Dr. Hooker undertook another expedition
into a botanically unknown region, the mountains of Morocco, in
company with Mr. John Ball, F.R.S., and Mr. George Maw, both
accomplished botanists. On the 16th of May, 1871, the explorers
ascended the Great Atlas, the summit of which had never yet been.
reached by a European. A large collection of plants was added
to Kew by this expedition, and the " Journal of a Tour in Morocco
and the Great Atlas" gave a popular account of the tour, in 1878.
In 1860 Dr. Hooker visited Syria and Palestine, where he dis-
covered that the cedars of Mount Lebanon occupied ancient
moraines; and in 1877 he made a botanical tour, in company with
the late Prof. Asa Gray, across the continent of North America.
In 1873 Dr. Hooker was unanimously elected President of the
Royal Society, which office he filled till 1878, when the claims of
scientific work led him to resign that onerous post. In 1877 he
viii
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.
was created Knight Commander of the Star of India, for his many
services to the Government of India, especially in connection with
the growth of plants of economic value.
We have not yet referred to one of the greatest of Sir Joseph
Hooker's undertakings, namely the preparation, with Mr. George
Bentham, of an entirely new "Genera Plantarum," or complete
set of Latin definitions and descriptions of all known genera of
flowering plants. This work was prosecuted by both botanists
with great perseverance for many years, and when published it at
once became the standard work on the subject.
We can only enumerate a few of the many honours which have
been conferred on Sir Joseph Hooker. In 1854 he was awarded
a Royal Medal, in 1887 the Copley Medal of the Royal Society,
in 1883 the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society,
and in 1888 that of the Linnean Society. In 1883 he received
from the Society of Arts their Albert Medal for his services to
the arts, manufactures, and commerce, notably in adding to our
knowledge of the vegetable products of various countries, espe-
cially within the British Empire. The Institute of France has
numbered him amongst its corresponding members for many
years. Honorary D.C.L. or LL.D. degrees have been conferred
on him by Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow
Universities.
2
In conclusion, the Editor desires to thank Sir Joseph Hooker
for his careful revision of the text, and for permitting his portrait
to be given as a frontispiece.
G. T. B.
ΤΟ
CHARLES DARWIN, F.R.S., &c.
This Volume is Dedicated,
Kew, Jan. 12th, 1854.
BY HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND,
J. D. HOOKER.

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IRIE
PREFACE.
HAVING accompanied Sir James Ross on his voyage of discovery
to the Antarctic regions, where botany was my chief pursuit, on
my return I earnestly desired to add to my acquaintance with the
natural history of the temperate zones, more knowledge of that of
the tropics than I had hitherto had the opportunity of acquiring.
My choice lay between India and the Andes, and I decided upon
the former, being principally influenced by Dr. Falconer, who
promised me every assistance that his position as Superinten -
dent of the H. E. I. C. Botanic Garden at Calcutta, would enable
him to give. He also drew my attention to the fact that we were
ignorant even of the geography of the central and eastern parts of
these mountains, while all to the north was involved in a mystery
equally attractive to the traveller and the naturalist.
On hearing of the kind interest taken by Baron Humboldt in
my proposed travels, and at the request of my father (Sir William
Hooker), the Earl of Carlisle (then Chief Commissioner of Woods
and Forests) undertook to represent to Her Majesty's Govern-
ment the expediency of securing my collections for the Royal
Gardens at Kew; and owing to the generous exertions of that
nobleman, and of the late Earl of Auckland (then First Lord of
the Admiralty), my journey assumed the character of a Govern-
ment mission, £400 per annum being granted by the Treasury
for two years.
I did not contemplate proceeding beyond the Himalaya and
Tibet, when Lord Auckland desired that I should afterwards
visit Borneo, for the purpose of reporting on the capabilities of
Labuan, with reference to the cultivation of cotton, tobacco,
sugar, indigo, spices, guttapercha, &c. To this end a commission
in the navy (to which service I was already attached) was given me,
such instructions were drawn up as might facilitate my movements
in the East, and a suitable sum of money was placed at my dis-
posal.
xii
PREFACE.
I
Soon after leaving England, my plans became, from various
causes, altered. The Earl of Auckland was dead; the interest
in Borneo had in a great measure subsided; H.M.S. Maander,
to which I had been attached for service in Labuan, had left the
Archipelago; reports of the unhealthy nature of the coast had
excited alarm; and the results of my researches in the Himalaya
had proved of more interest and advantage than had been antici-
pated. It was hence thought expedient to cancel the Borneo
appointment, and to prolong my services for a third year in India;
for which purpose a grant of £300 (originally intended for
defraying the expense of collecting only, in Borneo) was trans-
ferred as salary for the additional year to be spent in the Hima-
laya.
The portion of the Himalaya best worth exploring was selected
for me both by Lord Auckland and Dr. Falconer, who indepen-
dently recommended Sikkim, as being ground untrodden by
traveller or naturalist. Its ruler was, moreover, all but a depen-
dant of the British Government, and it was supposed would there-
fore be glad to facilitate my researches.
No part of the snowy Himalaya eastward of the north-west
extremity of the British possessions had been visited since
Turner's embassy to Tibet in 1789; and hence it was highly
important to explore scientifically a part of the chain which, from
its central position, might be presumed to be typical of the whole
range. The possibility of visiting Tibet, and of ascertaining par-
ticulars respecting the great mountain Chumulari, which was only
known from Turner's account, were additional inducements to a
student of physical geography; but it was not then known that
2
It is with a melancholy satisfaction that I here record the intentions of
that enlightened nobleman. The idea of turning to public account what was
intended as a scientific voyage, occurred to his lordship when considering my
application for official leave to proceed to India; and from the hour of my
accepting the Borneo commission with which he honoured me, he displayed
the most active zeal in promoting its fulfilment. He communicated to me his
views as to the direction in which I should pursue my researches, furnished me
with official and other information, and provided me with introductions of the
most essential use.
2 My earliest recollections in reading are of "Turner's Travels in Tibet,"
and of "Cook's Voyages." The account of Lama worship and of Chumulari
in the one, and of Kerguelen's Land in the other, always took a strong hold
on my fancy. It is, therefore, singular that Kerguelen's Land should have
been the first strange country I ever visited (now fourteen years ago), and that
in the first King's ship which has touched there since Cook's voyage, and
whilst following the track of that illustrious navigator in south polar discovery.
At a later period I have been nearly the first European who has approached
Chumulari since Turner's embassy.
PREFACE.
xiii
Kinchinjunga, the loftiest known mountain on the globe,' was
situated on my route, and formed a principal feature in the physi-
cal geography of Sikkim.
My passage to Egypt was provided by the Admiralty in H.M.
steam-vessel Sidon, destined to convey the Marquis of Dalhousie,
Governor-General of India, thus far on his way. On his arrival
in Egypt, his Lordship did me the honour of desiring me to con-
sider myself in the position of one of his suite for the remainder
of the voyage, which was performed in the Moosuffer, a steam
frigate belonging to the Indian Navy. My obligations to this
nobleman had commenced before leaving England, by his pro-
mising me every facility he could command; and he thus took
the earliest opportunity of affording it, by giving me such a posi-
tion near himself as ensured me the best reception everywhere;
no other introduction being needed. His Lordship procured my
admission into Sikkim, and honoured me throughout my travels
with the kindest encouragement.
;
During the passage out, some days were spent in Egypt, at
Aden, Ceylon, and Madras. I have not thought it necessary to
give here the observations made in those well-known countries
they are detailed in a series of letters published in the London
Journal of Botany, as written for my private friends. Arriving at
Calcutta in January, I passed the remainder of the cold season in
making myself acquainted with the vegetation of the plains and
hills of Western Bengal, south of the Ganges, by a journey across
the mountains of Birbhoom and Behar to the Soane valley, and
thence over the Vindhya range to the Ganges, at Mirzapore,
whence I descended that stream to Bhaugulpore; and leaving my
boat, struck north to the Sikkim Himalaya. This excursion is
detailed in the London Journal of Botany, and the Asiatic Society
of Bengal honoured me by printing the meteorological observa-
tions made during its progress.
During the two years' residence in Sikkim which succeeded, I
was laid under obligations of no ordinary nature to Brian H.
Hodgson, Esq., B.C.S., for many years Resident at the Nepal
Court; whose guest I became for several months. Mr. Hodgson's
high position as a man of science requires no mention here; but
the difficulties he overcame, and the sacrifices he made, in attain-
ing that position, are known to few. He entered the wilds of
Nepal when very young, and in indifferent health; and finding
time to spare, cast about for the best method of employing it: he
Since the above was written, Mount Everest i Nepal has proved to be a few
hundred feet higher than Kinchinjunga.
xiv
PREFACE.
name.
had no one to recommend or direct a pursuit, no example to
follow, no rival to equal or surpass; he had never been acquainted
with a scientific man, and knew nothing of science except the
The natural history of men and animals, in its most com-
prehensive sense, attracted his attention; he sent to Europe for
books, and commenced the study of ethnology and zoology. His
labours have now extended over upwards of twenty-five years'
residence in the Himalaya. During this period he has seldom had
a staff of less than from ten to twenty persons (often many more),
of various tongues and races, employed as translators and collec-
tors, artists, shooters, and stuffers. By unceasing exertions and a
princely liberality, Mr. Hodgson has unveiled the mysteries of the
Boodhist religion, chronicled the affinities, languages, customs,
and faiths of the Himalayan tribes; and completed a natural
history of the animals and birds of these regions. His collections
of specimens are immense, and are illustrated by drawings and
descriptions taken from life, with remarks on the anatomy, habits,
and localities of the animals themselves. Twenty volumes of
the Journals, and the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
teem with the proofs of his indefatigable zeal; and throughout
the cabinets of the bird and quadruped departments of our
national museum, Mr. Hodgson's name stands pre-eminent. A
seat in the Institute of France, and the cross of the Legion of
Honour, prove the estimation in which his Boodhist studies are
held on the continent of Europe. To be welcomed to the Hima-
laya by such a person, and to be allowed the most unreserved
intercourse, and the advantage of all his information and library,
exercised a material influence on the progress I made in my
studies, and on my travels. When I add that many of the sub-
jects treated of in these volumes were discussed between us, it
will be evident that it is impossible for me to divest much of the
information thus insensibly obtained, of the appearance of being
the fruits of my own research.
L
Dr. Campbell, the Superintendent of Darjeeling, is likewise the
Governor-General's agent, or medium of communication between
the British Government and the Sikkim Rajah; and as such,
invested with many discretionary powers. In the course of this
narrative I shall give a sketch of the rise, progress, and prospects
of the Sanatarium, or Health-station of Darjeeling, and of the
anomalous position held by the Sikkim Rajah. The latter cir-
In this department he availed himself of the services of Dr. Campbell, who
was also attached to the Residency at Nepal, as surgeon and assistant political
agent.
PREFACE.
XV
cumstance led indirectly to the detention of Dr. Campbell (who
joined me in one of my journeys) and myself, by a faction of the
Sikkim court, for the purpose of obtaining from the Indian
Government a more favourable treaty than that then existing.
This mode of enforcing a request by douce violence and detention
is common with the turbulent tribes east of Nepal, but was in
this instance aggravated by violence towards my fellow-prisoner,
through the ill-will of the persons who executed the orders of
their superiors, and who had been punished by Dr. Campbell for
crimes committed against both the British and Nepalese govern-
ments. The circumstances of this outrage were misunderstood at
the time; its instigators were supposed to be Chinese; its perpe-
trators Tibetans; and we the offenders were assumed to have
thrust ourselves into the country, without authority from our own
government, and contrary to the will of the Sikkim Rajah; who
was imagined to be a tributary of China, and protected by that
nation, and to be under no obligation to the East Indian Government.
I
With regard to the obligations I owe to Dr. Campbell, I con-
fine myself to saying that his whole aim was to promote my com-
fort, and to secure my success, in all possible ways. Every object
I had in view was as sedulously cared for by him as by myself: I
am indebted to his influence with Jung Bahadoor for the per-
mission to traverse his dominions, and to visit the Tibetan passes
of Nepal. His prudence and patience in negotiating with the
Sikkim court, enabled me to pursue my investigations in that
country. My journal is largely indebted to his varied and exten-
sive knowledge of the people and productions of these regions.
In all numerical calculations connected with my observations,
I received most essential aid from John Muller, Esq., Accountant
of the Calcutta Mint, and from his brother, Charles Muller, Esq.,
of Patna, both ardent amateurs in scientific pursuits, and who
employed themselves in making meteorological observations at
Darjeeling, where they were recruiting constitutions impaired by
the performance of arduous duties in the climate of the plains.
I cannot sufficiently thank these gentlemen for the handsome
manner in which they volunteered me their assistance in these
laborious operations. Mr. J. Muller resided at Darjeeling during
eighteen months of my stay in Sikkim, over the. whole of which
It was in Nepal that Dr. Campbell gained the friendship of Jung Baha-
door, the most remarkable proof of which is the acceding to his request, and
granting me leave to visit the eastern parts of his dominions; no European
that I am aware of, having been allowed, either before or since, to travel any-
where except to and from the plains of India and valley of Katamandu, in
which the capital city and British residency are situated.
xvi
PREFACE.
*
1
period his generous zeal in my service never relaxed; he assisted
me in the reduction of many hundreds of my observations for
latitude, time, and elevation, besides adjusting and rating my
instruments; and I can recall no more pleasant days than those
thus spent with these hospitable friends.
Thanks to Dr. Falconer's indefatigable exertions, such of my
collections as reached Calcutta were forwarded to England in
excellent order; and they were temporarily deposited in Kew
Gardens until their destination should be determined. On my
return home, my scientific friends interested themselves in pro-
curing from the Government such aid as might enable me to
devote the necessary time to the arrangement, naming, and dis-
tributing of my collections, the publication of my manuscripts, &c.
I am in this most deeply indebted to the disinterested and
generous exertions of Mr. L. Horner, Sir Charles Lyell, Dr.
Lindley, Professor E. Forbes, and many others; and most especi-
ally to the Presidents of the Royal Society (the Earl of Rosse), of
the Linnean (Mr. R. Brown), and Geological (Mr. Hopkins), who
in their official capacities memorialized in person the Chief Com-
missioner of Woods and Forests on this subject; Sir William
Hooker at the same time bringing it under the notice of the First
Lord of the Treasury. The result was a grant of £400 annually
for three years.
Dr. T. Thomson joined me in Darjeeling in the end of 1849,
after the completion of his arduous journeys in the North-West
Himalaya and Tibet, and we spent the year 1850 in travelling
and collecting, returning to England together in 1851. Having
obtained permission from the Indian Government to distribute
his botanical collections, which equal my own in extent and value,
we were advised by all our botanical friends to incorporate, and
thus to distribute them. The whole constitute an Herbarium of
from 6,000 to 7,000 species of Indian plants, including an im-
mense number of duplicates; and it is now in process of being
arranged and named by Dr. Thomson and myself, preparatory to
its distribution amongst sixty of the principal public and private
herbaria in Europe, India, and the United States of America.
For the information of future travellers, I may state that the
total expense of my Indian journey, including outfit, three years
and a half travelling, and the sending of my collections to Cal-
cutta, was under £2,000 (of which £1,200 were detrayed by
Government), but would have come to much more had I not
enjoyed the great advantages I have detailed. This sum does
not include the purchase of books and instruments, with which I
ڈی
PREFACE.
xvii
supplied myself, and which cost about £200, nor the freight of
the collections to England, which was paid by Government.
Owing to the kind services of Mr. J. C. Melvill, Secretary of the
India House, many small parcels of seeds, &c., were conveyed to
England free of cost; and I have to record my great obligations.
and sincere thanks to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navi-
gation Company, for conveying, without charge, all small parcels
of books, instruments and specimens, addressed to or by myself.
It remains to say something of the illustrations of this work.
The maps are from surveys of my own, made chiefly with my own
instruments, but partly with some valuable ones for the use of
which I am indebted to my friend Captain (now Sir H.) Thuillier,
Deputy Surveyor-General of India, who placed at my disposal the
resources of the magnificent establishment under his control, and
to whose innumerable good offices I am very greatly beholden.
The landscapes, &c., have been prepared chiefly from my own
drawings, and will, I hope, be found to be tolerably faithful
representations of the scenes. I have always endeavoured to
overcome that tendency to exaggerate heights, and increase the
angle of slopes, which is I believe the besetting sin, not of
amateurs only, but of our most accomplished artists. As, how-
ever, I did not use instruments in projecting the outlines, I do
not pretend to have wholly avoided this snare; nor, I regret to
say, has the lithographer, in all cases, been content to abide by
his copy. My drawings will be considered tame compared with
most mountain landscapes, though the subjects comprise some of
the grandest scenes in nature. Considering how conventional
the treatment of such subjects is, and how unanimous artists seem
to be as to the propriety of exaggerating those features which
should predominate in the landscape, it may fairly be doubted
whether the total effect of steepness and elevation, especially in a
mountain view, can, on a small scale, be conveyed by a strict
adherence to truth. I need hardly add, that if such is attainable,
it is only by those who have a power of colouring that few
pretend to. In the list of plates and woodcuts I have men-
tioned the obligations I am under to several friends for the use of
drawings, &c.
With regard to the spelling of native names, after much anxious
discussion I have adopted that which assimilates most to the
English pronunciation. For great assistance in this, for a careful
revision of the sheets as they passed through the press, and for
numerous valuable suggestions throughout, I am indebted to my
fellow-traveller, Dr. Thomas Thomson.
I a
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
Sunderbunds vegetation-Calcutta Botanic Garden-Leave for Burdwan-
Rajah's gardens and menagerie-Coal beds, geology, and plants of-
Lac insect and plant-Camels-Kunker-Cowage-Effloresced soda
on soil-Glass, manufacture of-Atmospheric vapours-Temperature,
&c.-Mahowa oil and spirits-Maddaobund-Jains-Ascent of Paras-
nath-Vegetation of that mountain
CHAPTER II.
Domree Vegetation of table-land - Lieutenant Beadle - Birds - Hot
springs of Soorujkoond-Plants near them-Shells in them--Cholera-
tree-Olibanum-Palms, form of-Dunwah pass-Trees, native and
planted-Wild peacock-Poppy fields-Geography and geology of
Behar and Central India-Toddy-palm-Ground, temperature of-
Baroon-Temperature of plants-Lizard-Cross the Soane-Sand,
ripple-marks on--Kymore hills-Ground, temperature of-Limestone
-Rotas fort and palace-Nitrate of lime-Change of climate-Lime
stalagmites, enclosing leaves-Fall of Soane-Spiders, &c.-Scenery
and natural history of upper Soane valley-Hardwickia binata
Bhel fruit-Dust-storm-ÂÎligator-Catechu-Cochlospermum-Leaf-
bellows Scorpions-Tortoises-Florican-Limestone spheres-Coles
-Tiger-hunt-Robbery
•
W
P
CHAPTER III.
Ek-powa Ghat-Sandstones-Shahgunj-Table-land, elevation, &c.-
Gum-arabic-Mango-Fair-Aquatic plants-Rujubbund-Storm-
False sunset and sunrise-Bind hills-Mirzapore-Manufactures,
imports, &c.- Climate Thuggee-Chunar-Benares-Mosque-
Magg
Observatory-Sar-nath-Ghazeepore-Rose-gardens-Manufactory of
attar-Lord Cornwallis' tomb-Ganges, scenery and natural history
of - Pelicans-Vegetation-Insects-Dinapore - Patna-Opium go-
downs and manufacture-Mudar, white and purple-Monghyr islets
-Hot springs of Seetakoond-Alluvium of Ganges-Rocks of Sultun-
gunj-Bhaugulpore-Temples of Mt. Manden - Coles and native
tribes-Bhaugulpore rangers-Horticultural gardens
CHAPTER IV.
•
. 18
PAGE
Leave Bhaugulpore-Kunker-Colgong-Himalaya, distant view of—
Cosi, mouth of-Difficult navigation-Sand-storms-Caragola-Ghat
—Purnea-Ortolans-Mahanuddy, transport of pebbles, &c.—Betel-
i
40
CONTENTS.
*
pepper, cultivation of Titalya-Siligoree-View of outer Himalaya
-Terai-Mechis-Punkabaree-Foot of mountains-Ascent to Dar-
jeeling-Cicadas-Leeches-Animals-Kursiong, spring vegetation
of-Pacheem-Arrive at Darjeeling-Darjeeling, origin and settle-
ment of Grant of land from Rajah-Dr. Campbell appointed
superintendent-Dewan, late and present-Aggressive conduct of the
latter-Increase of the station-Trade-Titalya fair-Healthy climate
for Europeans and children-Invalids, diseases prejudicial to
. 65
CHAPTER V.
View from Mr. Hodgson's of range of snowy mountains-Their extent and
clevation-Delusive appearance of elevation-Sinchul, view from and
vegetation of-Chumulari-Magnolias, white and purple-Rhododen-
dron Dalhousie, arboreum and argenteum-Natives of Darjeeling-
Lepchas, origin, tradition of flood, morals, dress, arms, ornaments,
diet-Cups, origin and value-Marriages-Diseases-Burial-Wor-
ship and religion-Bijooas-Kumpa Rong, or Arrat-Limboos, origin,
habits, language, &c.-Moormis-Magras-Mechis-Comparison of
customs with those of the natives of Assam, Khasia, &c.
CHAPTER VI.
Excursion from Darjeeling to Great Rungeet-Zones of vegetation-Tree-
ferns-Palms, upper limit of Leelong, tea plantations-Ging-
Boodhist remains-Tropical vegetation-Pines-Lepcha clearances-
Forest fires-Boodhist monuments-Fig-Cane-bridge and raft over
Rungeet-Sago-palm-Indiarubber-Yel Pote-Butterflies and other
insects-Snakes-Camp-Temperature and humidity of atmosphere-
Junction of Teesta and Rungeet - Return to Darjeeling-Tonglo,
excursion to-Bamboo, flowering-Oaks-Gordonia-Maize, herma-
phrodite flowered-Figs-Nettles-Peepsa-Simonbong, cultivation
at-European fruits at Darjeeling-Plains of India
CHAPTER VII.
Continue the ascent of Tonglo-Trees-Lepcha construction of hut-
Simsibong Climbing-trees - Frogs - Magnolias, &c. - Ticks
Leeches-Cattle, murrain amongst-Summit of Tonglo-Rhododen-
drons-Skimmia-Yew-Rose-Aconite-Bikh poison-English
genera of plants-Ascent of tropical orders-Comparison with south
temperate zone-Heavy rain-Temperature, &c.-Descent-Simon-
bong temple-Furniture therein Praying-cylinder — Thigh - bone
trumpet-Morning orisons-Present of Murwa beer, &c.
J
T
P
K
CHAPTER VIII.
Difficulty in procuring leave to enter Sikkim-Obtain permission to travel
in East Nepal-Arrangements-Coolies-Stores-Servants-Personal
equipment-Mode of travelling-Leave Darjeeling-Goong ridge—
Behaviour of Bhotan coolies-Nepal frontier-Myong valley-Ilam
- Sikkim massacre Cultivation Nettles Camp at Nanki on
Tonglo-Bhotan coolies run away-View of Chumulari-Nepal peaks
to west-Sakkiazong
Sakkiazong — Buceros
Buceros Road to Wallanchoon-Oaks-
Scarcity of water-Singular view of mountain-valleys—Encampment
Agramsteg
PAGE
•
· 97
83
II2
CONTENTS.
-My ten and its furniture-Evening occupations-Dunkotah-Cross
ridge of Sakkiazong-Yews-Silver-firs-View of Tambur valley-
Pemmi river-Pebbly terraces-Geology-IIoly Springs-Enormous
trees-Luculia gratissima-Khawa river, rocks of Arrive at Tambur
-Shingle and gravel terraces-Natives, indolence of Canoe ferry-
Votive offerings-Bad road-Temperature, &c.-Chingtam village,
view from-Mywa river and Guola-House-Boulders-Chain-bridge
-Meepo, arrival of Fevers
Bengk
CHAPTER IX.
Leave Mywa-Suspension bridge-Landslips-Vegetation-Slope of river-
bed-Bees' nests-Glacial phenomena-Tibetans, clothing, ornaments,
amulets, salutation, children, dogs-Last Limboo village, Taptiatok-
Beautiful scenery-Tibet village of Lelyp-Opuntia - Edgeworthia
-Crab-apple-Chameleon and porcupine-Praying-machine-Abies
Brunoniana-European plants-Grand scenery-Arrive at Wallan-
choon-Scenery around-Trees-Tibet houses--Manis and Mendongs
-Tibet household-Food-Tea-soup-Hospitality-Yaks and Zobo,
uses and habits of Bhotecas-Yak-hair tents-Guobah of Walloong
Jatamansi Obstacles to proceeding - Climate and weather
Proceed-Rhododendrons, &c.-Lichens-Poa annua and Shepherd's
purse-Tibet camp - Tuquoroma-Scenery of pass — Glaciers and
snow-Summit-Plants, woolly, &c.
• 139
•
CHAPTER X.
Return from Wallanchoon pass-Procure a bazaar at village-Dance of
Lamas-Blackening face, Tibetan custom of-Temple and convent—
Leave for Kanglachem pass-Send part of party back to Darjeeling
-Yangma Guola-Drunken Tibetans. Guobah of Wallanchoon-
Camp at foot of Great Moraine-View from top-Geological specu-
lations-Height of moraines-Cross dry lake-bed-Glaciers-More
moraines-Terraces-Yangma temples-Jos, books and furniture—
Peak of Nango-Lake-Arrive at village-Cultivation-Scenery-
Potatos-State of my provisions-Pass through village-Gigantic
boulders-Terraces-Wild sheep-Lake-beds-Sun's power-Piles of
gravel and detritus--Glaciers and moraines- Pabuk, elevation of→
Moonlight scene-Return to Yangma-Temperature, &c.—Geological
causes of phenomena in valley-Scenery of valley on descent
xxi
PAGE
CHAPTER XI.
Ascend to Nango mountain-Moraines-Glaciers-Vegetation-Rhodo-
dendron Hodgsoni-Rocks-Honey-combed surface of snow-l'er-
petual snow-Top of pass-
Top of pass-View-Elevation-Geology-Distance of
sound-Plants-Temperature-Scenery-Cliffs of granite and hurled
boulders-Camp-Descent-Pheasants-Larch-Himalayan pines-
Distribution of Deodar, note on-Tassichooding temples-Kambachen
village-Cultivation-Moraines in valley, distribution of-Picturesque
lake-beds, and their vegetation-Tibetan sheep and goats-Crypto-
gramma crispa-Ascent to Choonjerma pass-View of Junnoo-Rocks
of its summit-Misty ocean-Nepal peaks-Top of pass-Temperature,
and observations-Gorgeous sunset-Descent to Yalloong valley-
Loose path-Night scenes-Musk deer
123
158
. 175
xxii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
..
Valloong valley-Find Kanglanamo pass closed-Change route for the
southward-Picrorhiza-View of Kubra-Rhododendron Falconeri—
Yalloong river-Junction of gneiss and clay-slate--Cross Valloong
range-View-Descent-Yew-Vegetation-Misty weather-Tong-
dam village-Khabang-Tropical vegetation-Sidingbah mountain
View of Kinchinjunga-Yangyading village-Slopes of hills, and
courses of rivers-Khabili valley-Ghorka Havildar's bad conduct—
Ascend Singalelah-Plague of ticks-Short commons-Cross Islumbo
pass-Boundary of Sikkim-Kulhait valley-Lingcham-Reception
by Kajee-Hear of Dr. Campbell's going to meet Rajah-Views in
valley-Leave for Teesta river-Tipsy Kajee-Hospitality-Murwa
beer-Temples—Acorus Calamus-Long Mendong-Burning of dead
-Superstitions Cross Great Rungeet-Boulders, origin of-Pur-
chase of a dog- Marshes Lamas Dismiss Ghorkas - Bhoteea
house-Murwa beer
S
CHAPTER XIII.
Raklang pass-Uses of nettles-Edible plants-Lepcha war-Do-mani
stone-Neongong-Teesta valley-Pony, saddle, &c.-Meet Camp-
bell-Vegetation and scenery-Presents-Visit of Dewan-Characters
of Rajah and Dewan-Accounts of Tibet-Lhassa-Siling-Tricks
of Dewan-Walk up Teesta-Audience of Rajah-Lamas-Kajees-
Tchebu Lama, his character and position-Effects of interview-
Heir-apparent-Dewan's house-Guitar-Weather-Fall of river-
Tibet officers-Gigantic trees-Neongong lake-Mainom, ascent of
-Vegetation-Camp on snow-Silver-firs-View from top-Kinchin,
&c.-Geology-Vapours-Sunset effect-Elevation-Temperature,
&c.-Lamas of Neongong-Temples - Religious festival-Bamboo,
flowering-Re-cross pass of Raklang-Numerous temples, villages, &c.
-Domestic animals-Descent to Great Rungeet
S
•
M
PAGE
•
CHAPTER XIV.
Tassiding, view of and from-Funereal cypress-Camp at Sunnook-Hot
vapours-Lama's house-Temples, decorations, altars, idols, general
effect-Chaits-Date of erection - Plundered by Ghorkas Cross
Ratong-Ascend to Pemiongchi-Relation of river-beds to strike of
rocks-Slopes of ravines-Pemiongchi, view of-Vegetation-Eleva-
tion-Temple, decorations, &c.-Former capital of Sikkim-History
of Sikkim-Nightingales-Campbell departs -Tchonpong-Edge-
worthia Cross Rungbee and Ratong
Hoar-frost on plantains
Yoksun-Walnuts-View- Funereal cypresses-Doobdi-Gigantic
cypresses-Temples-Snow-fall-Sikkim, &c.-Toys
•
190
205
221
CHAPTER XV.
Leave Yoksun for Kinchinjunga-Ascend Ratong valley-Salt-smuggling
over Ratong-Landslips-Plants-Buckeem-Blocks of gneiss-Mon
Lepcha-View-Weather-View from Gubroo-Kinchinjunga, tops
of Pundimcliff-Nursing-Vegetation of Himalaya-Coup d'œil of
Jongri-Route to Yalloong-Arduous route of salt-traders from Tibet
-Kinchin, ascent of-Lichens-Surfaces sculptured by snow and
ice-Weather at Jongri-Snow Shades for eyes
238
"
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
Ratong river below Mon Lepcha-Ferns-Vegetation of Yoksun, tropical
-Araliacea, fodder for cattle--Rice-paper plant-Geology of Yoksun
-Lake-Old temples-Funereal cypresses-Gigantic chait-Altars-
Songboom-Weather-Catsuperri-Velocity of Ratong-Worship at
Catsuperri lake-Scenery-Willow-Lamas and ecclesiastical estab-
lishments of Sikkim-Tengling-Changachelling temples and monks
-Portrait of myself on walls-Block of mica-schist-Lingcham Kajee
asks for spectacles-Hee-hill-Arrive at Little Rungeet-At Dar-
jeeling Its deserted and wintry appearance
CHAPTER XVII.
[
C
xxiii
•
PAGE
Dispatch collections-Acorns--Heat-Punkabaree-Rees-Vegetation-
Haze Titalya - Earthquake Proceed to Nepal frontier - Terai,
geology of Physical features of Himalayan valleys-Elephants, pur-
chase of, &c.-River-beds-Mechi river-Return to Titalya-Leave
for Teesta-Climate of plains-Jeelpigoree-Cooches-Alteration in
the appearance of country by fires, &c.-Grasses-Bamboos-Cottages
-Rajah of Cooch Behar-Condition of people-Hooli festival-As-
cend Teesta-Canoes-Cranes-Forest-Baikant-pore-Rummai-
Religion-Plants at foot of mountains-Exit of Teesta-Canoe voyage
down to Rangamally-English genera of plants-Birds-Beautiful
scenery-Botanizing on elephants-Willow-Siligoree-Cross Terai-
Geology-Iron-Lohar-ghur-Coal and sandstone beds-Mechi fisher-
man-Hailstorm-Ascent to Kursiong-To Darjeeling-Vegetation—
Geology-Folded quartz-beds-Spheres of feldspar—Lime deposits . 262
251
CHAPTER XVIII.
Arrangements for second journey into Sikkim-Opposition of Dewan-
Lassoo Kajee-Tendong-Legend of flood-Lama of Silok-foke-
Namtchi-Tchebu Lama-Top of Tendong-Gigantic oak-Plants
-Teesta valley-Commencement of rains-Bhomsong-Ascent to
Lathiang-View-Bad road-Orchids-Gorh-Opposition of Lama-
-Arrival of Meepo-Cross Teesta-Difficulties of travelling-Lepchas
swimming-Moxa for sprains-Singtam-Grandeur of view of Kin-
chinjunga-Wild men-Singtam Soubah-Landslips-Bees'-nests and
honey-seekers-Leeches, &c.-Chakoong-Vegetation-Gravel ter-
races-Unpleasant effects of wormwood-Choongtam, scenery and
vegetation of- Inhabitants-Tibetan salute-Lamas-Difficulty of
procuring food-Contrast of vegetation of inner and outer Himalaya—
Rhododendrons Yew- Abies Brunoniana- Venomous snakes-
Hornets and other insects-Choongtam temple-Pictures of Lhassa
-Minerals-Scenery
. 288
CHAPTER XIX.
Routes from Choongtam to Tibet frontier-Choice of that by the Lachen
river-Arrival of supplies-Departure-Features of the valley-Eat-
able Polygonum-Tumlong-Cross Taktoong river-Pines, larches,
and other trees-Chateng pool-Water-plants and insects-Tukcham
mountain-Lamteng village-Inhabitants-Alpine monkey-Botany
of temperate Himalaya-European and American fauna-Japanese and
xxiv
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Malayan genera—Superstitious objections to shooting- Customs of
people-Rain-Run short of provisions Altered position of Tibet
frontier-Zemu Samdong-Imposition-Vegetation-Uses of pines-
Ascent to Thlonok river--Balanophora wood for making cups-Snow-
beds-Eatable mushrooms and Smilacina - Asarabacca - View of
Kinchinjunga—Arum-roots, preparation of for food—Liklo mountain
-Behaviour of my party-Bridge constructed over Zemu-Cross river
-Alarm of my party-Camp on Zemu river
CHAPTER XX.
Camp on Zemu river-Scenery-Falling rocks-Tukcham mountain-
Height of glaciers-Botany-Gigantic rhubarb-Insects-Storm-
Temperature of rivers-Behaviour of Lachen Phipun-Hostile con-
duct of Bhoteeas-View from mountains above camp-Descend to
Zemu Samdong-Vegetation-Letters from Darjeeling —Arival of
Singtam Soubah-Presents from Rajah-Parties collecting arum-roots
-Insects-Ascend Lachen river-Thakya-zong-Tallum Samdong
village-Cottages - Mountains-Plants-Entomology-Weather-
Halo-Diseases-Conduct of Singtam Soubah-His character and ill-
-Agrees to take me to Kongra Lama-Tungu-Appearance of
country-Houses-Poisoning by arum-roots-Yaks and calves-Tibet
ponies-Journey to Kongra Lama-Tibetan tents-Butter, curds, and
churns Hospitality-Kinchinjhow and Chomiomo - Magnificent
scenery-Reach Kongra Lama pass
P
P
T
1
•
CHAPTER XXI.
A
•
• 308
Top of Kongra Lama-Tibet frontier-Elevation-View-Vegetation—
Descent to Tungu-Tungu-choo-Ponies-Kinchinjhow and Chango-
khang mountains - Palung plains — Tibetans — Dogs - Dingcham
province of Tibet - Inhabitants-Dresses - Women's ornaments.
Blackening faces Coral-Tents - Elevation of Palung-Lama—
Shaw-wool goats-Shearing-Siberian plants—Height of glaciers, and
perpetual snow-Geology-Plants, and wild animals-Marmots-
Insects Birds-Choongtam Lama- Religious exercises-Tibetan
hospitality-Delphinium-Perpetual snow-Temperature at Tungu-
Return to Tallum Samdong-To Lamteng-House-Fall of baro-
meter-Cicadas-Lime deposit-Landslips-Arrival at Choongtam-
Cobra Rageu-Heat of climate-Velocity and volume of rivers
measured--Leave for Lachoong valley-Keadom-General features
of valley-Lachoong village-Tunkra mountain-Moraines-Cultiva-
tion-Lachoong Phipun-Lama ceremonies beside a sick-bed.
P
· 327
•
·
CHAPTER XXII.
Leave Lachoong for Tunkra pass-Moraines and their vegetation-Pines of
great dimensions-Wild currants-Glaciers-Summit of pass-Eleva-
tion-Views-Plants-Winds-Choombi district-Lacheepia rock-
Extreme cold-Kinchinjunga-Himalayan grouse-Meteorological
observations—Return to Lachoong-Oaks-Ascend to Yeumtong-
Flats and debâcles-Buried pine-trunks-Perpetual snow-Hot springs
-Behaviour of Singtam Soubah-Leave for Momay Samdong-Upper
limit of trees-Distribution of plants-Glacial terraces, &c.-Forked
344
CONTENTS.
Donkia-Moutonnéed rocks-Ascent to Donkia pass-Vegetation—
Scenery Lakes-Tibet-Bhomtso-Arun river-Kiang-lah moun-
tains - Vara-Tsampu river-Appearance of Tibet — Kambajong
-
Jigatzi-Kinchinjhow, and Kinchinjunga-Chola_rangé-Deceptive
appearance of distant landscape-Perpetual snow-Granite-Tempera-
tures-Pulses-Plants-Tripe de roche Return to Momay-Dogs
and yaks-Birds-Insects-Quadrupeds-Hot springs-Marmots-
Kinchinjhow glacier
Agg
CHAPTER XXIII.
Donkia glaciers-Moraines-Dome of ice-Honey-combed surface-Rocks
of Donkia-Metamorphic action of granite veins-Accident to instru-
ments-Sebolah pass-Bees and May-flies-View-Temperature-
Pulses of party-Lamas and travellers at Momay-Weather and
climate-Dr. Campbell leaves Darjeeling for Sikkim-Leave Momay
-Yeumtong-Lachoong-Retardation of vegetation at low elevations
-Choongtam-Landslips and debâcle--Meet Dr. Campbell-Motives
for his journey-Second visit to Lachen valley-Autumnal tints-Red
currants-Lachen Phipun-Tungu - Scenery-Animals-Poisonous
rhododendrons-Fire-wood-Palung - Elevations-Sitong-Kongra
Lama-Tibetans-Enter Tibet-Desolate scenery-Plants-Animals
-Geology-Cholamoo lakes-Antelopes-Return to Yeumtso-Dr.
Campbell lost-Extreme cold-Headaches-Tibetan Dingpun and
guard-Arms and accoutrements-Temperature of Yeumtso-Migra-
tory birds-Visit of Dingpun-Yeumtso lakes
Sp
•
M
P
K
CHAPTER XXIV.
Ascent of Bhomtso-View of snowy mountains-Chumulari-Arun river—
Kiang-lah mountains-Jigatzi-Lhassa-Dingcham province of Tibet
-Misapplication of term "Plain of Tibet "Sheep, flocks of Crops
- Probable elevation of Jigatzi - Yaru - Tsampu river-Tame ele-
phants-Wild horses-Dryness of air-Sunset beams-Rocks of
Kinchinjhow-Cholamoo lakes-Limestone-Dip and strike of rocks
-Effects of great elevation on party-Ascent of Donkia-Moving
piles of débris-Cross Donkia pass-Second visit to Momay Samdong
Hot springs-Descent to Yeumtong-Lachoong-Retardation of
vegetation again noticed-Jerked meat-Fish-Lose a thermometer-
Lepcha lad sleeps in hot spring-Keadom-Bucklandia—Arrive at
Choongtam-Mendicant-Meepo-Lachen-Lachoong river-Wild
grape-View from Singtam of Kinchinjunga-—-Virulent nettle
CHAPTER XXV.
Journey to the Rajah's residence at Tumloong-Ryott valley-Rajah's
house-Tupgain Lama-Lagong nunnery-Phadong Goompa-Phen-
zong ditto-Lepcha sepoys-Proceedings at Tumloong -- Refused
admittance to Rajah-Women's dresses-Meepo's and Tchebu Lama's
families-Chapel-Leave for Chola pass-Ryott river-Rungpo, view
from-Deputation of Kajees, &c, Conference-Laghep-Eatable
fruit of Decaisnea-Cathcartia-Rhododendrons-Phieung-goong-
Pines Rutto river-Barfonchen-Curling of rhododendron leaf-
Woodcock-Chola pass- Small lakes-Tibet guard and sepoys
—Dingpun—Arrival of Sikkim sepoys-Their conduct-Meet Sing-
M
•
My dad
XXV
PAGE
364
385
406
xxvi
CONTENTS.
tam Soubah-Chumanako-We are seized by the Soubah's party-
Soubah's conduct-Dingpun Tinli-Treatment of Dr. Campbell--
Bound and guarded-Separated from Campbell-Marched to Tum-
loong-Motives for such conduct-Arrive at Rungpo-At Phadong
-Presents from Rajah--Visits of Lama-Of Singtam Soubah-I am
cross-questioned by Amlah-Confined with Campbell-Seizure of my
Coolies-Threats of attacking Darjeeling.
•.426
CHAPTER XXVI.
Dr. Campbell is ordered to appear at Durbar-Lamas called to council-
Threats-Scarcity of food-Arrival of Dewan-Our jailer, Thoba-sing
-Temperature, &c., at Tumloong-Services of Goompas-Lepcha
girl-Jews'-harp-Terror of servants-Ilam-sing's family-Interview
with Dewan-Remonstrances-Dewan feigns sickness-Lord Dal-
housie's letter to Rajah-Treatment of Indo-Chinese-Concourse of
Lamas-Visit of Tchebu Lama-Close confinement-Dr. Campbell's
illness-Conference with Amlah-Relaxation of confinement-Pemi-
ongchi Lama's intercession-Escape of Nimbo-Presents from Rajah,
Ranee and people-Protestations of friendship-Mr. Lushington sent
to Darjeeling-Leave Tumloong-Cordial farewell-Dewan's mer-
chandise - Gangtok Kajee-Dewan's pomp-Governor-General's
letter-Dikkeeling-Suspicion of poison-Dinner and pills--Tobacco
-Bhotanese colony-Katong-ghat on Teesta-Wild lemons-Sepoys'
insolence-Dewan alarmed-View of Darjeeling-Threats of a rescue
-Fears of our escape-Tibet flutes-Negociate our release-Arrival
at Darjeeling-Dr. Thomson joins me-Movement of troops at Dar-
jeeling-Seizure of Rajah's Terai property
•
CHAPTER XXVII.¹
Leave Darjeeling for Calcutta-Jung Bahadoor-Dr. Falconer-Improve-
ments in Botanic Gardens - Palmetum - Victoria Amherstia-
Orchids spread by seed-Banyan-Cycas-Importation of American
plants in ice-Return to Darjeeling-Leave with Dr. Thomson for
the Khasia mountains- Mahanuddy river- Vegetation of banks
Maldah Alligators Rampore - Bauleah Climate of Ganges -
Pubna-Jummul river-Altered course of Burrampooter and Megna
-Dacca-Conch shells-Saws-Cotton muslins-Fruit-Vegetation
-Elevation-Rose of Bengal - Burrampooter - Delta of Soormah
river — Jheels — Soil - Vegetation-Navigation-Mosquitos—Atmo-
spheric pressure-Effects of geological changes-Imbedding of plants
-Teelas or islets-Chattuc-Salubrious climate-Rains Canoes-
Pundua- Mr. Harry Inglis-Terrya Ghat-Ascent to Churra-
Scenery and vegetation at foot of mountains-Cascades
Jag
K
[
PAGE
•
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Churra, English station of-Khasia people-Garrow people-Houses-
Habits Dress-Arms-Dialects -Marriages-Food-Funerals-
Superstitions--Flat of Churra-Scenery - Lime and coal-Mamloo
-Cliffs-Cascades-Chamarops palm-Jasper-rocks-Flora of Churra
444
464
1 In the body of the work, the latter part of this chapter has been accidentally numbered
XXVIII., and the three succeeding XXIX., &c.
-Orchids-Rhododendrons-Pine-- Climate-Extraordinary rain-
fall-Its effects-Gardens of Lieuts. Raban and Cave-Leave Churra
to cross the mountain range-Coal, shale, and under-clay-Kala-panee
river - Lailangkot-Luculia Pinceana - Conglomerate-Surureem
wood-Boga-panee river-View of Himalaya-Greenstone-Age of
pine-cones-Moflong plants-Coix-Chillong mountain-Extensive
view-Road to Syong-Broad valleys-Geology-Plants-Myrung—
Granite blocks-Kollong rock-Pine-woods-Features of country-
Orchids-Iron forges
CHAPTER XXIX.
View of Himalaya from the Khasia-Great masses of snow---Chumulari
-Donkia-Grasses-Nunklow-Assam valley and Burrampooter-
Tropical forest — Bor-panee Rhododendrons-Wild elephants-
Blocks of Syenite-Return to Churra-Coal-August temperature
-Leave for Chela-Jasper hill—Birds—Arundina—Habits of leaf-
insects Curious village Houses Canoes Boga-pance river-
Jheels-Chattuc-Churra-Leave for Jyntea hills-Trading parties-
Dried fish-Cherries-Cinnamon-Fraud-Pea-violet---Nonkreem
-Sandstone-Pines-Granite boulders-Iron washing-Forges-
-Tanks-Siberian Nymphæa-Barren country-Pomrang-Podo-
stemon—Patchouli plant-Mooshye-Enormous stone slabs-Pitcher
plant-Joowye-Cultivation and vegetation - Hydropeltis-Sulky
hostess-Nurtiung-Hamamelis chinensis-Bor-panee river-Sacred
grove and gigantic stone structures-Altars-Pyramids, &c.—Origin
of names Vanda carulea-Collections-November vegetation
Geology of Khasia-Sandstone-Coal-Lime-Gneiss-Greenstone
-Tidal action-Strike of rocks-Comparison with Rajmahal hills
and the Himalaya
M
APPENDIX
CONTENTS,
P
:
M
E
Boat voyage to Silhet-River-Palms-Teelas-Botany-Fish weirs-
Forests of Cachar-Sandal-wood, &c.-Porpoises-Alligators-Sil-
char Tigers - Rice-crops Cookies - Munniporees - Hockey -
Varnish Dance-Nagas-Excursion to Munnipore frontier-Ele-
phant bogged-Bamboos- Cardiopteris — Climate, &c., of Cachar
Mosquitos-Fall of banks-Silhet-Oaks-Stylidium-Tree-ferns
-Chattuc-Megna-Meteorology-Palms- Noacolly - Salt-smug-
gling-Delta of Ganges and Megna-Westward progress of Megna-
Peat-Tide-Waves-Earthquakes-Dangerous navigation-Moon-
light scenes Mud island-Chittagong-Mug tribes-Views-Trees
A
Churs-Flagstaff hill-Coffee-Pepper-Tea, &c.-Excursions from
Chittagong-Dipterocarpi or Gurjun oil trees-Earthquake—Birds—.
Papaw-Bleeding of stems--Poppy and Sun fields-Seetakoond—
Bungalow and hill-Perpetual flame- Falconeria- Cycas-Climate
Leave for Calcutta Hattiah island Plants-Sunderbunds-
Steamer Tides-Nipa fruticans-Fishing-Otters-Crocodiles-
Phanix paludosa—Departure from India .
CHAPTER XXX.
xxvii
PAGE
P
M
•
•
·
484
501
523
545
LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
KINCHINJUNGA FROM DARJEELING
CROSSING THE SOANE WITH KYMORE HILLS IN THE DISTANCE
PUNKABAREE BUNGALOW AND BASE OF HIMALAYA
•
TAMBUR RIVER AND VALLEY (E. NEPAL) FROM CHINTAM,
LOOKING NORTH .
TAMBUR RIVER AT LOWEST LIMIT OF PINES
ANCIENT MORAINE THROWN ACROSS THE YANGMA VALLEY
(E. NEPAL), ELEVATION 11,000 FEET
INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF PEMIONGCHI
LAMTENG VILLAGE
SNOW BEDS AT 13,000 FEET IN THE TH'LONOK VALLEY,
WITH RHODODENDRONS; KINCHINJUNGA IN A DISTANCE
TIBET AND CHOLAMOO LAKES FROM THE DRONKIA PASS
MOUNTAINS
(18,500 FEET)
CHOLAMOO LAKE AND LACHEN RIVER FROM BOMPTSO
BOMPTSO
"LIVING BRIDGE FORMED OF THE AERIAL ROOTS OF THE
INDIA-RUBBER AND OTHER KINDS OF FIGS
CHURRA STATION AND THE JHEELS, FROM THE KHASIA
HASI
>>
OLD TAMARIND ROOTS
EQUATORIAL SUN-DIAL, BENARES OBSERVATORY
ARES
EQUINOCTIAL SUN-DIAL,
•
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT.
•
OBSE
DITTO
DITTO
•
•
3
•
·
Opposite page t
25
""
71
·
""
"
""
""
***
""
""
در
زر
ر,
""
""
">
,, 137
", 144
""
161
,, 232
›, 312
›› 323
;, 376
;, 407
""
"
•
•
•
AZIMUTH CIRCLE,
MONGHYR ON THE GANGES
61
102
LEPCHA GIRL AND BOODHIST PRIEST. FROM A SKETCH BY MISS COLVILE 87
FINUS LONGIFOLIA, IN THE GREAT RUNGEET VALLEY
CONSTRUCTION OF A CANE SUSPENSION-BRIDGE
LEPCHA BOY CARRYING A BAMBOO WATER-VESSEL. FROM A SKETCH
BY MISS COLVILE
103
483
487
PAGE
12
50
•
AMULET USUALLY WORN BY LEPCHAS
TRUNK-LIKE ROOT OF WIGHTIA GIGANTEA, ASCENDING A TREE, WHICH
ASCEN ING
ITS STOUT ROOTLETS CLASP
5556∞
H2H N
51
•
• 52
108
. III
· 113
***
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
INTERIOR OF BOODHIST TEMPLE AT SIMON BONG
TRUMPET MADE OF A HUMAN THIGH-BONE
TIBETAN AMULET SET WITH TURQUOISES
ZOOLOGICAL
HEAD OF TIBET MASTIFF. FROM A SKETCH TAKEN IN THE ZOOLOGICAL
GARDENS BY C. JENYNS, ESQ.
VIEW ON THE TAMBUR RIVER, WITH ABIES BRUNONIANA
BRUNONIANA.
WALLANCHOON VILLAGE, EAST NEPAL
HEAD OF A TIBETAN DEMON. FROM A MODEL IN THE POSSESSION OF
ESSION
A
CAPTAIN H. STRACHEY
ANCIENT MORAINES SURROUNDING THE LOWER LAKE-BED IN THE
YANGMA VALLEY (LOOKING WEST)
•
•
•
·
•
·
ETC.,
SECOND LAKE-BED IN THE YANGMA VALLEY, WITH NANGO MOUNTAIN
(LOOKING EAST)
DIAGRAM OF THE TERRACES AND GLACIAL BOULDERS, ETC., AT THE
ACES
GLACIAL BOUL
FORK OF THE YANGMA VALLEY (LOOKING NORTH-WEST UP THE
VALLEY). THE TERRACES ARE REPRESENTED AS MUCH TOO LEVEL
AND ANGULAR, AND THE BOULDERS TOO LARGE, THE WOODCUT
BEING INTENDED AS A DIAGRAM RATHER THAN AS A VIEW
VIEW OF THE HEAD OF THE YANGMA VALLEY, AND ANCIENT MORAINES
OF DEBRIS, WHICH RISE IN CONFUSED HILLS SEVERAL HUNDRED
FEET ABOVE THE FLOOR OF THE VALLEY BELOW THE KANGLACHEM
PASS (ELEVATION 16,000 FEET)
. 169
i7i
SKULLS OF OVIS AMMON. SKETCHED BY J. E. WINTERBOTTOM, ESQ. 173
ANCIENT MORAINES, IN WHICH SMALL LAKE-BEDS OCCUR, IN THE
KAMBACHEN VALLEY (ELEVATION 11,400 FEET)
182
..188
BRASS BOX TO CONTAIN AMULETS, FROM TIBET
PEMIONGCHI GOOMPA (OR TEMPLE) WITH CHAITS IN THE FOREGROUND 201
COSTUMES OF SIKKIM LAMAS AND MONKS, WITH THE BELL, MANI,
•
DORJE; AND TRIDENT
RESSES
THE DO-MANI STONE, WITH GIGANTIC TIBETAN CHARACTERS
IMPLEMENTS OF WORSHIP IN THE SIKKIM TEMPLES
CHAITS AT TASSIDING, WITH DECAYED FUNEREAL CYPRESSES
VESTIBULE OF TEMPLE AT TASSIDING
SOUTHERN TEMPLE, AT TASSIDING
MIDDLE TEMPLE,
DITTO, WITH MOUNTED YAKS
VAKS
CHAIR, ALTAR, AND IMAGES IN THE GREAT TEMPLE AT TASSIDING
ASSIDING
GROUND-PLAN OF SOUTHERN TEMPLE AT TASSIDING
DOOBDI TEMPLE, WITH WEEPING CYPRESS
IGHT
SUMMIT OF KINCHINJUNGA, WITH PUNDIM ON THE RIGHT; ITS BLACK
CLIFF TRAVERSED BY WHITE GRANITE VEINS
IMAGE OF MAITRYA, THE COMING BOODH
STONE ALTAR, AND ERECTION FOR BURNING JUNIPER ASHES
FACSIMILE OF THE VERMILION SEAL OF THE DHURMA RAJAH OF
BHOTAN, HEAD OF THE DOOKPA SECT OF BOODHISTS
JUNIPER
MECH, NATIVE OF THE SIKKIM TERAI.
SKETCHED
COLVILE
•
D
•
•
•
•
•
•
▸
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Opposite
BY MISS
MECH POCKET-COMB (OF WOOD)
нос
PANDANUS IN THE TEESTA VALLEY
CANE-BRIDGE OVER THE LACHEN-LACHOONG RIVER, BELOW CHOONGTAM.
TUKCHAM MOUNTAIN IS BROUGHT INTO THE VIEW, AS SEEN FROM
A HIGHER ELEVATION
EEPING
JUNIPERUS RECURVA, THE WEEPING JUNIPER
BLACK JUNIPER AND YOUNG LARCH
TUNGU VILLAGE, WITH YAKS IN THE FOREGROUND
GROUNI
•
•
•
•
PAGE
120
121
122
142
163
165
285
. 287
294
204
206
220
222
224
225
226
227
228
236
243
249
253
303
307
325
•
· 339
$
WOMEN'S IIEAD-DRESSES-THE TWO OUTER, LEPCHA GIRLS; THE TWO
INNER, TIBETAN WOMEN
TIBET MARMOT. SKETCHED BY J. E. WINTERBOTTOM, ESQ.
VINTERBOTTOM,
LACHOONG VALLEY (LOOKING SOUTH), LARCH TREE IN THE FORE-
GROUND
•
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
ORAINES
CONICAL ANCIENT MORAINES IN THE LACHOONG VALLEY, WITH ABIES
LACHOONG
BRUNONIANA AND SMITHIANA.
•
•
HEAD AND FEET OF TIBET MARMOT. SKETCHED BY J. E. WINTER-
BOTTOM, ESQ.
BLOCK OF GNEISS
WITH GRANITE BANDS, ON
ΟΝ THE KINCHINJHOW
GLACIER
SUMMIT OF FORKED DONKIA MOUNTAIN, WITH GOA ANTELOPES IN
THE FOREGROUND; FROM 17,500 FEET ELEVATION
VIEW OF THE EASTERN TOP OF KINCHINJHOW, AND TIBET IN THE
DISTANCE, WITH WILD SHEEP IN THE FOREGROUND; FROM AN
ELEVATION OF 18,000 FEET
HEAD OF CHIRU ANTELOPE, THE UNICORN OF TIBET.
CORN
•
:
•
DEWAN'S EAR-RING OF PEARL AND TURQUOISES
TURQUOISES
WATERFALLS AT MAMLOO, WITH FAN-PALMS
•
KOLLONG ROCK
CHELA, ON THE BOGA-PANEE RIVER
DENUDATION
NONKREEM VILLAGE, WITH BOULDERS OF DENUDATION
BELLOWS OF IRON SMELTERS IN THE KHASIA MOUNTAINS
OLD BRIDGE AT AMWEE
STONES AT NURTIUNG
·
•
•
•
NT. SKETCHED AT DARJEELING BY
DIPTEROCARPUS TURBINATUS, GURLUN OR WOOD-OIL TREE
WOOD-OIL
FROM A SKETCH
BY LIEUT. H. MAXWELL
A. PHUD, OR TIBETAN MENDICANT.
MISS COLVILE
423
425
TEA (BRICK OF), TEA-POT, WOODEN CUP, ETC.
PORTRAIT OF ADEN TCHEBU LAMA. SKETCHED BY LIEUT. H. MAXWELL 428
SILVER CHAIN AND HOOKS, ORNAMENTED WITH TURQUoises, useD TO
FASTEN WOMEN'S CLOAKS
HORNS OF THE SHOWA STAG OF TIBET (CERVUS WALLICHII). SKETCHED
BY LIEUT. H. MAXWELL
•
•
>
2
•
DR. FALCONER'S RESIDENCE, CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDENS; FROM SIR
L. PEEL'S GROUNDS, LOOKING ACROSS THE HOOGLY
VIEW IN THE JHEELS OF BENGAL, WITH KHASIA MOUNTAINS IN TIE
DISTANCE
·
·
•
•
"
•
•
RAJAH'S HOUSE AT TUMLOONG, IN THE FOREGROUND THE COTTAGE
IN WHICH DR. CAMPBELL WAS CONFINED, WITH THE DEWAN'S
RETINUE PASSING. THIS IS PARTLY EXECUTED FROM MEMORY 446
TIRETAN TOBACCO-PIPE AND TINDER-POUCH, WITH STEEL ATTACHED 447
LEPCHA SEPOYS, THE RIGHT HAND FIGURES, AND TIBETAN ONES ON
THE LEFT
•
•
•
•
·
•
•
·
•
•
•
•
•
xxxi
PAGE
348
354
361
362
363
384
387
389
401
430
442
459
465
477
483
489
500
508
511
512
515
518
539
MAPS.
i. A GENERAL MAP OF LOWER AND EASTERN BENGAL, WITH THE HIMALAYA
AND ADJACENT PROVINCES OF TIBET.
The Tibetan portion of this map is to a great extent conjectural, and is
intended to convey a general idea of the arrangement of the mountains,
according to the information collected by Dr. Campbell and myself, and to
show'the position of the principal groups of snowed peaks between the Yaru-
tsampu and the plains of India, and their relations to the water-shed of the
Himalaya.
The positions and direction of the minor spurs of the mountain ranges of
Central India and Behar are also, to a great extent, conjectural. It is
particularly requisite to observe, that the only object of this map is to give a
better general idea of the physical geography of South-eastern Tibet and
Central India, from the materials at my command, and hence to afford a better
guide to the understanding of some of the points I have attempted to explain
in these volumes, than is obtainable from any map with which I am acquainted.
Above the map is a view of the Sikkim Himalaya, from Nango to Donkia,
as seen from Darjeeling. On the right are four views of celebrated mountains,
as seen from great distances :-
I. CHUMULARI, FROM TONGLO.
2. KINCHINJUNGA, FROM KAST nepal.
3.
DITTO
4. THE GHASSA MOUNTAINS, TIBET, FROM BHOMTSO IN TIBET.
FROM BHOMTSO IN TIBET.
On the left is a survey of the moraines, &c., in the Yangma valley, as
described in p. 161.
I beg to return my acknowledgments to Mr. Petermann for the skill and
care which he has devoted to the construction of this map. The scale is
approximate only, and perhaps very erroneous.
2. GENERAL MAP OF SIKKIM, ETC., FROM A SURVEY BY THE AUTHOR.

KINCHINJUNGA FROM DARJEELING.
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
CHAPTER I.
Sunderbunds vegetation-Calcutta Botanic Garden-Leave for Burdwan-
Rajah's gardens and menagerie-Coal-beds, geology, and plants of-Lac
insect and plant-Camels-Kunker-Cowage-Efloresced soda on soil-
Glass, manufacture of-Atmospheric vapours-Temperature, &c.-Ma-
howa oil and spirits-Maddaobund-Jains-Ascent of Paras-nath—Vege-
tation of that mountain.
I LEFT England on the 11th of November, 1847, and performed
the voyage to India under circumstances which have been de-
tailed in the Introduction. On the 12th of January, 1848, the
Moozuffer was steaming amongst the low, swampy islands of the
Sunderbunds. These exhibit no tropical luxuriance, and are, in
this respect, exceedingly disappointing. A low vegetation covers
them, chiefly made up of a dwarf-palm (Phænix paludosa) and
small mangroves, and with a few scattered trees on the higher
bank that runs along the water's edge, consisting of fan-palm,
toddy-palm, and Terminalia. Every now and then the paddles
of the steamer tossed up the large fruits of Nipa fruticans, a low,
stemless palm that grows in the tidal waters of the Indian ocean,
and bears a large head of nuts. It is a plant of no interest to the
common observer, but of much to the geologist, from the nuts of
a similar plant abounding in the tertiary formations at the mouth
of the Thames, and having floated about there in as great pro-
fusion as here, till buried deep in the silt and mud that now forms
the island of Sheppey.*
Higher up, the river Hoogly is entered, and large trees, with
• Bowerbank “On the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the Isle of Sheppey,” and
Lyell's "Elements of Geology," 3rd ed. p. 201.
· 2
•
2
2
*N
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
•
villages and cultivation, replace the sandy spits and marshy jungles
of the great Gangetic delta. A few miles below Calcutta, the
scenery becomes beautiful, beginning with the Botanic Garden,
once the residence of Roxburgh and Wallich, and now of Falconer
-classical ground to the naturalist. Opposite are the gardens of
Sir Lawrence Peel; unrivalled in India for their beauty and culti-
vation, and fairly entitled to be called the Chatsworth of Bengal.
A little higher up, Calcutta opened out, with the batteries of Fort
William in the foreground, thundering forth a salute, and in a few
minutes more all other thoughts were absorbed in watching the
splendour of the arrangements made for the reception of the
Governor-General of India.
During my short stay in Calcutta I was principally occupied in
preparing for an excursion with Mr. Williams of the Geological
Survey, who was about to move his camp from the Damooda
valley coal-fields, near Burdwan, to Beejaghur on the banks of the
Soane, where coal was reported to exist, in the immediate vicinity
of water-carriage, the great desideratum of the Burdwan fields.
My time was spent partly at Government- House, and partly at
Sir Lawrence Peel's residence. The former I was kindly invited
to consider as my Indian home, an honour which I appreciate the
more highly as the invitation was accompanied with the assurance
that I should have entire freedom to follow my own pursuits; and
the advantages which such a position afforded me, were, I need
not say, of no ordinary kind.
At the Botanic Gardens I received every assistance from Dr.
McLelland, who was very busy, superintending the publication
of the botanical papers and drawings of his friend, the late Dr.
Griffith, for which native artists were preparing copies on litho
graphic paper.
Of the Gardens themselves it is exceedingly difficult to speak ;
the changes had been so very great, and from a state with which
I had no acquaintance. There had been a great want of judgment
in the alterations made since Dr. Wallich's time, when they were
celebrated as the most beautiful gardens in the East, and were the
great object of attraction to strangers and townspeople. I found
instead an unsightly wilderness, without shade (the first require-
ment of every tropical garden) or other beauties than some isolated
grand trees, which had survived the indiscriminate destruction of
the useful and ornamental which had attended the well-meant but
ill-judged attempt to render a garden a botanical class-book. It
is impossible to praise too highly Dr. Griffith's abilities and ac-
* Dr. Falconer's locum tenens, then in temporary charge of the establishment.
·
CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDENS.
3
quirements as a botanist, his perseverance and success as a
traveller, or his matchless industry in the field and in the closet;
and it is not wonderful, that, with so many and varied talents, he
should have wanted the eye of a landscape-gardener, or the
education of a horticulturist. I should, however, be wanting in
my duty to his predecessor, and to his no less illustrious successor,
were these remarks withheld, proceeding, as they do, from an un-
biassed observer, who had the honour of standing in an equally
friendly relation to all parties. Before leaving India I saw great
improvements, but many years must elapse before the gardens
can resume their once proud pre-eminence.
I was surprised to find the Botanical Garden looked upon by
many of the Indian public, and even by some of the better in-
formed official men, as rather an extravagant establishment, mơ……….
ornamental than useful. These persons seemed astonished to
learn that its name was renowned throughout Europe, and that
during the first twenty years especially of Dr. Wallich's superin-
tendence, it had contributed more useful and ornamental tropical
plants to the public and private gardens of the world than any
other establishment before or since.* I speak from a personal.
knowledge of the contents of our English gardens, and our colonial
ones at the Cape, and in Australia, and from an inspection of the
ponderous volumes of distribution lists, to which Dr. Falconer is
daily adding. The botanical public of Europe and India is no
less indebted than the horticultural to the liberality of the Hon.
East India Company, and to the energy of the several eminent
men who have carried its views into execution.² The Indian
À
As an illustration of this, I may refer to a Report presented to the govern-
ment of Bengal, from which it appears that between January, 1836, and
December, 1840, 189,932 plants were distributed gratis to nearly 2,000 different
gardens.
2
There allude to the great Indian herbarium, chiefly formed by the staff of
the Botanic Gardens under the direction of Dr. Wallich, and distributed in
1829 to the principal museums of Europe. This is the most valuable contri-
bution of the kind ever made to science, and it is a lasting memorial of the
princely liberality of the enlightened men who ruled the counsels of India in
those days. No botanical work of importance has been published since 1829,
without recording its sense of the obligation, and I was once commissioned by
a foreign government to purchase for its national museum, at whatever cost,
one set of these collections, which was brought to the hammer on the death of
its possessor. I have heard it remarked that the expense attending the distri-
bution was enormous, and I have reason to know that this erroneous impression
has had an unfavourable influence upon the destination of scarcely less valuable
collections, which have for years been lying untouched in the cellars of the India
House. I may add that officers who have exposed their lives and impaired their
health in forming similar ones at the orders and expense of the Indian govern
1
4
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
government, itself, has already profited largely by these gardens,
directly and indirectly, and might have done so still more, had its
efforts been better seconded either by the European or native
population of the country. Amongst its greatest triumphs may be
considered the introduction of the tea-plant from China, a fact I
allude to as many of my English readers may not be aware that
the establishment of the tea-trade in the Himalaya and Assam is
almost entirely the work of the superintendents of the gardens of
Calcutta and Saharunpore.
From no one did I receive more kindness than from Sir James
Colvile, President of the Asiatic Socrety, who not only took care
that I should be provided with every comfort, but presented me.
with a completely equipped palkee, which, for strength and
excellence of construction, was everything that a traveller could
desire. Often en route did I mentally thank him when I saw
other palkees breaking down, and travellers bewailing the loss of
those forgotten necessaries with which his kind attention had
furnished me.
I left Calcutta to join Mr. Williams' camp on the 28th of
January, driving to Hoogly on the river of that name, and thence
following the grand trunk-road westward towards Burdwan. The
novelty of palkee-travelling at first renders it pleasant; the neat-
ness with which everything is packed, the good-humour of the
bearers, their merry pace, and the many more comforts enjoyed
than could be expected in a conveyance horsed by men, the warmth
when the sliding doors are shut, and the breeze when they are
opened, are all fully appreciated on first starting; but soon the
novelty wears off, and the discomforts are so numerous, that it is
pronounced, at best, a barbarous conveyance. The greedy cry
and gestures of the bearers, when, on changing, they break a
fitful sleep by poking a torch in your face, and vociferating
"Baksheesh, Sahib ; their discontent at the most liberal
largesse, and the sluggishness of the next set who want bribes,
put the traveller out of patience with the natives. The dust when
the slides are open, and the stifling heat when shut during a
shower, are conclusive against the vehicle, and on getting out
with aching bones and giddy head at the journey's end, I shook
the dust from my person, and wished never to see a palkee
again.
On the following morning I was passing through the straggling
ment, are at home, and thrown upon their own resources, or the assistance of
their scientific brethren, for the means of publishing and distributing the fruits
of their labours,
در
RAJAH OF BURDWAN'S GARDEN.
villages close to Burdwan, consisting of native hovels by the
roadside, with mangos and figs planted near them, and palms.
waving over their roofs. Crossing the nearly dry bed of the
Damooda, I was set down at Mr. M'Intosh's (the magistrate of
the district), and never more thoroughly enjoyed a hearty welcome
and a breakfast.
5
นา
In the evening we visited the Rajah of Burdwan's palace and
pleasure-grounds, where I had the first glimpse of Oriental garden-
ing the roads were generally raised, running through rice-fields,
now dry and hard, and bordered with trees of Jack, Bamboo,
Melia, Casuarina, &c. Tanks were the prominent features:
chains of them, full of Indian water-lilies, being fringed with
rows of the fan-palm, and occasionally the Indian date. Close
to the house was a rather good menagerie, where I saw, amongst
other animals, a pair of kangaroos in high health and condition,
the female with young in her pouch. Before dark I was again in
my palkee, and hurrying onwards. The night was cool and clear,
very different from the damp and foggy atmosphere I had left at
Calcutta. On the following morning I was travelling over a flat
and apparently rising country, along an excellent road, with groves
of bamboos and stunted trees on either hand, few villages or
palms, a sterile soil, with stunted grass and but little cultivation ;
altogether a country as unlike what, I had expected to find in India.
as well might be. All around was a dead flat or table-land, out
of which a few conical hills rose in the west, about 1,000 feet
high, covered with a low forest of dusky green or yellow, from
the prevalence of bamboo. The lark was singing merrily at sun-
rise, and the accessories of a fresh air and dewy grass more re-
minded me of some moorland in the north of England than of
the torrid regions of the east.
•
At 10 P.M. I arrived at Mr. Williams' camp, at Taldangah, a
dawk station near the western limit of the coal basin of the
Damooda valley. His operations being finished, he was prepared
to start, having kindly waited a couple of days for my arrival.
Early on the morning of the last day of January a motley group
of natives were busy striking the tents, and loading the bullocks,
bullock-carts, and elephants; these proceeded on the march,
occupying in straggling groups nearly three miles of road, whilst
we remained to breakfast with Mr. F. Watkins, Superintendent of
the East India Coal and Coke Company, who were working the
seams.
The coal crops out at the surface; but the shafts worked are
sunk through thick beds of alluvium. The age of these coal-fields
1
6
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
-
is quite unknown, and I regret to say that my examination of their
fossil plants throws no material light on the subject. Upwards of
thirty species of fossil plants have been procured from them, anď
of these the majority are referred by Dr. McLelland to the in-
ferior oolite epoch of England, from the prevalence of species of
Zamia, Glossopteris, and Taniopteris. Some of these genera,
together with Vertebraria (a very remarkable Indian fossil), are
also recognised in the coal-fields of Sind and of Australia. I
cannot, however, think that botanical evidence of such a nature
is sufficient to warrant a satisfactory reference of these Indian
coal-fields to the same epoch as those of England or Australia;
in the first place the outlines of the fronds of ferns and their
nervation are frail characters if employed alone for the determi-
nation of existing genera, and much more so of fossil fragments;
in the second place recent ferns are so widely distributed, that an
inspection of the majority affords little clue to the region or
locality they come from; and in the third place, considering the
wide difference in latitude and longitude of Yorkshire, India, and
Australia, the natural conclusion is that they could not have sup-
ported a similar vegetation at the same epoch. In fact, finding
similar fossil plants at places widely different in latitude, and hence
in climate, is, in the present state of our knowledge, rather an
argument against than for their having existed cotemporaneously.
The Cycadea especially, whose fossil remains afford so much
ground for geological speculations, are far from yielding such prc-
cise data as is supposed. Species of the order are found in Mexico,
South Africa, Australia, and India, some inhabiting the hottest
and dampest, and others the driest climates on the surface of the
globe; and it appears to me rash to argue much from the presence
of the order in the coal of Yorkshire and India, when we reflect
that the geologist of some future epoch may find as good reasons
for referring the present Cape, Australian, or Mexican Flora to
the same period as that of the Lias and Oolites, when the Cycadcæ
now living in the former countries shall be fossilised.
Specific identity of their contained fossils may be considered as
fair evidence of the cotemporaneous origin of beds, but amongst
the many collections of fossil plants that I have examined, there
is hardly a specimen, belonging to any epoch, sufficiently perfect
to warrant the assumption that the species to which it belonged
can be again recognised. The botanical evidences which geo-
logists too often accept as proofs of specific identity are such as
no botanist would attach any importance to in the investigation.
I
Reports of the Geological Survey of India. Calcutta, 1850.
LAC-INSECT AND PLANT.
of existing plants. The faintest traces assumed to be of vegetable
origin are habitually made into genera and species by naturalists
ignorant of the structure, affinities and distribution of living
plants, and of such materials the bulk of so-called systems of fossil
plants is composed.
A number of women were here employed in making gunpowder,
grinding the usual materials on a stone, with the addition of water
from the Hookah; a custom for which they have an obstinate
prejudice. The charcoal here used is made from an Acacia: the
Seiks, I believe, employ Justicia Adhatoda, which is also in use
all over India at Aden the Arabs prefer the Calotropis, probably
because it is most easily procured. The grain of all these plants
is open, whereas in England, closer-grained and more woody
trees, especially willows, are preferred.
The jungle I found to consist chiefly of thorny bushes, Jujube
of two species, an Acacia and Butea frondosa, the twigs of the
latter often covered with lurid red tears of Lac, which is here
collected in abundance. As it occurs on the plants and is
collected by the natives it is called Stick-lac, but after preparation
Shell-lac. In Mirzapore, a species of Celtis yields it, and the
Peepul very commonly in various parts of India. The elaboration
of this dye, whether by the same species of insect, or by many
from plants so widely different in habit and characters, is a very
curious fact; since none have red juice, but some have milky and
others limpid.
After breakfast, Mr. Williams and I started on an elephant,
following the camp to Gyra, twelve miles distant. The docility
of these animals is an old story, but it loses so much in the telling,
that their gentleness, obedience, and sagacity seemed as strange
to me as if I had never heard or read of these attributes.
The
swinging motion, under a hot sun, is very oppressive, but com-
pensated for by being so high above the dust. The Mahout, or
driver, guides by poking his great toes under either ear, enforcing
obedience with an iron goad, with which he hammers the animal'ş
head with quite as much force as would break a cocoa-nut, or
drives it through his thick skin down to the quick. A most dis-
agreeable sight it is, to see the blood and yellow fat oozing out in
the broiling sun from these great punctures! Our elephant was
an excellent one, when he did not take obstinate fits, and so
docile as to pick up pieces of stone when desired, and with a jerk
of the trunk throw them over his head for the rider to catch, thus
saving the trouble of dismounting to geologise!
Of sights on the road, unfrequented though this noble line is,
8
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
there were plenty for a stranger; chiefly pilgrims to Juggernath,
most on foot, and a few in carts or pony gigs of rude construction.
The vehicles from the upper country are distinguished by a far
superior build, their horses are caparisoned with jingling bells,
and the wheels and other parts are bound with brass. The kind-
ness of the people towards animals, and in some cases towards
their suffering relations, is very remarkable, and may in part have
given origin to the prevalent idea that they are less cruel and
stern than the majority of mankind; but that the "mild" Hindoo,
however gentle on occasion, is cruel and vindictive to his brother
man and to animals, when his indolent temper is roused or his
avarice stimulated, no one can doubt who reads the accounts of
Thuggee, Dacoitee, and poisoning, and witnesses the cruelty with
which beasts of burthen are treated. A child carrying a bird, kid,
or lamb, is not an uncommon sight, and a woman with a dog in
her arms is still more frequently seen. Occasionally, too, a group
will bear an old man to see Juggernath before he dies, or a poor
creature with elephantiasis, who hopes to be allowed to hurry
himself to his paradise, in preference to lingering in helpless in-
activity, and at last crawling up to the second heaven only. The
costumes are as various as the religious castes, and the many
countries to which the travellers belong. Next in wealth to the
merchants, the most thriving-looking wanderer is the bearer of
Ganges' holy water, who drives a profitable trade, his gains
increasing as his load lightens, for the further he wanders from
the sacred stream, the more he gets for the contents of his jar.
Of merchandise we passed very little, the Ganges being still the
high road between north-west India and Bengal. Occasionally a
string of camels was seen, but, owing to the damp climate, these
are rare, and unknown east of the meridian of Calcutta. A little
cotton, clumsily packed in ragged bags, dirty, and deteriorating
every day, even at this dry season, proves in how bad a state it
must arrive at the market during the rains, when the low waggons
are dragged through the streams,
The roads here are all mended with a curious stone, called
Kunker, which is a nodular concretionary deposit of limestone,
abundantly imbedded in the alluvial soil of a great part of India.¹
It resembles a coarse gravel, each pebble being often as large as
a walnut, and tuberculated on the surface: it binds admirably,
and forms excellent roads, but pulverises into a most disagreeable
impalpable dust.
A few miles beyond Taldangah we passed from the sandstone,
* Often occurring in strata, like flints,
ATMOSPHERIC EFFECTS.
9
in which the coal lics, to a very barren country of gneiss and
granite rocks, upon which the former rests; the country still
rising, more hills appear, and towering far above all is Paras-nath,
the culminant point, and a mountain whose botany I was most
anxious to explore.
The vegetation of this part of the country is very poor, no
good-sized trees are to be seen, all is a low stunted jungle. The
grasses were few, and dried up, except in the beds of the rivulets.
On the low jungly hills the same plants appear, with a few figs,
bamboo in great abundance, several handsome Acanthaceae; a few
Asclepiadee climbing up the bushes; and the Cowage plant, now
with over-ripe pods, by shaking which, in passing, there often falls
such a shower of its irritating microscopic hairs, as to make the
skin tingle for an hour.
On the 1st of February, we moved on to Gyra, another insig-
nificant village. The air was cool, and the atmosphere clear.
The temperature, at three in the morning, was 65°, with no dew,
the grass only 61°. As the sun rose, Paras-nath appeared against
the clear grey sky, in the form of a beautiful broad cone, with a
rugged peak, of a deeper grey than the sky. It is a remarkably
handsome mountain, sufficiently lofty to be imposing, rising out
of an clevated country, the slope of which, upward to the base of
the mountain, though imperceptible, is really considerable; and
it is surrounded by lesser hills of just sufficient elevation to set it
off. The atmosphere, too, of these regions is peculiarly favourable
for views it is very dry at this season; but still the hills are
clearly defined, without the harsh outlines so characteristic of a
moist air. The skies are bright, the sun powerful; and there is
an almost imperceptible haze that seems to soften the landscape,
and keep every object in true perspective.
:
Our route led towards the picturesque hills and valleys in front.
The rocks were all hornblende and micaceous schist, cut through
by trap-dykes, while great crumbling masses (or bosses) of quartz
protruded through the soil. The stratified rocks were often
exposed, pitched up at various inclinations; they were frequently
white with effloresced, salts, which entering largely into their com-
position tended to hasten their decomposition, and being ob-
noxious to vegetation, rendered the sterile soil more hungry still.
There was little cultivation, and that little of the most wretched
kind; even rice-fields were few and scattered; there was no corn,
or gram (Ervum Lens), no Castor-oil, no Poppy, Cotton, Safflower,
or other crops of the richer soils that flank the Ganges and
Hoogly; a very little Sugar cane, Dhal (Cajana), Mustard, Lin-
་
ΤΟ
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
seed, and Rape, the latter three cultivated for their oil. Hardly
a Palm was to be seen; and it was seldom that the cottages could
boast of a Banana, Tamarind, Orange, Cocoa-nut or Date. The
Mahowa (Bassia latifolia) and Mango were the commonest trees.
There being no Kunker in the soil here, the roads were mended
with angular quartz, much to the elephants' annoyance.
We dismounted where some very micaceous stratified rock
cropped out, powdered with a saline efflorescence. Jujubes
(Zizyphus) prevailed, with the Carissa carandas (in fruit), a shrub
belonging to the usually poisonous family of Dog-banes (Apo-
cynea); its berries make good tarts, and the plant itself forms
tolerable hedges.
The country around Fitcoree is rather pretty, the hills covered
with bamboo and brushwood, and as usual, rising rather suddenly
from the elevated plains. The jungle affords shelter to a few
bears and tigers, jackals in abundance, and occasionally foxes ;
the birds seen are chiefly pigeons. Insects are very scarce; those
of the locust tribe being most prevalent, indicative of a dry
climate.
The temperature at 3 A.M. was 65°; at 3 P.M. 82°; and at 10
P.M., 68°, from which there was no great variation during the
whole time we spent at these elevations. The clouds were rare,
and always light and high, except a little fleecy spot of vapour
condensed close to the summit of Paras-nath. Though the
nights were clear and starlight, no dew was deposited, owing to
the great dryness of the air. On one occasion, this drought was
so great during the passage of a hot wind, that at night I observed
the wet-bulb thermometer to stand 20° below the temperature of
the air, which was 66°; this indicated a dew-point of 114°, or 54
below the air, and a saturation-point of o'146; there being only
0102 grains of vapour per cubic foot of air, which latter was
loaded with dust. The little moisture suspended in the atmo-
sphere is often seen to be condensed in a thin belt of vapour, at
a considerable distance above the dry surface of the earth, thus
* An impure carbonate of soda. This carth is thrown into clay vessels with
water, which, after dissolving the soda, is allowed to evaporate, when the
remainder is collected, and found to contain so much silica as to be capable of
being fused into glass. Dr. Royle mentions this curious fact (Essay on the
Arts and Manufactures of India, read before the Society of Arts, February 18,
1852), in illustration of the probably early epoch at which the natives of
British India were acquainted with the art of making glass. More complicated
processes are employed, and have been from a very early period, in other parts
of the continent,
}
CLIMATE OF HILLS.
intercepting the radiation of heat from the latter to the clear sky
above. Such strata may be observed, crossing the hills in ribbon-
like masses, though not so clearly on this elevated region as on
the plains bounding the lower course of the Soane, where the
vapour is more dense, the hills more scattered, and the whole
atmosphere more humid. During the ten days I spent amongst
the hills I saw but one cloudy sunrise, whereas below, whether at
Calcutta, or on the banks of the Soane, the sun always rose
behind a dense fog-bank.
At 9 A.M. the black-bulb thermometer rose in the sun to 130°,
The morning observation before 10 or II A.M. always gives a
higher result than at noon, though the sun's declination is so
considerably less, and in the hottest part of the day it is lower
still (3 P.M. 109°), an effect no doubt due to the vapours raised
by the sun, and which equally interfere with the photometer
observations. The. N.W. winds invariably rise at about 9 A.M.
and blow with increasing strength till sunset; they are due to the
rarefaction of the air over the heated ground, and being loaded
with dust, the temperature of the atmosphere is hence raised by
the heated particles. The increased temperature of the afternoon
is therefore not so much due to the accumulation of caloric from
the sun's rays, as to the passage of a heated current of air derived
from the much hotter regions to the westward. It would be
interesting to know how far this N.W. diurnal tide extends; also
the rate at which it gathers moisture in its progress over the damp
regions of the Sunderbunds. Its excessive dryness in N.W.
India approaches that of the African and Australian deserts.
On the 2nd of February we proceeded to Tofe-Choney, the
hills increasing in height to nearly 1,000 feet, and the country
becoming more picturesque. We passed some tanks covered
with Villarsia, and frequented by flocks of white egrets. The
existence of artificial tanks so near a lofty mountain, from whose
sides innumerable water-courses descend, indicates the great
natural dryness of the country during one season of the year.
The hills and valleys were richer than I expected, though far from
luxuriant. A fine Nauclea is a common shady tree, and Bignonia
indica, now leafless, but with immense pods hanging from the
branches. Acanthaceae is the prevalent natural order, consisting
of gay-flowered Eranthemums, Ruellias, Barlerias, and such
hothouse favourites.¹
II
Other plants gathered here, and very typical of the Flora of this dry region,
were Linum trigynum, Feronia elephantum, Egle marmelos, Helicteres Asoca,
Abrus precatorius, Flemingia; various Desmodia, Rhynchosiæ, Glycine, and

12
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
This being the most convenient station whence to ascend
Paras-nath, we started at 6 A. M. for the village of Maddaobund, at
the north base of the mountain,, or opposite side from that on
which the grand trunk-road runs. After following the latter for a
few miles to the west, we took a path through beautifully wooded
plains, with scattered trees of the Mahowa (Bassia latifolia),
resembling good oaks: the natives distil a kind of arrack from its
fleshy flowers, which are also eaten raw. The seeds, too, yield a
WWWYMPER
p
Suurtels
OLD TAMARIND TREES.
concrete oil, by expression, which is used for lamps and occasion-
ally for frying.
Some villages at the west base of the mountain occupy a better
soil, and are surrounded with richer cultivation; palms, mangos,
and the tamarind, the first and last rare features in this part of
Bengal, appeared to be common, with fields of rice and broad
Grislea tomentosa very abundant, Conocarpus latifolius, Loranthus longiflorus,
and another species; Phyllanthus Emblica, various Convolvuli, Cuscuta, and
several herbaceous Composita.
Jung'2
w.
PARÁS-NATH MOUNTAİN.
acres of flax and rape, through the latter of which the blue
Orobanche indica swarmed. The short route to Maddaobund,
through narrow rocky valleys, was impracticable for the elephants,
and we had to make a very considerable détour, only reaching
that village at 2 P.M. All the hill people we observed were a fine-
looking athletic race; they disclaimed the tiger being a neighbour,
which every palkee-bearer along the road declares to carry off the
torch-bearers, torch and all. Bears they said were scarce, and all
other wild animals, but a natural jealousy of Europeans often
leads the natives to deny the existence of what they know to be
an attraction to the proverbially sporting Englishman.
The site of Maddaobund, elevated 1,230 feet, in a clearance of
the forest, and the appearance of the snow-white domes and
bannerets of its temples through the fine trees by which it is
surrounded, are very beautiful. Though several hundred feet
above any point we had hitherto reached, the situation is so
sheltered that the tamarind, peepul, and banyan trees are superb.
A fine specimen of the latter stands at the entrance to the village,
not a broad-headed tree, as is usual in the prime of its existence,
but a mass of trunks irregularly throwing out immense branches
in a most picturesque manner; the original trunk is apparently
gone, and the principal mass of root stems is fenced in. This,
with two magnificent tamarinds, forms a grand clump. The
ascent of the mountain is immediately from the village up a path-
way worn by the feet of many a pilgrim from the most remote
parts of India.
Paras-nath is a mountain of peculiar sanctity, to which circum-
stance is to be attributed the flourishing state of Maddaobund.
The name is that of the twenty-third incarnation of Jinna
(Sanscrit "Conqueror "), who was born at Benares, lived one
hundred years, and was buried on this mountain, which is the
eastern metropolis of Jain worship, as Mount Aboo is the western
(where are their. libraries and most splendid temples). The
origin of the Jain sect is obscure, though its rise appears to
correspond with the wreck of Boodhism throughout India in the
eleventh century. The Jains form in some sort a transition-sect
between Boodhists and Hindoos, differing from the former in
acknowledging castes, and from both in their worship of Paras-
nath's foot, instead of that of Munja-gosha of the Boodhs, or
Vishnoo's of the Hindoos. As a sect of Boodhists their religion
is considered pure, and free from the obscenities so conspicuous
in Hindoo worship; whilst, in fact, perhaps the reverse is the
case; but the symbols are fewer, and indeed almost confined to
-
iz
14
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
the feet of Paras-nath, and the priests jealously conceal their
esoteric doctrines.
The temples, though small, are well built, and carefully kept.
No persuasion could induce the Brahmins to allow us to procced
beyond the vestibule without taking off our shoes, to which we
were not inclined to consent. The bazaar was for so small a
village large, and crowded to excess with natives of all castes,
colours, and provinces of India, very many from the extreme W.
and N.W., Rajpootana, the Madras Presidency, and Central India.
Numbers had come in good cars, well attended, and appeared
men of wealth and consequence; while the quantities of con-
veyances of all sorts standing about rather reminded me of an
election, than of anything I had seen in India.
The natives of the place were a more Negro-looking race than
the Bengalees to whom I had previously been accustomed; and
the curiosity and astonishment they displayed at seeing (probably
many of them for the first time) a party of Englishmen, were
sufficiently amusing. Our coolies with provisions not having
come up, and it being two o'clock in the afternoon, I having had
no breakfast, and being ignorant of the exclusively Jain population
of the village, sent my servant to the bazaar, for some fowls and
eggs; but he was mobbed for asking for these articles, and
parched rice, beaten flat, with some coarse sugar, was all I could
obtain; together with sweetmeats so odiously flavoured with various
herbs, and sullied with such impurities, that we quickly made them
over to the elephants.
Not being able to ascend the mountain and return in one day,
Mr. Williams and his party went back to the road, leaving Mr.
Haddon and myself, who took up our quarters under a tamarind-
tree.
In the evening a very gaudy poojah was performed. The car,
filled with idols, was covered with gilding and silk, and drawn by
noble bulls, festooned and garlanded. A procession was formed.
in front; and it opened into an avenue, up and down which gaily
dressed dancing-boys paced or danced, shaking castanets, the
attendant worshippers singing in discordant voices, beating tom-
toms, cymbals, &c. Images (of Boodh apparently) abounded on
the car, in front of which a child was placed. The throng of
natives was very great and perfectly orderly, indeed, sufficiently
apathetic they were remarkably civil in explaining what they
understood of their own worship.
At 2 P.M., the thermometer was only 65°, though the day was
fine, a strong haze obstructing the sun's rays; at 6 P.M., 58°; at
+
PARAS-NATH MOUNTAIN.
15
9 P.M., 56°, and the grass cooled to 49°. Still there was no dew,
though the night was starlight.
Having provided doolies, or little bamboo chairs slung on four
men's shoulders, in which I put my papers and boxes, we next
morning commenced the ascent; at first through woods of the
common trees, with large clumps of bamboo, over slaty rocks of
gneiss, much inclined and sloping away from the mountain. The
view from a ridge 500 feet high was superb, of the village, and
its white domes half buried in the forest below, the latter of which
continued in sight for many miles to the northward. Descending
to a valley some ferns were met with, and a more luxuriant vegeta-
tion, especially of Urticea. Wild bananas formed a beautiful,
and to me novel feature in the woods.
The conical hills of the white ants were very abundant. The
structure appears to me not an independent one, but the débris
of clumps of bamboos, or of the trunks of large trees, which
these insects have destroyed. As they work up a tree from the
ground, they coat the bark with particles of sand glued together,
carrying up this artificial sheath or covered way as they ascend.
A clump of bamboos is thus speedily killed; when the dead
stems fall away, leaving the mass of stumps coated with sand,
which the action of the weather soon fashions into a cone of
earthy matter.
Ascending again, the path strikes up the hill, through a thick
forest of Sal (Vateria robusta) and other trees, spanned with
cables of scandent Bauhinia stems. At about 3,000 feet above
the sea, the vegetation becomes more luxuriant, and by a little
stream I collected five species of ferns and some mosses-all in
a dry state, however. Still higher, Clematis, Thalictrum, and an
increased number of grasses are seen; with bushes of Verbenaceæ
and Composite. The white ant apparently does not enter this
cooler region. At 3,500 feet the vegetation again changes, the
trees all become gnarled and scattered; and as the dampness
also increases, more mosses and ferns appear. We emerged from
the forest at the foot of the great ridge of rocky peaks, stretching
E. and W. three or four miles. Abundance of a species of ber-
berry and an Osbeckia marked the change in the vegetation most
decidedly, and were frequent over the whole summit, with coarse
grasses, and various bushes.
At noon we reached the saddle of the crest (alt. 4,230 feet),
where was a small temple, one of five or six which occupy various
prominences of the ridge. The wind, N.W., was cold, the temp.
56°. The view was beautiful, but the atmosphere too hazy: to
16
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
;
the north were ranges of low wooded hills, and the course of the
Barakah and Adji rivers; to the south lay a flatter country, with
lower ranges, and the Damooda river, its all but waterless bed
snowy-white from the exposed granite blocks with which its course
is strewn. East and west the several sharp ridges of the mountain
itself are seen; the western considerably the highest. Immediately
below, the mountain flanks appear clothed with impenetrable
forest, here and there interrupted by rocky eminences, while to
the north the grand trunk road shoots across the plains, like a
white thread, as straight as an arrow, spanning here and there the
beds of the mountain torrents.
On the south side the vegetation was more luxuriant than on
the north, though, from the heat of the sun, the reverse might
have been expected. This is owing partly to the curve taken by
the ridge being open to the south, and partly to the winds from
that quarter being the moist ones. Accordingly, trees which I had
left 3,000 feet below in the north ascent, here ascended to near
the summit, such as figs and bananas. A short-stemmed palm
(Phanix) was tolerably abundant, and a small tree (Pterospermum)
on which a species of grass grew epiphytically; forming a curious.
feature in the landscape.
The situation of the principal temple is very fine, below the
saddle in a hollow facing the south, surrounded by jungles of
plantain and banyan. It is small, and contains little worthy of
notice but the sculptured feet of Paras-nath, and some marble
Boodh idols; cross-legged figures with crisp hair and the Brah-
minical cord. These, a leper covered with ashes in the vestibule,
and an officiating priest, were all we saw. Pilgrims were seen on
various parts of the mountain in very considerable numbers,
passing from one temple to another, and generally leaving a few
grains of dry rice at each; the rich and lame were carried in
chairs, the poorer walked.
The culminant rocks are very dry, but in the rains may possess
many curious plants; a fine Kalanchoe was common, with the
berberry, a beautiful Indigofera, and various other shrubs; a
Bolbophyllum grew on the rocks, with a small Begonia, and some
ferns. There were no birds, and very few insects, a beautiful
small Pontia being the only butterfly. The striped squirrel was
very busy amongst the rocks; and I saw a few mice, and the traces
of bears.
At 3 P.M., the temperature was 54°, and the air deliciously cool
and pleasant. I tried to reach the western peak (perhaps 300 feet
above the saddle), by keeping along the ridge, but was cut off by
PARAS-NATH MOUNTAIN.
precipices, and ere I could retrace my steps it was time to descend.
This I was glad to do in a doolie, and I was carried to the bottom,
with only one short rest, in an hour and three-quarters. The
descent was very steep the whole way, partly down steps of sharp
rock, where one of the men cut his foot severely. The pathway
at the bottom was lined for nearly a quarter of a mile with sick,
halt, maimed, lame, and blind beggars, awaiting our descent.
was truly a fearful sight, especially the lepers, and numerous un-
happy victims to elephantiasis.
It
Though the botany of Paras-nath proved interesting, its elevation
was not accompanied by such a change from the flora of its base
as I had expected. This is no doubt due to its dry climate and
sterile soil; characters which it shares with the extensive elevated
area of which it forms a part, and upon which I could not detect
above 300 species of plants during my journey. Yet, that the
atmosphere at the summit is more damp as well as cooler than at
the base, is proved as well by the observations as by the vegeta-
tion; and in some respects, as the increased proportion of
ferns, additional epiphytal orchideous plants, Begonias, and other
species showed, its top supported a more tropical flora than its
base.
17
* Of plants eminently typical of a moister atmosphere, I may mention the
genera Bolbophyllum, Begonia, Eginetia, Disporum, Roxburghia, Panax,
Eugenia, Myrsine, Shorea, Millettia, ferns, mosses, and foliaceous lichens;
which appeared in strange association with such dry-climate genera as Kalan-
choe, Pterospermum, and the dwarf-palm, Phonix. Add to this list the Ber-
beris asiatica, Clematis nutans, Thalictrum glyphocarpum, 27 grasses, Cardamine,
&c., and the mountain top presents a mixture of the plants of a damp hot, a
dry hot, and of a temperate climate, in fairly balanced proportions. The prime
elements of a tropical flora were however wholly wanting on Paras-nath, where
are neither Peppers, Pothos, Arum, tall or climbing palms, tree-ferns, Guttiferi,
vines, or laurels.
3
18
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
CHAPTER II.
Doomree-Vegetation of table-land-Lieutenant Beadle-Birds-Hot springs
of Soorujkoond-Plants near them-Shells in them--Cholera-tree-
Olibanum-Palms, form of-Dunwah Pass-Trees, native and planted-
Wild peacock-Poppy fields-Geography and geology of Behar and
Central India-Toddy-palm-Ground, temperature of Barroon-Tem-
perature of plants-Lizard-Cross the Soane-Sand, ripple-marks on-
Kymore hills-Ground, temperature of--Limestone-Rotas fort and
palace-Nitrate of lime-Change of climate-Lime stalagmites, enclosing
leaves--Fall of Soane--Spiders, &c.-Scenery and natural history of
upper Soane valley-Hardwickia binata-Bhel fruit-Dust-storm-Alli-
gator-Catechu-Cochlospermum-Leaf-bellows-Scorpions-Tortoises―
J
Tag
Florican-Limestone spheres Coles-Tiger-hunt-Robbery.
In the evening we returned to our tamarind-tree, and the next
morning regained the trunk road, following it to the dawk bun-
galow of Doomree. On the way I found the Casalpinia panicu-
lata, a magnificent climber, festooning the trees with its dark
glossy foliage and gorgeous racemes of orange blossoms. Reced-
ing from the mountain, the country again became barren: at
Doomree the hills were of crystalline rocks, chiefly quartz and
gneiss; no palms or large trees of any kind appeared. The
spear-grass abounded, and a detestable nuisance it was, its long
awns and husked seed working through trousers and stock-
ings.
Balanites was not uncommon, forming a low thorny bush, with
Agle marmelos and Feronia elephantum. Having rested the tired
elephant, we pushed on in the evening to the next stage, Baghoda,
arriving there at 3 A.M., and after a few hours' rest I walked to
the bungalow of Lieutenant Beadle, the surveyor of roads, sixteen
miles further.
The country around Baghoda is still very barren, but improves
considerably in going westward, the ground becoming hilly, and
the road winding through prettily wooded valleys, and rising
gradually to 1,446 feet. Nauclea cordifolia, a tree resembling a
young sycamore, is very common; with the Semul (Bombax), a
very striking tree from its buttressed trunk and gaudy scarlet
flowers, swarming with birds, which feed from its honeyed
blossoms.
At 10 A.M. the sun became uncomfortably hot, the thermometer
being 77°, and the black-bulb thermometer 137°. I had lost my
hat, and possessed no substitute but a silken nightcap; so I had
to tie a handkerchief over my head, to the astonishment of the
BELCUPPE. HOT SPRINGS.
passers-by. Holding my head down, I had little source of amuse-
ment but reading the foot-marks on the road; and these were
strangely diversified to an English eye. Those of the elephant,
camel, buffalo and bullock, horse, ass, pony, dog, goat, sheep
and kid, lizard, wild-cat and pigeon, with men, women, and
children's feet, naked and shod, were all recognisable.
•
19
It was noon ere I arrived at Lieutenant Beadle's, at Belcuppe
(alt. 1,219 feet), glad enough of the hearty welcome I received,
being very hot, dusty, and hungry. The country about his bun-
galow is very pretty, from the number of wooded hills and large
trees, especially of banyan and peepul, noble oak-like Mahowa
(Bassia), Nauclea, Mango, and Ficus infectoria. These are all
scattered, however, and do not form forest, such as in a stunted
form clothes the hills, consisting of Diospyros, Terminalia,
Gmelina, Nauclea parvifolia, Buchanania, &c. The rocks are
still hornblende-schist and granite, with a covering of alluvium,
full of quartz pebbles. Insects and birds are numerous, the
latter consisting of jays, crows, doves, sparrows, and maina
(Pastor); also the Phonicophaus tristis (“Mahoka" of the
natives), with a note like that of the English cuckoo, as heard
late in the season.
I remained two days with Lieutenant Beadle, enjoying in his
society several excursions to the hot springs, &c. These springs
(called Soorujkoond) are situated close to the road, near the
mouth of a valley, in a remarkably pretty spot. They are, of
course, objects of worship; and a ruined temple stands close.
behind them, with three very conspicuous trees-a peepul, a
banyan, and a white, thick-stemmed, leafless Sterculia, whose
branches bore dense clusters of greenish fœtid flowers. The hot
springs are four in number, and rise in as many ruined brick
tanks about two yards across. Another tank, fed by a cold
spring, about twice that size, flows between two of the hot, only
two or three paces distant from one of the latter on either hand.
All burst through the gneiss rocks, meet in one stream after a
few yards, and are conducted by bricked canals to a pool of
cold water, about eighty yards off.
The temperatures of the hot springs were respectively 169°,
170°, 173°, and 190°; of the cold, 84° at 4 P.M., and 75° at
7 A.M. the following morning. The hottest is the middle of the
five. The water of the cold spring is sweet but not good, and
emits gaseous bubbles; it was covered with a green floating
Conferva. Of the four hot springs, the most copious is about
three feet deep, bubbles constantly, boils eggs, and though
20
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
brilliantly clear, has an exceedingly nauseous taste. This and
the other warm ones cover the bricks and surrounding rocks with
a thick incrustation of salts.
Confervæ abound in the warm stream from the springs, and
two species, one ochreous brown, and the other green, occur on
the margins of the tanks themselves, and in the hottest water;
the brown is the best Salamander, and forms a belt in deeper
water than the green; both appear in broad luxuriant strata,
wherever the temp. is cooled down to 168°, and as low as 90°.
Of flowering plants, three showed in an eminent degree a con-
stitution capable of resisting the heat, if not a predilection for it;
these were all Cyperaceae, a Cyperus and an Eleocharis, having
their roots in water of 100°, and where they are probably exposed
to greater heat, and a Fimbristylis at 98°; all were very luxuriant.
From the edges of the four hot springs I gathered sixteen species.
of flowering plants, and from the cold tank five, which did not
grow in the hot. A water-beetle, Coylmbetes (?) and Notonecta,
abounded in water at 112°, with quantities of dead molluscs; frogs
were very lively, with live molluscs, at 90°, and with various other
water-beetles. Having no means of detecting the salts of this
water, I bottled some for future analysis.
On the following day I botanised in the neighbourhood, with
but poor success. An oblique-leaved fig climbs the other trees,
and generally strangles them: two epiphytal Orchidea also occur
on the latter, Vanda Roxburghii and an Oberonia. Dodders
(Cuscuta) of two species, and Cassytha, swarm over and conceal
the bushes with their yellow thread-like stems.
I left Belcuppe on the 8th of February, following Mr.
Williams' camp. The morning was clear and cold, the tempera-
ture only 56°. We crossed the nearly dry broad bed of the
Burkutta river, a noble stream during the rains, carrying along
huge boulders of granite and gneiss. Near this I passed the
Cholera-tree, a famous peepul by the roadside, są called from a
detachment of infantry having been attacked and decimated at
the spot by that fell disease; it is covered with inscriptions and
votive tokens in the shape of rags, &c. We continued to ascend
to 1,360 feet, where I came upon a small forest of the Indian
Olibanum (Boswellia thurifera), conspicuous from its pale bark,
and spreading curved branches, leafy at their tips; its general
appearance is a good deal like that of the mountain ash. The
gum, celebrated throughout the East, was flowing abundantly
from the trunk, very fragrant and transparent. The ground was
dry, sterile, and rocky; kunker, the curious formation mentioned
་
N
21
THE DUNWAH PASS.
at p. 8, appears in the alluvium, which I had not elsewhere seen
at this elevation.
Descending to the village of Durshoot, we lost sight of the
Boswellia, and came upon a magnificent tope of mango, banyan,
and peepul, so far superior to anything hitherto met with, that
we were glad to choose such a pleasant halting-place for break-
fast. There are a few lofty fan-palms here too, great rarities in
this soil and elevation: one, about eighty feet high, towered
above some wretched hovels, displaying the curious proportions
of this tribe of palms: first, a short cone, tapering to one-third
the height of the stem, the trunk then swelling to two-thirds, and
again tapering to the crown. Beyond this, the country again
ascends to Burree (alt. 1,169 feet), another dawk bungalow, a
barren place, which we left on the following morning.
So little was there to observe, that I again amused myself by
watching footsteps, the precision of which in the sandy soil was
curious. Looking down from the elephant, I was interested by
seeing them all in relief, instead of depressed, the slanting rays of
the sun in front producing this kind of mirage. Before us rose
no more of those wooded hills that had been our companions
for the last 120 miles, the absence of which was a sign of the
nearly approaching termination of the great hilly plateau we had
been traversing for that distance.
Chorparun, at the top of the Dunwah pass, is situated on an
extended barren flat, 1,320 feet above the sea, and from it the
descent from the table-land to the level of the Soane valley, a
little above that of the Ganges at Patna, is very sudden. The
road is carried zigzag down a rugged hill of gneiss, with a
descent of nearly 1,000 feet in six miles, of which 600 are ex-
ceedingly steep. The pass is well wooded, with abundance of
bamboo, Bombax, Cassia, Acacia, and Butea, with Calotropis,
the purple Mudar, a very handsome roadside plant, which I had
not seen before, but which, with the Argemone Mexicana, was to
be a companion for hundreds of miles farther. All the views in
the pass are very picturesque, though wanting in good foliage,
such as Ficus would afford, of which I did not see one tree.
Indeed the rarity of the genus (except F. infectoria) in the
native woods of these hills, is very remarkable. The banyan and
peepul always appear to be planted, as do the tamarind and
mango.
Dunwah, at the foot of the pass, is 620 feet above the sea, and
nearly 1,000 below the mean level of the highland I had been
traversing. Everything bears here a better aspect; the woods
22
HÌMALAYAN JOURNALS.
at the foot of the hills afforded many plants; the bamboo (B.
stricta) is green instead of yellow and white
instead of yellow and white; a little castor oil is
cultivated, and the Indian date (low and stunted) appears about
the cottages.
In the woods I heard and saw the wild peacock for the first
time. Its voice is not to be distinguished from that of the tame
bird in England, a curious instance of the perpetuation of
character under widely different circumstances, for the crow of
the wild jungle - fowl does not rival that of the farmyard
cock.
In the evening we left Dunwah for Barah (alt. 480 feet), passing
over very barren soil, covered with low jungle, the original woods
having apparently been cut for fuel. Our elephant, a timid
animal, came on a drove of camels in the dark by the roadside,
and in his alarm insisted on doing battle, tearing through the
thorny jungle, regardless of the mahout, and still more of me:
the uproar raised by the camel-drivers was ridiculous, and the
danger to my barometer imminent.
+
We proceeded on the 11th of February to Sheergotty, where
Mr. Williams and his camp were awaiting our arrival. Wherever
cultivation appeared the crops were tolerably luxuriant, but a
great deal of the country yielded scarcely half-a-dozen kinds of
plants to any ten square yards of ground. The most prevalent
were Carissa carandas, Olax scandens, two Zizyphi, and the ever-
present Acacia Catechu. The climate is, however, warmer and
much moister, for I here observed dew to be formed, which I
afterwards found to be usual on the low grounds. Its presence
is due to the increased amount of vapour in the atmosphere, the
amount of radiation, as shown by the cooling of the earth
and vegetation, being the same in the elevated plain and lower
levels.
The good soil was very richly cultivated with poppy (which I
had not seen before), sugar-cane, wheat, barley, mustard, rape,
and flax. At a distance a field of poppies looks like a green
lake, studded with white water-lilies. The houses, too, are better,
and have tiled roofs; while, in such situations, the road is lined
with trees.
A retrospect of the ground passed over is unsatisfactory, as far
as botany is concerned, except as showing how potent are the
effects of a dry soil and climate during one season of the year
upon a vegetation which has no desert types. During the rains.
probably many more species would be obtained, for of annuals I
scarcely found twenty. At that season, however, the jungles of
BEHAR HILLS AND RIVERS.
23
Behar and Birbhoom, though far from tropically luxuriant, are
singularly unhealthy.
In a geographical point of view the range of hills between
Burdwan and the Soane is interesting, as being the north-east
continuation of a chain which crosses the broadest part of the
peninsula of India, from the Gulf of Cambay to the junction of
the Ganges and Hoogly at Rajmahal. This range runs south
of the Soane and Kymore, which it meets I believe at Omer-
kuntuk; the granite of this and the sandstone of the other,
being there both overlaid with trap. Further west again, the
ranges separate, the southern still betraying a nucleus of granite,
forming the Satpur range, which divides the valley of the Taptee
from that of the Nerbudda. The Paras-nath range is, though the
most difficult of definition, the longer of the two parallel ranges ;
the Vindhya continued as the Kymore, terminating abruptly at
the Fort of Chunar on the Ganges. The general and geological
features of the two, especially along their eastern course, are very
different. This consists of metamorphic gneiss, in various highly
inclined beds, through which granite hills protrude, the loftiest of
which is Paras-nath. The north-east Vindhya (called Kymore),
on the other hand, consists of nearly horizontal beds of sand-
stone, overlying inclined beds of non-fossiliferous limestone.
Between the latter and the Paras-nath gneiss, come (in order of
superposition) shivered and undulating strata of metamorphic
quartz, hornstone, hornstone-porphyry, jaspers, &c. These are
thrown up, by greenstone I believe, along the north and north-
west boundary of the gneiss range, and are to be recognised as
forming the rocks of Colgong, of Sultangunj, and of Monghyr, on
the Ganges, as also various detached hills near Gyah, and along
the upper course of the Soane. From these are derived the
beautiful agates and cornelians, so famous under the name of
Soane pebbles, and they are equally common on the Curruckpore
range, as on the south bank of the Soane, so much so in the
former position as to have been used in the decoration of the
walls of the now ruined palaces near Bhagulpore.
In the route I had taken I had crossed the eastern extremity
alone of the range, commencing with a very gradual ascent, over
the alluvial plains of the west bank of the Hoogly, then over
laterite, succeeded by sandstone of the Indian coal era, which is
succeeded by the granite table-land, properly so called. A little
beyond the coal-fields, the table-land reaches an average height
of 1,130 feet, which is continued for upwards of 100 miles, to the
A lofty mountain said to be 7,000-8,000 fect high.
24
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
I
Dunwah pass. Here the descent is sudden to plains, which, con-
tinuous with those of the Ganges, run up the Soane till beyond
Rotasghur. Except for the occasional ridges of metamorphic
rocks mentioned above, and some hills of intruded greenstone,
the lower plain is stoneless, its subjacent rocks being covered with
a thicker stratum of the same alluvium which is thinly spread over
the higher table-land above. This range is of great interest from
its being the source of many important rivers, and of all those
which water the country between the Soane, Hoogly, and Ganges,
as well as from its deflecting the course of the latter river, which
washes its base at Rajmahal, and forcing it to take a sinuous
course to the sea. In its climate and botany it differs equally
from the Gangetic plains to the north, and from the hot, damp,
and exuberant forests of Orissa to the south. Nor are its geo-
logical features less different, or its concomitant and in part
resultant characters of agriculture and native population. Still
further west, the great rivers of the peninsula have their origin, the
Nerbudda and Taptee flowing west to the gulf of Cambay, the
Cane to the Jumna, the Soane to the Ganges, and the northern
feeders of the Godavery to the Bay of Bengal.
On the 12th of February we left Sheergotty (alt. 463 feet),
crossing some small streams, which, like all else seen since leaving
the Dunwah Pass, flow N. to the Ganges. Between Sheergotty
and the Soane occur many of the isolated hills of greenstone
mentioned above, better known to the traveller from having been
telegraphic stations. Some are much impregnated with iron, and
whether for their colour, the curious outlines of many, or their
position, form quaint, and in some cases picturesque features in
the otherwise tame landscape.
The road being highly cultivated, and the Date-palm becoming
more abundant, we encamped in a grove of these trees. All
were curiously distorted; the trunks growing zigzag, from the
practice of yearly tapping the alternate sides for toddy. The
incision is just below the crown, and slopes upwards and inwards:
a vessel is hung below the wound, and the juice conducted into
it by a little piece of bamboo. This operation spoils the fruit,
which, though eaten, is small, and much inferior to the African
date.
The chief rivers from this, the great water-shed of Western Bengal, flow
north-west and south-east; a few comparatively insignificant streams running
north to the Ganges. Amongst the former are the Rheru, the Kunner, and
the Coyle, which contribute to the Soane; amongst the latter, the Damooda,
Adji, and Barakah, flow into the Hoogly, and the Subunrika, Brahminee, and
Mahanuddee into the Bay of Bengal.

CROSSING THE SOANE, WITH THE KYMORE HILLS IN THE DISTANCE.
TEMPERATURE OF SOIL. SOANE RIVER.
25
At Mudunpore (alt. 440 feet) a thermometer, sunk 3 feet 4
inches in the soil, maintained a constant temperature of 711,
that of the air varying from 77, at 3 P.M., to 62 at daylight the
following morning; when we moved on to Nourunga (alt. 340
feet), where I bored to 3 feet 8 inches with a heavy iron jumper
through an alluvium of such excessive tenacity, that eight natives
were employed for four hours in the operation. In both this and
another hole, 4 feet 8 inches, the temperature was 72° at 10 P.M.
and on the following morning 71° in the deepest hole, and 70°
in the shallower: that of the external air varied from 71° at 3
P.M., to 57° at daylight on the following morning. At the latter
time I took the temperature of the earth near the surface, which
showed,
Be
Surface
1 inch
2
""
2 inches
5
""
53°
57
58
•
4 inches
7
""
The following day we marched to Barroon (alt. 345 feet) on the
alluvial banks of the Soane, crossing a deep stream by a pretty
suspension bridge, of which the piers were visible two miles off,
so level is the road. The Soane is here three miles wide, its
nearly dry bed being a desert of sand, resembling a vast arm of
the sea when the tide is out: the banks are very barren, with no
trees near, and but very few in the distance. The houses were
scarcely visible on the opposite side, behind which the Kymore
mountains rise. The Soane is a classical river, being now satis-
factorily identified with the Eranoboas of the ancients.¹
The alluvium is here cut into a cliff, ten or twelve feet above
the bed of the river, and against it the sand is blown in naked
dunes. At 2 P.M., the surface-sand was heated to 110° where
sheltered from the wind, and 104° in the open bed of the river.
To compare the rapidity and depth to which the heat is commu-
nicated by pure sand, and by the tough alluvium, I took the tem-
perature at some inches depth in both. That the alluvium absorbs
the heat better, and retains it longer, would appear from the
following, the only observations I could make, owing to the
tenacity of the soil.
2 P.M. Surface
104°
1
93
28 inches
88 Sand at this depth, 78°.
62°
64
5 A.M. Surface
:: 68 35
51°
•
The etymology of Eranoboas is undoubtedly Hierrinia Vahu (Sanskrit),
the golden-armed. Sona is also the Sanskrit for gold. The stream is cele-
brated for its agates (Soane pebbles), which are common, but gold is not now
obtained from it.
26
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Finding the fresh milky juice of Calotropis to be only 72°, 1
was curious to ascertain at what depth this temperature was to be
obtained in the sand of the river-bed, where the plant grew.
Surface
I inch
2
2
""
""
•
1043°
102
94
90
33 inches
15
""
""
•
85° Compact.
73 Wet.
72 Ditto.
The power this plant exercises of maintaining a low tempera-
ture of 72°, though the main portion which is subterraneous is
surrounded by a soiled heat to between 90° and 104°, is very re-
markable, and no doubt proximately due to the rapidity of
evaporation from the foliage, and consequent activity in the
circulation. Its exposed leaves maintained a temperature of 80°,
nearly 25° cooler than the similarly exposed sand and alluvium.
On the same night the leaves were cooled down to 54°, when the
sand had cooled to 51°. Before daylight the following morning
the sand had cooled to 43°, and the leaves of the Calotropis to
45°. I omitted to observe the temperature of the sap at the
latter time; but the sand at the same depth (15 inches) as that
at which its temperature and that of the plant agreed at mid-day
was 68°. And assuming this to be the heat of the plant, we find
that the leaves are heated by solar radiation during the day 8°,
and cooled by nocturnal radiation 221°.
Mr. Theobald (my companion in this and many other rambles)
pulled a lizard from a hole in the bank. Its throat was mottled
with scales of brown and yellow. Three ticks had fastened on it,
each of a size covering three or four scales: the first was yellow,
corresponding with the yellow colour of the animal's belly, where
it lodged; the second brown, from the lizard's head; but the
third, which was clinging to the parti-coloured scales of the neck,
had its body parti-coloured, the hues corresponding with the
individual scales which they covered. The adaptation of the
two first specimens in colour to the parts to which they adhered
is sufficiently remarkable; but the third case was most extra-
ordinary.
During the night of the 14th of February I observed a beautiful
display, apparently of the Aurora borealis, an account of which
will be found in the Appendix.
February 15.-Our passage through the Soane sands was very
tedious, though accomplished in excellent style, the elephants
pushing forward the heavy waggons of mining tools with their
foreheads. The wheels were sometimes buried to the axles in
CROSSING THE SOANE RİVER.
27
sand, and the draught bullocks were rather in the way than other-
wise.
The body of water over which we ferried was not above 80
yards wide. In the rains, when the whole space of three miles
is one rapid flood, 10 or 12 feet deep, charged with yellow sand,
this river must present an imposing spectacle. I walked across
the dry portion, observing the sand-waves, all ranged in one
direction, perpendicular to that of the prevailing wind, accurately
representing the undulations of the ocean, as seen from a mast-
head or high cliff. As the sand was finer or coarser, so did the
surface resemble a gentle ripple, or an ocean-swell. The progres-
sive motion of the waves was curious, and caused by the lighter
particles being blown over the ridges and filling up the hollows to
leeward. There were a few islets in the sand, a kind of oases of
mud and clay, in laminæ no thicker than paper, and these were
at once denizened by various weeds. Some large spots were
green with wheat and barley-crops, both suffering from smut.
We encamped close to the western shore, at the village of
Dearee (alt. 330 feet); it marks the termination of the Kymore
Hills, along whose S.E. bases our course now lay, as we here
quitted the grand trunk road for a rarely visited country.
On the 16th we marched south up the river to Tilotho (alt. 395
feet), through a rich and highly-cultivated country, covered with
indigo, cotton, sugar-cane, safflower, castor-oil, poppy, and various
grains. Dodders (Cuscuta) covered even tall trees with a golden
web, and the Capparis acuminata was in full flower along the road
side. Tilotho, a beautiful village, is situated in a superb grove of
Mango, Banyan, Peepul, Tamarind, and Bassia. The Date, or
toddy-palm, and fan-palm are very abundant and tall: each had a
pot hung under the crown. The natives climb these trunks with
a hoop or cord round the body and both ankles, and a bottle-
gourd or other vessel hanging round the neck to receive the juice
from the stock-bottle, in this aerial wine-cellar. These palms
were so lofty that the climbers, as they paused in their ascent to
gaze with wonder at our large retinue, resembled monkeys rather
than men. Both trees yield a toddy, but in this district they
stated that that from the Phenix (Date) alone ferments, and is
distilled; while in other parts of India the Borassus (fan-palm) is
chiefly employed. I walked to the hills, over a level cultivated
country interspersed with occasional belts of low wood; in which
the pensile nests of the weaver-bird were abundant, but generally
hanging out of reach, in prickly Acacias.
The hills here present a straight precipitous wall of horizontally
J
28
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
stratified sandstone, very like the rocks at the Cape of Good
Hope, with occasionally a shallow valley, and a slope of débris at
the base, densely clothed with dry jungle. The cliffs are about
1000 feet high, and the plants similar to those at the foot of Paras-
nath, but stunted: I climbed to the top, the latter part by steps
or ledges of sandstone. The summit was clothed with long grass,
trees of Diospyros and Terminalia, and here and there the Bos-
wellia. On the precipitous rocks the curious white-barked Ster-
culia fætida "flung its arms abroad," leafless, and looking as if
blasted by lightning.
A hole was sunk here again for the thermometers, and, as usual,
with great labour; the temperatures obtained were—
Air.
643°
58:30
This is a very great rise (of 4°) above any of those previously
obtained, and certainly indicates a much higher mean temperature
of the locality. I can only suppose it due to the radiation of heat
from the long range of sandstone cliff, exposed to the south,
which overlooks the flat whereon we were encamped, and which,
though four or five miles off, forms a very important feature. The
differences of temperature in the shade taken on this and the
other side of the river are 24° higher on this side.
4 feet 6 inches, under good shade of trees.
77°
76°
76°
9 P.M.
II P.M.
51 A.M.
On the 17th we marched to Akbarpore (alt. 400 feet), a village
overhung by the rocky precipice of Rotasghur, a spur of the Ky-
more, standing abruptly forward.
The range, in proceeding up the Soane valley, gradually
approaches the river, and beds of non-fossiliferous limestone are
seen protruding below the sandstone and occasionally rising, into
rounded hills, the paths upon which appear as white as do those
through the chalk districts of England. The overlying beds of
sandstone are nearly horizontal, or with a dip to the N.W.; the
subjacent ones of limestone dip at a greater angle. Passing
between the river and a detached conical hill of limestone, capped
with a flat mass of sandstone, the spur of Rotas broke suddenly
on the view, and very grand it was, quite realising my anticipa-
tions of the position of these eyrie-like hill-forts of India. To
the left of the spur winds the valley of the Soane, with low-wooded
hills on its opposite bank, and a higher range, connected with
that of Behar, in the distance. To the right, the hills sweep
round, forming an immense and beautifully wooded amphitheatre,
AKBARPORE. ROTAS.
about four miles deep, bounded with a continuation of the escarp-
ment. At the foot of the crowned spur is the village of Akbar-
pore, where we encamped in a Mango tope; it occupies some
pretty undulating limestone hills, amongst which several streams
flow from the amphitheatre to the Soane.
During our two days' stay here, I had the advantage of the
society of Mr. C. E. Davis, who was our guide during some
rambles in the neighbourhood, and to whose experience, founded
on the best habits of observation, I am indebted for much infor-
mation. At noon we started to ascend to the palace, on the top
of the spur.
On the way we passed a beautiful well, sixty feet
deep, and with a fine flight of steps to the bottom. Now neglected
and overgrown with flowering weeds and creepers, it afforded
me many of the plants I had only previously obtained in a
withered state; it was curious to observe there some of the
species of the hill-tops, whose seeds doubtless are scattered abun-
dantly over the surrounding plains, and only vegetate where they
find a coolness and moisture resembling that of the altitude they
elsewhere affect. A fine fig-tree growing out of the stone-work
spread its leafy green branches over the well mouth, which was
about twelve feet square; its roots assumed a singular form, en-
veloping two sides of the wall with a beautiful net-work, which, at
high-water mark (rainy season), abruptly divides into thousands of
little brushes, dipping into the water which they fringe. It was
a pretty cool place to descend to, from a temperature of 80°
above, to 74° at the bottom, where the water was 60°; and most
refreshing to look, either up the shaft to the green fig shadowing
the deep profound, or along the sloping steps through a vista of
flowering herbs and climbing plants, to the blue heaven of a
burning sky.
The ascent to Rotas is over the dry hills of limestone, covered
with a scrubby brushwood, to a crest where are the first rude and
ruined defences. The limestone is succeeded by the sandstone
cliff cut into steps, which led from ledge to ledge and gap to gap,
well guarded with walls and an archway of solid masonry.
Through this we passed on to the flat summit of the Kymore
hills, covered with grass and forest, intersected by paths in all
directions. The ascent is about 1,200 feet-a long pull in the
blazing sun of February. The turf consists chiefly of spear-grass
and Andropogon muricatus, the kuskus, which yields a favourite
fragrant oil, used as a medicine in India. The trees are of the
29
A
On the 24th of June, 1848, the Soane rose to an unprecedented height, and
laid this grove of Mangos three feet under water,
30
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
6
kinds mentioned before. A pretty octagonal summer-house, with
its roof supported by pillars, occupies one of the highest points
of the plateau, and commands a superb view of the scenery
before described. From this a walk of three miles leads through
the woods to the palace. The buildings are very extensive, and
though now ruinous, bear evidence of great beauty in the archi-
tecture: light galleries, supported by slender columns, long cool
arcades, screened squares and terraced walks, are the principal
features. The rooms open out upon flat roofs, commanding
views of the long endless table-land to the west, and a sheer
precipice of 1,000 feet on the other side, with the Soane, the
amphitheatre of hills, and the village of Akbarpore below.
This and Beejaghur, higher up the Soane, were amongst the
most recently reduced forts, and this was further the last of those
wrested from Baber in 1542. Some of the rooms are still habit-
able, but the greater part are ruinous, and covered with climbers,
both of wild flowers and of the naturalized garden plants of the
adjoining shrubbery; the Arbor-tristis, with Hibiscus, Abutilon,
&c., and above all, the little yellow-flowered Linaria ramosis-
sima, crawling over every ruined wall, as we see the walls of
our old English castles clothed with its congener of L. Cym-
balaria.
In the old dark stables I observed the soil to be covered with a
copious efflorescence of nitrate of lime, like soap-suds scattered
about.
I made Rotas Palace 1,490 feet above the sea, so that this
table-land is here only fifty feet higher than that I had crossed
on the grand trunk road, before descending at the Dunwah pass.
Its mean temperature is of course considerably (4°) below that of
the valley, but though so cool, ague prevail after the rains. The
extremes of temperature are less marked than in the valley, which
becomes excessively heated, and where hot winds sometimes last
for a week, blowing in furious gusts.
The climate of the whole neighbourhood has of late changed
materially; and the fall of rain has much diminished, consequent
on felling the forests; even within six years the hail-storms have
been far less frequent and violent. The air on the hills is highly
electrical, owing, no doubt, to the dryness of the atmosphere, and
to this the frequent recurrence of hail-storms may be due.
The zoology of these regions is tolerably copious, but little is
known of the natural history of a great part of the plateau; a
native tribe, prone to human sacrifices, is talked of. Tigers are
common, and bears are numerous; they have, besides, the leopard,
31
RIPPLE-MARKED SANDSTONE.
panther, viverine cat, and civet; and of the dog tribe the pariah,
jackal fox, and wild dog, called Koa. Deer are very numerous,
of six or seven kinds. A small alligator inhabits the hill streams,
said to be a very different animal from either of the Soane species.
During our descent we examined several instances of ripple-
mark (fossil waves' footsteps) in the sandstone; they resembled
the fluting of the Sigillaria stems, in the coal-measures, and
occurring as they did here, in sandstone, a little above great
beds of limestone, had been taken for such, and as indications of
coal.
On the following day we visited Rajghat, a steep ghat or pass
leading up the cliff to Rotas Palace, a little higher up the river.
We took the elephants to the mouth of the glen, where we dis-
mounted, and whence we followed a stream abounding in small
fish and aquatic insects (Dytisci and Gyrini), through a close
jungle, to the foot of the cliffs, where there are indications of
coal. The woods were full of monkeys, and amongst other
plants I observed Murraya exotica, but it was scarce. Though
the jungle was so dense, the woods were very dry, containing no
Palm, Aroidea, Peppers, Orchidea or Ferns. Here, at the foot of
the red cliffs, which towered imposingly above, as seen through
the tree tops, are several small seams of coaly matter in the
sandstone, with abundance of pyrites, sulphur, and copious efflor-
escences of salts of iron; but no coal. The springs from the
cliffs above are charged with lime, of which enormous tuff beds
are deposited on the sandstone, full of impressions of the leaves
and stems of the surrounding trees, which, however, I found it
very difficult to recognise, and could not help contrasting this.
circumstance with the fact that geologists, unskilled in botany, see
no difficulty in referring equally imperfect remains of extinct
vegetables to existing genera. In some parts of their course the
stream take up quantities of the efflorescence, which they scatter
over the sandstones in a singular manner.
At Akbarpore I had sunk two thermometers, one 4 feet 6
inches, the other 5 feet 6 inches; both invariably indicated 76°,
the air varying from 56° to 791°. Dew had formed every night
since leaving Dunwah, the grass being here cooled 12° below the
air.
On the 19th of February we marched up the Soane to Tura,
passing some low hills of limestone, between the cliffs of the
Kymore and the river. On the shaded river-banks grew abun-
dance of English genera-Cynoglossum, Veronica, Potentilla,
Ranunculus sceleratus, Rumex, several herbaceous Composite and
32
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Labiata; Tamarix formed a small bush in rocky hillocks in the
bed of the river, and in pools were several aquatic plants, Zan-
nichellia, Chara, a pretty little Vallisneria, and Potamogeton.
The Brahminee goose was common here, and we usually saw
in the morning immense flocks of wild geese overhead, migrating
northward.
Here I tried again the effect of solar and nocturnal radiation
on the sand, at different depths, not being able to do so on the
alluvium.
Noon, Temperature
of air, 87.
Surface 110°
I inch 102°
2 ditto 9310
Daylight of
following morning.
•
52°
55°
58°
Noon.
4 inches 84°
8 ditto 77 Sand wet.
16 ditto 76° ditto
•
Daylight.
67°
73° Wet
74°
From Tura our little army again crossed the Soane, the scarped
cliffs of the Kymore approaching close to the river on the west
side. The bed is very sandy, and about one mile and a half
across.
The elephants were employed again, as at Baroon, to push
the cart one of them had a bump in consequence, as large as a
child's head, just above the trunk, and bleeding much; but the
brave beast disregarded this, when the word of command was
given by his driver.
The stream was very narrow, but deep and rapid, obstructed
with beds of coarse agate, jasper, cornelian and chalcedony
pebbles. A clumsy boat took us across to the village of Soane-
pore, a wretched collection of hovels. The crops were thin and
poor, and I saw no palms or good trees. Squirrels, however,
abounded, and were busy laying up their stores; descending from
the trees, they scoured across a road to a field of tares, mounted
the hedge, took an observation, foraged and returned up the tree
with their booty, quickly descended, and repeated the operation of
reconnoitering and plundering.
The bed of the river is here considerably above that at Dearee,
where the mean of the observations with those of Baroon, made
it about 300 feet. The mean of those taken here and on the
opposite side, at Tura, gives about 400 feet, indicating a fall of
100 feet in only 40 miles.
Near this the sandy banks of the Soane were full of martins'
nests, each one containing a pair of eggs. The deserted ones
were literally crammed full of long-legged spiders (Opilio), which
could be raked out with a stick when they came pouring down
SOANE VALLEY.
33
the cliff like corn from a sack; the quantities are quite incon-
ceivable. I did not observe the martin feed on them.
The entomology here resembled that of Europe, more than İ
had expected in a tropical country, where predaceous beetles, at
least Carabidea and Staphylinidea, are generally considered rare.
The latter tribes swarmed under the clods, of many species but all
small, and so singularly active that I could not give the time to
collect many.
In the banks again, the round egg-like earthy
chrysalis of the Sphynx Alropos (?) and the many-celled nidus of
the leaf-cutter bee, were very common.
A large columnar Euphorbia (E. ligulata) is common all along
the Soane, and I observed it to be used everywhere for fencing.
I had not remarked the E. neriifolia ; and the E. tereticaulis had
been very rarely seen since leaving Calcutta. The Cactus is
nowhere found; it is abundant in many parts of Bengal, but cer-
tainly not indigenous.
From this place onwards up to the Soane, there was no road of
any kind, and we were compelled to be our own road engineers.
The sameness of the vegetation and lateness of the season made
me regret this the less, for I was disappointed in my anticipations.
of finding luxuriance and novelty in these wilds. Before us the
valley narrowed considerably, the forest became denser, the
country on the south side was broken with rounded hills, and on
the north the noble cliffs of the Kymore dipped down to the
river. The villages were smaller, more scattered and poverty-
stricken, with the Mahowa and Mango as the usual trees; the
banyan, peepul, and tamarind being rare. The natives are of an
aboriginal jungle race; and are tall, athletic, erect, much less
indolent and more spirited than the listless natives of the plains.
February 21.-Started at daylight: but so slow and difficult
was our progress through fields and woods, and across deep
gorges from the hills, that we only advanced five miles in the
day; the elephant's head too was aching too badly to let him
push, and the camel would not proceed when the draught was
not equal. What was worse, it was impossible to get the oxen to
pull together up the inclined planes we cut, except by placing a
man at the head of each of the six, eight, or ten in a team, and
simultaneously screwing round their tails; when one tortured
animal sometimes capsizes the vehicle. The small carts got on
better, though it was most nervous to see them rushing down the
steeps, especially those with our fragile instruments, &c.
Kosdera, where we halted, is a pretty place, elevated 440 feet,
with a broad stream from the hills flowing past it. These hills
4
34
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
P
!
are of limestone, and rounded, resting upon others of hornstone
and jasper. Following up the stream I came to some rapids,
where the stream is crossed by large beds of hornstone and
porphyry rocks, excessively hard, and pitched up at right angles,
or with a bold dip to the north. The number of strata was very
great, and only a few inches or even lines thick: they presented
all varieties of jasper, hornstone, and quartz of numerous colours,
with occasional seams of porphyry or breccia. The rocks were
elegantly fringed with a fern I had not hitherto seen, Polypodium
proliferum, which is the only species the Soane valley presents at
this season.
Returning over the hills, I found Hardwickia binata, a most
elegant leguminous tree, tall, erect, with an elongated coma, and
the branches pendulous. These trees grew in a shallow bed of
alluvium, enclosing abundance of agate pebbles and kunker, the
former derived from the quartzy strata above noticed.
On the 23rd and 24th we continued to follow up the Soane, first
to Panchadurma (alt. 490 feet), and thence to Pepura (alt. 587
feet), the country becoming densely wooded, very wild, and
picturesque, the woods being full of monkeys, parrots, peacocks,
hornbills, and wild animals. Strychnos potatorum, whose berries
are used to purify water, forms a dense foliaged tree, thirty to sixty
feet high, some individuals pale yellow, others deep green, both
in apparent health. Feronia Elephantum and Egle marmelos
were very abundant, with Sterculia, and the dwarf date-palm.
One of my carts was here hopelessly broken down; advancing
on the spokes instead of the tire of the wheels. By the banks of
a deep gully here the rocks are well exposed: they consist of soft
clay shales resting on the limestone, which is nearly horizontal ;
and this again, unconformably on the quartz and hornstone rocks,
which are confused, and tilted up at all angles.
A spur of the Kymore, like that of Rotas, here projects to the
bed of the river, and was blazing at night with the beacon-like
fires of the natives, lighted to scare the tigers and bears from the
spots where they cut wood and bamboo; they afforded a splendid
spectacle, the flames in some places leaping zig-zag from hill to
hill in front of us, and looking as if a gigantic letter W were
written in fire.
The night was bright and clear, with much lightning, the latter
attracted to the spur, and darting down as it were to mingle its
fire with that of the forest; so many flashes appeared to strike
The Bhel fruit, lately introduced into English medical practice, as an
astringent of great effect, in cases of diarrhoea and dysentery.
ALLIGATOR KILLED.
35
on the flames, that it is probable the heated air in their neigh-
bourhood attracted them. We were awakened between 3 and 4
A.M., by a violent dust-storm, which threatened to carry away the
tents. Our position at the mouth of the gulley formed by the
opposite hills, no doubt accounted for it. The gusts were so
furious that it was impossible to observe the barometer, which I
returned to its case on ascertaining that any indications of a rise
or fall in the column must have been quite trifling. The night
had been oppressively hot, with many insects flying about;
amongst which I noticed earwigs, a genus erroneously supposed
rarely to take to the wing in Britain.
At 8 A.M. it suddenly fell calm, and we proceeded to Chan
chee (alt. 500 feet), the native carts breaking down in their
passage over the projecting beds of flinty rocks, or as they
hurried down the inclined planes we cut through the precipitous
clay banks of the streams. Near Chanchee we passed an alli-
gator, just killed by two men, a foul beast, about nine feet long,
of the mugger kind. More absorbing than its natural history
was the circumstance of its having swallowed a child, that was
playing in the water as its mother was washing her utensils.
The brute was hardly dead, much distended by the prey, and
the mother was standing beside it. A very touching group
was this: the parent with her hands clasped in agony, unable to
withdraw her eyes from the cursed reptile, which still clung to
life with that tenacity for which its tribe are so conspicuous ;
beside these the two athletes leaned on the bloody bamboo
staffs, with which they had all but despatched the animal.
:
This poor woman earned a scanty maintenance by making
catechu inhabiting a little cottage, and having no property but
two cattle to bring wood from the hills, and a very few household
chattels; and how few of these they only know who have seen
the meagre furniture of Danga hovels. Her husband cut the
trees in the forest and dragged them to the hut, but at this time
he was sick, and her only boy, her future stay, it was, whom the
beast had devoured.
This province is famous for the quantity of catechu its dry
forests yield. The plant (Acacia) is a little thorny tree, erect,
and bearing a rounded head of well remembered prickly branches.
Its.wood is yellow, with a dark brick-red heart, most profitable in
January and useless in June (for yielding the extract).
The Butea frondosa was abundantly in flower here, and a
gorgeous sight. In mass the inflorescence resembles sheets of
flame, and individually the flowers are eminently beautiful, the
:
36
HİMALAYAN JOURNALS.
bright orange-red petals contrasting brillantly against the jet
black velvety calyx. The nest of the Megachile (leaf-cutter bee)
was in thousands in the cliffs, with Mayflies, Caddis-worms,
spiders, and many predaceous beetles. Lamellicorn bettles were
very rare, even Aphodius, and of Cetonice I did not see one.
We marched on the 28th to Kota, at the junction of the river
of that name with the Soane, over hills of flinty rock, which
projected everywhere, to the utter ruin of the elephants' feet, and
then over undulating hills of limestone; on the latter I found
trees of Cochlospermum, whose curious thick branches spread out
somewhat awkwardly, each tipped with a cluster of golden yellow
flowers, as large as the palm of the hand, and very beautiful: it
is a tropical Gum-Cistus in the appearance and texture of the
petals, and their frail nature. The bark abounds in a transparent
gum, of which the white ants seem fond, for they had killed many
trees. Of the leaves the curious rude leaf-bellows are made,
with which the natives of these hills smelt iron. Scorpions
appeared very common here, of a.small kind, 1 inches long ;
several were captured, and one of our party was stung on the
finger; the smart was burning for an hour or two, and then
ceased.
At Kota we were nearly opposite the cliffs at Beejaghur, where
coal is reported to exist; and here we again crossed the Soane,
and for the last time. The ford is three miles up the river, and
we marched to it through deep sand. The bed of the river is
here 500 feet above the sea, and about three-quarters of a mile
broad, the rapid stream being 50 or 60 yards wide, and breast
deep. The sand is firm and siliceous, with no mica; nodules of
coal are said to be washed down thus far from the coal-beds of
Burdee, a good deal higher up, but we saw none.
The cliffs come close to the river on the opposite side, their
bases clothed with woods which teemed with birds. The soil is
richer, and individual trees, especially of Bombax, Terminalia,
and Mahowa, very fine; one tree of the Hardwickia, about 120
feet high, was as handsome a monarch of the forest as I ever
saw, and it is not often that one sees trees in the tropics, which
for a combination of beauty in outline, harmony of colour, and
arrangement of branches and foliage, would form so striking an
addition to an English park. There is a large break in the
Kymore hills here, beyond the village of Kunch, through which
our route lay to Beejaghur, and the Ganges at Mirzapore; the
cliffs leaving the river and trending to the north in a continuous
escarpment flanked with low ranges of rounded hills, and termi-
SULKUN.
37
nating in an abrupt spur (Mungeesa Peak) whose summit was
covered with a ragged forest. At Kunch we saw four alligators
sleeping in the river, looking at a distance like logs of wood, all
of the short-nosed or mugger kind, dreaded by man and beast;
I saw none of the sharp-snouted (or garial), so common on the
Ganges, where their long bills,, with a garniture of teeth and
prominent eyes peeping out of the water, remind one of geo-
logical lectures and visions of Ichthyosauri. Tortoises were
frequent in the river, basking on the rocks, and popping into the
water when approached.
On the 1st of March we left the Soane, and struck inland over
a rough hilly country, covered with forest, fully 1,000 feet below
the top of the Kymore table-land, which here recedes from the
river and surrounds an undulating plain, some ten miles either
way, facing the south. The roads, or rather pathways, were
very bad, and quite impassable for the carts without much
engineering, cutting through forest, smoothing down the banks.
of the watercourses to be crossed, and clearing away the rocks
as we best might. We traversed the empty bed of a mountain
torrent, with perpendicular banks of alluvium 30 feet high, and
then plunged into a dense forest. Our course was directed
towards Mungeesa Peak, the remarkable projecting spur, be-
tween which and a conical hill the path led. Whether on the
elephants or on foot, the thorny jujubes, Acacias, &c. were most
troublesome, and all our previous scratchings were nothing. to
this. Peacocks and jungle-fowl were very frequent, the squab-
bling of the former and the hooting of the monkeys constantly
grating on the ear. There were innumerable pigeons and a few
Floricans (a kind of bustard-considered the best-eating game-
bird in India). From the defile we emerged on an open flat,
halting at Sulkun, a scattered village (alt. 684 feet), peopled by a
bold-looking race (Coles) who habitually carry the spear and
shield. We had here the pleasure of meeting Mr. Felle, an
English gentleman employed in the Revenue department; this
being one of the roads along which the natives transport their
salt, sugar, &c., from one province to another.
I
In the afternoon, I examined the conical hill, which, like that
near Rotas, is of stratified beds of limestone, capped with sand-
A stream runs round its base, cutting through the
stone.
I
The Coles, like the Danghas of the Rajmahal and Behar hills, and the
natives of the mountains of the peninsula, form one of the aboriginal tribes
of British India, and are widely different people from either the Hindoos or
Mussulmen.
Yo
38
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
alluvium to the subjacent rock, which is exposed, and contains
flattened spheres of limestone. These spheres are from the size
of a fist to a child's head, or even much larger; they are exces-
sively hard, and neither laminated nor formed of concentric
layers. At the top of the hill the sandstone cap was perpen-
dicular on all sides, and its dry top covered with small trees,
especially of Cochlospermum. A few larger trees of Fici cling to
the edge of the rocks, and by forcing their roots into the inter-
stices detached enormous masses, affording good dens for bears
and other wild animals. From the top, the view of rock, river,
forest, and plain, was very fine, the eye ranging over a broad flat,
girt by precipitous hills;-West, the Kymore or Vindhya range
rose again in rugged elevations ;-South, flowed the Soane,
backed by ranges of wooded hills, smoking like volcanoes with
the fires of the natives ;-below, lay the bed of the stream we
had left at the foot of the hills, cutting its way through the
alluvium, and following a deep gorge to the Soane, which was
there hidden by the rugged heights we had crossed, on which the
greater part of our camp might be seen still straggling onwards ;
-east, and close above us, the bold spur of Mungeesa shot up,
terminating a continuous stretch of red precipices, clothed with
forest along their bases, and over their horizontal tops.
From Sulkun the view of the famed fort and palace of Bee-
jaghur is very singular, planted on the summit of an isolated hill
of sandstone, about ten miles off. A large tree by the palace
marks its site; for, at this distance, the buildings are themselves
undistinguishable.
There are many tigers on these hills; and as one was close
by, and had killed several cattle, Mr. Felle kindly offered us a
chance of slaying him. Bullocks are tethered out, over-night, in
the places likely to be visited by the brute; he kills one of them,
and is from the spot tracked to his haunt by natives, who visit
the stations early in the morning, and report the whereabouts of
his lair. The sportsman then goes to the attack mounted on an
elephant, or having a roost fixed in a tree, on the trail of the
tiger, and he employs some hundred natives to drive the animal
past the lurking-place.
On the present occasion, the locale of the tiger was doubtful;
but it was thought that by beating over several miles of country
he (or at any rate, some other game) might be driven past a
certain spot. Thither, accordingly, the natives were sent, who
built machans (stages) in the trees, high out of danger's reach ;
Mr. Theobald and myself occupied one of these perches in a
HUNT FOR TIGER.
39
Hardwickia tree, and Mr. Felle another, close by, both on the
slope of a steep hill, surrounded by jungly valleys. We were
also well thatched in with leafy boughs, to prevent the wary beast
from espying the ambush, and had a whole stand of arms ready
for his reception.
When roosted aloft, and duly charged to keep profound silence
(which I obeyed to the letter, by falling sound asleep) the word
was passed to the beaters, who surrounded our post on the plain-
side, extending some miles in line, and full two or three distant
from us. They entered the jungle, beating tom-toms, singing
and shouting as they advanced, and converging towards our
position. In the noonday solitude of these vast forests, our
situation was romantic enough: there was not a breath of wind,
an insect or bird stirring; and the wild cries of the men, and
the hollow sound of the drums broke upon the ear from a great
distance, gradually swelling and falling, as the natives ascended
the heights or crossed the valleys. After about an hour and a
half, the beaters emerged from the jungle under our retreat; one
by one, two by two, but preceded by no single living thing,
either mouse, bird, deer, or bear, and much less tiger. The
beaters received about a penny a-piece for the day's work; a
rich guerdon for these poor wretches, whom necessity sometimes
drives to feed on rats and offal.
We were detained three days at Sulkun, from inability to get
on with the carts; and as the pass over the Kymore to the north
(on the way to Mirzapore) was to be still worse, I took advantage
of Mr. Felle's kind offer of camels and elephants to make the
best of my way forward, accompanying that gentleman, en route,
to his residence at Shahgunj, on the table-land.
Both the climate and natural history of this flat on which
Sulkun stands, are similar to those of the banks of the Soane;
the crops are wretched. At this season the dryness of the
atmosphere is excessive; our nails cracked, and skins peeled,
whilst all articles of wood, tortoisehell, &c., broke on the
slightest blow. The air, too, was always highly electrical, and
the dew-point was frequently 40° below the temperature of the
air.
The natives are far from honest; they robbed one of the
tents placed between two others, wherein a light was burning.
One gentleman in it was awake, and on turning saw five men at
his bedside, who escaped with a bag of booty, in the shape of
clothes, and a tempting strong, brass-bound box, containing
private letters. The clothes they dropped outside, but the box
40
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
of letters was carried off. There were about a hundred people
asleep outside the tents, between whose many fires the rogues
must have passed, eluding also the guard, who were, or ought
to have been, awake.
CHAPTER III.
Ek-powa Ghat-Sandstones-Shahgunj-Table-land, elevation, &c.-Gum-
arabic-Mango-Fair-Aquatic plants-Rujubbund-Storm-False sun-
set and sunrise-Bind hills-Mirzapore-Manufactures, imports, &c.-
Climate of Thuggee-Chunar-Benares-Mosque-Observatory-Sar-
K
nath-Ghazeepore-Rose-gardens-Manufactory of Attar-Lord Corn.
wallis' tomb-Ganges, scenery and natural history of-Pelicans-Vege-
tation-Insects-Dinapore-Patna-Opium godowns and manufacture-
Mudar, white and purple-Monghyr islets-Hot Springs of Setakoond-
Alluvium of Ganges-Rocks of Sultun-gunj-Bhaugulpore-Temples of
Mt. Manden-Coles and native tribes--Bhaugulpore rangers-Horti-
cultural gardens.
On the 3rd of March I bade farewell to Mr. Williams and his
kind party, and rode over a plain to the village of Markunda, at
the foot of the Ghat. There the country becomes very rocky
and woody, and a stream is crossed, which runs over a flat bed
of limestone, cracked into the appearance of a tesselated pave-
ment. For many miles there is no pass over the Kymore range,
except this, significantly called " Ek-powa-Ghat " (one-foot Ghat).
It is evidently a fault, or shifting of the rocks, producing so
broken a cliff as to admit of a path winding over the shattered
crags. On either side, the precipices are extremely steep, of
horizontally stratified rocks, continued in an unbroken line, and
the views across the plain and Soane valley, over which the sun
was now setting, were superb. At the summit we entered on a
dead flat plain or table-land, with no hills, except along the brim
of the broad valley we had left, where are some curious broad
pyramids, formed of slabs of sandstone arranged in steps. By
dark we reached the village of Roump (alt. 1,090 feet), beyond
the top of the pass.
On the next day I proceeded on a small, fast, and wofully
high-trotting elephant, to Shahgunj, where I enjoyed Mr. Felle's
hospitality for a few days. The country here, though elevated,
is, from the nature of the soil and formation, much more fertile
than what I had left. Water is abundant, both in tanks and
TABLE-LAND OF SHAHGUNJ.
wells, and rice fields, broad and productive, cover the ground;
while groves of tamarinds and mangos, now loaded with blossoms,
occur at every village.
41
It is very singular that the elevation of this table-land (1,100
feet at Shahgunj) should coincide with that of the granite range of
Upper Bengal, where crossed by the grand trunk road, though
they have no feature but the presence of alluvium in common.
Scarce a hillock varies the surface here, and the agricultural pro-
duce of the two is widely different. Here the flat ledges of
sandstone retain the moisture, and give rise to none of those
impetuous torrents which sweep it off the inclined beds of gneiss,
or splintered quartz. Nor is there here any of the effloresced
salts so forbidding to vegetation where they occur. Wherever
the alluvium is deep on these hills, neither Catechu, Olibanum,
Butea, Terminalia, Diospyros, dwarf-palm, or any of those plants
are to be met with, which abound wherever the rock is super-
ficial, and irrespectively of its mineral characters.
The gum-arabic Acacia is abundant here, though not seen
below, and very rare to the eastward of this meridian, for I saw
but little of it in Behar. It is a plant partial to a dry climate,
and rather prefers a good soil. In its distribution it is some
degrees follows the range of the camel, which in its constant
companion over thousands of leagues. In the valley of the
Ganges I was told that neither the animal nor plant flourished
east of the Soane, where I experienced a marked change in the
humidity of the atmosphere on my passage down the Ganges.
It was a circumstance I was interested in, having first met with
the camel at Teneriffe and the Cape Verd Islands, the western-
most limit of its distribution; imported thither, however, as it
now is into Australia, where, though there is no Acacia Arabica,
four hundred other species of the genus are known.
The mango, which is certainly the fruit of India (as the pine-
apple is of the Eastern Islands, and the orange of the West),
was now blossoming, and a superb sight. The young leaves are
purplish-green, and forms a curious contrast to the deep lurid
hue of the older foliage; especially when the tree is (which often
occurs) dimidiate, one half the green, and the other the red
shades of colours; when in full blossom, all forms a mass of
yellow, diffusing a fragrance rather too strong and peculiar to be
pleasant.
We passed a village where a large fair was being held, and
singularly familiar its arrangements were to my early associations.
The women and children are the prime customers; for the latter
42
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
}
whirl-you-go-rounds, toys, and sweetmeats were destined; to
tempt the former, little booths of gay ornaments, patches for the
forehead, ear-rings of quaint shapes, bugles, and beads. Here,
as at home, I remarked that the vendors of these superfluities
occupy the approaches to this Vanity-Fair. As, throughout the
East, the trades are congregated into particular quarters of the
cities, so here the itinerants grouped themselves into little
bazaars for each class of commodity. Whilst I was engaged in
purchasing a few articles of native workmanship, my elephant,
made an attack on a sweetmeat stall, demolishing a magnificent
erection of barley-sugar before his proceedings could be put a
stop to.
Mr. Felle's bungalow (whose garden smiled with roses in this
wilderness) was surrounded by a moat (fed by a spring), which
was full of aquatic plants, Nymphæa, Damasonium, Villarsia
cristata, Aponogeton, three species of Potamogeton, two of Naias,
Chara and Zannichellia (the two latter indifferently, and often
together, used in the refinement of sugar). In a large tank hard
by, wholly fed by rain water, I observed only the Villarsia Indica,
no Aponogeton, Nymphaea, or Damasonium, nor did these occur in
any of the other tanks I examined, which were otherwise well
peopled with plants. This may not be owing to the quality of
the water so much as to its varying quantity in the tank.
All around here, as at Roump, is a dead flat, except towards
the crest of the ghats which overhang the valley of the Soane,
and there the sandstone rock rises by steps into low hills.
During a ride to a natural tank amongst these rocky elevations, I
passed from the alluvium to the sandstone, and at once met with
all the prevailing plants of the granite, gneiss, limestone and
hornstone rocks previously examined, and which I have enumerated
too often to require recapitulation; a convincing proof that the
mechanical properties and not the chemical constitution of the
rocks regulate the distribution of these plants.
Rujubbund (the pleasant spot) is a small tarn, or more properly
the expanded bed of a stream, art having aided nature in its for-
mation: it is edged by rocks and cliffs fringed with the usual trees
of the neighbourhood; it is a wild and pretty spot, not unlike
some birch-bordered pool in the mountains of Wales or Scotland,
sequestered and picturesque. It was dark before I got back,
with heavy clouds and vivid lightning approaching from the
south-west. The day had been very hot (3 P.M., 90°), and the
evening the same; but the barometer did not foretell the coming
tempest, which broke with fury at 7 P.M., blowing open the doors,
-
MIRZAPORE.
43
and accompanied with vivid lightning and heavy thunder, close
by and all round, though no rain fell.
In the clear dry mornings of these regions, a curious optical
phenomena may be observed, of a sunrise in the west, and sunset
in the east. In either case, bright and well-defined beams rise to
the zenith, often crossing to the opposite horizon. It is a beauti-
ful feature in the firmament, and equally visible whether the
horizon be cloudy or clear, the white beams being projected
indifferently against a dark vapour or the blue serene. The
zodiacal light shines from an hour or two after sunset till mid-
night, with singular brightness, almost equalling the milky way.
March 7.-Left Shahgunj for Mirzapore, following the road
to Goorawal, over a dead alluvial flat without a feature to
remark. Turning north from that village, the country undulates,
exposing the rocky nucleus, and presenting 'the usual concomi-
tant vegetation. Occasionally park-like views occurred, which,
where diversified by the rocky valleys, resemble much the noble
scenery of the Forest of Dean on the borders of Wales; the
Mahowa especially representing the oak, with its spreading and
often gnarled branches. Many of the exposed slabs of sand-
stone are beautifully waved on the surface with the ripple-mark
impression.
Amowee, where I arrived at 9 P.M., is on an open grassy flat,
about fifteen miles from the Ganges, which is seen from the
neighbourhood, flowing among trees, with the white houses,
domes, and temples of Mirzapore scattered around, and high
above which the dust-clouds were coursing along the horizon.
Mr. Money, the magistrate of Mirzapore, kindly sent a mounted
messenger to meet me here, who had vast trouble in getting
bearers for my palkee. In it I proceeded the next day to Mir-
zapore, descending a steep ghat of the Bind hills by an excellent
road, to the level plains of the Ganges. Unlike the Dunwah
pass, this is wholly barren. At the foot the sun was intensely
hot, the roads alternately rocky and dusty, the villages thronged
with a widely different looking race from those of the hills, and
the whole air of the outskirts, on a sultry afternoon, far from
agreeable.
Mirzapore is a straggling town, said to contain 100,000 inha-
bitants. It flanks the river, and is built on an undulating alluvial
bank, full of kunker, elevated 360 feet above the sea, and from
50 to 80 above the present level of the river. The vicinity of
the Ganges and its green bank, and the numbers of fine trees
around, render it a pleasing, though not a fine town. It presents
44
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
}
the usual Asiatic contrast of squalor and gaudiness; consisting
of large squares and broad streets, interspersed with acres of low
huts and groves of trees. It is celebrated for its manufactory of
carpets, which are admirable in appearance, and, save in dura-
bility, equal to the English. Indigo seed from Bundelkund is
also a most extensive article of commerce, the best coming from
the Doab. For cotton, lac, sugar, and saltpetre, it is one of the
greatest marts in India. The articles of native manufacture are
brass washing and cooking utensils, and stone deities worked out
of the sandstone.
There is little native vegetation, the country being covered with
cultivation and extensive groves of mango, and occasionally of
guava. English vegetables are abundant and excellent, and the
strawberries, which ripen in March, rival the European fruit in
size, but hardly in flavour.
During the few days spent at Mirzapore with my kind friend,
Mr. C. Hamilton, I was surprised to find the temperature of the
day cooler by nearly 4° than that of the hills above, or of the
upper part of the Soane valley; while on the other hand the
nights were decidedly warmer. The dew-point again was even
lower in proportion (73°), and the climate consequently drier.
The atmosphere was extremely dry and electrical, the hair con-
stantly crackling when combed. Further west, where the climate
becomes still drier, the electricity of the air is even greater. Mr.
Griffith mentions in his journal that in filling barometer tubes in
Affghanistan, he constantly experienced a shock.
Here I had the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant Ward, one of
the suppressors of Thuggec (Thuggee, in Hindostan, signifies a
deceiver; fraud, not open force, being employed). This gentle-
man kindly showed me the approvers or king's evidence of his
establishment, belonging to these three classes of human scourges,
Thug, Dakoit, and Poisoner. Of these the first was the Thug, a
mild-looking man, who had been born and bred to the profession :
he had commited many murders, saw no harm in them, and felt
neither shame nor remorse. His organs of observation and de-
structiveness were large, and the cerebellum small. He explained
to me how the gang waylay the unwary traveller, enter into con-
versation with him, and have him suddenly seized, when the
superior throws his own linen girdle round the victim's neck and
strangles him, pressing the knuckles against the spine. Taking
off his own, he passed it round my arm, and showed me the turn
as coolly as a sailor once taught me the hangman's knot. The
Thug is of any caste, and from any part of India. The profes
THUGS AND DAKOITS.
45
sion have particular stations, which they generally select for
murder, throwing the body of their victim into a well.
The Dakoit (dakhee, a robber) belongs to a class who rob in
gangs, but never commit murder-arson and housebreaking also
forming part of their profession. These are all high-class Raj-
poots, originally from Guzerat; who, on being conquered, vowed
vengeance on mankind. They speak both lindostanee and the
otherwise extinct Guzerat language; this is guttural in the extreme,
and very singular in sound. They are a very remarkable people,
found throughout India, and called by various names; their
women dress peculiarly, and are utterly devoid of modesty. The
man I examined was a short, square, but far from powerful, Ne-
palese, with high arched eyebrows, and no organs of observation.
These people are great cowards.
The Poisoners all belong to one caste, of Pasie, or dealers in
toddy: they go sin gly or in gangs, haunting the travellers' resting-
places, where they drop half a rupee weight of pounded or whole
Datura seeds into his food, producing a twenty-hours' intoxica-
tion, during which he is robbed, and left to recover or sink under
the stupifying effects of the narcotic. He told me that the Datura
seed is gathered with out ceremony, and at any time, place, or age
of the plant. He was a dirty, ill-conditioned looking fellow, with
no bumps behind his ears, or prominence of eyebrow region, but
a remarkable cerebellum.
"The
Though now all but extinct (except in Cuttack), through ten or
fifteen years of unceasing vigilance on the part of Government,
and incredible activity and acuteness in the officers employed, the
Thugs were formerly a wonderfully numerous body, who abstained
from their vocation solely in the immediate neighbourhood of
their own villages; which, however, were not exempt from the
visits of other Thugs; so that, as Major Sleeman says,-
annually returning tide of murder swept unsparingly over the
whole face of India, from the Sutlej to the sea-coast, and from
the Himalaya to Cape Comorin. One narrow district alone was
free, the Concan, beyond the ghats, whither they never pene-
trated." In Bengal, river Thugs replace the travelling practitioner.
Candeish and Rohilkund alone harboured no Thugs as residents,
but they were nevertheless haunted by the gangs.
Their origin is uncertain, but supposed to be very ancient,
soon after the Mohammedan conquest. They now claim a
divine original, and are supposed to have supernatural powers,
and to be the emissaries of the divinity, like the wolf, the tiger,
and the bear. It is only lately that they have swarmed so
46
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
prodigiously-seven original gangs having migrated from Delhi
to the Gangetic provinces about 200 years ago, and from these
all the rest have sprung. Many belong to the most amiable,
intelligent, and respectable classes of the lower and even middle
ranks they love their profession, regard murder as sport, and
are never haunted with dreams, or troubled with pangs of con-
science during hours of solitude, or in the last moments of life.
The victim is an acceptable sacrifice to the goddess Davee, who
by some classes is supposed to eat the lifeless body, and thus
save her votaries the necessity of concealing it.
They are extremely superstitious, always consulting omens,
such as the direction in which a hare or jackal crosses the road;
and even far more trivial circumstances will determine the fate of
a dozen people, and perhaps of an immense treasure.
All wor-
ship the pickaxe, which is symbolical of their profession, and an
oath sworn on it binds closer than on the Koran. The consecra-
of this weapon is a most elababorate ceremony, and takes place
only under certain trees. They rise through various grades: the
lowest are scouts; the second, sextons; the third are holders of
the victims' hands; the highest, stranglers.
Though all agree in never practising cruelty, or robbing previous
to murder, never allowing any but infants to escape (and these
are trained to Thuggee), and never leaving a trace of such goods
as may be identified, there are several variations in their mode
of conducting operations; some tribes spare certain castes, others
none: murder of woman is against all rules; but the practice crept
into certain gangs, and this it is which led to their discountenance
by the goddess Davee, and the consequent downfall of the system.
Davee, they say, allowed the British to punish them, because a
certain gang had murdered the mothers to obtain their daughters
to be sold to prostitution.
Age at th
M
:
Major Sleeman has constructed a map demonstrating the
number of" Bails," or regular stations for committing murder, in
the kingdom of Oude alone, which is 170 miles long by 100
broad, and in which are 274, which are regarded by the Thug
with as much satisfaction and interest as a game preserve is in
England nor are these "bails " less numerous in other parts of
India. Of twenty assassins who were examined, one frankly con-
fessed to having been engaged in 931 murders, and the least guilty
of the number to 24. Sometimes 150 persons collected into one
gang, and their profits have often been immense, the murder of
six persons on one occasion yielding 82,000 rupees; upwards of
£8,000.
THUGS, SUPPRESSION OF.
47
Of the various facilities for keeping up the system, the most
prominent are, the practice amongst the natives of travelling
before dawn, of travellers mixing freely together, and taking their
meals by the wayside instead of in villages; in the very Bails,
in fact, to which they are inveigled by the Thug in the shape of
a fellow-traveller; money remittances are also usually made by
disguised travellers, whose treasure is exposed at the custom-
houses, and, worst of all, the bankers will never own to the losses
they sustain, which, as a visitation of God, would, if avenged,
lead, they think, to future, and perhaps heavier punishment. Had
the Thugs destroyed Englishmen, they would quickly have been
put down; but the system being invariably practised on a class of
people acknowledging the finger of the Deity in its execution, its
glaring enormities were long in rousing the attention of the Indian
Goverment.
A few examples of activity exercised by the suppressors may be
interesting. They act wholly through the information given by
Of 600 Thugs
approvers, who are simply king's evidences.
engaged in the murder of 64 people, and the plunder of nearly
£20,000, all except seventy were captured in ten years, though
separated into six gangs, and their operations continued from
1826 to 1830: the last party was taken in 1836. And again,
between the years 1826 and 1835, 1562 Thugs were seized, of
whom 382 were hanged, and 909 transported; so that now it is
but seldom these wretches are ever heard of.
To show the extent of their operations I shall quote an anecdote
from Sleeman's Reports (to which I am indebted for most of the
above information). He states that he was for three years in
charge of a district on the Nerbudda, and considered himself
acquainted with every circumstance that occurred in the neigh-
bourhood; yet, during that time, 100 people were murdered and
buried within less than a quarter of a mile of his own residence!
Two hundred and fifty boats full of river Thugs, in crews of
fifteen, infested the Ganges between Benares and Calcutta, during
five months of every year, under pretence of conveying pilgrims.
Travellers along the banks were tracked, and offered a passage,
which if refused in the first boat was probably accepted in some
other. At a given signal the crew rushed in, doubled up the
decoyed victim, broke his back, and threw him into the river,
where floating corpses are too numerous to elicit even an ex-
clamation.
At Mirzapore I engaged a boat to carry me down the river to
Bhagulpore, whence I was to proceed to the Sikkim-Himalaya.
1.
48
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
The sketch at p. 61 will give some idea of this vessel, which,
though slow and very shabby, had the advantage of being cooler
and more commodious than the handsomer craft. Its appearance
was not unlike that of a floating haystock, or thatched cottage:
its length was forty feet, and breadth fifteen, and it drew a foot
and a half of water: the deck, on which a kind of house, neatly
framed of matting, was erected, was but a little above the water's
edge. My portion of this floating residence was lined with a kind
of reed-work formed of long culms of Saccharum. The crew and
captain consisted of six all but naked Hindoos, one of whom
steered by the huge rudder, sitting on a bamboo-stage astern; the
others pulled four oars in the very bows opposite my door, or
tracked the boats along the river-bank.
In my room (for cabin I cannot call it) stood my palkee, fitted
as a bed, with mosquito curtains; a chair and table.. On one
side were placed all my papers and plants, under arrangement to
go home; on the other, my provisions, rice, sugar, curry-powder,
a preserved ham, and cheese, &c. Around hung telescope,
botanical box, dark lantern, barometer, and thermometer, &c., &c.
Our position was often ashore, and, Hindoo-like, on the lee-shore,
going bump, bump, bump, so that I could hardly write. I con-
sidered myself fortunate in having to take this slow conveyance
down, it enabling me to write and arrange all day long.
I
I left on the 15th of March, and in the afternoon of the same
day passed Chunar. This is a tabular mass of sandstone, pro-
jecting into the river, and the eastern termination of the Kymore
range. There is not a rock between this and the Himalaya, and
barely a stone all the way down the Ganges, till the granite and
gneiss rocks of the Behar range are again met with. The current
of the Ganges is here very strong, and its breadth much lessened:
the river runs between high banks of alluvium, containing much
kunker. At Benares it expands into a broad stream, with a
current which during the rains is said to flow eight miles an hour,
when the waters rise 43 feet. The fall hence is 300 feet to its
junction with the Hooghly, viz., one foot to every mile.. My
observations made that from Mirzapore to Benares considerably
greater.
·
Benares is the Athens of India. The variety of buildings
along the bank is incredible. There are temples of every shape
in all stages of completion and dilapidation, and at all angles of
inclination; for the banks give way so much that many of these
edifices are fearfully out of the perpendicular.
i The first station at which Henry Martyn laboured in India.
•
BENARES--CITY.
49
The famed mosque, built by Aurungzebe on the site of a
Hindoo temple, is remarkable for its two octagonal minarets, 232
feet above the Ganges. The view from it over the town, especially
of the European Resident's quarter, is fine; but the building
itself is deficient in beauty or ornament: it commands the muddy
river with its thousands of boats, its waters peopled with
swimmers and bathers, who spring in from the many temples,
water-terraces, and ghats on the city side: opposite is a great
sandy plain. The town below looks a mass of poor, square, flat-
roofed houses, of which 12,000 are brick, and 16,000 mud and
thatch, through the crowd of which, and of small temples, the
eye wanders in vain for some attractive feature or evidence of
the wealth, the devotion, the science, or the grandeur of a city
celebrated throughout the East for all these attributes. Green
parrots and pigeons people the air.
The general appearance of an oriental town is always more or
less ruinous; and here the eye is fatigued with bricks and
crumbling edifices, and the ear with prayer-bells. The bright
meadows and green trees which adorn the European Resident's
dwelling, some four miles back from the river, alone relieve the
monotony, of the scene. The streets are so narrow that it is
difficult to ride a horse through them; and the houses are often
six stories high, with galleries crossing above from house to house.
These tall, gaunt edifices sometimes give place to clumps of
cottages, and a mass of dusty ruins, the unsavoury retreats of
vermin and filth, where the Calotropis arborea generally spreads
its white branches and glaucous leaves-a dusty plant. Here,
too, enormous spiders' webs hang from the crumbling walls,
choked also with dust, and resembling curtains of coarse muslin,
being often some yards across, and not arranged in radii and arcs,
but spun like weaver's woofs. Paintings, remarkable only for
their hideous proportions and want of perspective, are daubed in
vermilion, ochre, and indigo. The elephant, camel, and porpoise
of the Ganges, dog, shepherd, peacock, and horse, are especially
frequent, and so is a running pattern of a hand spread open,
with a blood-red spot on the palm. A still less elegant but
frequent object is the fuel, which is composed of the manure
collected on the roads of the city, moulded into flat cakes, and
stuck by the women on the walls to dry, retaining the sign-manual
of the artist in the impressed form of her outspread hand. The
cognizance of the Rajah, two fish chained together, appears over
the gates of public buildings.
The hundreds of temples and shrines throughout the city are
C
•
5

50
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
its most remarkable feature: sacred bulls, and lingams of all
sizes, strewed with flowers and grains of rice, meet the eye at
every turn; and the city's boast is the possession of one million.
idols, which, of one kind and another, I can well believe. The
great Hindoo festival of the Holi was now celebrating, and the
city more than ordinarily crowded; throwing red powder (lac and
flour), with rose-water, is the great diversion at a festival more
childish by far than a carnival.
15
900
1. EQUATORIAL SUN-DIAL.
(DIAMETER OF FACE OF DIAL, 2 FEET 2 INCHES.)
Through the kindness of Mr. Reade (the Commissioner), I
obtained admission to the Bishishar-Kumardil, the "holiest of
holies." It was a small, low, stone building, daubed with red
inside, and swarming with stone images of Brahminee bulls, and
various disgusting emblems. A fat old Brahmin, naked to the
waist, took me in, but allowed no followers; and what with my
ignorance of his phraseology, the clang of bells and din of
voices, I gained but little information. Some fine bells from

BENARES OBSERVATORY.
Nepal were evidently the lion of the temple. I emerged,
adorned with a chaplet of magnolia flowers, and with my hands
full of Calotropis and Nyctanthes blossoms. It was a horrid
place for noise, smell, and sights. Thence I went to a holy well,
rendered sacred because Siva, when stepping from the Himalaya
to Ceylon, accidentally let a medicine chest fall into it. The
51
2. EQUINOCTIAL SUN-DIAL.
(LENGTH OF GNOMON, 39 FEET; OF EACH QUADRANT, 9 FEET.)
natives frequent it with little basins or baskets of rice, sugar, &c.,
dropping in a little of each while they mutter prayers.
The observatory at Benares, and those at Delhi, Matra on the
Jumna, and Oujein, were built by Jey-Sing, Rajah of Jayanagar,
upwards of 200 years ago; his skill in mathematical science was
so well known, that the Emperor Mahommed Shah employed

52
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
him to reform the calendar. Mr. Hunter, in the "Asiatic
Researches," gives a translation of the lucubrations of this really
enlightened man, as contained in the introduction to his own
almanac.
Of the more important instruments I took sketches; No. 1, is
the Naree-wila, or Equatorial dial; No. 2, the Semrat-yunta, or
3. BRASS AZIMUTH CIRCLE.
(DIAMETER, 2 FEET.)
PAIN
Equinoctial dial; No. 3, an Equatorial, probably a Kranti-urit, or
Azimuth circle. Jey-Sing's genius and love of science seem,
according to Hunter, to have descended to some of his family
Hunter, in As. Soc. Researches, 177 (Calcutta); Sir R. Barker in Phil.
Trans., Ixvii. 608 (1777); J. L. Williams, Phil. Trans., Ixxxiii. 45 (1793).
***
BENARES-CITY.
53
who died early in this century, when "Urania fled before the
brazen-fronted Mars, and the best of the observatories, that of
Oujein, was turned into an arsenal and cannon foundry."
The observatory is still the most interesting object in Benares,
though it is now dirty and ruinous, and the great stone instru-
ments are rapidly crumbling away. The building is square, with
a central court and flat roof, round which the astrolabes, &c. are
arranged. A half naked Astronomer-Royal, with a large sore on
his stomach, took me round-he was a pitiful object, and told
me he was very hungry. The observatory is nominally supported
by the Rajah of Jeypore, who doles out a too scanty pittance to
his scientific corps.
In the afternoon Mr. Reade drove me to the Sar-nath, a
singular Boodhist temple, à cylindrical mass of brickwork, faced
with stone, the scrolls on which were very beautiful, and as sharp
as if freshly cut it is surmounted by a tall dome, and is
altogether about seventy or a hundred feet high. Of the Boodh
figures only one remains, the others having been used by a
recent magistrate of Benares in repairing a bridge over the
Goomtee! From this place the Boodhist monuments, Hindoo
temple, Mussulman mosque, and English church, were all
embraced in one coup d'œil. On our return, we drove past many
enormous mounds of earth and brick-work, the vestiges of Old
Benares, but whether once continued to the present city or not is
unknown. Remains are abundant, eighteen feet below the site
of the present city.
Benares is the Mecca of the Hindoos, and the number of
pilgrims who visit it is incalculable. Casi (its ancient name,
signifying splendid), is alleged to be no part of this world, which
rests on eternity, whereas Benares is perched on a prong of
Siva's trident, and is hence beyond the reach of earthquakes.¹
Originally built of gold, the sins of the inhabitants were punished
by its transmutation into stone, and latterly into mud and thatch :
whoever enters it, and especially visits its principal idol (Siva
fossilised), is secure of heaven.
On the 18th I left Benares for Ghazepore, a pretty town
situated on the north bank of the river, celebrated for its manu-
facture of rose-water, the tomb of Lord Cornwallis, and a site of
the Company's stud. The Rose gardens surround the town they
are fields, with low bushes of the plant grown in rows, red with
1
¹ Probably an allusion to the infrequency of these phenomena in this
meridian: they being common both in Eastern Bengal, and in Western India
beyond the Ganges.
54
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
blossoms in the morning, all of which are, however, plucked long
before midday. The petals are put into clay stills, with twice
their weight of water, and the produce exposed to the fresh air,
for a night, in open vessels. The unskimmed water affords the
best, and it is often twice and even oftener distilled; but the fluid
deteriorates by too much distillation. The Attar is skimmed
from the exposed pans, and sells at £10 the rupee weight, to
make which 20,000 flowers are required. It is frequently
adulterated with sandal-wood oil. .
Lord Cornwallis' mausoleum is a handsome building, modelled
by Flaxman after the Sybil's Temple. The allegorical designs
of Hindoos and sorrowing soldiers with reversed arms, which
decorate two sides of the enclosed tomb, though perhaps as good
as can be, are under any treatment unclassical and uncouth.
The simple laurel and oak-leaf chaplets on the alternating faces
are far more suitable and suggestive.
March 21.-I left Ghazepore and dropped down the Ganges;
the general features of which are soon described. A strong
current four or five miles broad, of muddy water, flows between
a precipitous bank of alluvium or sand on one side, and a flat
shelving one of sand, or more rarely mud, on the other. Sand-
banks are frequent in the river, especially where the great
affluents débouche;. and there generally are formed vast expanses
of sand, small "Saharas," studded with stalking pillars of sand,
raised seventy or eighty feet high by gusts of wind, erect, stately,
grave-looking columns, all shaft, with neither basement nor
capital, the genii of the "Arabian Nights." The river is always
dotted with boats of all shapes, mine being perhaps of the most
common description; the great square, Yankee-like steamers,
towing their accommodation-boats (as the passengers' floating hotels
are called), are the rarest. Trees are few on the banks, except
near villages, and there is hardly a palm to be seen above Patna.
Towns are unfrequent, such as there are being mere collections
of huts, with the ghat and boats at the bottom of the bank; and
at a respectful distance from the bazaar stand the neat bungalows
of the European residents, with their smiling gardens, hedgings,
and fencings, and loitering servants at the door. A rotting
charpoy (or bedstead) on the banks is a common sight,-the
"sola reliquia" of some poor Hindoo, who departs this life by
the side of the stream, to which his body is afterwards committed.
Shoals of small goggled-eyed fish are seen, that spring clear out of
the water, and are preyed upon by terns and other birds; a few
insects skim the surface; turtle and porpoises tumble along, all
SCENERY OF BANKS OF GANGES.
55
forming a very busy contrast to the lazy alligator, sunning his green
scaly back near the shore, with his ichthyosaurian snout raised
high above the water. Birds are numerous, especially early and
late in the day. Along the silent shore the hungry Pariah dog
may be seen tearing his meal from some stranded corpse, whilst
the adjutant-bird, with his head sank on his body and one leg
tucked up, patiently awaits his turn. At night the beautiful
Brahminee geese alight, one by one, and seek total solitude; ever
since having disturbed a god in his slumbers, these birds are fated
to pass the night in single blessedness. The gulls and terns,
again, roost in flocks, as do the wild geese and pelicans,-the
latter, however, not till after making a hearty and very noisy
supper. These birds congregate by the sides of pools, and beat
the water with violence, so as to scare the fish, which thus become
an easy prey ; a fact which was, I believe, first indicated by Pallas,
during his residence on the banks of the Caspian Sea. Shells are
scarce, and consist of a few small bivalves; their comparative
absence is probably due to the paucity of limestone in the moun-
tains whence the many feeders flow. The sand is pure white and
small-grained, with fragments of hornblende and mica, the latter
varying in abundance as a feeder is near or far away. Pink sand¹
of garnets is very common, and deposited in layers interstratified
with the white quartz sand. Worm-marks, ripple-marks, and the
footsteps of alligators, birds and beasts, abound in the wet sand.
The vegetation of the banks consists of annuals which find no
permanent resting-place. Along the sandy shores the ever-present
plants are mostly English, as Dock, a Nasturtium, Ranunculus
sceleratus, Fumitory, Juncus bufonius, Common Vervain, Gnapha-
lium luteo album, and very frequently Veronica Anagallis. On
the alluvium-grow the same, mixed with Tamarisk, Acacia Arabica,
and a few other bushes.
Withered grass abounds; and wheat, dhal (Cajanus) and gram
(Cicer arietinum), Carthamus, vetches, and rice are the staple
products of the country. Bushes are few, except the universally
prevalent Adhatoda and Calotropis. Trees, also, are rare, and of
stunted growth; Figs, the Artocarpus and some Leguminosa prevail
I saw but two kinds of palm, the fan-palm, and Phanix:
the latter is characteristic of the driest locality. Then, for the
animal creation, men, women, and children abound, both on the
banks, and plying up and down the Ganges. The humped cow
most.
•
I have seen the same garnet sand covering the bottom of the Himalayan
torrents, where it is the produce of disintegrated gneiss, and whence it is trans-
ported to the Ganges.
56
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
(of which the ox is used for draught) is common. Camels I
occasionally observed, and more rarely the elephant; ponies,
goats, and dogs muster strong. Porpoises and alligators infest
the river, even above Benares. Flies and mosquitos are terrible
pests; and so are the odious flying-bugs, which insinuate them-
selves between one's skin and clothes, diffusing a dreadful odour,
which is increased by any attempt to touch or remove them. In
the evening it was impossible to keep insects out of the boat, or
to hinder their putting the lights out; and of these the most
intolerable was the above-mentioned flying-bug. Saucy crickets,
too, swarm, and spring at one's face, whilst mosquitos maintain a
constant guerilla warfare, trying to the patience no less than to
the nerves. Thick webs of the gossamer spider float across the
river during the heat of the day, as coarse as fine thread, and
being inhaled keep tickling the nose and lips.
I
On the 18th, the morning commenced with a dust storm, the
horizon was about 20 yards off, and ashy white with clouds of
sand; the trees were scarcely visible, and everything in my boat
was covered with a fine coat of impalpable powder, collected from
the boundless alluvial plains through which the Ganges flows.
Trees were scarcely discernible, and so dry was the wind that
drops of water vanished like magic. Neither ferns, mosses, nor
lichens grow along the banks of the Ganges; they cannot survive
the transition from parching like this to the three months' floods
at midsummer, when the country is for miles under water.
March 23.-Passed the mouth of the Soane, a vast expanse of
sand dotted with droves of camels; and soon after, the wide-
spread spits of sand along the north bank announced the mouth
of the Gogra, one of the vastest of the many Himalayan affluents
of the Ganges.
On the 25th of March I reached Dinapore, a large military
station, sufficiently insalubrious, particularly for European troops,
the barracks being so misplaced that the inmates are suffocated;
the buildings run east and west instead of north and south, and
therefore lose all the breeze in the hottest weather. From this
place I sent the boat to Patna, and proceeded thither by land to
the house of Dr. Irvine, an old acquaintance and botanist, from
whom I received a most kind welcome. On the road, Bengal
forms of vegetation, to which I had been for three months a
stranger, reappeared; likewise groves of fan and toddy palms,
which are both very rare higher up the river; clumps of large
bamboo, orange, Acacia Sissoo, Melia, Guatteria longifolia, Spon-
Large Hemipterous insects, of the genus Derecteryx.
I
PATNA. OPIUM MANUFÀĊTURE.
57
dias mangifera, Odina, Euphorbia pentagona, neriifolia and
trigona, were common roadside plants. In the gardens, Papaw,
Croton, Jatropha, Buddleia, Cookia, Loquat, Litchi, Longan, all
kinds of the orange tribe, and the cocoa-nut, some from their
presence, and many from their profusion, indicated a decided
change of climate, a receding from the desert north-west of India,
and its dry winds, and an approach to the damper regions of the
many-mouthed Ganges.
My main object at Patna being to see the opium Godowns
(stores), I waited on Dr. Corbett, the Assistant-Agent, who kindly
explained everything to me, and to whose obliging attentions I am
much indebted.
The E. I. Company grant licences for the cultivation of the
poppy, and contract for all the produce at certain rates, varying
with the quality. No opium can be grown without this licence,
and an advance equal to about two-thirds of the value of the pro-
duce is made to the grower. This produce is made over to the
district collectors, who approximately fix the worth of the con-
tents of each jar, and forward it to Patna, where rewards are
given for the best samples, and the worst are condemned without
payment; but all is turned to some account in the reduction of
the drug to a state fit for market.
The poppy flowers in the end of January and beginning of
February, and the capsules are sliced in February and March with
a little sharp instrument like a saw, made of three iron plates with
jagged edges, tied together. The cultivation is very carefully
conducted, nor are there any very apparent means of improving
this branch of commerce and revenue. During the N.W., or
dry winds, the best opium is procured, the worst during the moist,
or E. and N.E., when the drug imbibes moisture, and a watery bad
solution of opium collects in cavities of its substance, and is
called Passewa, according to the absence of which the opium is
generally prized.
At the end of March the opium jars arrive at the stores by
water and by land, and continue accumulating for some weeks.
Every jar is stowed in a proper place, and its contents separately
tested with extreme accuracy, and valued. When the whole
quantity has been received, the contents of all the jars are thrown
into great vats, occupying a very large building, whence the mass
is distributed, to be made up into balls for the markets. This
operation is carried on in a long paved room, where every man is
ticketed, and many overseers are stationed to see that the work is
properly conducted. Each workman sits on a stool, with a double
58
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
stage and a tray before him. On the top stage is a tin basin, con-
taining opium sufficient for three balls; in the lower another basin,
holding water in the tray stands a brass hemispherical cup, in
which the ball is worked. To the man's right hand is another
tray, with two compartments, one containing thin pancakes of
poppy petals pressed together, the other a cupful of sticky opium-
water made from refuse opium. The man takes the brass cup,
and places a pancake at the bottom, smears it with opium-water,
and with many plies of the pancakes makes a coat for the opium.
Of this he takes about one-third of the mass before him, puts it
inside the pancake, and agglutinates many others over it: the
balls are then again weighed, and reduced or increased to a cer-
tain weight if necessary. At the day's end, each man takes his
work to a rack with numbered compartments, and deposits it in
that which answers to his own number; thence the balls (each
being put in a clay cup) are carried to an enormous drying-room,
where they are exposed in tiers, and constantly examined and
turned, to prevent their being attacked by weevils, which are very
prevalent during moist winds, little boys creeping along the racks
all day long for this purpose. When dry, the balls are packed in
two layers of six each in chests, with the stalks, dried leaves, and
capsules of the plant, and sent down to Calcutta. A little opium
is prepared of very fine quality for the Government Hospitals,
and some for general sale in India; but the proportion is trifling,
and such is made up into square cakes. A good workman will
prepare from thirty to fifty balls a day, the total produce being
10,000 to 12,000 a day; during one working season 1,353,000
balls are manufactured for the Chinese market alone.
The poppy-petal pancakes, each about a foot radius, are made
in the fields by women, by the simple operation of pressing the
fresh petals together. They are brought in large baskets, and
purchased at the commencement of the season. The liquor with
which the pancakes are agglutinated together by the ball-maker,
and worked into the ball, is merely inspissated opium-water, the
opium for which is derived from the condemned opium (Passewa),
the washing of the utensils, and of the workmen, every one of
whom is nightly laved before he leaves the establishment, and the
water is inspissated. Thus not a particle of opium is lost. To
encourage the farmers, the refuse stalks, leaves, and heads are
bought up, to pack the balls with; but this is far from an
economical plan, for it is difficult to keep the refuse from damp
and insects.
A powerful smell of opium pervaded these vast buildings,
OPFUM MANUFACTURE.
59
which Dr. Corbett assured me did not affect himself or the
assistants. The men work ten hours a day, becoming sleepy in
the afternoon; but this is only natural in the hot season: they are
rather liable to eruptive diseases, possibly engendered by the
nature of their occupation.
I
Even the best East Indian opium is inferior to the Turkish,
and owing to peculiarities of climate will probably always be so.
It never yields more than five per cent. of morphia, whence its
inferiority, but is as good in other respects, and even richer in
narcotine.
The care and attention devoted to every department of collect-
ing, testing, manipulating, and packing, is quite extraordinary;
and the result has been an impulse to the trade beyond what was
anticipated. The natives have been quick at apprehending and
supplying the wants of the market, and now there are more
demands for licences to grow opium than can be granted. All the
opium eaten in India is given out with a permit to licensed dealers,
and the drug is so adulterated before it reaches the retailers in the
bazaars, that it does not contain one-thirtieth part of the intoxi-
cating power that it did when pure.
Patna is the stronghold of Mahommedanism, and from its
central position, its command of the Ganges, and its proximity
to Nepal (which latter has been aptly compared to a drawn
dagger, pointed at the heart of India), it is an important place.
For this reason there are always a European and several Native
Regiments stationed there. In the neighbourhood there is little
to be seen, and the highly cultivated flat country is unfavourable
to native vegetation.
The mudar plant (Calotropis) was abundant here, but I found
that its properties and nomenclature were far form settled points.
On the banks of the Ganges, the larger, white-flowered, sub-
arboreous species prevailed; in the interior, and along my whole
previous route, the smaller purple-flowered kind was seen. Mr.
Davis, of Rotas, was in the habit of using the medicine copiously,
and vouched for the cure of eighty cases, chiefly of leprosy, by
the while mudar, gathered on the Ganges, whilst the purple of
Rotas and the neighbourhood was quite inert: Dr. Irvine, again,
used the purple only, and found the white inert. The European
and native doctors, who knew the two plants, all gave the pre-
* I am greatly indebted to Mr. Oldfield, the Opium Agent, and to Dr. Cor-
bett, for a complete set of specimens, implements, and drawings, illustrating
the cultivation and manufacture of Opium. They are exhibited in the Kew
Museum of Economic Botany.
60
'
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
ference to the white; except Dr. Irvine, whose experience over
various parts of India is entitled to great weight.
March 29.-Dropped down the river, experiencing a succession
of east and north-east winds during the whole remainder of the
voyage. These winds are very prevalent throughout the month
of March, and they rendered the passage in my sluggish boat
sufficiently tedious. In other respects I had but little bad weather
to complain of: only one shower of rain occurred, and but few
storms of thunder and lightning. The stream is very strong, and
its action on the sand-banks conspicuous. All night I used to
hear the falling cliffs precipitated with a dull heavy splash into the
water,—a pretty spectacle in the day-time, when the running cur-
rent is seen to carry a cloud of white dust, like smoke, along its
course.
The Curruckpore hills, the northern boundary of the gneiss and
granite range of Paras-nath, are first seen in the distance, and then
throwing out low loosely timbered spurs towards the river; but no
rock or hill comes close to the banks till near Monghyr, where
two islets of rock rise out of the bed of the river. They are of
stratified quartz, dipping, at a high angle, to the south-east; and,
as far as I could observe, quite barren, each crowned with a little
temple. The swarm of boats from below Patna to this place was
quite incredible.
April 1.—Arrived at Monghyr, by far the prettiest town I had
seen on the river, backed by a long range of wooded hills,-
detached outliers of which rise in the very town. The banks are
steep, and they appear more so owing to the fortifications, which
are extensive. A number of large, white, two-storied houses,
some very imposing, and perched on rounded or conical hills, give
a European aspect to the place.
Monghyr is celebrated for its iron manufactures, especially of
muskets, in which respect it is the Birmingham of Bengal.
Generally speaking, these weapons are poor, though stamped
with the first English names. A native workman will, however,
if time and sufficient reward be given, turn out a first-rate fowling-
piece. The inhabitants are reported to be sad drunkards, and
the abundance of toddy-palms was quite remarkable. The latter
(here the Phonix sylvestris) I never saw wild, but it is considered
to be so in N.W. India; it is still a doubtful point whether it is
the same as the African species. In the morning of the following
day I went to the hot springs of Seeta-koond (wells of Seeta), a
few miles south of the town. The hills are hornstone and quartz,
stratified and dipping southerly with a very high angle; they are

ALLUVIUM OF THE GANGES.
61
very barren, and evidently identical with those on the south bank
of the Soane; skirting, in both cases, the granite and gneiss range
of Paras-nath. The alluvium on the banks of the Ganges is
obviously an aqueous deposit subsequent to the elevation of these
hills, and is perfectly plane up to their bases. The river has its
course through the alluvium, like the Soane. The depth of the
former is in many places upwards of 100 feet, and the kunker
pebbles it contains are often disposed in parallel undulating bands.
It nowhere contains sand pebbles or fossils; concretions of lime
(kunker) alone interrupting its uniform consistence. It attains
JW WHYMPER
MONGHYR ON THE GANGES, WITH THE CURRUCK PORE HILLS IN THE
DISTANCE.
its greatest thickness in the valleys of the Ganges and the Soane,
gradually sloping up to the Himalaya and Curruckpore hills on
either flank. It is, however, well developed on the Kymore and
Paras-nath hills, 1,200 to 1,500 feet above the Ganges valley, and
I have no doubt was deposited in very deep water, when the rela-
tive positions of these mountains to the Ganges and Soane valleys
were the same that they are now.
they are now. Like every other part of the
surface of India, it has suffered much from denudation, especially
on the above-named mountains, and around their bases, where
62
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
+
various rocks protrude through it. Along the Ganges again, its
surface is an unbroken level between Chunar and the rocks of
Monghyr. The origin of its component mineral matter must be
sought in the denudation of the Himalayas within a very recent
geological period. The contrast between the fertility of the allu-
vium and the sterility of the protruded quartzy rocks is very
striking, cultivation running up to these fields of stones, and
suddenly stopping..
Unlike the Soorujkoond hot-springs, those of Seetakoond rise
in a plain, and were once covered by a handsome temple. All
the water is collected in a tank, some yards square, with steps
leading down to it. The water, which is clear and tasteless (temp.
104°), is so pure as to be exported copiously, and the Monghyr
manufactory of soda-water presents the anomaly of owing its
purity to Seeta's ablutions.
On my passage down the river I passed the picturesque rocks
of Sultangunj; they are similar to those of Monghyr, but very much
larger and loftier. One, a round-headed mass, stands on the bank,
capped with a triple-domed Mahommedan tomb, palms, and figs.
The other, which is far more striking, rises isolated in the bed of
the river, and is crowned with a Hindoo temple, its pyramidal
cone surmounted with a curious pile of weathercocks, and two
little banners. The current of the Ganges is here very strong,
and runs in deep black eddies between the rocks.
Though now perhaps eighty or a hundred yards from the shore,
this islet must have been recently a peninsula, for it retains a
portion of the once connecting bank of alluvium, in the form of a
short flat-topped cliff, about thirty feet above the water. Some
curious looking sculptures on the rocks are said to represent
Naragur (or Vishnu), Suree and Sirooj; but to me they were quite
unintelligible. The temple is dedicated to Naragur, and inhabited
by Fakirs; it is the most holy on the Ganges.
April 5.-I arrived at Bhagulpore, and took up my quarters
with my friend Mr. Grant, till he should arrange my dawk for
Sikkim. The town has been supposed to be the much-sought Pali-
bothra, and a dirty stream hard by (the Chundum), the Eranoboas;
but Mr. Ravenshaw has now brought all existing proofs to bear on
Patna and the Soane. It is, like most hilly places in India south
of the Himalaya, the seat of much Jain worship; and the temples
on Mount Manden,' a few miles off, are said to have been 540 in
For the following information about Bhagulpore and its neighbourhood, I
am indebted-chiefly to Col. Francklin's essay in the Asiatic Researches; and
the late Major Napleton and Mr. Pontet.
63
number. At the assumed summer-palaces of the kings of Pali-
bothra the ground is covered with agates, brought from the
neighbouring hills, which were, in a rough state, let into the walls
of the buildings. These agates perfectly resemble the Soane
pebbles, and they assist in the identification of these flanking hills
with those of the latter river.
BHAGULPORE GARDENS.
Again, near the hills, the features of interest are very numerous.
The neighbouring mountains of Curruckpore, which are a portion
of the Rajmahal and Paras-nath range, are peopled by tribes repre-
senting the earliest races of India, prior to the invasion of young
Rama, prince of Oude, who, according to the legend, spread
Brahminism with his conquests, and won the hand of King Jannuk's
daughter, Seeta, by bending her father's bow. These people are
called Coles, a middle-sized, strong, very dark, and black-haired
race, with thick lips: they have no vocation but collecting iron
from the soil, which occurs abundantly in nodules. They eat flesh,
whether that of animals killed by themselves, or of those which
have died a natural death, and mix with Hindoos, but not with
Mussulmen. There are other tribes, vestiges of the Tamulian
race, differing somewhat in their rites from these, and approaching,
in their habits, more to the Hindoos ; but all are timorous and
retiring
The hill-rangers, or Bhagulpore-rangers, are all natives of the
Rajmahal hills, and form a local corps maintained by the Company
for the protection of the district. For many years these people
were engaged in predatory excursions, which, owing to the nature
of the country, were checked with great difficulty. The plan was
therefore conceived, by an active magistrate in the district, of em-
bodying a portion into a military force, for the protection of the
country from invasions of their own tribes; and this scheme has
answered perfectly.
To me the most interesting object in Bhagulpore was the Horti-
cultural Gardens, whose origin and flourishing condition are due
to the activity and enterprise of the late Major Napleton, com-
mander of the hill-rangers. The site is good, consisting of fifteen
acres, that were, four years ago, an indigo field, but form now a
smiling garden. About fifty men are employed; and the number
of seeds and vegetables annually distributed is very great. Of trees
the most conspicuous are the tamarind, Tecoma jasminoides,
Erythrina, Adansonia, Bombax, teak, banyan, peepul, Sissoo,
Casuarina, Terminalia, Melia, Bauhinia. Of introduced species
English and Chinese flat peaches (pruned to the centre to let the
sun in), Mangos of various sort, Eugenia Jambos, various Anonas,
64
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Litchi, Loquat and Longan, oranges, Sapodilla; apple, pear, both
succeeding tolerably; various Cabool and Persian varieties of
fruit-trees; figs, grapes, guava, apricots, and jujube. The grapes
looked extremely well, but they require great skill and care in the
management. They form a long covered walk, with a row of
plantains on the W. side to diminish the effects of the hot winds,.
but even with this screen, the fruits on that side are inferior to
that on the opposite trellis. Easterly winds, again, being moist,
blight these and other plants, by favouring the abundant increase
of insects, and causing the leaves to curl and fall off; and against
this evil there is no remedy. With a clear sky the mischief is
not great; under a cloudy one the prevalence of such winds is
fatal to the crop. The white ant sometime attacks the stems, and
is best checked by washing the roots with lime-water, yellow arsenic,
or tobacco-water. Numerous Cerealia, and the varieties of cotton,
sugar-cane, &c. all thrive extremely well; so do many of our
English vegetables. Cabbages, peas, and beans are much injured
by the caterpillars of a Pontia, like our English "White;" rasp-
berries, currants, and gooseberries will not grow at all.
The seeds were all deposited in bottles, and hung round the
walls of a large airy department; and for cleanliness and excellence
of kind they would bear comparison with the best seedsman's
collection in London. Of English garden vegetables, and varieties
of the Indian Cerealia, and leguminous plants, Indian corn, millets,
rice, &c., the collections for distribution were extensive.
The manufacture of economic products is not neglected.
Excellent coffee is grown; and arrow-root, equal to the best
West Indian, is prepared, at Is. 6d. per bottle of twenty-four
ounces,—about a fourth of the price of that article in Calcutta.
In most respects the establishment is a model of what such
institutions ought to be in India; not only of real practical value,
in affording a good and cheap supply of the best culinary and
other vegetables that the climate can produce, but as showing to
what departments efforts are best directed. Such gardens diffuse
a taste for the most healthy employments, and offer an elegant
resource for the many unoccupied hours which the Englishman in
India finds upon his hands. They are also schools of gardening;
and a simple inspection of what has been done at Bhagulpore is
a valuable lesson to any person about to establish a private garden
of his own.
I often heard complaints made of the seeds distributed from
these gardens not vegetating freely in other parts of India, and it
is not to be expected that they should retain their vitality unimpaired
COLGONG.
65
through an Indian rainy season; but on the other hand I almost
invariably found that the planting and tending had been left to the
uncontrolled management of native gardeners, who with a certain
amount of skill in handicraft are, from habits and prejudices,
singularly unfit for the superintendence of a garden.
CHAPTER IV.
Leave Bhagulpore-Kunker-Colgong-Himalaya, distant view of Cosi,
mouth of Difficult navigation-Sand-storms-Caragola-Ghat-Purnea-
Ortolans-Mahanuddee, transport of pebbles, &c.-Betel-pepper, cultiva-
tion of Titalya-Siligoree-View of outer Himalaya-Terai-Mechis-
Punkabaree Foot of mountains-Ascent to Darjeeling-Cicadas-
Leeches-Animals-Kursiong, spring vegetation of-Pacheem-Arrive at
Darjeeling Darjeeling, origin and settlement of Grant of land from
Rajah-Dr. Campbell appointed superintendent-Dewan, late and present
Aggressive conduct of the latter-Increase of the station-Trade-
Titalya fair-Healthy climate for Europeans and children-Invalids,
diseases prejudicial to.
Ma
I TOOK, as it were, a new departure on Saturday, April the 8th, my
dawk being laid on that day from Caragola-Ghat, about thirty
miles down the river, for the foot of the Himalaya range and
Darjeeling.
Passing the pretty villa-like houses of the English residents, the
river-banks reassumed their wonted features: the hills receded
from the shore; and steep clay cliffs, twenty to fifty feet high, cn
one side, opposed long sandy shelves on the other. Kunker was still
most abundant, especially in the lower bed of the banks, close to
the (now very low) water. The strata containing it were much un-
dulated, but not uniformly so; horizontal layers over or under-
lying the disturbed ones. At Colgong, conical hills appear, and
two remarkable sister-rocks start out of the river, the same in
structure with those of Sultangunj. A boisterous current swirls
round them, strong even at this season, and very dangerous in the
rains, when the swollen river is from twenty-eight to forty feet
deeper than now. We landed opposite the rocks, and proceeded
to the residence of Mr. G. Barnes, prettily situated on one of the
conical elevations characteristic of the geology of the district.
The village we passed through had been recently destroyed by
fire; and nothing but the clay outer walls and curious-looking
partition walls remained, often white-washed and daubed with
figures in red of the palm of the hand, elephant, peacock, tiger,-a
sort of rude fresco-painting. We did not arrive till past mid-day,
6
66
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
and the boat, with my palkee and servant, not having been able
to face the gale, I was detained till the middle of the following
day. Mr. Barnes and his brother proved most agreeable com-
panions, very luckily for me, for it requires no ordinary philosophy
to bear being storm-stayed on a voyage, with the prospect of pay-
ing a heavy demurrage for detaining the dawk, and the worse one
of finding the bearers given to another traveller when you arrive
at the rendezvous. The view from Mr. Barnes' house is very fine:
it commands the river and its rocks; the Rajmahal hills to the
east and south; broad acres of indigo and other crops below;
long lines of palm-trees, and groves of mango, banana, tamarind,
and other tropical trees, scattered close around and in the distance.
In the rainy season, and immediately after, the snowy Himalaya
are distinctly seen on the horizon, fully 170 miles off. Nearly
opposite, the Cosi river enters the Ganges, bearing (considering
its short course) an enormous volume of water, comprising the
drainage of the whole Himalaya between the two giant peaks of
Kinchinjunga in Sikkim, and Gossain-Than in Nepal. Even at
this season, looking from Mr. Barnes' eyrie over the bed of the
Ganges, the enormous expanses of sand, the numerous shifting
islets, and the long spits of mud betray the proximity of some
very restless and resistless power. During the rains, the scene
must indeed be extraordinary, when the Cosi lays many miles of
land under water, and pours so vast a quantity of detritus into
the Ganges that long islets are heaped up and swept away in a
few hours; and the latter river becomes all but unnavigable.
Boats are caught in whirlpools, formed without a moment's warn-
ing, and sunk ere they have spun round thrice in the eddies; and
no part of the inland navigation of India is so dreaded or dangerous,
as the Ganges at its junction with the Cosi.
Rain generally falls in partial showers at this season, and they
are essential to the well-being of the spring crops of indigo. The
stormy appearance of the sky, though it proved fallacious, was
hailed by my hosts as predicting a fall, which was much wanted.
The wind however seemed but to aggravate the drought, by the
great body of sand it lifted and swept up the valleys, obscuring
the near horizon, and especially concealing the whole delta of the
Cosi, where the clouds were so vast and dense, and ascended so
high as to resemble another element.
All night the gale blew on, accompanied with much thunder
and lightning, and it was not till noon of the 9th that I descried
my palkee-boat toiling down the stream. Then I again embarked,
taking the lagging boat in tow of my own. Passing the mouths
67
SAND STORM. PURNEA.
of the Cosi, the gale and currents were so adverse that we had
to bring up on the sand, when the quantity which drifted into
the boat rendered the delay as disagreeable as it was tedious.
The particles penetrated everywhere, up my nose and down my
back, drying my eyelids, and gritting between my teeth. The
craft kept bumping on the banks, and being both crazy and
leaky, the little comfortless cabin became the refuge of scared
rats and cockroaches. In the evening I shared a meal with these
creatures, on some provisions my kind friends had put into the
boat, but the food was so sandy that I had to bolt my supper!
At night the storm lulled a little, and I proceeded to Caragola
Ghat and took up my dawk, which had been twenty-eight hours
expecting me, and was waiting, in despair of my arrival, for
another traveller on the opposite bank, who however could not
cross the river.
Having accomplished thirty miles, I halted at 9 A.M. on the
following morning at Purnea, quitting it at noon for Kishengunj.
The whole country wore a greener garb than I had seen any-
where south of the Ganges: the climate was evidently more
humid, and had been gradually becoming so from Mirzapore.
The first decided change was a few miles below the Soane
mouth, at Dinapore and Patna; and the few hygrometrical
observations I took at Bhagulpore confirmed the increase of
moisture. The proximity to the sea and great Delta of the
Ganges sufficiently accounts for this; as does the approach to
the hills for the still greater dampness and brighter verdure of
Purnea. I was glad to feel myself within the influence of the
long-looked-for Himalaya; and I narrowly watched every change
in the character of the vegetation. A fern, growing by the road-
side, was the first and most tangible evidence of this; together
with the rarity or total absence of Butea, Boswellia, Catechu,
Grislea, Carissa, and all the companions of my former excursion.
Purnea is a large station, and considered very unhealthy during
and after the rains. From it the road passed through some
pretty lanes, with groves of planted Guava and a rattan palm
(Calamus), the first I had seen. Though no hills are nearer
than the Himalaya, from the constant alteration of the river-beds,
the road undulates remarkably for this part of India, and a jungly
vegetation ensues, consisting of the above plants, with the yellow-
flowered Cactus replacing the Euphorbias, which were previously
much more common. Though still 100 miles distant from the
hills, mosses appeared on the banks, and more ferns were just
sprouting above ground.
68
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
The Bamboo, here cultivated, was a different species from that
I had met with in Behar, forming groves of straight trees fifteen to
twenty feet high, thin of foliage, and not unlike poplars.
Thirty-six miles from Purnea brought me to Kishengunj, when
I found that no arrangements whatever had been made for my
dawk, and I was fairly stranded. Luckily a thoughtful friend.
had provided me with letters to the scattered residents along the
road, and I proceeded with one to Mr. Perry, the assistant
magistrate of the district,-a gentleman well known for his
urbanity, and the many aids he affords to travellers on this
neglected line of road. Owing to this being some festival or
holiday, it was impossible to get palkee-bearers; the natives
were busy catching fish in all the muddy pools around. Some
of Mr. Perry's own family also were about to proceed to Dar-
jeeling, so that I had only to take patience, and be thankful for
having to exercise it in such pleasant quarters. The Maha-
nuddee, a large stream from the hills, flows near this place,
strewing the surrounding neighbourhood with sand, and from the
frequent alterations in its course, causing endless disputes among
the landholders. A kind of lark called an Ortolan was abundant :
this is not, however, the European delicacy of that name, though
a migratory bird; the flocks are large, and the birds so fat, that
that they make excellent table game. At this time they were
rapidly disappearing; to return from the north in September.
I had just got into bed at night, when the bearers arrived; so
bidding a hurried adieu to my kind host, I proceeded onwards.
April 12.-I awoke at 4 A.M., and found my palkee on the
ground, and the bearers coolly smoking their hookahs under a
tree (it was raining hard): they had carried me the length of
their stage, twelve miles, and there were no others to take me
on. I had paid twenty-four pounds for my dawk, from Caragola
to the hills, to which I had been obliged to add a handsome
douceur; so I lost all patience. After waiting and entreating
during several hours, I found the head-man of a neighbouring
village, and by a further disbursement induced six out of the
twelve bearers to carry the empty palkee, whilst I should walk to
the next stage; or till we should meet some others. They
agreed, and cutting the thick and spongy sheaths of the banana,
used them for shoulder-pads: they also wrapped them round the
palkee-poles, to ease their aching clavicles. Walking along I
picked up a few plants, and fourteen miles further on
again to the banks of the Mahanuddee, whose bed was strewn
with pebbles and small boulders, brought thus far from the
came
69
CULTIVATION OF PAWN.
mountains (about thirty miles distant). Here, again, I had to
apply to the head-man of a village, and pay for bearers to take
me to Titalya, the next stage (fourteen miles). Some curious
long low sheds puzzled me very much, and on examining them
they proved to be for the growth of Pawn or Betel-pepper, another
indication of the moisture of the climate. These sheds are
twenty to fifty yards long, eight or twelve or so broad, and
scarcely five high; they are made of bamboo, wattled all round
and over the top. Slender rods are placed a few feet apart,
inside, up which the Pepper Vines climb, and quickly fill the
place with their deep green glossy foliage. The native enters
every morning by a little door, and carefully cleans the plants.
Constant heat, damp, and moisture, shelter from solar beams,
from scorching heat, and from nocturnal radiation, are thus all
procured for the plant, which would certainly not live twenty-
four hours if exposed to the climate of this treeless district,
Great attention is paid to the cultivation, which is very profit-
able. Snakes frequently take up their quarters in these hot-
houses, and cause fatal accidents.
·
Titalya was once a military station of some importance, and
from its proximity to the hills has been selected by Dr. Camp-
bell (the Superintendent of Darjeeling) as the site for an annual
fair, to which the mountain tribes resort, as well as the people
of the plains. The Calcutta road to Darjeeling by Dinajpore
meets, near here, that by which I had come; and I found no
difficulty in procuring bearers to proceed to Siligoree, where I
arrived at 6 A.M. on the 13th. Hitherto I had not seen the
mountains, so uniformly had they been shrouded by dense
wreaths of vapour : here, however, when within eight miles of
their base, I caught a first glimpse of the outer range-sombre
masses, of far from picturesque outline, clothed everywhere with
a dusky forest.
Siligoree stands on the verge of the Terai, that low malarious
belt which skirts the base of the Himalaya, from the Sutlej to
Brahma-koond in Upper Assam. Every feature, botanical,
geological, and zoological, is new on entering this district. The
change is sudden and immediate: sea and shore are hardly more
conspicuously different; nor from the edge of the Terai to the
limit of perpetual snow is any botanical region more clearly
marked than this, which is the commencement of Himalayan
vegetation. A sudden descent leads to the Mahanuddee river,
flowing in a shallow valley, over a pebbly bottom: it is a rapid
river, even at this season; its banks are fringed with bushes, and
70
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
it is clear and sparkling as a trout stream in Scotland. Beyond
it the road winds through a thick brushwood, choked with long
grasses, and with but few trees, chiefly of Acacia, Dalbergia
Sissoo, and a scarlet-fruited Sterculia. The soil is a red, friable
clay and gravel. At this season only a few spring plants were in
flower, amongst which a very sweet-scented Crinum, Asphodel,
and a small Curcuma, were in the greatest profusion. Leaves
of terrestrial Orchids appeared, with ferns and weeds of hot damp
regions. I crossed the beds of many small streams: some were
dry, and all very tortuous; their banks were richly clothed with
brushwood and climbers of Convolvulus, Vines, Hiraa, Leea,
Menispermeæ, Cucurbitacea, and Bignoniacea. Their pent-up
waters, percolating the gravel beds, and partly carried off by
evaporation through the stratum of ever-increasing vegetable
mould, must be one main agent in the production of the
malarious vapours of this pestilential region. Add to this, the
detention of the same amongst the jungly herbage, the amount
of vapour in the humid atmosphere above, checking the upward
passage of that from the soil, the sheltered nature of the locality
at the immediate base of lofty mountains; and there appear to
me to be here all necessary elements, which, combined, will
produce stagnation and deterioration in an atmosphere loaded
with vapour. Fatal as this district is, and especially to Euro-
peans, a race inhabit it with impunity, who, if not numerous, do
not owe their paucity to any climatic causes. These are the
Mechis, often described as a squalid, unhealthy people, typical of
the region they frequent; but who are, in reality, more robust
than the Europeans in India, and whose disagreeably sallow com-
plexion is deceptive as indicating a sickly constitution. They
are a mild, inoffensive people, industrious for Orientals, living by
annually burning the Terai jungle and cultivating the cleared
spots; and, though so sequestered and isolated, they rather court
than avoid intercourse with those whites whom they know to be
kindly disposed.
After procee ding some six miles along the gradually ascending
path, I came to a considerable stream, cutting its way through
stratified gravel, with cliffs on each side fifteen to twenty
feet high, here and there covered with ferns, the little Oxalis
sensitiva, and other herbs. The road here suddenly ascends a
steep gravelly hill, and opens out on a short flat, or spur, from
which the Himalaya rise abruptly, clothed with forest from the
base, the little bungalow of Punkabaree, my immediate desti-
nation, nestled in the woods, crowning a lateral knoll, above

PUNKABAREE BUNGALOW AND BASE OF THE SIKKIM HIMALAYA.
TERAI AND FOOT OF HIMALAYA.
71
which, to east and west, as far as the eye could reach, were range
after range of wooded mountains, 6,000 to 8,000 feet high. I
here met with the India-rubber tree (Ficus elastica); it abounds
in Assam, but this is its western limit.
From this steppe, the ascent to Punkabaree is sudden and
steep, and accompanied with a change in soil and vegetation.
The mica slate and clay slate protrude everywhere, the former
full of garnets.
A giant forest replaces the stunted and bushy
timber of the Terai Proper; of which the Duabanga and Ter-
minalias form the prevailing trees, with Cedrela and Gordonia
Wallichii. Smaller timber and shrubs are innumerable; a suc-
culent character pervades the bushes and herbs, occasioned by
the prevalence of Urticea. Large bamboos rather crest the
hills than court the deeper shade, and of the latter there is
abundance, for the torrents cut a straight, deep, and steep course
down the hill flanks: the gulleys they traverse are choked with
vegetation and bridged by fallen trees, whose trunks are richly
clothed with Dendrobium Pierardi and other epiphytical Orchids,
with pendulous Lycopodia and many ferns, Hoya, Scitamineæ, and
similar types of the hottest and dampest climates.
The bungalow at Punkabaree was good-which was well, as
my luggage-bearers had not come up, and there were no signs
of them along the Terai road, which I saw winding below me.
My scanty stock of paper being full of plants, I was reduced to
the strait of botanising, and throwing away the specimens. The
forest was truly magnificent along the steep mountain sides. The
apparently large proportion of deciduous trees was far more
considerable than I had expected; partly, probably, due to the
abundance of the Dillenia, Cassia, and Sterculia, whose copious.
fruit was all the more conspicuous from the leafless condition of
the plant. The white or lilac blossoms of the convolvulus-like
Thunbergia, and other Acanthacea, were the predominant features
of the shrubby vegetation, and very handsome.
All around, the hills rise steeply five or six thousand feet,
clothed in a dense deep-green dripping forest. Torrents rush
down the slopes, their position indicated by the dipping of the
forest into their beds, or the occasional cloud of spray rising
above some more boisterous part of their course. From the road,
at and a little above Punkabaree, the view is really superb, and
very instructive. Behind (or north) the Himalaya rise in steep
confused masses. Below, the hill on which I stood, and the
ranges as far as the eye can reach east and west, throw spurs on
to the plains of India. These are very thickly wooded, and
72
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS,
enclose broad, dead-flat, hot and damp valleys, apparently covered
with a dense forest. Secondary spurs of clay and gravel, like that
immediately below Punkaharee, rest on the bases of the moun-
tains, and seem to form an intermediate neutral ground between
flat and mountainous India. The Terai district forms a very
irregular belt, scantily clothed, and intersected by innumerable
rivulets from the hills, which unite and divide again on the flat,
till, emerging from the region of many trees, they enter the plains,
following devious courses, which glisten like silver threads. The
whole horizon is bounded by the sea-like expanse of the plains,
which stretch away into the region of sunshine and fine weather,
in one boundless flat.
In the distance, the courses of the Teesta and Cosi, the great
drainers of the snowy Himalayas, and the recipients of innumer-
able smaller rills, are with difficulty traced at this, the dry season.
The ocean-like appearance of this southern view is even more
conspicuous in the heavens than on the land, the clouds arranging
themselves after a singularly sea-scape fashion. Endless strata
run in parallel ribbons over the extreme horizon; above these,
scattered cumuli, also in horizontal lines, are dotted against a
clear grey sky, which gradually, as the eye is lifted, passes into
a deep cloudless blue vault, continuously clear to the zenith;
there the cumuli, in white fleecy masses, again appear; till, in the
northern celestial hemisphere, they thicken and assume the leaden
hue of nimbi, discharging their moisture on the dark forest-clad
hills around. The breezes are south-easterly, bringing that vapour
from the Indian Ocean, which is rarefied and suspended aloft
over the heated plains, but condensed into a drizzle when it
strikes the cooler flanks of the hills, and into heavy rain when it
meets their still colder summits. Upon what a gigantic scale
does nature here operate! Vapours, raised from an ocean whose
nearest shore is more than 400 miles distant, are safely transported
without the loss of one drop of water to support the rank luxuri-
ance of this far distant region. This and other offices fulfilled,
the waste waters are returned, by the Cosi and Teesta, to the
ocean, and again exhaled, exported, expended, re-collected, and
returned.
The soil and bushes everywhere swarmed with large and
troublesome ants and enormous earthworms. In the evening
the noise of the great Cicade in the trees was almost deafening.
They burst suddenly into full chorus, with a voice so harshly
creaking, so dissonant, and so unearthly, that in these solitary
forests I could not help being startled. In general character the
ASCENT TO DARJEELING.
73
note was very similar to that of other Cicada. They ceased as
suddenly as they commenced. On the following morning my
baggage arrived, and, leaving my palkee, I mounted a pony kindly
sent for me by Mr. Hodgson, and commenced a very steep ascent
of about 3,000 feet, winding along the face of a steep, richly-
wooded valley. The road zigzags extraordinarily in and out of
the innumerable lateral ravines, each with its watercourse, dense
jungle, and legion of leeches; the bite of these blood-suckers
gives no pain, but is followed by considerable effusion of blood.
They puncture through thick worsted stockings, and even trousers,
and, when full, roll in the form of a little soft ball into the bottom
of the shoe, where their presence is hardly felt in walking.
Not only are the roadsides rich in plants, but native paths,
cutting off all the zigzags, run in straight lines up the steepest
hill-faces, and thus double the available means for botanising;
and it is all but impossible to leave the paths of one kind or
other, except for a yard or two up the rocky ravines. Elephants,
tigers, and occasionally the rhinoceros, inhabit the foot of these
hills, with wild boars, leopards, &c.; but none are numerous.
The elephant's path is an excellent specimen of engineering-the
opposite of the native track, for it winds judiciously.
At about 1,000 feet above Punkabaree the vegetation is very
rich, and appears all the more so from the many turnings of the
road, affording glorious prospects of the foreshortened tropical
forests. The prevalent timber is gigantic, and scaled by climbing
Leguminosa, as Bauhinias and Robinias, which sometimes sheath
the trunks, or span the forest with huge cables, joining tree to
tree. Their trunks are also clothed with parasitical Orchids, and
still more beautifully with Pothos (Scindapsus), Peppers, Gnetum,
Vines, Convolvulus, and Bignonia. The beauty of the drapery
of the Pothos-leaves is pre-eminent, whether for the graceful folds
the foliage assumes, or for the liveliness of its colour. Of the
more conspicuous smaller trees, the wild banana is the most
abundant, its crown of very beautiful foliage contrasting with the
smaller-leaved plants amongst which it nestles; next comes a
screw-pine (Pandanus) with a straight stem and a tuft of leaves,
each eight or ten feet long, waving on all sides. Araliacea, with
smooth or armed slender trunks, and Mappa-like Euphorbiacea,
spread their long petioles horizontally forth, each terminated with.
an ample leaf some feet in diameter.
Bamboo abounds every-
where; its dense tufts of culms, 100 feet and upwards high, are
as thick as a man's thigh at the base. Twenty or thirty species
of ferns (including a tree-fern) were luxuriant and handsome,
74
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Foliaceous lichens and a few mosses appeared at 2,000 feet.
Such is the vegetation of the roads through the tropical forests of
the Outer-Himalaya.
At about 4,000 feet the road crossed a saddle, and ran along
the narrow crest of a hill, the top of that facing the plains of
India, and over which is the way to the interior ranges, amongst
which Darjeeling is placed, still twenty-five miles off. A little
below this a great change had taken place in the vegetation—
marked, first, by the appearance of a very English-looking bramble,
which, however, by way of proving its foreign origin, bore a very
good yellow fruit, called here the "yellow raspberry." Scattered
oaks, of a noble, species, with large lamellated cups and magnifi-
cent foliage, succeeded; and along the ridge of the mountain to
Kursiong (a dawk bungalow at about 4,800 feet), the change in
the flora was complete.
The spring of this region and elevation most vividly recalled
that of England. The oak flowering, the birch bursting into leaf,
the violet, Chrysosplenium, Stellaria and Arum, Vaccinium, wild
strawberry, maple, geranium, bramble. A colder wind blew here;
mosses and lichens carpeted the banks and roadsides; the birds
and insects were very different from those below; and everything
proclaimed the marked change in elevation, and not only in this,
but in season, for I had left the winter of the tropics and here
encountered the spring of the temperate zone.
The flowers I have mentioned are so notoriously the harbingers
of a European spring that their presence carries one home at
once; but, as species, they differ from their European prototypes,
and are accompanied at this elevation (and for 2,000 feet higher
up) with tree-fern, Pothos, bananas, palms, figs, pepper, numbers
of epiphytal Orchids, and similar genuine tropical genera. The
uniform temperature and humidity of the region here favour the
extension of tropical plants into a temperate region; exactly as
the same conditions cause similar forms to reach higher latitudes
in the southern hemisphere (as in New Zealand, Tasmania, South
Chili, &c.) than they do in the northern.
Along this ridge I met with the first tree-fern.
This species
seldom reaches the height of forty feet; the black trunk is but
three or four in girth, and the feathery crown is ragged in com-
parison with the species of many other countries: it is the
Alsophila gigantea, and ascends nearly to 7,000 feet elevation.
Kursiong bungalow, where I stopped for a few hours, is superbly
placed, on a narrow mountain ridge. The west window looks
down the valley of the Balasun river, the east into that of the
VEGETATION OF OUTER HIMALAYA.
75
Mahanuddee; both of these rise from the outer range, and flow
in broad, deep, and steep valleys (about 4,000 feet deep) which
give them their respective names, and are richly wooded from the
Terai to their tops. Till reaching this spur, I had wound upwards
along the western slope of the Mahanuddee valley. The ascent
from the spur at Kursiong to the top of the mountain (on the
northern face of which Darjeeling is situated) is along the eastern
slope of the Balasun.
From Kursiong a very steep zigzag leads up the mountain,
through a magnificent forest of chestnut, walnut, oaks, and laurels.
It is difficult to conceive a grander mass of vegetation-the straight
shafts of the timber-trees shooting aloft, some naked and clean,
with grey, pale, or brown bark; others literally clothed for yards
with a continuous garment of epiphytes, one mass of blossoms,
especially the white Orchids Caelogynes, which bloom in a profuse
manner, whitening their trunks like snow. More bulky trunks
bore masses of interlacing climber, Araliacea, Leguminose, Vines,
and Menispermeæ, Hydrangea, and Peppers, enclosing a hollow,
once filled by the now strangled supporting tree, which had long
ago decayed away. From the sides and summit of these, supple
branches hung forth, either leafy or naked; the latter resembling
cables flung from one tree to another, swinging in the breeze, their
rocking motion increased by the weight of great bunches of ferns
or Orchids, which were perched aloft in the loops. Perpetual
moisture nourishes this dripping forest, and pendulous mosses
and lichens are met with in profusion.
Two thousand feet higher up, near Mahaldiram (whence the
last view of the plains is gained), European plants appear-Ber-
berry, Paris, &c.; but here night gathered round, and I had still
ten miles to go to the nearest bungalow, that of Pacheem. The
road still led along the eastern slope of the Balasun valley, which
was exceedingly steep, and so cut up by ravines, that it winds in
and out of gulleys almost narrow enough to be jumped across.
It was very late before I arrived at Pacheem bungalow, the
most sinister-looking rest-house I ever saw, stuck on a little
cleared spur of the mountain, surrounded by dark forests,
overhanging a profound valley, and enveloped in mists and rain,
and hideous in architecture, being a miserable attempt to unite
the Swiss cottage with the suburban gothic; it combined a
maximum of discomfort with a minimum of good looks or good
cheer. I was some time in finding the dirty housekeeper, in an
outhouse hard by, and then in waking him. As he led me up the
crazy verandah, and into a broad ghostly room, without glass in
76
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
the windows, or fire, or any one comfort, my mind recurred to
the stories told of the horrors of the Hartz forest, and of the
benighted traveller's situation therein. Cold sluggish beetles hung
to the damp walls-and these I immediately secured. After due
exertions and perseverance with the damp wood, a fire smoked
lustily, and, by cajoling the gnome of a housekeeper, I procured
the usual roast fowl and potatoes, with the accustomed sauce of“a
strong smoky and singed flavour.¹
Pacheem stands at an elevation of nearly 7,300 feet, and as I
walked out on the following morning I met with English-looking
plants in abundance, but was too early in the season to get aught
but the foliage of most. Chrysosplenium, violet, Lobelia, a small
geranium, strawberry, five or six kinds of bramble, Arum, Paris,
Convallaria, Stellaria, Rubia, Vaccinium, and various Gnaphalia.
Of small bushes, cornels, honeysuckles, and the ivy tribe pre-
dominated, with Symplocos and Skimmia, Eurya, bushy brambles,
having simple or compound green or beautifully silky foliage;
Hypericum, Berberry, Hydrangea, Wormwood, Adamia cyanea,
Viburnum, Elder, dwarf bamboo, &c.
The climbing plants were still Panax or Aralia, Kadsura,
Saurauja, Hydrangea, Vines, Smilax, Ampelopsis, Polygona, and,
most beautiful of all, Stauntonia, with pendulous racemes of lilac
blossoms. Epiphytes were rarer, still I found white and purple
Caelogynes, and other Orchids, and a most noble white Rhodo-
dendron, whose truly enormous and delicious lemon-scented
blossoms strewed the ground. The trees were one half oaks,
one quarter Magnolias, and nearly another quarter laurels,
amongst which grew Himalayan kinds of birch, alder, maple,
holly, bird-cherry, common cherry, and apple. The absence of
Leguminosa was most remarkable, and the most prominent
botanical feature in the vegetation of this region; it is too high
for the tropical tribes of the warmer elevations, too low for the
Alpines, and probably too moist for those of temperate regions;
cool, equable, humid climates being generally unfavourable to
that order. Clematis was rare, and other Ranunculaceæ still more
SO. Cruciferce were absent, and, what was still more remarkable,
I found very few native species of grasses. Both Poa annua and
white Dutch clover flourished where accidentally disseminated, but
only in artificially cleared spots. Of ferns I collected about sixty
species, chiefly of temperate genera. The supremacy of this
Since writing the above a comfortable house has been erected at Senadah,
the name now given to what was called Pacheem Bungalow,
DARJEELING.
77
temperate region consists in the infinite number of forest trees,
in the absence (in the usual proportion, at any rate) of such
common orders as Composita, Leguminosa, Cruciferæ, and Ra-
nunculacea, and of Grasses amongst Monocotyledons, and in the
predominance of the rarer and more local families, as those of
Rhododendron, Camellia, Magnolia, Ivy, Cornel, Honeysuckle,
Hydrangea, Begonia, and Epiphytic orchids.
From Pacheem the road runs in a northerly direction to
Darjeeling, still along the Balasun valley, till the saddle of the
great mountain Sinchul is crossed. This is narrow, stretching
east and west, and from it a spur projects northwards for five or
six miles, amongst the many mountains still intervening between
it and the snows. This saddle (alt. 7,400 feet) crossed, one is
fairly amongst the mountains: the plains behind are cut off by it;
and in front the snows may be seen when the weather is pro-
pitious. The valleys on this side of the mountain run northwards,
and discharge their streams into great rivers, which, coming from
the snow, wind amongst the hills, and debouch into the Teesta,
to the east, where it divides Sikkim from Bhotan.
Darjeeling station occupies a narrow ridge, which divides into
two spurs, descending steeply to the bed of the Great Rungeet
river, up whose course the eye is carried to the base of the great
snowy mountains. The ridge itself is very narrow at the top,
along which most of the houses are perched, while others occupy
positions on its flanks, where narrow locations on the east, and
broader ones on the west, are cleared from wood. The valleys
on either side are at least 6,000 feet deep, forest-clad to the
bottom, with very few and small level spots, and no absolute
precipice; from their flanks project innumerable little spurs,
occupied by native clearings.
My route lay along the east flank, overhanging the valley of the
Rungmo river. Looking east, the amphitheatre of hills from the
ridge I had crossed was very fine; enclosing an area some four
miles across and 4,000 feet deep, clothed throughout with an im-
penetrable, dark forest: there was not one clear patch except near
the very bottom, where were some scattered hamlets of two or
three huts each. The rock is everywhere near the surface, and
the road has been formed by blasting at very many places. A
wooded slope descends suddenly from the edge of the road, while,
on the other hand, a bank rises abruptly to the top of the ridge,
alternately mossy, rocky, and clayey, and presenting a good
geological section, all the way along, of the nucleus of Darjeeling
spur, exposing broken masses of gneiss. As I descended I came
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HIMALAŸÀN JOURNALS.
upon the upper limit of the chesnut, a tree second in abundance
to the oak, gigantic, tall, and straight in the trunk.
I arrived at Darjeeling on the 16th of April; a showery, cold
month at this elevation. I was so fortunate as to find Mr. Charles
Barnes (brother of my friend at Colgong), the sole tenant of a
long, cottage-like building, divided off into pairs of apartments,
which are hired by visitors. It is usual for Europeans to bring a
full establishment of servants (with bedding, &c.) to such stations,
but I had not done so, having been told that there was a furnished
hotel in Darjeeling; and I was, therefore, not a little indebted to
Mr. Barnes for his kind invitation to join his mess.
As he was
an active mountaineer, we enjoyed many excursions together, in
the two months and a half during which we were companions.
Dr. Campbell procured me several active native (Lepcha) lads
as collectors, at wages varying from eight to twenty shillings a
month; these either accompanied me on my excursions, or went
by themselves into the jungles to collect plants, which I occupied
myself in drawing, dissecting, and ticketing: while the preserving
of them fell to the Lepchas, who, after a little training, became,
with constant superintendence, good plant-driers. Even at this
season (four weeks before the setting in of the rains) the weather
was very uncertain, so that the papers had generally to be dried
by the fire.
The hill-station or Sanatarium of Darjeeling owes its origin (like
Simla, Mussooree, &c.) to the necessity that exists in India of pro-
viding places where the health of Europeans may be recruited by
a more temperate climate. Sikkim proved an eligible position for
such an establishment, owing to its proximity to Calcutta, which
lies but 370 miles to the southward; whereas the north-west stations
mentioned above are upwards of a thousand miles from that city.
Darjeeling ridge varies in height from 6,500 to 7,500 feet above the
level of the sea; 8,000 feet being the elevation at which the
mean temperature most nearly coincides with that of London,
viz., 50°.
Sikkim was, further, the only available spot for a Sanatarium
throughout the whole range of the Himalaya, east of the extreme
western frontier of Nepal; being a protected state, and owing no
allegiance, except to the British Government; which, after the
Rajah had been driven from the country by the Ghorkas, in 1817,
replaced him on his throne, and guaranteed him the sovereignty.
Our main object in doing this was to retain Sikkim as a fender
between Nepal and Bhotan; and but for this policy the aggressive
Nepalese would, long ere this, have possessed themselves of
SIKKIM RAJA.
79
Sikkim, Bhotan, and the whole Himalaya, eastwards to the
borders of Burmah.¹
From 1817 to 1828 no notice was taken of Sikkim, till a frontier
dispute occurred between the Lepchas and Nepalese, which was
referred (according to the terms of the treaty) to the British
Government. During the arrangement of this, Darjeeling was
visited by a gentleman of high scientific attainments, Mr. J. W.
Grant, who pointed out its eligibility as a site for a Sanatarium to
Lord William Bentinck, then Governor-General; dwelling espe-
cially upon its climate, proximity to Calcutta, and accessibility;
on its central position between Tibet, Bhotan Nepal, and British
India; and on the good example a peaceably-conducted and
well-governed station would be to our turbulent neighbours in
that quarter. The suggestion was cordially received, and Major
Herbert (the late eminent Surveyor-General of India) and Mr.
Grant were employed to report further on the subject.
The next step taken was that of requesting the Rajah to cede a
tract of country which should include Darjeeling, for an equivalent
in money or land. His first demand was unreasonable; but on
further consideration he surrendered Darjeeling unconditionally,
and a sum of £300 per annum was granted to him as an equiva-
lent for what was then a worthless uninhabited mountain. In
1840 Dr. Campbell was removed from Nepal as superintendent of
the new station, and was entrusted with the charge of the political
relations between the British and Sikkim Government.
Once established, Darjeeling rapidly increased. Allotments of
land were purchased by Europeans for building dwelling-houses ;
barracks and a bazaar were formed, with accommodation for invalid
European soldiers; a few official residents, civil and military,
formed the nucleus of a community, which was increased by re-
tired officers and their families, and by temporary visitors in
search of health, or the luxury of a cool climate and active
exercise.
For the first few years matters went on smoothly with the
Rajah, whose minister (or Dewan) was upright and intelligent;
but the latter, on his death, was succeeded by the present Dewan,
a Tibetan, and a relative of the Ranee (or Rajah's wife); a man
unsurpassed for insolence and avarice, whose aim was to monopo-
Of such being their wish the Nepalese have never made any secret, and
they are said to have asked permission from the British to march an army
across Sikkim for the purpose of conquering Bhotan, offering to become more
peaceable neighbours to us than the Bhotanese are. Such they would doubt-
less have proved, but the Nepal frontier is considered broad enough already.
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lise the trade of the country, and to enrich himself at its expense.
Every obstacle was thrown by him in the way of a good under-
standing between Sikkim and the British Government. British
subjects were rigorously excluded from Sikkim; every liberal
offer for free trade and intercourse was rejected, generally with
insolence; merchandise was taxed, and notorious offenders,
refugees from the British territories, were harboured; despatches
were detained; and the Vakeels, or Rajah's representatives, were
chosen for their insolence and incapacity. The conduct of the
Dewan throughout was Indo-Chinese; assuming, insolent, aggres-
sive, never perpetrating open violence, but by petty insults
effectually preventing all good understanding. He was met by
neglect or forbearance on the part of the Calcutta Government,
and by patience and passive resistance at Darjeeling. Our inaction
and long-suffering were taken for weakness, and our concessions
for timidity. Such has been our policy in China, Siam, and
Burmah, and in each instance the result has been the same. Had
it been insisted that the terms of the treaty should be strictly kept,
and had the first act of insolence been noticed, we should have
maintained the best relations with Sikkim, whose people and
rulers (with the exception of the Dewan and his faction) have
proved themselves friendly throughout, and most anxious for
unrestricted communication.
These political matters have not, however, prevented the rapid
increase of Darjeeling; the progress of which, during the two years.
I spent in Sikkim, resembled that of an Australian colony, not
only in amount of building, but in the accession of native families
from the surrounding countries. There were not a hundred in-
habitants under British protection when the ground was trans-
ferred; there are now four thousand. At the former period there
was no trade whatever; there is now a very considerable one, in
musk, salt, gold-dust, borax, soda, woollen cloths, and especially
in ponies, of which the Dewan in one year brought on his own
account upwards of fifty into Darjeeling. The trade has been
greatly increased by the annual fair which Dr. Campbell ha
established at the foot of the hills, to which many thousands o
natives flock from all quarters, and which exercises a most bene-
ficial influence throughout the neighbouring territories. At this,
I
The Tibetan pony, though born and bred 10,000 to 14,000 feet above the
sea, is one of the most active and useful animals in the plains of Bengal,
powerful and hardy, and when well trained early, docile, although by nature
vicious and obstinate.
CLIMATE OF DARJEELING.
prizes (in medals, money, and kind) are given for agricultural
implements and produce, stock, &c., by the originator and a few
friends; a measure attended with eminent success.
81
In estimating in a sanitary point of view the value of any health-
station, little reliance can be placed on the general impressions of
invalids, or even of residents; the opinion of each varies with the
nature and state of his complaint, if ill, or with his idiosyncrasy
and disposition, if well. I have seen prejudiced invalids rapidly
recovering, in spite of themselves, and all the while complaining
in unmeasured terms of the climate of Darjeeling, and abusing it
as killing them. Other are known who languish under the heat
of the plains at one season, and the damp at another; and who,
though sickening and dying under its influence, yet consistently
praise a tropical climate to the last. The opinions of those who
resort to Darjeeling in health, differ equally; those of active minds
invariably thoroughly enjoy it, while the mere lounger or sports-
man mopes. The statistical tables afford conclusive proofs of the
value of the climate to Europeans suffering from acute diseases,
and they are corroborated by the returns of the medical officer in
charge of the station. With respect to its suitability to the
European constitution I feel satisfied, and that much saving of
life, health, and money would be effected were European troops
drafted thither on their arrival in Bengal, instead of being
stationed in Calcutta, exposed to disease, and temptation to
those vices which prove fatal to so many hundreds. This, I
have been given to understand, was the view originally taken
by the Court of Directors, but it has never been carried out.
I believe that children's faces afford as good an index as any to
the healthfulness of a climate, and in no part of the world is there
a more active, rosy, and bright young community than at Darjeel-
ing. It is incredible what a few weeks of that mountain air does
for the Indian-born children of European parents: they are taken
there sickly, pallid or yellow, soft and flabby, to become trans-
formed into models of rude health and activity.
There are, however, disorders to which the climate (in common
with all damp ones) is not at all suited; such are especially
dysentery, bowel complaints, and liver complaints of long stand-
ing; which are not benefited by a residence on these hills, though
how much worse they might have become in the plains is not
shown. I cannot hear that the climate aggravates, but it certainly
does not remove them. Whoever is suffering from the debilitating
effects of any of the multifarious acute maladies of the plains, finds
instant relief, and acquires a stock of health that enables him to
7
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HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
resist fresh attacks, under circumstances similar to those which
before engendered them.
Natives of the low country, and especially Bengalees, are far
from enjoying the climate as Europeans do, being liable to sharp
attacks of fever and ague, from which the poorly clad natives are
not exempt. It is, however, difficult to estimate the effects of
exposure upon the Bengalees, who sleep on the bare and often
damp ground, and adhere, with characteristic prejudice, to the
attire of a torrid climate, and to a vegetable diet, under skies to
which these are least of all adapted.
It must not be supposed that Europeans who have resided in
plains can, on their first arrival, expose themselves with impunity
to the cold of these elevations; this was shown in the winter of
1848 and 1849, when troops brought up to Darjeeling were can-
toned in newly-built dwellings, on a high exposed ridge 8,000 feet
above the sea, and lay, insufficiently protected, on a floor of
loosely laid planks, exposed to the cold wind, when the ground
without was covered with snow. Rheumatisms, sharp febrile
attacks, and dysenteries ensued, which were attributed in`the
public prints to the unhealthy nature of the climate of Darjeeling.
The following summary of hospital admissions affords the best
test of the healthiness of the climate, embracing, as the period
does, the three most fatal months to European troops in India.
Out of a detachment (105 strong) of H. M. 80th Regiment
stationed at Darjeeling, in the seven months from January to
July inclusive, there were sixty-four admissions to the hospital,
or, on the average, 41 per cent. per month; and only two deaths,
both of dysentery. Many of these men had suffered frequently
in the plains from acute dysentery and hepatic affections, and
many others had aggravated these complaints by excessive drink-
ing, and two were cases of delirium tremens. During the same
period, the number of entries at Calcutta or Dinapore would
probably have more than trebled this.
VIEW OF HIMALAYA.
83
CHAPTER V.
View from Mr. Hodgson's of range of snowy mountains-Their extent and
elevation-Delusive appearance of elevation-Sinchul, view from and
vegetation of Chumulari-Magnolias, white and purple-Rhododendron
Dalhousiæ, arboreum and argenteum-Natives of Darjeeling-Lepchas,
origin, tradition of flood, morals, dress, arms, ornaments, diet-cups,
origin and value-Marriages—Discases-Burial-Worship and religion—
Bijoons-Kampa Rong, or Arratt-Limboos, origin, habits, language,
&c.-Moormis-Magras-Mechis-Comparison of customs with those of
the natives of Assam, Khasia, &c.
THE summer, or rainy season of 1848, was passed at or near
Darjeeling, during which period I chiefly occupied myself in
forming collections, and in taking meteorological observations.
I resided at Mr. Hodgson's for the greater part of the time, in
consequence of his having given me a hospitable invitation to
consider his house my home. The view from his windows is one
quite unparalleled for the scenery it embraces, commanding
confessedly the grandest known landscape of snowy mountains
in the Himalaya, and hence in the world. Kinchinjunga (forty-
five miles distant) is the prominent object, rising 21,000 feet
above the level of the observer out of a sea of intervening
wooded hills; whilst, on a line with its snows, the eye descends
below the horizon, to a narrow gulf 7,000 feet deep in the
mountains, where the Great Rungeet, white with foam, threads a
tropical forest with a silver line.
I
To the north-west towards Nepal, the snowy peaks of Kubra
and Junnoo (respectively 24,005 feet and 25,312 feet) rise over
the shoulder of Singalelah; whilst eastward the snowy mountains
appear to form an unbroken range, trending north-east to the
great mass of Donkia (23,176 feet) and thence south-east by the
fingered peaks of Tunkola and the silver cone of Chola (17,320
feet), gradually sinking into the Bhotan mountains at Gipmoochi
(14,509 feet).
The most eloquent descriptions I have read fail to convey to
my mind's eye the forms and colours of snowy mountains, or to
my imagination the sensations and impressions that rivet my
attention to these sublime phenomena when they are present in
reality; and I shall not therefore obtrude any attempt of the
-kind upon my reader. The latter has probably seen the Swiss
Alps, which, though barely possessing half the sublimity, extent,
or height of the Himalaya, are yet far more beautiful. In either
*For an account of the geography of those regions, and the relation of the
Sikkim Himalaya to Tibet, &c., see Appendix.
A
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case he is struck with the precision and sharpness of their
outlines, and still more with the wonderful play of colours on
their snowy flanks, from the glowing hues reflected in orange,
gold and ruby, from clouds illumined by the sinking or rising
sun, to the ghastly pallor that succeeds with twilight, when the
red seems to give place to its complementary colour green.
Such dissolving-views elude all attempts at description, they are
far too aërial to be chained to the memory, and tade from it so
fast as to be gazed upon day after day, with undiminished
admiration and pleasure, long after the mountains themselves
have lost their sublimity and apparent height.
The actual extent of the snowy range seen from Mr. Hodgson's
windows is comprised within an arc of 80° (from north 30° west
to north 50° east), or nearly a quarter of the horizon, along which
the perpetual snow forms an unbroken girdle or crest of frosted
silver; and in winter, when the mountains are covered down to
8,000 feet, this white ridge stretches uninterruptedly for more
than 160°. No known view is to be compared with this in
extent, when the proximity and height of the mountains are
considered; for within the 80° above mentioned more than
twelve peaks rise above 20,000 feet, and there are none below
15,000 feet, while Kinchin is 28,178, and seven others above
22,000. The nearest perpetual snow is on Nursing, a beautifully
sharp conical peak 19,139 feet high, and thirty-two miles distant;
the most remote mountain seen is Donkia, 23,176 feet high, and
seventy-three miles distant; whilst Kinchin, which forms the
principal mass both for height and bulk, is exactly forty-five miles
distant.
•
A
On first viewing this glorious panorama, the impression pro-
duced on the imagination by their prodigious elevation is, that
the peaks tower in the air and pierce the clouds, and such are
the terms generally used in descriptions of similar alpine scenery ;
but the observer, if he look again, will find that even the most
stupendous occupy a very low position on the horizon, the top of
Kinchin itself measuring only 4° 31' above the level of the
observer! Donkia again, which is 23,176 feet above the sea, or
about 15,700 above Mr. Hodgson's, rises only 1° 55′ above the
horizon; an angle which is quite inappreciable to the eye, when
unaided by instruments.¹
This view may be extended a little by ascending Sinchul, which
These are the apparent angles which I took from Mr. Hodgson's house
(alt. 7,300 feet) with an excellent theodolite, no deduction being made for
refraction.
85
VIEW FROM DARJEELING. SINCHUL.
:
rises a thousand feet above the elevation of Mr. Hodgson's house,
and is a few miles south-east of Darjeeling from its summit
Chumulari (23,929 feet) is seen to the north-east, at eighty-four
miles distance, rearing its head as a great rounded mass over the
snowy Chola range, out of which it appears to rise, although in
reality lying forty miles beyond ;-so deceptive is the perspective
of snowy mountains. To the north-west again, at upwards of
100 miles distance, a beautiful group of snowy mountains rises
above the black Singalelah range, the chief being, perhaps, as
high as Kinchinjunga, from which it is fully eighty miles distant
to the westward; and between them no mountain of considerable
altitude intervenes; the Nepalese Himalaya in that direction
sinking remarkably towards the Arun river, which there enters
Nepal from Tibet.
The top of Sinchul is a favourite excursion from Darjeeling,
being very easy of access, and the path abounding in rare and
beautiful plants, and passing through magnificent forests of oak,
magnolia, and rhododendron; while the summit, besides embrac-
ing this splendid view of the snowy range over the Darjeeling
spur in the foreground, commands also the plains of India, with
the courses of the Teesta, Mahanuddee, Balasun and Mechi
rivers. In the months of April and May, when the magnolias
and rhododendrons are in blossom, the gorgeous vegetation is,
in some respects, not to be surpassed by anything in the tropics;
but the effect is much marred by the prevailing gloom of the .
weather. The white-flowered magnolia ((M. excelsa, Wall,) forms
a predominant tree at 7,000 to 8,000 feet; and in 1848 it
blossomed so profusely, that the forests on the broad flanks of
Sinchul, and other mountains of that elevation, appeared as if
sprinkled with snow. The purple-flowered kind again (M.
Campbellii) hardly occurs below 8,000 feet, and forms an
immense, but very ugly, black-barked, sparingly branched tree,
leafless in winter and also during the flowering season, when it
puts forth from the ends of its branches great rose-purple cup-
shaped flowers, whose fleshy petals strew the ground. On its
branches, and on those of oaks and laurels, Rhododendron
Dalhousie grows epiphytically, a slender shrub, bearing from
three to six white lemon-scented bells, four and a half inches
long and as many broad, at the end of each branch. In the
same woods the scarlet rhododendron (R. arboreum) is very
scarce, and is outvied by the great R. argenteum, which grows as
a tree forty feet high, with magnificent leaves twelve to fifteen
inches long, deep green, wrinkled above and silvery below, while
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HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
the flowers are as large as those of R. Dalhousie, and grow more
in a cluster. I know nothing of the kind that exceeds in beauty
the flowering branch of R. argenteum, with its wide spreading
foliage and glorious mass of flowers.
Oaks, laurels, maples, birch, chesnut, hydrangea, a species of
fig (which is found on the very summit), and three Chinese and
Japanese genera, are the principal features of the forest; the
common bushes being Aucuba, Skimmia, and the curious
Helwingia, which bears little clusters of flowers on the centre of
the leaf, like butcher's-broom. In spring immense broad-leaved
arums spring up, with green or purple-striped hoods, that end in
tail-like threads, eighteen inches long, which lie along the ground;
and there are various kinds of Convallaria, Paris, Begonia, and
other beautiful flowering herbs. Nearly thirty ferns may be
gathered on this excursion, including many of great beauty and
rarity, but the tree-fern does not ascend so high. Grasses are
very rare in these woods, excepting the dwarf bamboo, now
cultivated in the open air in England.
Before proceeding to narrate my different expeditions into
Sikkim and Nepal from Darjeeling, I shall give a sketch of the
different peoples and races composing the heterogeneous popula-
tion of Sikkim and the neighbouring mountains.
The Lepcha is the aboriginal inhabitant of Sikkim, and the
prominent character in Darjeeling, where he undertakes all sorts
of out-door employment. The race to which he belongs is a
very singular one; markedly Mongolian in features, and a good
deal too, by imitation, in habit; still he differs from his Tibetan
prototype, though not so decidedly as from the Nepalese and
Bhotanese, between whom he is hemmed into a narrow tract of
mountain country, barely 60 miles in breadth. The Lepchas
possess a tradition of the flood, during which a couple escaped
to the top of a mountain (Tendong) near Darjeeling. The
earliest traditions which they have of their history date no further
back than some three hundred years, when they describe them-
selves as having been long-haired, half-clad savages. At about
that period they were visited by Tibetans, who introduced Boodh
worship, the platting of their hair into pig-tails, and very many of
their own customs. Their physiognomy is however so Tibetan in
its character, that it cannot be supposed that this was their
earliest intercourse with the trans-nivean races: whether they
may have wandered from beyond the snows before the spread of
Boodhism and its civilisation, or whether they are a cross between
the Tamulian of India and the Tibetan, has not been decided.
87
Their language, though radically identical with Tibetan, differs
from it in many important particulars. They, or at least some of
their tribes, call themselves Rong, and Arratt, and their country
Dijong: they once possessed a great part of East Nepal, as far
west as the Tambur river, and at a still earlier period they
penetrated as far west as the Arun river.

LEPCHAS.
PLANTER
LEPCHA GIRL AND BHOODIST LAMA.
An attentive examination of the Lepcha in one respect entirely
contradicts our preconceived notions of a mountaineer, as he is
timid, peaceful, and no brawler; qualities which are all the more
remarkable from contrasting so strongly with those of his
neighbours to the east and west of whom the Ghorkas are brave
and warlike to a proverb, and the Bhotanese quarrelsome,
88
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HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
cowardly, and cruel. A group of Lepchas is exceedingly
picturesque. They are of short stature-four feet eight inches
to five feet rather broad in the chest, and with muscular arms, but
small hands and slender wrists. The face is broad, flat, and of
eminently Tartar character, flat-nosed and oblique-eyed, with no
beard, and little moustache; the complexion is sallow, or often a
clear olive; the hair is collected into an immense tail, plaited flat
or round. The lower limbs are powerfully developed, befitting
genuine mountaineers: the feet are small. Though never really
handsome, and very womanish in the cast of countenance, they
have invariably a mild, frank, and even engaging expression,
which I have in vain sought to analyse, and which is perhaps due
more to the absence of anything unpleasing, than to the presence
of direct grace or beauty. In like manner, the girls are often
very engaging to look upon, though without one good feature:
they are all smiles and good-nature; and the children are frank,
lively, laughing urchins. The old women are thorough hags.
Indolence, when left to themselves, is their besetting sin; they
detest any fixed employment, and their foulness of person and
garments renders them disagreeable inmates: in this rainy climate
they are supportable out of doors. Though fond of bathing
when they come to a stream in hot weather, and expert, even
admirable swimmers, these people never take to the water for the
purpose of ablution. In disposition they are amiable and
obliging, frank, humorous, and polite, without the servility of the
Hindoos; and their address is free and unconstrained. Their
intercourse with one another and with Europeans is scrupulously
honest; a present is divided equally amongst many, without a
syllable of discontent or grudging look or word: each, on receiv-
ing his share, coming up and giving the donor a brusque bow
and thanks. They have learnt to overcharge already, and use
extortion in dealing, as is the custom with the people of the
plains; but it is clumsily done, and never accompanied with the
grasping air and insufferable whine of the latter. They are
constantly armed with a long, heavy, straight knife, but never
draw it on one another: family and political feuds are alike
unheard of amongst them.
i.
2
* I have seldom been able to insert my own wrist (which is smaller than the
average) into the wooden guard which the Lepcha wears on his left, as a pro-
tection against the bow-string: it is a curved ring of wood with an opening at
one side, through which, by a little stretching, the wrist is inserted.
2 It is called "Ban," and serves equally for plough, toothpick, table-knife,
hatchet, hammer, and sword.
LEPCHAS, DRESS, AND ORNAMENTS.
89
The Lepcha is in morals far superior to his Tibet and Bhotan
This
neighbours, polyandry being unknown, and polygamy rare.
is no doubt greatly due to the conventual system not being
carried to such an excess as in Bhotan, where the ties of relation-
ship even are disregarded.
Like the New Zealander, Tasmanian, Fuegian, and natives of
other climates, which, though cold, are moist and equable, the
Lepcha's dress is very scanty, and when we are wearing woollen
under-garments and hose, he is content with one cotton vesture,
which is loosely thrown round the body, leaving one or both
arms free; it reaches to the knee, and is gathered round the
waist: its fabric is close, the ground colour white, ornamented
with longitudinal blue stripes, two or three fingers broad, prettily
worked with red and white. When new and clean, this garb is
remarkably handsome and gay, but not showy. In cold weather
an upper garment with loose sleeves is added. A long knife,
with a common wooden handle, hangs by the side, stuck in a
sheath; he has often also a quiver of poisoned arrows and a
bamboo bow across his back. On his right wrist is a curious
wooden guard for the bowstring; and a little pouch, containing
aconite poison and a few common implements, is suspended to
his girdle. A hat he seldom wears, and when he does, it is
often extravagantly broad and flat-brimmed, with a small
hemispherical crown. It is made of leaves of Scitamineæ,
between two thin plates of bamboo-work, clumsy and heavy;
this is generally used in the rainy weather, while in the dry a
conical one is worn, also of platted slips of bamboo, with
broad flakes of talc between the layers, and a peacock's feather
at the side. The umbrella consists of a large hood, much like
the ancient boat called a coracle, which being placed over the
head reaches to the thighs behind. It is made of platted
bamboo, enclosing broad leaves of Phrynium. A group of
Lepchas with these on, running along in the pelting rain, are
very droll figures; they look like snails with their shells on
their backs. All the Lepchas are fond of ornaments, wearing
silver hoops in their ears, necklaces made of cornelian, amber,
and turquoise, brought from Tibet, and pearls and corals from
the south, with curious silver and golden charm-boxes or amulets
attached to their necks or arms. These are of Tibetan work-
manship, and often of great value: they contain little idols,
charms, and written prayers, or the bones, hair, or nail-parings
The bamboo, of which the quiver is made, is thin and light: it is brought
from Assam, and called Tulda, or Dulwa, by the Bengalees.
90
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
one. I
of a Lama: some are of great beauty, and highly ornamented.
In these decorations, and in their hair, they take some pride,
the ladies frequently dressing the latter for the gentlemen :
thus one may often see, the last thing at night, a damsel of
discreet port, demurely go behind a young man, unplait his
pig-tail, teaze the hair, thin it of some of its lively inmates,
braid it up for him, and retire. The women always wear two
braided pig-tails, and it is by this they are most readily dis-
tinguished from their effeminate-looking partners, who wear only
When in full dress, the woman's costume is extremely
ornamental and picturesque; besides the shirt and petticoat
she wears a small sleeveless woollen cloak, of gay pattern, usually
covered with crosses, and fastened in front by a girdle of silver
chains. Her neck is loaded with silver chains, amber neck-
laces, &c., and her head adorned with a coronet of scarlet cloth,
studded with seed-pearls, jewels, glass beads, &c. The common
dress is a long robe of indi, a cloth of coarse silk, spun from
the cocoon of a large caterpillar that is found wild at the foot of
the hills, and is also cultivated: it feeds on many different leaves,
Sal (Shorea), castor-oil, &c.
In diet, they are gross feeders; 2 rice, however, forming their
chief sustenance; it is grown without irrigation, and produces a
large, flat, coarse grain, which becomes gelatinous, and often pink,
when cooked. Pork is a staple dish: and they also eat elephant,
and all kinds of animal food. When travelling, they live on
whatever they can find, whether animal or vegetable. Fern-tops,
roots of Scitamineæ, and their flower-buds, various leaves (it is
difficult to say what not), and fungi, are chopped up, fried with
a little oil, and eaten. The cooking is coarse and dirty. Salt is
costly, but prized; pawn (Betel pepper) is never eaten. Tobacco
they are too poor to buy, and too indolent to grow and cure.
Spices, oil, &c., are relished.
They drink out of little wooden cups, turned from knots of
maple or other woods; these are very curious on several
accounts; they are very pretty, often polished, and mounted with
silver. Some are supposed to be antidotes against poison, and
hence fetch an enormous price; they are of a peculiar wood,
Ermann (Travels in Siberia, ii. p. 204) mentions the Buraet women as
wearing two tails, and fillets with jewels, and the men as having one queue
only.
Dr. Campbell's definition of the Lepcha's Flora cibaria, is, that he eats,
or must have eaten, everything soft enough to chew; for, as he knows what-
ever is poisonous, he must have tried all; his knowledge being wholly
empirical.
LEPCHAS.
MUSU MARRIAGES.
91
rarer and paler-coloured. I have paid a guinea for one such,
hardly different from the common sort, which cost but 4d. or 6d.
MM. Huc and Gabet graphically allude to this circumstance,
when wishing to purchase cups at Lhassa, where their price is
higher, as they are all imported from the Himalaya. The knots
from which they are formed are produced on the roots of oaks,
maples, and other mountain forest trees, by a parasitical plant
known to botanists as Balanophora.
Their intoxicating drink, which seems more to excite than to
debauch the mind, is partially fermented Murwa grain (Eleusine
Coracana). Spirits are rather too strong to be relished raw, and
when a glass of wine is given to one of a party, he sips it,
and hands it round to all the rest. A long bamboo flute, with
four or six burnt holes far below the mouth-hole, is the only
musical instrument I have seen in use among them. When
travelling, and the fatigues of the day are over, the Lepchas will
sit for hours chatting, telling stories, singing in a monotonous
tone, or blowing this flute. I have often listened with real
pleasure to the simple music of this rude instrument; its low
and sweet tones are singularly Æolian, as are the airs usually
played, which fall by octaves: it seems to harmonise with the
solitude of their primæval forests, and he must have a dull ear
who cannot draw from it the indication of a contented mind,
whether he may relish its soft musical notes or not. Though
always equipped for the chase, I fancy the Lepcha is no great
sportsman; there is little to be pursued in this region, and he is
not driven by necessity to follow what there is.
Their marriages are contracted in childhood, and the wife pur-
chased by money, or by service rendered to the future father-in-
law, the parties being often united before the woman leaves her
parents' roof, in cases where the payment is not forthcoming, and
the bridegroom prefers giving his and his wife's labour to the
father for a stated period in lieu. On the time of service
expiring, or the money being paid up, the marriage is publicly
celebrated by feasting and riot. The females are generally
chaste, and the marriage-tie is strictly kept, its violation being
heavily punished by divorce, beating, slavery, &c. In cases of
intermarriage with foreigners, the children belong to the father's
country. All the labours of the house, the field, and march
devolve on the women and children, or slaves if they have them.
Small-pox is dreaded, and infected persons often cruelly
shunned a suspicion of this or of cholera frequently emptying
a village or town in a night. Vaccination has been introduced
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HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
I
by Dr. Pearson, and it is much practised by Dr. Campbell; it
being eagerly sought. Cholera is scarcely known at Darjeeling,
and when it has been imported thither has never spread. Disease
is very rare amongst the Lepchas; and ophthalmia, elephantiasis,
and leprosy, the scourges of hot climates, are rarely known.
Goître prevails, though not so conspicuously as amongst
Bhoteeas, Bhotanese, and others. Rheumatism is frequent, and
intermittent fevers, with ague; also violent and often fatal remit-
tents, almost invariably induced by sleeping in the hot valleys,
especially at the beginning and end of the rains. The Euro-
pean complaints of liver and bowel disease are all but unknown.
Death is regarded with horror. The dead are burnt or buried,
sometimes both; much depending on custom and position.
Omens are sought in the entrails of fowls, &c., and other
vestiges of their savage origin are still preserved, though now
gradually disappearing.
The Lepchas profess no religion, though acknowledging the
existence of good and bad spirits. To the good they pay no
heed; "Why should we?" they say, "the good spirits do us no
harm; the evil spirits, who dwell in every rock, grove, or moun-
tain, are constantly at mischief, and to them we must pray, for
they hurt us." Every tribe has a priest-doctor; he neither knows
nor attempts to practise the healing art, but is a pure exorcist; all
bodily ailments being deemed the operations of devils, who are
cast out by prayers and invocations. Still they acknowledge the
Lamas to be very holy men, and were the latter only moderately
active, they would soon convert all the Lepchas. Their priests
are called "Bijooas:" they profess mendicancy, and seem inter-
mediate between the begging friars of Tibet, whose dress and
attributes they assume, and the exorcists of the aboriginal
I
May not the use of the head instead of the shoulder-strap in carrying loads
be a predisposing cause of goître, by inducing congestion of the laryngeal
vessels? The Lepcha is certainly far more free from this disease than any
of the tribes of E. Nepal I have mixed with, and he is both more idle and
less addicted to the head-strap as a porter. I have seen it to be almost
universal in some villages of Bhotecas, where the head-strap alone is used in
both summer and winter crops; as also amongst the salt-traders, or rather
those families who carry the salt from the passes to the Nepalese villages, and
who very frequently have no shoulder-straps, but invariably head-bands. I
am far from attributing all goître, even in the mountains, to this practice, but
I think it is proved, that the disease is most prevalent in the mountainous
regions of both the old and new world, and that in these the practice of sup-
porting enormous loads by the cervical muscles is frequent. It is also found
in the Himalayan sheep and goats which accompany the salt-traders, and
whose loads are supported in ascending by a band passing under the throat.
•
93*
LEPCHAS, RELIGION, DISPOSITIONS.
Lepchas: they sing, dance (masked and draped like harlequins),
beg, bless, curse, and are merry mountebanks; those that affect
more of the Lama Boodhist carry the "Mani," or revolving
praying machine, and wear rosaries and amulets; others again
are all tatters and rags. They are often employed to carry
messages, and to transact little knaveries. The natives stand in
some awe of them, and being besides of a generous disposition,
keep the wallet of the Bijooa always full.
Such are some of the prominent features of this people, who
inhabit the sub-Himalayas, between the Nepalese and Bhotan
frontiers, at elevations of 3,000 to 6,000 feet. In their relations.
with us, they are conspicuous for their honesty, their power as
carriers and mountaineers, and their skill as woodsmen; for they
build a waterproof house with a thatch of banana leaves in the
lower, or of bamboo in the elevated regions, and equip it with a
table and bedsteads for three persons, in an hour, using no imple-
ment but their heavy knife. Kindness and good humour soon
attach them to your person and service. A gloomy-tempered or
morose master they avoid, an unkind one they flee. If they
serve a good hillsman like themselves, they will follow him with
alacrity, sleep on the cold, bleak mountain exposed to the pitiless
rain, without a murmur, lay down the heavy burden to carry
their master over a stream, or give him a helping hand up a rock
or precipice-do anything, in short, but encounter a foe, for I
believe the Lepcha to be a veritable coward. It is well, perhaps,
he is so for if a race, numerically so weak, were to embroil
itself by resenting the injuries of the warlike Ghorkas, or dark
Bhotanese, the folly would soon lead to destruction.
Before leaving the Lepchas, it may be worth mentioning that
the northern parts of the country, towards the Tibet frontier, are
inhabited by Sikkim Bhoteeas2 (or Kumpas), a mixed race calling
Yet, during the Ghorka war, they displayed many instances of courage:
when so hard pressed, however, that there was little choice of evils.
2 Bhote is the general name for Tibet (not Bhotan), and Kumpa is a large
province, or district, in that country. The Bhotanese, natives of Bhotan, or of
the Dhurma country, are called Dhurma people, in allusion to their spiritual
chief, the Dhurma Rajah. They are a darker and more powerful race, rude,
turbulent, and Tibetan in language and religion, with the worst features of
those people exaggerated. The various races of Nepal are too numerous to be
alluded to here: they are described in various papers by Mr. Hodgson, in the
"Journal of. the Asiatic Society of Bengal." The Dhurma people are
numerous at Darjeeling; they are often runaways, but invariably prove more
industrious settlers than the Lepchas. In the Himalaya the name Bhotan is
unknown amongst the Tibetans; it signifies literally (according to Mr.
Hodgson) the end of Bhote, or Tibet, being the eastern extreme of that
en they are
1
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
themselves Kumpa Rong, or Kumpa Lepchas; but they are
emigrants from Tibet, having come with the first rajah of Sikkim.
These people are much more turbulent and bolder than the
Lepchas, and retain much of their Tibetan character, and even
of that of the very province from which they came; which is
north-east of Lhassa, and inhabited by robbers. All the accounts
I have received of it agree with those given by MM. Huc and
Gabet.
94
Next to the Lepchas, the most numerous tribe in Sikkim is
that of the Limboos (called "Chung " by the Lepchas); they
abound also in East Nepal, which they once ruled, inhabiting
elevations from 2,000 feet to 5,000 feet. They are Boodhists,
and though not divided into castes, belong to several tribes. All
consider themselves as the earliest inhabitants of the Tambur
Valley, though they have a tradition of having originally emi-
grated from Tibet, which their Tart ar countenance confirms.
They are more slender and sinewy than the Lepchas, and neither
plait their hair nor wear ornaments; instead of the ban they use
the Nepal curved knife, called "cookree," while for the striped
kirtle of the Lepcha are substituted loose cotton trousers and a
tight jacket; a sash is worn round the middle, and on the head
a small cotton cap. When they ruled over East Nepal, their
system was feudal; and on their uniting against the Nepalese,
they were with difficulty dislodged from their strongholds. They
are said to be equally brave and cruel in battle, putting the old
and weak to the sword, carrying the younger to slavery, and kill-
ing on the march such captives as are unable to proceed. Many
enlist at Darjeeling, which the Lepchas never do; and the rajah
of Nepal employs them in his army, where, however, they seldom
obtain promotion, this being reserved for soldiers of Hindoo
tribes. Latterly Jung Bahadur levied a force of 6,000 of them,
who were cantoned at Katmandoo, where the cholera breaking
out, carried off some hundreds, causing many families who
dreaded conscription to flock to Darjeeling. Their habits are so
similar to those of the Lepchas, that they constantly intermarry.
They mourn, burn, and bury their dead, raising a mound over
the corpse, erecting a headstone, and surrounding the grave with
a little paling of sticks; they then scatter eggs and pebbles over
the ground. In these offices the Bijooa of the Lepchas is em-
ployed, but the Limboo has also priests of his own, called
country. The Lepchas designate Bhotan as Ayeu, or Aieu, as do often the
Bhotanese themselves. Sikkim, again, is called Lhop, or Lho', by the
Lepchas and Bhotanese,
LIMBOOS. MOORMIS. MAGRAS.
95
"Phedangbos," who belong to rather a higher order than the
Bijooas. They officiate at marriages, when a cock is put into the
bridegroom's hands, and a hen into those of the bride; the
Phedangbo then cuts off the birds' heads, when the blood is
caught on a plantain leaf, and runs into pools from which omens
are drawn. At death, guns are fired, to announce to the gods
the departure of the spirit; of these there are many, having one
supreme head, and to them offerings and sacrifices are made.
They do not believe in metempsychosis.
The Limboo language is totally different from the Lepcha,
with less of the z in it, and more labials and palatals, hence
more pleasing. Its affinities I do not know; it has no peculiar
written character, the Lepcha or Nagri being used. Dr. Camp-
bell, from whom I have derived most of my information respect-
ing these people, was informed,' on good authority, that they had
once a written language, now lost; and that it was compounded
from many others by a sage of antiquity. The same authority
stated that their Lepcha name Chung" is a corruption of that
of their place of residence; possibly the "Tsang " province of
Tibet.
(C
The Moormis are the only other native tribe remaining in any
numbers in Sikkim, except the Tibetans of the loftier moun-
tains (whom I shall mention at a future period), and the Mechis
of the pestilential Terai, the forests of which they never leave.
The Moormis are a scattered people, respecting whom I have no
information, except from the authority quoted above. They are
of Tibetan origin, and called "Nishung," from being composed
of two branches, respectively from the districts of Nimo and
Shung, both on the road between Sikkim and Lhassa. They are
now most frequent in central and eastern Nepal, and are a
pastoral and agricultural people, inhabiting elevations of 4,000 to
6,000 feet, and living in stone houses, thatched with grass. They
are a large, powerful, and active race, grave, very plain in features,
with little hair on the face. Both their language and religion are
purely Tibetan.
The Magras, a tribe now confined to Nepal west of the Arun,
are aborigines of Sikkim, whence they were driven by the
Lepchas westward into the country of the Limboos, and by
these latter further west still. They are said to have been
savages, and not of Tibetan origin, and are now converted to
Hindooism. A somewhat mythical account of a wild people
still inhabiting the Sikkim mountains, will be alluded to elsewhere.
* See "Darjeeling Guide," p. 89. Calcutta, 1854.
L
96
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
It is curious to observe that these mountains do not appear to
have afforded refuge to the Tamulian aborigines of India proper ;
all the Himalayan tribes of Sikkim being markedly Mongolian in
origin. It does not, however, follow that they are all of Tibetan
extraction: perhaps, indeed, none but the Moormis are so. The
Mechi of the Terai is decidedly Indo-Chinese, and of the same
stock as the savage races of Assam, the north-east and east
frontier of Bengal, Arracan, Burmah, &c. Both Lepchas and
Limboos had, before the introduction of Lama Boodhism from
Tibet, many features in common with the natives of Arracan,
especially in their creed, sacrifices, faith in omens, worship of
many spirits, absence of idols, and of the doctrine of metem-
psychosis. Some of their customs, too, are the same; the form
of their houses and of some of their implements, their striped
garments, their constant and dexterous use of the bamboo for all
utensils, their practice of night-attacks in war, of using poisoned
arrows only in the chase, and that of planting "crowfeet" of
sharp bamboo stakes along the paths an enemy is expected to
follow. Such are but a few out of many points of resemblance,
most of which struck me when reading Lieutenant Phayre's
account of Arracan, and when travelling in the districts of
Khasia and Cachar.
2
The laws affecting the distribution of plants, and the lower
animals, materially influence the migrations of man also; and as
the botany, zoology, and climate of the Malayan and Siamese
peninsula advance far westwards into India, along the foot of the
Himalaya, so do also the varieties of the human race. These
features are most conspicuously displayed in the natives of Assam,
on both sides of the Burrampooter, as far as the great bend of
that river, beyond which they gradually disappear; and none of
the Himalayan tribes east of that point practise the bloody and
brutal rites in war that prevail amongst the Cookies, Khasias,
Garrows, and other Indo-Chinese tribes of the mountain forests
of Assam, Eastern Bengal, and the Malay peninsula.
I have not alluded to that evidence of the extraction of the
Sikkim races which is to be derived from their languages, and
from which we may hope for a clue to their origin; the subject is
at present under discussion, and involved in much obscurity.
* The Tamulians are the Coles, Dangas, &c., of the mountains of Central
India and the peninsula, who retired to mountain fastnesses, on the invasion
of their country by the Indo-Germanic conquerors, who are now represented
by the Hindoos.
"Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal."
1
BRIDGE OVER RUNGEET.
97
That six or seven different tribes, without any feudal system or
coercive head, with different languages and customs, should dwell
in close proximity and in peace and unity, within the confined
territory of Sikkim, even for a limited period, is an anomaly; the
more especially when it is considered that except for a tincture of
the Boodhist religion among some few people, they are all but
savages, as low in the scale of intellect as the New Zealander or
the Tahitian, and beneath those races in ingenuity and skill as
craftsmen. Wars have been waged amongst them, but they
were neither sanguinary nor destructive, and the fact remains no
less remarkable, that at the period of our occupying Darjeeling,
friendship and unanimity existed amongst all these tribes; from
the Tibetan at 14,000 feet, to the Mechi of the plains; under a
sovereign whose temporal power was wholly unsupported by even
the semblance of arms, and whose spiritual supremacy was ac
knowledged by very few.
CHAPTER VI.
Excursion from Darjeeling to Great Rungeet-Zones of vegetation-Tree-ferns
-Palms, upper limit of Leebong, tea plantations-Ging-Boodhist
remains-Tropical vegetation--Pincs-Lepcha clearances-Forest fires
-Boodhist monuments-Fig-Cane bridge and raft over Rungect-Sago-
palm-India-rubber-Yel Pote-Butterflies and other insects-Snakes-
Camp-Temperature and humidity of atmosphere-Junction of Teesta
and Rungeet-Return_to_Darjeeling-Tonglo, excursion to-Bamboo
flowering Oaks-Gordonia-Maize, hermaphrodite flowered—Figs—
Nettles Peepsa-Simonbong, cultivation at-European fruits at Dar-
jeeling-Plains of India.
Key
Kata
P
"
A VERY favourite and interesting excursion from Darjeeling is to
the cane bridge over the Great Rungeet river, 6,000 feet below
the station. To this an excellent road has been cut, by which
the whole descent of six miles, as the crow flies, is easily per-
formed on pony-back; the road distance being only eleven
miles. The scenery is, of course, of a totally different descrip-
tion from that of Sinchul, or even of the foot of the hills, being
that of a deep mountain-valley. I several times made this trip:
on the excursion about to be described, and in which I was
accompanied by Mr. Barnes, I followed the Great Rungeet to the
Teesta, into which it flows.
In descending from Darjeeling, the zones of vegetation are
well marked between 6,000 and 7,000 feet by-1. The oak,
8
98
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
chesnut, and Magnolias, the main features from 7,000 to 10,000
feet.-2. Immediately below 6,500 feet, the trec-fern appears
(Alsophila gigantea, Wall.), a widely-distributed plant, common to
the Himalaya, from Nepal eastward to the Malayan peninsula,
Java, and Ceylon.-3. Of palms, a species of Calamus, and
Plectocomia, the "Rhenoul" of the Lepchas. The latter, though
not a very large plant, climbs lofty trees, and extends about forty
yards through the forest; 6,500 feet is the upper limit of palms
in the Sikkim Himalaya, the Rhenoul alone attaining this eleva-
tion.-4. The fourth striking feature is a wild plaintain, which
ascends to nearly the same elevation ("Lukhlo," Lepcha). This
is replaced by another, and rather larger species, at lower eleva-
tions; both ripen austere and small fruits, which are full of seeds,
and quite uneatable; that commonly grown in Sikkim is an
introduced stock (nor have the wild species ever been cultivated);
it is very large, but poor in flavour, and does not bear seeds.
The zones of these conspicuous plants are very clearly defined,
and especially if the traveller, standing on one of the innumer-
able spurs which project from the Darjeeling ridge, cast his eyes.
up the gorges of green on either hand.
At 1,000 feet below Darjeeling a fine wooded spur projects,
called Leebong. This beautiful spot is fully ten degrees warmer
than Mr. Hodgson's house, and enjoys considerably more sun-
shine; peaches and English fruit-trees flourish extremely well,
but do not ripen fruit. The tea-plant succeeds here admirably,
and might be cultivated to great profit, and be of advantage in
furthering a trade with Tibet. It has been tried on a large scale
by Dr. Campbell at his residence (alt. 7,000 feet), but the frosts
and snow of that height injure it, as do the hailstorms in spring.
Below Leebong is the village of Ging, surrounded by steeps,
cultivated with maize, rice, and millet.
It is rendered very
((
Four other Calami range between 1,000 and 6,000 feet on the outer
hills, some of them being found forty miles distant from the plains of India.
The other palms of Sikkim are, Simong" (Caryota urens); it is rare, and
ascends to nearly 5,000 feet. Phanix (probably P. acaulis, Buch.), a small,
stemless species, which grows on the driest soil in the deep valleys; it is the
"Schaap" of the Lepchas, who eat the young seeds, and use the feathery
fronds as screens in hunting. Wallichia oblongifolia, the "Ooh" of the
Lepchas, who make no use of it; Dr. Campbell and myself, however, found
that it is an admirable fodder for horses, who prefer it to any other green food
to be had in these mountains. Areca gracilis and Licuala peltata are the only
other palms in Sikkim ; but Cycas pectinata, with the India-rubber fig, occurs
in the deepest and hottest valleys-the western limit of both these interesting
plants. Of Pandanus there is a graceful species at elevations of 1,000 to
4,000 feet ("Borr," Lepcha).
RUNGEET VALLEY.
picturesque by a long row of tall poles, each bearing a narrow,
vertically elongated banner, covered with Boodhist inscriptions,
and surmounted by coronet-like ornaments, or spear-heads, rudely
cut out of wood, or formed of basket-work, and adorned with
cotton fringe. Ging is peopled by Bhotan emigrants, and when
one dies, if his relations can afford to pay for them, two addi-
tional poles and flags are set up by the Lamas in honour of his
memory, and that of Sunga, the third member of the Boodhist
Trinity.
99
Below this the Gordonia commences, with Cedrela toona, and
various tropical genera, such as abound near Punkabaree. The
heat and hardness of the rocks cause the streams to dry up on
these abrupt hills, especially on the eastern slope, and the water
is therefore conveyed along the sides of the path, in conduits
ingeniously made of bamboo, either split in half, or, what is
better, whole, except at the septum, which is removed through a
lateral hole. The oak and chesnut of this level (3,000 feet) are
both different from those which grow above, as are the brambles.
The Arums are replaced by Caladiums. Tree-ferns cease below
4,000 feet, and the large bamboo abounds.
At about 2,000 feet, and ten miles distant from Darjeeling,
we arrived at a low, long spur, dipping down to the bed of the
Rungeet,. at its junction with the Rungmo. This is close to the
boundary of the British ground, and there is a guard-house, and
a sepoy or two at it; here we halted. It took the Lepchas about
twenty minutes to construct a table and two bedsteads within
our tent; each was made of four forked sticks, stuck in the
ground, supporting as many side-pieces, across which were laid
flat split pieces of bamboo, bound tightly together by strips of
rattan palm-stem. The beds were afterwards softened by many
layers of bamboo-leaf, and if not very downy, they were dry, and
as firm as if put together with screws and joints.
This spur rises out of a deep valley, quite surrounded by lofty
mountains; it is narrow, and covered with red clay, which the
natives chew as a cure for goître. North, it looks down into a
gully, at the bottom of which the Rungeet's foamy stream winds
through a dense forest. In the opposite direction, the Rungmo
comes tearing down from the top of Sinchul, 7,000 feet above;
and though its roar is heard, and its course is visible throughout
its length, the stream itself is nowhere seen, so deep does it cut
its channel. Except on this, and a few similarly hard rocky
hills around, the vegetation is a mass of wood and jungle. At
this spot it is rather scanty and dry, with abundance of the Pinus
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
too
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
longifolia and Sal. The dwarf date-palm (Phanix acaulis) also
was very abundant.
The descent to the river was exceedingly steep, the banks pre-
senting an impenetrable jungle. The pines on the arid crests of
the hills around formed a remarkable feature: they grow like the
Scotch fir, the tall, red trunks springing from the steep and dry
slopes. But little resin exudes from the stem, which, like that of
most pines, is singularly free from lichens and mosses; its wood
is excellent, and the charcoal of the burnt leaves is used as a pig-
ment.. Being confined to dry soil, this pine is local in Sikkim,
and the elevation it attains here is not above 3,000 feet.
Bhotan, where there is more dry country, its range is about the
same, and in the north-west Himalaya, from 2,500 to 7,000 feet.
In
The Lepcha never inhabits one spot for more than three succes-
sive years, after which an increased rent is demanded by the Rajah.
He therefore squats in any place which he can render profitable
for that period, and then moves to another. His first operation,
after selecting a site, is to burn the jungle; then he clears away
the trees, and cultivates between the stumps. At this season,
firing the jungle is a frequent practice, and the effect by night is
exceedingly fine; a forest, so dry and full of bamboo, and ex-
tending over such steep hills, affording grand blazing spectacles.
Heavy clouds canopy the mountains above, and, stretching across
the valleys, shut out the firmament; the air is a dead calm, as
usual in these deep gorges, and the fires, invisible by day, are
seen raging all around, appearing to an inexperien ced eye in all
but dangerous proximity. The voices of birds and insects being
hushed, nothing is audible but the harsh roar of the rivers, and
occasionally, rising far above it, that of the forest fires. At night
we were literally surrounded by them some smouldering, like
the shale-heaps at a colliery, others fitfully bursting forth, whilst
others again stalked along with a steadily increasing and enlarging
flame, shooting out great tongues of fire, which spared nothing as
they advanced with irresistible might. Their triumph is in reach-
ing a great bamboo clump, when the noise of the flames drowns
that of the torrents, and as the great stem-joints burst, from the
expansion of the confined air, the report is as that of a salvo
from a park of artillery. At Darjeeling the blaze is visible, and
the deadened reports of the bamboos bursting is heard through-
out the night; but in the valley, and within a mile of the scene
of destruction, the effect is the most grand, being heightened by
the glare reflected from the masses of mist which hover above.
On the following morning we pursued a path to the bed of the
***
+
BOODDHIST BOODDHISM.
river; passing a rude Booddhist monument, a pile of slate-rocks,
with an attempt at the mystical hemisphere at top. A few flags
or banners, and slabs of slate, were inscribed with "Om Mani
Padmi om." Placed on a jutting angle of the spur, backed with
the pine-clad hills, and flanked by a torrent on either hand, the
spot was wild and picturesque; and I could not but gaze with a
feeling of deep interest on these emblems of a religion which
perhaps numbers more votaries than any other on the face of the
globe. Booddhism in some form is the predominating creed,
from Siberia and Kamschatka to Ceylon, from the Caspian steppes
to Japan, throughout China, Burmah, Ava, and a part of the
Malayan Archipelago. Its associations enter into every book tof
travels over these vast regions, with Booddha, Dhurma, Sunga,
Jos, Fo, and praying-wheels. The mind is arrested by the names,
the imagination captivated by the symbols; and though I could
not worship in the grove, it was impossible to deny to the in-
scribed stones such a tribute as is commanded by the first glimpse
of objects which have long been familiar to our minds, but not
previously offered to our senses. My head Lepcha went further :
to a due observance of demon-worship he united a deep reverence
for the Lamas, and he venerated their symbols rather as theirs
than as those of their religion. He walked round the pile of
stones three times from left to right repeating his "Om Mani,"
&c., then stood before it with his head hung down and his long
queue streaming behind, and concluded by a votive offering of
three pine-cones. When done, he looked round at me, nodded,
smirked, elevated the angles of his little turned-up eyes, and
seemed to think we were safe from all perils in the valleys yet to
be explored.
In the gorge of the Rungeet the heat was intolerable, though
the thermometer did not rise above 95°. The mountains leave
but a narrow gorge between them, here and there bordered by a
belt of strong soil, supporting a towering crop of long cane-like
grasses and tall trees. The troubled river, about eighty yards
across, rages along over a gravelly bed. Crossing the Rungmo,
where it falls into the Rungeet, we came upon a group of natives
drinking fermented Murwa liquor under a rock; I had a good
deal of difficulty in getting my people past, and more in inducing
one of the topers to take the place of a Ghorka (Nepalese) of our
party who was ill with fever. Soon afterwards, at a most wild
and beautiful spot, I saw, for the first time, one of the most
characteristic of Himalayan objects of art, a cane bridge. All the
spurs, round the bases of which the river flowed, were steep and
IOI

102
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
rocky, their flanks clothed with the richest tropical forest, their
crests tipped with pines. On the river's edge, the Banana, Pan-
danus, and Bauhinia, were frequent, and Figs prevailed. One of
the latter (of an exceedingly beautiful species) projected over the
PINES (PINUS LONGIFOLIA), RUNGEET VALLEY.
stream, growing out of a mass of rock, its roots interlaced and
grasping at every available support, while its branches, loaded with
deep glossy foliage, hung over the water. This tree formed one
pier for the canes; that on the opposite bank was constructed of
strong piles, propped with large stones, and between them swung
CANE BRIDGE.
103
the bridge,' about eighty yards long, ever rocking over the torrent
(forty feet below). The lightness and extreme simplicity of its
structure were very remarkable. Two parallel canes, on the same
horizontal plane, were stretched across the stream; from them
others hung in loops, and along the loops were laid one or two
bamboo stems for flooring; cross pieces below this flooring, hung
from the two upper canes, which they thus served to keep apart.
The traveller grasps one of the canes in either hand, and walks
along the loose bamboos laid on the swinging loops; the motion
is great, and the rattling of the loose dry bamboos is neither a
musical sound nor one calculated to inspire confidence; the
whole structure seeming as if about to break down. With shoes
it is not easy to walk; and even with bare feet it is often difficult,
there being frequently but one bamboo, which, if the fastening is
loose, tilts up, leaving the pedestrian suspended over the torrent
by the slender canes. When properly and strongly made, with
good fastenings, and a floor of bamboos laid transversely, these

bridges are easy to cross. The canes are procured from a species
of Calamus; they are as thick as the finger, and twenty or thirty
yards long, knotted together, and the other pieces are fastened to
them by strips of the same plant. A Lepcha, carrying one hun-
dred and forty pounds on his back, crosses without hesitation,
slowly but steadily, and with perfect confidence.
:
A deep broad pool below the bridge was made available for a
ferry the boat was a triangular raft of bamboo stems, with a
stage on the top, and it was secured on the opposite side of the
stream, having a cane reaching across to that on which we were.
A stout Lepcha leapt into the boiling flood and boldly swam
across, holding on by the cane, without which he would have
been carried away. He unfastened the raft, and we drew it over
by the cane, and, seated on the stage up to our knees in water,
we were pulled across, the raft bobbing up and down over the
rippling stream.
* A sketch of one of these bridges will be found later,
104
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
চ
We were beyond British ground, on the opposite bank, where
any one guiding Europeans is threatened with punishment: we
had expected a guide to follow us, but his non-appearance caused
us to delay for some hours; four roads, or rather forest paths,
meeting here, all of which were difficult to find. After a while,
part of a marriage-procession came up, headed by the bride-
groom, a handsome young Lepcha, leading a cow for the marriage
feast; and after talking to him a little, he volunteered to show us
the path. On the flats by the stream grew the Sago palm (Cycas
pectinata), with a stem ten feet high, and a beautiful crown of
foliage the contrast between this and the Scotch-looking pine
(both growing with oaks and palms) was curious. Much of the
forest had been burnt, and we traversed large blackened patches,
where the heat was intense, and increased by the burning trunks
of prostrate trees, which smoulder for months, and leave a heap
of white ashes. The larger timber being hollow in the centre, a
current of air is produced, which causes the interior to burn
rapidly, till the sides fall in, and all is consumed. I was often
startled, when walking in the forest, by the hot blast proceeding
from such, which I had approached without a suspicion of their
being other than cold dead trunks.
Leaving the forest, the path led along the river bank, and over
the great masses of rock which strewed its course. The beautiful
India-rubber fig was common, as was Bassia butyracea, the "Yel
Pote" of the Lepchas, from the seeds of which they express a
concrete oil, which is received and hardens in bamboo vessels.
On the forest-skirts, Hoya, parasitical Orchidea, and ferns,
abounded; the Chaulmoogra, whose fruit is used to intoxicate
fish, was very common; as was an immense mulberry tree, that
yields a milky juice and produces a long green sweet fruit. Large
fish, chiefly Cyprinoid, were abundant in the beautifully clear
water of the river. But by far the most striking feature consisted
in the amazing quantity of superb butterflies, large tropical
swallow-tails, black, with scarlet or yellow eyes on their wings.
They were seen everywhere, sailing majestically through the still
hot air, or fluttering from one scorching rock to another, and
especially loving to settle on the damp sand of the river-edge;
where they sat by thousands, with erect wings, balancing them-
selves with a rocking motion, as their heavy sails inclined them to
one side or the other, resembling a crowded fleet of yachts on a
calm day. Such an entomological display cannot be surpassed.
Cincindela were very numerous and incredibly active, as were
Grylli; and the great Cicadea were everywhere lighting on the
RUNGEET VALLEY.
105
ground, when they uttered a short sharp creaking sound, and
anon disappeared as if by magic. Beautiful whip-snakes were
gleaming in the sun they hold on by a few coils of the tail
round a twig, the greater part of their body stretched out horizon-
tally, occasionally retracting, and darting an unerring aim at some
insect. The narrowness of the gorge, and the excessive steepness
of the bounding hills, prevented any view, except of the opposite
mountain face, which was one dense forest, in which the wild
Banana was conspicuous.
Towards evening we arrived at another cane bridge, still more
dilapidated than the former, but similar in structure. For a few
hundred yards before reaching it we lost the path, and followed
the precipitous face of slate-rocks overhanging the stream, which
dashed with great violence below. Though we could not walk
comfortably, even with our shoes off, the Lepchas, bearing their
enormous loads, proceeded with perfect indifference.
Anxious to avoid sleeping at the bottom of the valley, we
crawled, very much fatigued, through burnt dry forest, up a very
sharp ridge, so narrow that the tent sate astride on it, the ropes
being fastened to the tops of small trees on either slope. The
ground swarmed with black ants, which got into our tea, sugar,
&c., while it was so covered with charcoal that we were soon be-
grimed. Our Lepchas preferred remaining on the river-bank,
whence they had to bring up water to us in great bamboo “chun-
gis," as they are called. The great dryness of this face is owing
to its southern exposure: the opposite mountains, equally high
and steep, being clothed in a rich green forest.
At nine the next morning, the temperature was 78°, but a fine
cool easterly wind blew. Descending to the bed of the river, the
temperature was 84°. The difference in humidity of the two
stations (with about 300 feet difference in height) was more
remarkable; at the upper, the wet bulb thermometer was 6710,
and consequently the saturation point, o'713; at the lower, the
wet bulb was 68°, and saturation, o'599. The temperature of the
river was, at all hours of the preceding day, and this morning,
6710.1
Our course down the river was by so rugged a path, that, giddy
At this hour, the probable temperature at Darjeeling (6,000 feet above this)
would be 56°, with a temperature of wet bulb 55°, and the atmosphere loaded
with vapour. At Calcutta, again, the temperature was at the observatory 91°3°,
wet bulb, 81.8°, and saturation=0.737. The dryness of the air, in the
damper-looking and luxuriant river-bed, was owing to the heated rocks of its
channel; while the humidity of the atmosphere over the drier-looking hill
where we encamped, was due to the moisture of the wind then blowing.
106
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
and footsore with leaping from rock to rock, we at last attempted
the jungle, but it proved utterly impervious. On turning a bend
of the stream, the mountains of Bhotan suddenly presented them-
selves, with the Teesta flowing at their base; and we emerged at
the angle formed by the junction of the Rungeet, which we had
followed from the west, of the Teesta coming from the north, and
of their united streams flowing south.
I
We were not long before enjoying the water, when I was
surprised to find that of the Teesta singularly cold; its tempera-
ture being 70 below that of the Rungeet. At the salient angle (a
rocky peninsula) of their junction, we could almost place one foot
in the cold stream and the other in the warmer. There is a no
less marked difference in the colour of the two rivers; the Teesta
being sea-green and muddy, the Great Rungeet dark green and
very clear; and the waters, like those of the Arve and Rhone at
Geneva, preserve their colours for some hundred yards; the line
separating the two being most distinctly drawn. The Teesta, or
main stream, is much the broadest (about 80 or 100 yards wide
at this season), the most rapid and deep. The rocks which skirt
its bank were covered with a silt or mud deposit, which I nowhere.
observed along the Great Rungeet, and which, as well as its colour
and coldness, was owing to the vast number of then melting
glaciers drained by this river. The Rungeet, on the other hand,
though it rises amongst the glaciers of Kinchinjunga and its
sister peaks, is chiefly supplied by the rainfall of the outer ranges
of Sinchul and Singalelah, and hence its waters are clear, except
during the height of the rains.
From this place we returned to Darjeeling, arriving on the after-
noon of the following day.
The most interesting trip to be made from Darjeeling, is that
to the summit of Tonglo, a mountain on the Singalelah range,
10,079 feet high, due west of the station, and twelve miles in a
straight line, but fully thirty by the path."
Leaving the station by a native path, the latter plunges at once
into a forest, and descends very rapidly, occasionally emerging on
cleared spurs, where are fine crops of various millets, with much
This is, no doubt, due partly to the Teesta flowing south, and thus having
less of the sun, and partly to its draining snowy mountains throughout a much
longer portion of its course. The temperature of the one was 671º, and that
of the other 60½º.
A full account of the botanical features noticed on this excursion (which I
made in May, 1848, with Mr. Barnes) has appeared in the "London Journal of
Botany," and the "Horticultural Society's Journal," and I shall, therefore,
recapitulate its leading incidents only.
▸
EXCURSION TO TONGLO.
107
maize and rice. Of the latter grain as many as eight or ten
varieties are cultivated, but seldom irrigated, which, owing to the
dampness of the climate, is not necessary: the produce is often
eighty-fold, but the grain is large, coarse, reddish, and rather
gelatinous when boiled. After burning the timber, the top soil is
very fertile for several seasons, abounding in humus, below which
is a stratum of stiff clay, often of great thickness, produced by the
disintegration of the rocks; the clay makes excellent bricks, and
often contains nearly 30 per cent. of alumina.
I
At about 4,000 fect the great bamboo (“ Pao " Lepcha) abounds;
it flowers every year, which is not the case with all others of this
genus, most of which flower profusely over large tracts of country,
once in a great many years, and then die away; their place being
supplied by seedlings, which grow with immense rapidity. This
well-known fact is not due, as some suppose, to the life of the
species being of such a duration, but to favourable circumstances
in the season. The Pao attains a height of 40 to 60 feet, and the
culms average in thickness the human thigh; it is used for large
water-vessels, and its leaves form admirable thatch, in universal
use for European houses at Darjeeling. Besides this, the Lepchas
are acquainted with nearly a dozen kinds of bamboo; these occur
at various elevations below 12,000 feet, forming, even in the pine-
woods, and above their zone, in the skirts of the Rhododendron
scrub, a small and sometimes almost impervious jungle. In an
enconomical point of view they may be classed as those which
split readily, and those which do not. The young shoots of
several are eaten, and the seeds of one are made into a fermented
drink, and into bread in times of scarcity; but it would take many
pages to describe the numerous purposes to which the various
species are put.
Gordonia is their most common tree (G. Wallichii), much
prized for ploughshares and other purposes requiring a hard
wood: it is the "Sing-brang-kun" of the Lepchas, and ascends to
4,000 feet.
Oaks at this elevation occur as solitary trees, of
species different from those of Darjeeling. There are three or four
with a cup-shaped involucre, and three with spinous involucres
enclosing an eatable sweet nut; these latter generally grow on a
dry clayey soil.
Some low steep spurs were well cultivated, though the angle of
the field was upwards of 25"; the crops, chiefly maize, were just
sprouting. This plant is occasionally hermaphrodite in Sikkim,
the flowers forming a large drooping panicle and ripening small
An analysis of the soil will be found in the Appendix.

108
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
grains; it is, however, a rare occurrence, and the specimens are
highly valued by the people.
The general prevalence of figs, and their allies, the nettles, is
a remarkable feature in the botany of the Sikkim Himalaya, up
MACINIAN
LEPCHA WATER-CARRIER WITH A BAMBOO CHUNGI.
to nearly 10,000 feet. Of the former there were here five species,
One species of this very tropical genus ascends almost to 9,000 feet on the
outer ranges of Sikkim.
2 Of two of these cloth is made, and of a third, cordage. The tops of two
are eaten, as are several species of Procris. The "Poa" belongs to this
order, yielding that kind of grass cloth fibre now abundantly imported into
England from the Malay Islands, and used extensively for shirting.
PEEPSÁS. BAMBOOS.
109
some bearing eatable and very palatable fruit of enormous size,
others with the fruit small and borne on prostrate, leafless
branches, which spring from the root and creep along the ground.
A troublesome, dipterous insect (the "Peepsa," a species of
Siamulium) swarms on the banks of the streams; it is very small
and black, floating like a speck before the eye; its bite leaves a
spot of extravasated blood under the cuticle, very irritating if not
opened.
Crossing the Little Rungeet river, we camped on the base of
Tonglo. The night was calm and clear, with faint cirrus but no
dew. A thermometer sunk two feet in rich vegetable mould
stood at 78° two hours after it was lowered, and the same on the
following morning. This probably indicates the mean temperature
of the month at that spot, where, however, the dark colour of the
exposed loose soil must raise the temperature considerably.
May 20th.-The temperature at sunrise was 67°; the morning
bright, and clear overhead, but the mountains looked threatening.
Darjeeling, perched on a ridge 5,000 feet above us, had a singular
appearance. We ascended the Simonbong spur of Tonglo, so
called from a small village and Lama temple of that name on its
summit; where we arrived at noon, and passing some chaits ¹
gained the Lama's residence.
">
Two species of bamboo, the "Payong" and "Praong" of the
Lepchas, here replace the Pao of the lower regions. The former
was flowering abundantly, the whole of the culms (which were 20
feet high) being a diffuse panicle of inflorescence. The "Praong'
bears a round head of flowers at the ends of the leafy branches.
Wild strawberry, violet, geranium, &c., announced our approach
to the temperate zone. Around the temple were potato crops
and peach-trees, rice, millet, yam, brinjal (egg-apple), fennel,
hemp (for smoking its narcotic leaves), and cummin, &c. The
potato thrives extremely well as a summer crop, at 7,000 feet, in
Sikkim, though I think the root (from the Darjeeling stock) culti-
vated as a winter crop in the plains, is superior both in size and
flavour. Peaches never ripen in this part of Sikkim, apparently from
the want of sun; the tree grows well at from 3,000 to 7,000 feet
elevation, and flowers abundantly; the fruit making the nearest
approach to maturity (according to the elevation) from July to
The chait of Sikkim, borrowed from Tibet, is a square pedestal surmounted
with a hemisphere, the convex end downwards, and on it is placed a cone,
with a crescent on the top. These are erected as tombs to Lamas and as
monuments to illustrious persons, and are venerated accordingly, the people
always passing them from left to right, often repeating the invocation, “Om
Mani Padmi om."
110
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
some
October. At Darjeeling it follows the English seasons, flowering
in March and fruiting in September, when the scarce reddened and
still hard fruit falls from the tree. In the plains of India, both
this and the plum ripen in May, but the fruits are very acid.
It is curious that throughout this temperate region there is
hardly an eatable fruit except the native walnut, and
brambles, of which the "yellow" and "ground raspberry" are the
best, some insipid figs, and a very austere crab-apple. The
European apple will scarcely ripen, and the pear not at all.
Currants and gooseberries show no disposition to thrive, and
strawberries are the only fruits that ripen at all, which they do
in the greatest abundance. Vines, figs, pomegranates, plums,
apricots, &c., will not succeed even as trees. European vege-
tables again grow, and thrive remarkably well throughout the
summer of Darjeeling, and the produce is very fair, sweet and
good, but inferior in flavour to the English.
I
Of tropical fruits cultivated below 4,000 feet, oranges and
indifferent bananas alone are frequent, with lemons of various
kinds. The season for these is, however, very short; though that
of the plantain might with care be prolonged; oranges abound in
winter, and are excellent, but neither so large nor free of white
pulp as those of the Khasia hills, the West Indies, or the west
coast of Africa. Mangos are brought from the plains, for though
wild in Sikkim, the cultivated kinds do not thrive; I have seen
the pine-apple plant, but I never met with good fruit on it.
A singular and almost total absence of the light, and of the
direct rays of the sun in the ripening season, is the cause of this
dearth of fruit. Both the farmer and orchard gardener in
England know full well the value of a bright sky as well as of a
warm autumnal atmosphere. Without this corn does not ripen,
and fruit-trees are blighted. The winter of the plains of India
being more analogous in its distribution of moisture and heat to
a European summer, such fruits as the peach, vine, and even
plum, fig, strawberry, &c., may be brought to bear well in March,
April, and May, if they are only carefully tended through the
previous hot and damp season, which is, in respect to the func-
tions of flowering and fruiting, their winter.
Hence it appears that, though some English fruits will turn the
winter solstice of Bengal (November to May) into summer, and
This fruit and several others ripen at Katmandoo, in Nepal (alt. 4,000
feet), which place enjoys more sunshine than Sikkim. I have, however,
received very different accounts of the produce, which, on the whole, appears
to be inferior.

FRUITS IN SIKKIM.
then flower and fruit, neither these nor others will thrive in the
summer of 7,000 feet on the Sikkim Himalaya (though its
temperature so nearly approaches that of England), on account
of its rain and fogs. Further, they are often exposed to a
winter's cold equal to the average of that of London, the snow
lying for a week on the ground, and the thermometer descending
to 25. It is true that in no case is the extreme of cold so great
here as in England, but it is sufficient to check vegetation, and
to prevent fruit-trees from flowering till they are fruiting in the
plains. There is in this respect a great difference between the
climate of the central and eastern and western Himalaya, at
equal elevations. In the western (Kumaon, &c.) the winters are
30
III
LEPCHA AMULET.
colder than in Sikkim-the summers warmer and less humid.
The rainy season is shorter, and the sun shines so much more
frequently between the heavy showers, that the apple and other
fruits are brought to a much better state. It is true that the
rain-gauge may show as great a fall there, but this is no measure
of the humidity of the atmosphere, and still less so of the amount
of the sun's direct light and heat intercepted by aqueous vapour,
for it takes no account of the quantity of moisture suspended in
the air, nor of the depositions from fogs, which are far more fatal
to the perfecting of fruits than the heaviest brief showers.
The Indian climate, which is marked by one season of excessive
humidity and the other of excessive drought, can never be
fiż
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
favourable to the production either of good European or tropical
fruits. Hence there is not one of the latter peculiar to the
country, and perhaps but one which arrives at full perfection;
namely, the mango. The plantains, oranges, and pine-apples are
less abundant, of inferior kinds, and remain a shorter season in
perfection than they do in South America, the West Indies, or
Western Africa.
CHAPTER VII.
Continue the ascent of Tonglo-Trees-Lepcha construction of hut-
Simisbo - Climbing-trees Frogs-Magnolias, &c.- Ticks- Leeches-
Cattle, murrain amongst-Summit of Tonglo-Rhododendrons-Skimmia
--Yew-Rose-Aconite-Bikh poison-English genera of plants-Ascent
of tropical orders-Comparison with south temperate zone-Heavy rain
-Temperature, &c.-Descent-Simonbong_temple-Furniture therein
-Praying-cylinder-Thigh-bone trumpet-Morning orisons-Present of
Murwa beer, &c.
T
CONTINUING the ascent of Tonglo, we left cultivation and the
poor groves of peaches at 4,000 to 5,000 feet (and this on the
eastern exposure, which is by far the sunniest), the average height
which agriculture reaches in Sikkim.
Above Simonbong, the path up Tonglo is little frequented: it
is one of the many routes between Nepal and Sikkim, which cross
the Singalelah spur of Kinchinjunga at various elevations between
7,000 and 15,000 feet. As usual, the track runs along ridges,
wherever these are to be found, very steep, and narrow at the
top, through deep humid forests of oaks and Mangolias, many
laurels, both Tetranthera and Cinnamomum, one species of the
latter ascending to 8,500 feet, and one of Tetranthera to 9,000.
Chesnut and walnut here appeared, with some leguminous trees,
which however did not ascend to 6,000 feet. Scarlet flowers of
Vaccinium serpens, an epiphytical species, were strewed about,
and the great blossoms of Rhododendron Dalhousie and of a
Magnolia (Talauma Hodgsoni) lay together on the ground. The
latter forms a large tree, with very dense foliage, and deep
shining green leaves, a foot to eighteen inches long. Most of its
flowers drop unexpanded from the tree, and diffuse a very
aromatic smell; they are nearly as large as the fist, the outer
petals purple, the inner pure white.
Heavy rain came on at 3 P.M., obliging us to take insufficient
shelter under the trees, and finally to seek the nearest camping-
ground. For this purpose we ascended to a spring, Simsibong, at

HOUSE BUILDING.
113
an elevation of 6,000 feet. The narrowness of the ridge pre-
vented our pitching the tent, small as it was; but the Lepchas
rapidly constructed a house, and thatched it with bamboo and
the broad leaves of the wild plantain. A table was then raised
We ma
CLASPING ROOTS OF WIGHTIA.
in the middle, of four posts and as many cross pieces of wood,
lashed with strips of bamboo. Across these, pieces of bamboo
were laid, ingeniously flattened by selecting cylinders, crimping
9
114
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
them all round, and then slitting each down one side, so that it
opens into a flat slab. Similar but lower and longer erections,
one on each side the table, formed bed or chair; and in one
hour, half a dozen men, with only long knives and active hands,
had provided us with a tolerably water-tight furnished house. A
thick flooring of bamboo leaves kept the feet dry, and a screen
of that and other foliage all round rendered the habitation
tolerably warm.
At this elevation we found great scandent trees twisting around
the trunks of others, and strangling them: the latter gradually
decay, leaving the sheath of climbers as one of the most remark-
able vegetable phenomena of these mountains. These climbers
belong to several orders, and may be roughly classified in two
groups.-(1) Those whose stems merely twine, and by constricting
certain parts of their support, induce death.-(2) Those which
form a network round the trunk, by the coalescence of their
lateral branches and aerial roots, &c. : these wholly envelop and
often conceal the tree they enclose, whose branches appear rising
far above those of its destroyer. To the first of these groups
belong many natural orders, of which the most prominent are-
Leguminosæ, ivies, hydrangea, vines, Pothos, &c. The inosculating
ones are almost all figs and Wightia the latter is the most
remarkable, and I add a cut of its grasping roots, sketched at
our encampment.
Except for the occasional hooting of an owl, the night was
profoundly still during several hours after dark-the cicadas at
this season not ascending so high on the mountain. A dense
mist shrouded everything, and the rain pattered on the leaves of
our hut. At midnight a tree-frog ("Simook," Lepcha) broke the
silence with his curious metallic clack, and others quickly joined
the chorus, keeping up their strange music till morning. Like
many Batrachians, this has a voice singularly unlike that of any
other organised creature. The cries of beasts, birds, and insects
are all explicable to our senses, and we can recognise most of
them as belonging to such or such an order of animal; but the
voices of many frogs are like nothing else, and allied species
utter totally dissimilar noises. In some, as this, the sound is
like the concussion of metals; in others, of the vibration of wires
or cords; anything but the natural effects of lungs, larynx and
muscles.¹
W
May 21.-Early this morning we proceeded upwards, our pros-
* A very common Tasmanian species utters a sound that appears to ring in
an underground vaulted chamber, beneath the feet.
VEGETATION ON TONGLO. TICKS.
pect more gloomy than ever. The path, which still lay up steep
ridges, was very slippery owing to the rain upon the clayey soil,
and was only passable from the hold afforded by interlacing roots
of trees. At 8,000 feet, some enormous detached masses of
micaceous gneiss rose abruptly from the ridge; they were covered
with mosses and ferns, and from their summit a good view of
the surrounding vegetation is obtained. The mass of the forest
is formed of:-(1) Three species of oak, of which Q. annulata ?
with immense lamellated acorns, and leaves sixteen inches long,
is the tallest and the most abundant.—(2) Chesnut.-(3) Laurineæ
of several species, all beautiful forest-trees, straight-boled, and
umbrageous above.-(4) Magnolias.'-(5) Arborescent rhodo-
dendrons, which commence here with the R. arboreum. At 8,000
and 9,000 feet, a considerable change is found in the vegetation;
the gigantic purple Magnolia Campbellii replacing the white;
chesnut disappears, and several laurels: other kinds of maple are
seen, with Rhododendron argenteum, and Stauntonia, a handsome
climber, which has beautiful pendent clusters of lilac blossoms.
At 9,000 feet we arrived on a long flat covered with lofty trees,
chiefly purple magnolias, with a few oaks, great Pyri and two
rhododendrons, thirty to forty feet high (R. barbatum, and R.
aboreum, var. roseum): Skimmia and Symplocos were the common
shrubs. A beautiful orchid with purple flowers (Calogyne
Wallichii) grew on the trunks of all the great trees, attaining a
a higher elevation than most other epiphytical species, for I have
seen it at 10,000 feet.
115
A large tick infests the small bamboo, and a more hateful
insect I never encountered. The traveller cannot avoid these
insects coming on his person (sometimes in great numbers) as
he brushes through the forest; they get inside his dress, and
insert the proboscis deeply without pain. Buried head and
shoulders, and retained by a barbed lancet, the tick is only to be
extracted by force, which is very painful. I have devised many
tortures, mechanical and chemical, to induce these disgusting
intruders to withdraw the proboscis, but in vain. Leeches, also
2
* Other trees were Pyrus, Saurauja (both an erect and climbing species),
Olea, cherry, birch, alder, several maples, Hydrangea, one species of fig, holly,
and several Araliaceous trees. Many species of Magnoliaceae (including the
genera Magnolia, Michelia, and Talauma) are found in Sikkim: Magnolia
Campbellii, of 10,000 feet, is the most superb species known. In books on
botanical geography, the magnolias are considered as most abounding in
North America, east of the Rocky Mountains; but this is a great mistake,
the Indian mountains and islands being the centre of this natural order.
* I cannot but think that the extraordinary abundance of these Anelides in
116
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
below 7,000 feet; a small black species above 3,000 feet, and a
large yellow-brown solitary one below that elevation.
Our ascent to the summit was by the bed of a watercourse,
now a roaring torrent, from the heavy and incessant rain. A
small Anagallis (like tenella), and a beautiful purple primrose,
grew by its bank. The top of the mountain is another flat ridge,
with depressions and broad pools. The number of additional
species of plants found here was great, and all betokened a rapid
approach to the alpine region of the Himalaya. In order of
prevalence the trees were, the scarlet Rhododendron arborcum
and barbatum, as large bushy trees, both loaded with beautiful
flowers and luxuriant foliage; R. Falconeri, in point of foliage the
most superb of all the Himalayan species, with trunks thirty feet.
high, and branches bearing at their ends only leaves eighteen
inches long: these are deep green above, and covered beneath
with a rich brown down. Next in abundance to these were shrubs
of Skimmia Laureola,¹ Symplocos, and Hydrangea; and there were
still a few purple magnolias, very large Pyrı, like mountain ash,
and the common English yew, eighteen feet in circumference, the
red bark of which is used as a dye, and for staining the foreheads
of Brahmins in Nepal. An erect white-flowered rose (R. sericea,
the only species occurring in Southern Sikkim) was very abundant :
its numerous inodorous flowers are pendent, apparent as a pro-
tection from the rain; and it is remarkable as being the only
species having four petals instead of five.
A currant was common, always growing epiphytically on the
trunks of large trees. Two or three species of Berberry, a cherry,
Andromeda, Daphne, and maple, nearly complete, I think, the
list of woody plants. Amongst the herbs were many of great
interest, as a rhubarb, and Aconitum palmatum, which yields one
;
Sikkim may cause the death of many animals. Some marked murrains have
followed very wet seasons, when the leeches appear in incredible numbers
and the disease in the cattle, described to me by the Lepchas as in the
stomach, in no way differs from what leeches would produce. It is a well-
known fact, that these creatures have lived for days in the fauces, nares, and
stomachs of the human subject, causing dreadful sufferings, and death. I have
seen the cattle feeding in places where leeches so abounded, that fifty or
sixty were frequently together on my ankles ; and ponies are almost maddened
by their biting the fetlocks.
This plant has lately been introduced into English gardens, from the
north-west Himalaya, and is greatly admired for its aromatic, evergreen
foliage, and clusters of scarlet berries. It is a curious fact, that this plant
never bears scarlet berries in Sikkim, apparently owing to the want of sun;
the fruit ripens, but is of a greenish-red or purplish colour.
#1
CAMP ON TONGLO.
117
of the celebrated "Bikh" poisons. Of European genera I found
Thalictrum, Anemone, Fumaria, violets, Stellaria, Hypericum, two
geraniums, balsams, Epilobium, Potentilla, Paris and Convallaria,
one of the latter has verticillate leaves, and its root, also called
"bikh," is considered a very virulent poison.
2
Still, the absence or rarity at this elevation of several very
large natural families, which have numerous representatives at
and much below the same level in the inner ranges, and on the
outer of the Western Himalaya, indicate a certain peculiarity in
Sikkim. On the other hand, certain tropical genera are more
abundant in the temperate zone of the Sikkim mountains, and
ascend much higher there than in the Western Himalaya: of this
fact I have cited conspicuous examples in the palms, plantains,
and tree-ferns. This ascent and prevalence of tropical species is
due to the humidity and equability of the climate in this temperate
zone, and is, perhaps, the direct consequence of these conditions.
An application of the same laws accounts for the extension of
similar features far beyond the tropical limit in the Southern
Ocean, where various natural orders, which do not cross the 30th
and 40th parallels of N. latitude, are extended to the 55th of S.
latitude, and found in Tasmania, New Zealand, the so-called
Antarctic Islands south of that group, and at Cape Horn itself.
The rarity of Pines is perhaps the most curious feature in the
botany of Tonglo, and on the outer ranges of Sikkim; for, between
the level of 2,500 feet (the upper limit of P. longifolia) and 10,000
feet (that of the Taxus), there is no coniferous tree whatever in
Southern Sikkim.
I
We encamped amongst Rhododendrons, on a spongy soil of
black vegetable matter, so oozy that it was difficult to keep the
feet dry. The rain poured in torrents all the evening, and with
the calm, and the wetness of the wood, prevented our enjoying a
fire. Except a transient view into Nepal, a few miles west of us,
nothing was to be seen, the whole mountain being wrapped in
dense masses of vapour. Gusts of wind, not felt in the forest,
whistled through the gnarled and naked tree-tops; and though
the temperature was 50°, this wind produced cold to the feelings.
I
"Bikh "is yielded by various Aconita. All the Sikkim kinds are called
"gniong" by Lepchas and Bhoteeas, who do not distinguish them. The A.
Napellus is abundant in the north-west Himalaya, aud is perhaps as virulent
a Bikh as any species.
2 Ranunculacea, Fumaria, Cruciferæ, Alsinea, Geranieæ, Leguminosa,
Potentilla, Epilobium, Crassulacea, Saxifrageæ, Umbelliferæ, Lonicera,
Valerianea, Dipsacea, various genera of Compostice, Campanulacea, Lobeliace‹,
Gentianea, Boraginea, Srcophularineæ, Primulacea, Gramineæ.
118
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Our poor Lepchas were miserably off, but always happy: under
four posts and a bamboo-leaf thatch, with no covering but a
single thin cotton garment, they crouched on the sodden turf,
joking with the Hindoos of our party, who, though supplied with
good clothing and shelter, were doleful companions.
I made a shed for my instruments under a tree; Mr. Barnes,
ever active and ready, floored the tent with logs of wood, and I
laid a "corduroy road" of the same to my little observatory.
I
During the night the rain did not abate; and the tent-roof
leaked in such torrents, that we had to throw pieces of wax-cloth
over our shoulders as we lay in bed. There was no improvement
whatever in the weather on the following morning. Two of the
Hindoos had crawled into the tent during the night, attacked
with fever and ague. The tent being too sodden to be carried,
we had to remain where we were, and with abundance of novelty
in the botany around, I found no difficulty in getting through the
day. Observing the track of sheep, we sent two Lepchas to
follow them, who returned at night from some miles west in
Nepal, bringing two. The shepherds were Geroongs of Nepal,
who were grazing their flocks on a grassy mountain top, from
which the woods had been cleared, probably by fire. The
mutton was a great boon to the Lepchas, but the Hindoos would
not touch it, and several more sickening during the day, we had
the tent most uncomfortably full.
During the whole of the 22nd, from 7 A.M. to II P.M., the
thermometer never varied 6 degrees, ranging from 474 in the
morning to 54°, its maximum, at 1 P.M., and 50 at night. At
seven the following morning it was the same. One, sunk two
feet six inches in mould and clay, stood constantly at 50. The
dew-point was always below the temperature, at which I was
surprised, for more drenching weather could not well be. The
mean dew-point was 501, and consequent humidity, o'973.
These observations, and those of the barometer, were taken 60
feet below the summit, to which I moved the instruments on the
morning of the 23rd. At a much more exposed spot the results
would no doubt have been different, for a thermometer, there
sunk to the same depth as that below, stood at 493 (or one degree
colder than 60 feet lower down). My barometrical observations,
It is a remarkable fact, that both the natives of the plains, under many
circumstances, and the Lepchas when suffering from protracted cold and wet,
take fever and ague in sharp attacks. The disease is wholly unknown amongst
Europeans residing above 4,000 feet, similar exposure in whom brings on
rheumatism and cold.
SIMONBONG GOOMPA.
119
taken simultaneously with those of Calcutta, give the height of
Tonglo, 10,078.3 feet: Colonel Waugh's, by trigonometry,
10,079'4 feet-a remarkable and unusual coincidence.
May 23.-We spent a few hours of alternate fog and sunshine
on the top of the mountain, vainly hoping for the most modest
view; our inability to obtain it was extremely disappointing, for
the mountain commands a superb prospect; which I enjoyed fully
in the following November, from a spot a few miles further west.
The air, which was always foggy, was alternately cooled and
heated, as it blew over the trees, or the open space we occupied ;
sometimes varying 5° and 6° in a quarter of an hour.
Having partially dried the tent in the wind, we commenced the
descent, which, owing to the late torrents of rain, was most
fatiguing and slippery; it again commenced to drizzle at noon,
nor was it till we had descended to 6,000 feet that we emerged
from the region of clouds. By dark we arrived at Simonbong,
having descended 5,000 feet, at the rate of 1,000 feet an hour;
and were kindly received by the Lama, who gave us his temple
for the accommodation of the whole party. We were surprised at
this, both because the Sikkim authorities had represented the
Lamas as very averse to Europeans, and because he might well
have hesitated before admitting a promiscuous horde of thirty
people into a sacred building, where the little valuables on the
altar, &c., were quite at our disposal. A better tribute could not
well have been paid to the honesty of my Lepcha followers. Our
host only begged us not to disturb his people, nor to allow the
Hindoos of our party to smoke inside.
Simonbong is one of the smallest and poorest Gumpas, or
temples, in Sikkim unlike the better class, it is built of wood
only. It consisted of one large room, with small sliding shutter
windows, raised on a stone foundation, and roofed with shingles
of wood; opposite the door a wooden altar was placed, rudely
chequered with black, white, and red; to the right and left were
shelves, with a few Tibetan books, wrapped in silk; a model of
Symbonath temple in Nepal, a praying-cylinder,' and some
implements for common purposes, bags of juniper, English wine-
bottles and glasses, with tufts of Abies Webbiana, rhododendron
·
• It consisted of a leathern cylinder placed upright in a frame; a projecting
piece of iron strikes a little bell at each revolution, the revolution being caused
by an elbowed axle and string. Within the cylinder are deposited written
prayers, and whoever pulls the string properly is considered to have repeated
his prayers as often as the bell rings. Representations of these implements
will be found in other parts of this volume.

120
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
flowers, and peacock's feathers, besides various trifles, clay orna-
ments and offerings, and little Hindoo idols. On the altar were
ranged seven little brass cups, full of water; a large conch shell,
carved with the sacred lotus; a brass jug from Lhassa, of beautiful
design, and a human thigh-bone, hollow, and perforated through
both condyles.'
Facing the altar was a bench and a chair, and on one side a
huge tambourine, with two curved iron drum-sticks. The bench
was covered with bells, handsomely carved with idols, and censers
with juniper-ashes; and on it lay the dorge, or double-headed
PINTUNY
SIMONBONG TEMPLE.
thunderbolt, which the Lama holds in his hand during service.
Of all these articles, the human thigh-bone is by much the most
curious; it is very often that of a Lama, and is valuable in
proportion to its length." As, however, the Sikkim Lamas are
burned, the relics are generally procured from Tibet, where the
To these are often added a double-headed rattle, or small drum, formed of
two crowns of human skulls, cemented back to back; each face is then covered
with parchment, and encloses some pebbles. Sometimes this instrument is
provided with a handle.
It is reported at Darjeeling, that one of the first Europeans buried at this
station, being a tall man, was disinterred by the resurrectionist Bhotecas for
his trumpet-bones.

ORISONS AT THE GUMPA.
corpses are cut in pieces and thrown to the kites, or into the
water.
121
Two boys usually reside in the temple, and their beds were
given up to us, which being only rough planks laid on the floor,
proved clean in one sense, but contrasted badly with the springy
couch of bamboo the Lepcha makes, which renders carrying a
mattress or aught but blankets superfluous.
May 24. We were awakened at daylight by the discordant
orisons of the Lama; these commenced by the boys beating the
great tambourine, then blowing the conch-shells, and finally the
trumpets and thigh-bone. Shortly the Lama entered, clad in
scarlet, shorn and barefooted, wearing a small red silk mitre, a
loose gown girt round the middle, and an under-garment of
questionable colour, possibly once purple. He walked along,
slowly muttering his prayers, to the end of the apartment, whence
he took a brass bell and dorge, and, sitting down cross-legged,
TRUMPET MADE OF A HUMAN THIGH-BONE.
commenced matins, counting nis beads, or ringing the bell, and
uttering most dismal prayers. After various disposals of the cups,
a larger bell was violently rung for some minutes, himself snapping
his fingers and uttering most unearthly sounds. Finally, incense
was brought, of charcoal with juniper sprigs; it was swung about,
and concluded the morning service, to our great relief, for the
noises were quite intolerable. Fervid as the devotions appeared,
to judge by their intonation, I fear the Lama felt more curious.
about us than was proper under the circumstances; and when I
tried to sketch him, his excitement knew no bounds; he fairly
turned round on the settee, and, continuing his prayers and bell-
accompaniment, appeared to be exorcising me, or some spirit
within me.
After breakfast the Lama came to visit us, bringing rice, a few
vegetables, and a large bamboo-work bowl, thickly varnished with

122
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
india-rubber, and waterproof, containing half-fermented millet.
This mixture, called Murwa, is invariably offered to the traveller,
either in the state of fermented grain, or more commonly in a
bamboo jug, filled quite up with warm water; when the fluid,
sucked through a reed, affords a refreshing drink. He gratefully
accepted a few rupees and trifles which we had to spare.
Leaving Simonbong, we descended to the Little Rungeet,
where the heat of the valley was very great; 80° at noon, and
that of the stream 69°; the latter was an agreeable temperature
for the coolies, who plunged, teeming with perspiration, into the
Cu
6099
888888
TIBETAN AMULET.
water, catching fish with their hands. We reached Darjeeling
late in the evening, again drenched with rain; our people, Hindoo
and Lepcha, imprudently remaining for the night in the valley.
Owing probably as much to the great exposure they had lately gone
through, as to the sudden transition from a mean temperature of
50° in a bracing wind, to a hot close jungly valley at 75°, no less
than seven were laid up with fever and ague.
Few excursions can afford a better idea of the general features
and rich luxuriance of the Sikkim Himalaya than that to Tonglo.
1
COMPANIONSHIP OF LEPCHAS.
123
It is always interesting to roam with an aboriginal, and especially
a mountain people, through their thinly inhabited valleys, over
their grand mountains, and to dwell alone with them in their
gloomy and forbidding forests, and no thinking man can do so
without learning much, however slender be the means at his com-
mand for communion. A more interesting and attractive com-
panion than the Lepcha I never lived with: cheerful, kind, and
patient with a master to whom he is attached; rude but not
savage, ignorant and yet intelligent; with a simple resource of a
plain knife he makes his house and furnishes yours, with a speed,
alacrity, and ingenuity that wile away that well-known long hour
when the weary pilgrim frets for his couch. In all my dealings
with these people, they proved scrupulously honest. Except for
drunkenness and carelessness, I never had to complain of any of
the merry troop; some of whom, bareheaded and barelegged,
possessing little or nothing save a cotton garment and a long
knife, followed me for many months on subsequent occasions,
from the scorching plains to the everlasting snows. Ever fore-
most in the forest or on the bleak mountain, and ever ready to
help, to carry, to encamp, collect, or cook, they cheer on the
traveller by their unostentatious zeal in his service, and are spurs
to his progress.
CHAPTER VIII.
Difficulty in procuring leave to enter Sikkim-Obtain permission to travel in-
East Nepal-Arrangements-Coolies-Stores-Servants-Personal equip-
ment-Mode of travelling-Leave Darjeeling-Goong ridge-Behaviour
of Bhotan coolies-Nepal frontier-Myong valley-Ilan-Sikkim massacre
-Cultivation-Nettles-Camp at Nanki on Tonglo--Bhotan coolies run
away-View of Chumulari-Nepal peaks to west-Sakkiazung-Buceros
-Road to Wallanchoon-Oaks Scarcity of water-Singular view of
mountain-valleys-Encampment-My tent and its furniture-Evening
occupations-Dunkotah-Cross ridge of Sakkiazung-Yews-Silver-firs—
View of Tambur valley-Pemmi river-Pebbly terraces-Geology-Holy
springs-Enormous trees-Luculia gratissima-Khawa river, rocks of-
Arrive at Tambur-Shingle and gravel terraces-Natives, indolence of—
Canoe ferry-Votive offerings-Bad road-Temperature, &c.-Chingtam
village, view from-Mywa river and Guola-House-Boulders-Chain-
bridge-Meepo, arrival of Fevers.
OWING to the unsatisfactory nature of our relations with the
Sikkim authorities, to which I have elsewhere alluded, my en-
deavours to procure leave to penetrate further beyond the
124
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Darjeeling territory than Tonglo, were attended with some trouble
and delay.
In the autumn of 1848, the Governor-General communicated
with the Rajah, desiring him to grant me honourable and safe
escort through his dominions; but this was at once met by a
decided refusal, apparently admitting of no compromise. Pend
ing further negociations, which Dr. Campbell felt sure would
terminate satisfactorily, though perhaps too late for my purpose,
he applied to the Nepal Rajah for permission for me to visit the
Tibetan passes, west of Kinchinjunga; proposing in the mean-
while to arrange for my return through Sikkim. Through the
kindness of Col. Thoresby, the Resident at that Court, and the
influence of Jung Bahadoor, this request was promptly acceded
to, and a guard of six Nepalese soldiers and two officers was sent
to Darjeeling to conduct me to any part of the eastern districts
of Nepal which I might select. I decided upon following up the
Tambur, a branch of the Arun river, and exploring the two
easternmost of the Nepalese passes into Tibet (Wallanchoon and
Kanglachem), which would bring me as near to the central mass
and loftiest part of the eastern flank of Kinchinjunga as possible.
For this expedition (which occupied three months), all the
arrangements were undertaken for me by Dr. Campbell, who
afforded me every facility which in his government position he
could command, besides personally superintending the equipment
and provisioning of my party. Taking horses or loaded animals
of any kind was not expedient: the whole journey was to be per-
formed on foot, and everything carried on men's backs. As we
were to march through wholly unexplored countries, where food
was only procurable at uncertain intervals, it was necessary to
engage a large body of porters, some of whom should carry bags
of rice for the coolies and themselves too. The difficulty of
selecting these carriers, of whom thirty were required, was very
great. The Lepchas, the best and most tractable, and over whom
Dr. Campbell had the most direct influence, disliked employment
out of Sikkim, especially in so warlike a country as Nepal: and
they were besides thought unfit for the snowy regions.
The
Nepalese, of whom there are many residing as British subjects in
Darjeeling, were mostly run-aways from their own country, and
afraid of being claimed, should they return to it, by the lords of
the soil. To employ Limboos, Moormis, Hindoos, or other
natives of low elevations, was out of the question; and no course
appeared advisable but to engage some of the Bhotan run-aways
domiciled in Darjeeling, who are accustomed to travel at all eleva-
TRAVELLING, ARRANGEments FOR.
125
tions, and fear nothing but a return to the country which they
have abandoned as slaves, or as culprits: they are immensely
powerful, and though intractable to the last degree, are generally
glad to work and behave well for money. The choice, as will
hereafter be seen, was unfortunate, though at the time unanimously
approved.
My party mustered fifty-six persons. These consisted of my-
self, and one personal servant, a Portuguese half-caste, who under-
took all offices, and spared me the usual train of Hindoo and
Mahometan servants. My tent and equipments (for which I was
greatly indebted to Mr. Hodgson), instruments, bed, box of
clothes, books and papers, required a man for each. Seven more
carried my papers for drying plants, and other scientific stores.
The Nepalese guard had two coolies of their own. My inter-
preter, the coolie Sirdar (or headman), and my chief plant col-
lector (a Lepcha), had a man each. Mr. Hodgson's bird and
animal shooter, collector, and stuffer, with their ammunition and
indispensables, had four more; there were besides, three Lepcha
lads to climb trees and change the plant-papers, who had long
been in my service in that capacity; and the party was completed
by fourteen Bhotan coolies laden with food, consisting chiefly of
rice with ghee, oil, capsicum, salt, and flour.
I carried myself a small barometer, a large knife and digger for
plants, note-book, telescope, compass and other instruments ;
whilst two or three Lepcha lads who accompanied me as satellites,
carried a botanising box, thermometers, sextant and artificial
horizon, measuring-tape, azimuth compass and stand geological
hammer, bottles and boxes for insects, sketch-book, &c., arranged
in compartments of strong canvas bags. The Nepal officer (of
the rank of serjeant, I believe) always kept near me with one of his
men, rendering innumerable little services. Other sepoys were
distributed amongst the remainder of the party; one went ahead
to prepare camping-ground, and one brought up the rear.
The course generally pursued by Himalayan travellers is to
march early in the morning, and arrive at the camping-ground
before or by noon, breakfasting before starting, or en route. I
never followed this plan, because it sacrificed the mornings, which
were otherwise profitably spent in collecting about camp; whereas,
if I set off early, I was generally too tired with the day's march
to employ in any active pursuit the rest of the daylight, which in
November only lasted till 6 P.M. The men breakfasted early in
the morning, I somewhat later, and all had started by 10 A.M., ar-
riving between 4 and 6 P.M. at the next camping-ground. My
126
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
tent was formed of blankets, spread over cross-pieces of wood
and a ridge-pole, enclosing an area of 6 to 8 feet by 4 to 6 feet.
The bedstead, table, and chair were always made by my Lepchas,
as described in the Tonglo excursion. The evenings I employed
in writing up notes and journals, plotting maps, and ticketing the
plants collected during the day's march.
I left Darjeeling at noon, on the 27th October, accompanied
by Dr. Campbell, who saw me fairly off, the coolies having pre-
ceded me. Our direct route would have been over Tonglo, but
the threats of the Sikkim authorities rendered it advisable to
make for Nepal at once; we therefore kept west along the Goong
ridge, a western prolongation of Sinchul.
On overtaking the coolies, I proceeded for six or seven miles
along a zig-zag road, at about 7,500 feet elevation, through dense
forests, and halted at a little hut within sight of Darjeeling.
Rain and mist came on at nightfall, and though several parties of
my servants arrived, none of the Bhotan coolies made their ap-
pearance, and I spent the night without food or bed, the weather
being much too foggy and dark to send back to meet the missing
men. They joined me late on the following day, complaining
unreasonably of their loads, and without their Sirdar, who, after
starting his crew, had returned to take leave of his wife and family.
On the following day he appeared, and after due admonishment
we started, but four miles further on were again obliged to halt for
the Bhotan coolies, who were equally deaf to threats and entreaties.
As they did not come up till dusk, we were obliged to encamp
here (alt. 7,400 feet), at the common source of the Balasun,
which flows to the plains, and the Little Rungeet, whose course is
north.
The contrast between the conduct of the Bhotan men and that
of the Lepchas and Nepalese was so marked, that I seriously
debated in my own mind the propriety of sending the former
back to Darjeeling, but yielded to the remonstrances of their
Sirdar and the Nepal guard, who represented the great difficulty
we should have in replacing them, and above all, the loss of time,
at this season a matter of great importance. We accordingly
started again the following morning, and still keeping in a western
direction, crossed the posts in the forest dividing Sikkim from
Nepal, and descended into the Myong valley of the latter
country, through which flows the river of that name, a tributary of
the Tambur. The Myong valley is remarkably fine it runs
south-west from Tonglo, and its open character and general
fertility contrast strongly with the bareness of the lower mountain
NEPAL. MYONG VALLEY.
127
spurs which flank it, and with the dense, gloomy, steep, and
forest-clad gorges of Sikkim. At its lower end, about twenty
miles from the frontier, is the military fort of Ilam, a celebrated
stockaded post and cantonment of the Ghorkas: its position is
marked by a conspicuous conical hill. The inhabitants are chiefly
Brahmins, but there are also some Moormis, and a few Lepchas
who escaped from Sikkim during the general massacre in 1825.
Among these is a man who had formerly much influence in
Sikkim; he still retains his title of Kazee,' and has had large
lands assigned to him by the Nepalese Government: he sent the
usual present of a kid, fowls, and eggs, and begged me to express
to Dr. Campbell his desire to return to his native country, and
settle at Darjeeling.
The scenery of this valley is the most beautiful I know of in
the lower Himalaya, and the Cheer Pine (P. longifolia) is abun-
dant, cresting the hills, which are loosely clothed with clumps of
oaks and other trees, bamboos, and bracken (Pteris). The slopes
are covered with red clay, and separate little ravines luxuriantly
clothed with tropical vegetation, amongst which flow pebbly
streams of transparent cool water. The villages, which are
merely scattered collections of huts, are surrounded with fields of
rice, buckwheat, and Indian corn, which latter the natives were
now storing in little granaries, mounted on four posts, men,
women, and children being all equally busy. The quantity of
gigantic nettles (Urtica heterophylla) on the skirts of these maize
fields is quite wonderful: their long white stings look most
formidable, but though they sting virulently, the pain only lasts
half an hour or so. These, however, with leeches, mosquitos,
peepsas, and ticks, sometimes keep the traveller in a constant
state of irritation.
However civilised the Hindoo may be in comparison with the
Lepcha, he presents a far less attractive picture to the casual
observer; he comes to your camping-ground, sits down, and
stares with all his might, but offers no assistance; if he bring a
present at all, he expects a return on the spot, and goes on
begging till satisfied. I was amused by the cool way in which my
Ghorka guard treated the village lads, when they wanted help in
my service, taking them by the shoulder, pulling out their knives
for them, placing them in their hands, and setting them to cut
down a tree, or to chop firewood, which they seldom refused to
do, when a little such douce violence was applied.
This Mahometan title, by which the officers of state are known in Sikkim,
is there generally pronounced Kajee,
128
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
My object being to reach the Tambur, north of the great east
and west mountain ridge of Sakkiazung, without crossing the in-
numerable feeders of the Myong and their dividing spurs, we
ascended the north flank of the valley to a long spur from Tonglo,
intending to follow winding ridges of that mountain to the
sources of the Pemmi at the Phulloot mountains, and thence
descend.
On the 3rd November I encamped on the flank of Tonglo
(called Nanki in Nepal), at 9,300 feet, about 700 feet below the
western summit, which is rocky, and connected by a long flat
ridge with that which I had visited in the previous May. The
Bhotan coolies behaved worse than ever; their conduct being in
all respects typical of the turbulent, mulish race to which they
belong. They had been plundering my provisions as they went.
along, and neither their Sirdar nor the Ghorka soldiers had the
smallest authority over them. I had hired some Ghorka coolies
to assist and eventually to replace them, and had made up my
mind to send back the worst from the more populous banks of
the Tambur, when I was relieved by their making off of their
own accord. The dilemma was however awkward, as it was
impossible to procure men on the top of a mountain 10,000 feet
high, or to proceed towards Phulloot. No course remained but
to send to Darjeeling for others, or to return to the Myong valley,
and take a more circuitous route over the west end of Sakkia-
zung, which led through villages from which I could procure
coolies day by day. I preferred the latter plan, and sent one of
the soldiers to the nearest village for assistance to bring the
loads down, halting a day for that purpose.
From the summit of Tonglo I enjoyed the view I had so long
desired of the Snowy Himalaya, from north-east to north-west ;
Sikkim being on the right, Nepal on the left, and the plains of
India to the southward; and I procured a set of compass
bearings, of the greatest use in mapping the country. In the
early morning the transparency of the atmosphere renders this.
view one of astonishing grandeur. Kinchinjunga bore nearly
due north, a dazzling mass of snowy peaks, intersected by blue
glaciers, which gleamed in the slanting rays of the rising sun,
like aquamarines set in frosted silver. From this the sweep of
snowed mountains to the eastward was almost continuous as far
as Chola (bearing east-north-east), following a curve of 150 miles,
and enclosing the whole of the northern part of Sikkim, which
appeared a billowy mass of forest-clad mountains. On the north-
east horizon rose the Donkia mountain (23,176 feet), and
!
MOUNTS CHUMULARI AND EVEREST.
129
Chumulari (23,929). Though both were much more distant
than the snowy ranges, being respectively eighty and ninety
miles off, they reared their gigantic heads higher, seeming what
they really were, by far the loftiest peaks next to Kinchin-
junga; and the perspective of snow is so deceptive, that though
40 to 60 miles beyond, they appeared as though almost in the
same line with the ridges they overtopped.
Of these mountains, Chumulari presents many attractions to the
geographer, from its long disputed position, its sacred character,
and the interest attached to it since Turner's mission to Tibet in
1783. It was seen and recognised by Dr. Campbell, and measured
by Colonel Waugh, from Sinchul, and also from Tonglo, and
was a conspicuous object in my subsequent journey to Tibet.
Beyond Junnoo, one of the western peaks of Kinchinjunga,
no continuous snowy chain was visible; the Himalaya seemed
suddenly to decline into black and rugged peaks, till in the
far north-west it rose again in a white mountain mass of
stupendous elevation at 80 miles distance, called, by my Nepal
people, "Tsungau." From the bearings I took of it from
several positions, it is in about lat. 27° 49' and long. 86° 24', and
is probably on the west flank of the Arun valley and river, which
latter, in its course from Tibet to the plains of India, receives the
waters from the west flank of Kinchinjunga, and from the east
flank of the mountain in question. It is perhaps one which has
been seen and measured from the Tirhoot district by some of
Colonel Waugh's party, and which has been reported to be upwards
of 28,000 feet in elevation; and it is the only mountain of the first
class in magnitude between Gosainthan (north-east of Katmandoo)
and Kinchinjunga.
I
To the west, the black ridge of Sakkiazung, bristling with
pines (Abies Webbiana), cut off the view of Nepal; but south-
west, the Myong valley could be traced to its junction with the
Tambur about thirty miles off: beyond which to the south-west
and south, low hills belonging to the outer ranges of Nepal rose
on thè distant horizon, seventy or eighty miles off; and of these
the most conspicuous were the Mahavarati which skirt the Nepal
Terai. South and south-east, Sinchul and the Goong range of
Sikkim intercepted the view of the plains of India, of which I had
a distant peep to the south-west only.
This is probably the easternmost and loftiest peak seen from Katmandoo,
distant 78 miles, and estimated elevation 20,117 feet by Col. Crawford's obser-
vations. [P.S.Tsungau is now better known as Mount Everest, the loftiest
summit on the globe, 29,002 feet Its position is Lat. 28° N., Long. 87° E.
It cannot be seen from Katmandoo.]
ΙΟ
130
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
The west top of Tonglo is very open and grassy, with occasional
masses of gneiss of enormous size, but probably not in situ. The
whole of this flank, and for 1,000 feet down the spur to the south-
west, had been cleared by fire for pasturage, where flocks of black-
faced sheep were grazing. During my stay on the mountain,
except in the early mountain, the weather was bleak, gloomy, and
very cold, with a high south-west wind. The mean temperature
was 41°, entremes 5302: the nights were very clear, with sharp
hoar-frost; the radiating thermometer sank to 21°, the tempera-
ture at 3 feet depth was 51°5.
A few of the Bhotan coolies having voluntarily returned, I left
Tonglo on the 5th, and descended its west flank to the Mai, a
feeder of the Myong. The descent was as abrupt as that on the
east face, but through less dense forest; the Sikkim side (that
facing the east) being much the dampest. I encamped at dark
by a small village (Jummanoo), at 4,360 feet, having descended
5,000 feet in five hours. Hence we marched eastward to the village
of Sakkiazung, which we reached on the third day, crossing en route
several spurs 4,000 to 6,000 feet high, from the same ridge, and
as many rivers, which all fall into the Myong, and whose beds are
elevated from 2,500 to 3,000 feet.
I
Though rich and fertile, the country is scantily populated, and
coolies were procured with difficulty: I therefore sent back to
Darjeeling all but absolute indispensables, and on the 9th of
November started up the ridge in a northerly direction, taking
the road from Ilam to Wallanchoon. The ascent was gradual,
through a fine forest, full of horn-bills (Buceros), a bird resembling
the Toucan ("Dhunass" Lepcha). At 7,000 feet an oak (Quercus
semecarpifolia), "Khasrou" of the Nepalese, commences, a tree
which is common as far west as Kashmir, but which I never
found in Sikkim, though it appears again in Bhotan. It forms a
broad-headed tree, and has a very handsome appearance; its
favourite locality is on grassy open shoulders of the mountains.
It was accompanied by an Astragalus, Geranium, and several
other plants of the drier interior parts of Sikkim. Water is very
scarce along the ridge; we walked fully eight miles without
finding any, and were at length obliged to camp at 8,350 feet
by the only spring that we should be able to reach. With
respect to drought, this ridge differs materially from Sikkim,
where water abounds at all elevations; and the cause is obviously
its position to the westward of the great ridge of Singalelah
This oak ascends in the N. W. Himalaya to the highest limit of forest
(12,000 feet). No oak in Sikkim attains a greater elevation than 10,000.
SUNSET ON SAKKIÄZUNG.
131
(including Tonglo) by which the S.W, currents are drained of
their moisture. Here again, the east flank was much the dampest
and most luxuriantly wooded.
While my men encamped on a very
narrow ridge, I
ascended a rocky summit, composed of great blocks of gneiss,
from which I obtained a superb view to the westward. Im-
mediately below a fearfully sudden descent, ran the Daomy
River, bounded on the opposite side by another parallel ridge
of Sakkiazung, enclosing, with that on which I stood, a gulf from
6,000 to 7,000 feet deep, of wooded ridges, which, as it were,
radiated outwards as they ascended upwards in rocky spurs to
the pine clad peaks around. To the south-west, in the extreme
distance, were the boundless plains of India, upwards of 100 miles
off, with the Cosi meandering through them like a silver thread.
The firmament appeared of a pale steel blue, and a broad low
arch spanned the horizon, bounded by a line of little fleecy
clouds (moutons); below this the sky was of a golden yellow,
while in successively deeper strata, many belts or ribbons of
vapour appeared to press upon the plains, the lowest of which
was of a dark leaden hue, the upper more purple, and vanishing
into the pale yellow above. Though well defined, there was no
abrupt division between the belts, and the lowest mingled
imperceptibly with the hazy horizon. Gradually the golden lines
grew dim, and the blues and purples gained depth of colour; till
the sun set behind the dark-blue peaked mountains in a flood of
crimson and purple, sending broad beams of grey shade and
purple light up to the zenith, and all around. As evening
advanced, a sudden chill succeeded, and mists rapidly formed
immediately below me in little isolated clouds, which coalesced
and spread out like a heaving and rolling sea, leaving nothing
above its surface but the ridges and spurs of the adjacent moun-
tains. These rose like capes, promontories, and islands, of the
darkest leaden hue, bristling with pines, and advancing boldly into
the snowy white ocean, or starting from its bed in the strongest
relief. As darkness came on, and the stars arose, alight fog
gathered round me, and I quitted with reluctance one of the
most impressive and magic scenes I ever beheld.
Returning to my tent, I was interested in observing how well
my followers had accommodated themselves to their narrow
circumstances. Their fires gleamed everywhere among the trees,
and the people, broken up into groups of five, presented an
interesting picture of native, savage, and half-civilised life. I
wandered amongst them in the darkness, and watched unseen
+
132
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
their operations; some were cooking, with their rude bronzed
faces lighted up by the ruddy glow, as they peered into the pot,
stirring the boiling rice with one hand, while with the other they
held back their long tangled hair. Others were bringing water
from the spring below, some gathering sprigs-of fragrant Artemisia
and other shrubs to form couches-some lopping branches of
larger trees to screen them from nocturnal radiation; their only
protection from the dew being such branches stuck in the ground,
and slanting over their procumbent forms. The Bhotanese were
rude and boisterous in their pursuits, constantly complaining to
the Sirdars, and wrangling over their meals. The Ghorkas were
sprightly, combing their raven hair, telling interminably long
stories, of which money was the bnrthen, or singing Hindoo
song through their noses in chorus; and being neater and better
dressed, and having a servant to cook their food, they seemed
quite the gentlemen of the party. Still the Lepcha was the most
attractive, the least restrained, and the most natural in all his
actions, the simplest in his wants and appliances, with a bamboo
as his water-jug, an earthen pot as his kettle, and all manner of
herbs collected during the day's march to flavour his food.
My tent was made of a blanket thrown over the limb of a tree;
to this others were attached, and the whole was supported on a
frame like a house. One half was occupied by my bedstead,
beneath which was stowed my box of clothes, while my books and
writing materials were placed under the table. The barometer
hung in the most out-of-the-way corner, and my other instruments
all around. A small candle was burning in a glass shade, to
keep the draught and insects from the light, and I had the
comfort of seeing the knife, fork, and spoon laid on a white
napkin, as I entered my snug little house, and flung myself on
the elastic couch to ruminate on the proceedings of the day,
and speculate on those of the morrow, while waiting for my
meal, which usually consisted of stewed meat and rice, with
biscuits and tea. My thermometers (wet and dry bulb, and
minimum) hung under a temporary canopy made of thickly
plaited bamboo and leaves close to the tent, and the cooking was
performed by my servant under a tree.
After dinner my occupations were to ticket and put away the
plants collected during the day, write up journals, plot maps, and
take observations till 10 P.M. As soon as I was in bed, one of
the Nepal soldiers was accustomed to enter, spread his blanket
on the ground, and sleep there as my guard. In the morning
the collectors were sent to change the plant-papers, while I
ہے
•
TAMBUR VALLEY.
133
explored the neighbourhood, and having taken observations and
breakfasted, all were ready to start at 10 A.M.
Following the same ridge, after a few miles of ascent over
much broken gneiss rock, the Ghorkas led me aside to the top of
a knoll, 9,300 feet high, covered with stunted bushes, and com-
manding a splendid view to the west, of the broad, low, well
cultivated valley of the Tambur, and the extensive town of
Dunkotah on its banks, about twenty-five miles off; the capital of
this part of Nepal, and famous for its manufactory of paper of the
Daphne. Hence too I gained a fine view of the plains of India,
including the course of the Cosi river, which, receiving the Arun
and Tambur, debouches into the Ganges opposite Colgong (see ·
p. 66).
A little further on we crossed the main ridge of Sakkiazung,
a long flexuous chain stretching for miles to the westward from
Phulloot on Singalelah, and forming the most elevated and con-
spicuous transverse range in this part of Nepal: its streams flow
south to the Myong, and north to feeders of the Tambur. Silver
firs (Abies Webbiana) are found on all the summits; but to my
regret none occurred in our path, which led just below their limit
(10,000 feet), on the southern Himalayan ranges. There were,
however, a few yews, exactly like the English. The view that
opened on cresting this range was again magnificent, of Kinchin-
junga, the western snows of Nepal, and the valley of the Tambur
winding amongst wooded and cultivated hills to a long line of
black-peaked, rugged mountains, sparingly snowed, which inter-
vene between Kinchinjunga and the great Nepal mountain before
mentioned. The extremely varied colouring on the infinite
number of hill-slopes that everywhere intersected the Tambur valley
was very pleasing. For fully forty miles to the northward there
were no lofty forest-clad mountains, nor any apparently above
4,000 to 5,000 feet: villages and hamlets appeared everywhere,
wite crops of golden mustard and purple buckwheat in full
flower; yellow rice and maize, green hemp, pulse, radishes, and
barley, and brown millet. Here and there deep groves of
oranges, the broad-leafed banana, and sugar-cane, skirted the
bottoms of the valleys, through which the streams were occa-
sionally seen, rushing in white foam over their rocky beds. It
was a goodly sight to one who had for his only standard of
comparison the view from Sinchul, of the gloomy forest-clad
ranges of 6,000 to 10,000 feet, that intervene between that
mountain and the snowy girdle of Sikkim; though I question
whether a traveller from more favoured climes would see more in
134
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
this, than a thinly inhabited country, with irregular patches of
poor cultivation, a vast amount of ragged forest on low hills of
rather uniform height and contour, relieved by a dismal back-
ground of frowning black mountains, sprinkled with snow!
Kinchinjunga was again the most prominent object to the north-
east, with its sister peaks of Kubra (24,005 feet), and Junnoo
(25,312 feet). All these presented bare cliffs for several thousand
feet below their summits, composed of white rock with a faint
pink tint on the other hand the lofty Nepal mountain in the
far west presented cliffs of black rocks. From the summit two
routes to the Tambur presented themselves; one, the main road,
led west and south along the ridge, and then turned north,
descending to the river; the other was shorter, leading abruptly
down to the Pemmi river, and thence along its banks, west to the
Tambur. I chose the latter.
K
The descent was very abrupt on the first day, from 9,500 feet
to 5,000 feet, and on that following to the bed of the Pemmi, at
2,000 feet; and the road was infamously bad, generally consisting
of a narrow, winding, rocky path among tangled shrubs and large
boulders, brambles, nettles, and thorny bushes, often in the bed.
of the torrent, or crossing spurs covered with forest, round whose
bases it flowed. A little cultivation was occasionally met with on
the narrow flat pebbly terraces which fringed the stream, usually
of rice, and sometimes of the small-leaved variety of hemp
(Cannabis), grown as a narcotic.
The rocks above 5,000 feet were gneiss; below this, cliffs of
very micaceous schist were met with, having a north-west strike,
and being often vertical; the boulders again were always of
gneiss. The streams seemed rather to occupy faults, than to
have eroded courses for themselves; their beds were invariably
rocky or pebbly, and the waters white and muddy from the
quantity of alumina. In one little rocky dell the water gushed
through a hole in a soft stratum in the gneiss; a trifling circum-
stance which was not lost upon the crafty Brahmins, who had cut
a series of regular holes for the water, ornamented the rocks with
red paint, and a row of little iron tridents of Siva, and dedicated
the whole to Mahadeo.
#
In some spots the vegetation was exceedingly fine, and several
large trees occurred: I measured a Toon (Cedrela) thirty feet in
girth at five feet above the ground. The skirts of the forest were
adorned with numerous jungle flowers, rice crops, blue Acan-
thacea and Pavetta, wild cherry-trees covered with scarlet
blossoms, and trees of the purple and lilac Bauhinia; while
TAMBUR river.
135
Thunbergia, Convolvulus, and other climbers, hung in graceful
festoons from the boughs, and on the dry inicaceous rocks the
Luculia gratissima, one of our green-house-ornaments, grew in pro-
fusion, its gorgeous heads of rose-coloured biossoms scenting the air.
At the junction of the Pemmi and Khawa rivers, there are
high rocks of mica-slate, and broad river-terraces of stratified
sand and pebbles, apparently alternating with deposits of shingle.
On this hot, open expanse, elevated 2,250 feet, appeared many
trees and plants of the Terai and plains, as pomegranate, pcepul,
and sal; with extensive fields of cotton, indigo, and irrigated
rice.
We followed the north bank of the Khawa, which runs
westerly through a gorge, between high cliffs of chlorite, contain-
ing thick beds of stratified quartz. At the angles of the river
broad terraces are formed, fifteen to thirty feet above its bed,
similar to those just mentioned, and planted with rows of Acacia
Serissa, or laid out in rice fields, or sugar plantations.
I reached the east bank of the Tambur, on the 13th of
November, at its junction with the Khawa, in a deep gorge. It
formed a grand stream, larger than the Teesta, of a pale, sea-
green, muddy colour, and flowed rapidly with a strong ripple, but
no foam; it rises six feet in the rains, but ice never descends
nearly so low; its breadth was sixty to eighty yards, its tempera-
ture 55° to 58°. The breadth of the foaming Khawa was twelve
to fifteen yards, and its temperature 56. The surrounding
vegetation was entirely tropical, consisting of scrubby sal trees,
acacia, Grislea, Emblica, Hibiscus, &c.; the elevation being but
1,300 feet, though the spot was twenty-five miles in a straight line
from the plains. I camped at the fork of the rivers, on a fine
terrace fifty feet above the water, about seventy yards long, and
one hundred broad, quite flat-topped, and composed of shingle,
gravel, &c., with enormous boulders of gneiss, quartz, and horn-
stone, much water-worn; it was girt by another broken terrace,
twelve feet or so above the water, and covered with long grass
and bushes.
The main road from Ilam to Wallanchoon, which I quitted on
Sakkiazung, descends steeply on the opposite bank of the river,
which I crossed in a canoe formed of a hollow trunk (of Toon),
thirty feet long. There is considerable traffic along this road;
and I was visited by numbers of natives, all Hindoos, who coolly
squatted before my tent-door, and stared with their large black,
vacant, lustrous eyes; they appear singularly indolent, and great
beggars,
136
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
The land seems highly favoured by nature, and the population,
though so scattered, is in reality considerable, the varied elevation.
giving a large surface; but the natives care for no more than will
satisfy their immediate wants. The river swarms with fish, but
they are too lazy to catch them, and they have seldom anything
better to give or sell than sticks of sugar-cane, which when
peeled form a refreshing morsel in these scorching marches. They
have few and poor oranges, citrons, and lemons, very bad plan-
tains, and but little else;-eggs, fowls, and milk are all scarce.
Horned cattle are of course never killed by Hindoos, and it was
but seldom that I could replenish my larder with a kid. Potatos
are unknown, but my Sepoys often brought me large coarse
radishes and legumes.
From the junction of the rivers the road led up the Tambur to
Mywa Guola; about sixteen miles by the river, but fully thirty-
five, as we wound, ascended, and descended, during three days'
marches. We were ferried across the stream in a canoe much
ruder than that of the New Zealander. I watched my party
crossing by boat-loads of fifteen each; the Bhotan men hung
little scraps of rags on the bushes before embarking,—the votive
offerings of a Booddhist throughout central Asia ;-the Lepcha,
less civilised, scooped up a little water in the palm of his hand,
and scattered it about, invoking the river god of his simple
creed.
We always encamped upon gravelly terraces a few feet above
the river, which flows in a deep gorge; its banks are very steep
for 600 feet above the stream, though the mountains which flank
it do not exceed 4,000 to 5,000 feet: this is a constant pheno-
menon in the Himalaya, and the roads, when low and within a
few hundred feet of the river, are in consequence excessively
steep and difficult; it would have been impossible to have taken
ponies along that we followed, which was often not a foot broad,
running along very steep cliffs, at a dizzy height above the river,
and engineered with much trouble and ingenuity: often the bank
was abandoned altogether, and we ascended several thousand
feet to descend again. Owing to the steepness of these banks,
and the reflected heat, the valley, even at this season, was ex-
cessively hot and close during the day, even when the temperature
was below 70°, and tempered by a brisk breeze which rushes
upwards from sunrise to sunset. The sun at this season does
not, in many places, reach the bottom of these valleys until
10 A.M., and is off again by 3 P.M.; and the radiation to a clear
sky is so powerful that dew frequently forms in the shade,

AN
W
TAMBUR RIVER AND VALLEY (EAST NEPAL) FROM CHINGTAM (ELEVATION 5,000 FT.)
LOOKING NORTH.
TAMBUR VALLEY. MYWA GUOLA.
137
throughout the day, and it is common at 10 A.M. to find the
thermometer sink from 70° in a sheltered spot, dried by the sun,
to 40° in the shade close by, where the sun has not yet pene-
trated. Snow never falls.
The rocks throughout this part of the river-course are mica-
schists (strike north-west, dip south-west 70°, but very variable in
inclination and direction); they are dry and grassy, and the
vegetation wholly tropical, as is the entomology, which consists
chiefly of large butterflies, Mantis and Diptera. Snowy roun-
tains are rarely seen, and the beauty of the scenery is confined to
the wooded banks of the main stream, which flows at an average
inclination of fifty feet to the mile. Otters are found in the
stream, and my party shot two, but could not procure
them.
*
In one place the road ascended for 2,000 feet above the river,
to the village of Chingtam, situated on a lofty spur of the west
bank, whence I obtained a grand view of the upper course of the
river, flowing in a tremendous chasm, flanked by well-cultivated
hills, and emerging fifteen miles to the northward, from black
mountains of savage grandeur, whose rugged, precipitous faces
were streaked with snow, and the tops of the lower ones crowned
with the tabular-branched silver-fir, contrasting strongly with the
tropical luxuriance around. Chingtam is an extensive village,
covering an area of two miles, and surrounded with abundant
cultivation; the houses, which are built in clusters, are of wood,
or wattle and mud, with grass thatch. The villagers, though an
indolent, staring race, are quiet and respectable; the men are
handsome, the women, though less so, often good-looking. They
have fine cattle, and excellent crops.
Immediately above Chingtam, the Tambur is joined by a large
affluent from the west, the Mywa, which is crossed by an excellent
iron bridge, formed of loops hanging from two parallel chains,
along which is laid a plank of sal timber. Passing through the
village, we camped on a broad terrace, from sixty to seventy feet
above the junction of the rivers, whose beds are 2,100 feet above
the sea.
Mywa Guola (or bazaar) is a large village and mart, frequented
by Nepalese and Tibetans, who bring salt, wool, gold, musk, and
blankets, to exchange for rice, coral, and other commodities and
a custom-house officer is stationed there, with a few soldiers.
The houses are of wood, and well built: the public ones are
large, with verandahs, and galleries of carved wood; the work-
manship is of Chinese character, and inferior to that of
138
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Katmandoo; but in the same style, and quite unlike anything I
had previously seen.
The river-terrace is in all respects similar to that at the junc-
tion of the Tambur and Khawa, but very extensive: the stones
it contained were of all sizes, from a nut to huge boulders
upwards of fifteen feet long, of which many strewed the surface,
while others were in the bed of the river: all were of gneiss,
quartz, and granite, and had doubtless been transported from
great elevations, as the rocks in situ-both here and for several
thousand feet higher up the river-were micaceous schists,
dipping in various directions, and at all angles, with, however, a
general strike to the north-west.
I was here overtaken by a messenger with letters from Dr.
Campbell, announcing that the Sikkim Rajah had disavowed the
refusal to the Governor-General's letter, and authorising me to
return through any part of Sikkim I thought proper. The bearer
was a Lepcha attached to the court: his dress was that of a
superior person, bearing a scarlet jacket over a white cotton dress,
the breadth of the blue stripes of which generally denotes wealth:
he was accompanied by a sort of attaché, who wore a magnificent
pearl and gold ear-ring, and carried his master's bow, as well as a
basket on his back; while an attendant coolie bore their utensils
and food. Meepo, or Teshoo (in Tibetan, Mr.), Meepo, as he
was usually called, soon attached himself to me, and proved an
active, useful, and intelligent companion, guide, and often collec-
tor, during many months afterwards.
The vegetation round Mywa Guola is still thoroughly tropical :
the banyan is planted, and thrives tolerably, the heat being great
during the day. Like the whole of the Tambur valley below
4,000 feet, and especially on these flats, the climate is very
malarious before and after the rains; and I was repeatedly
applied to by natives suffering under attacks of fever. During
the two days I halted, the mean temperature was 60° (extremes
800), that of the Tambur, 53°, and of the Mywa, 56°; each
varying a few degrees (the smaller stream the most) between
sunrise and 4 P.M.: the sunk thermometer was 72°.
1
As we should not easily be able to procure food further on, I
laid in a full stock here, and distributed blankets, &c., sufficient
for temporary use for all the people, dividing them into groups or
messes.
Takový
TAMBUR river.
139
CHAPTER IX.
Leave Mywa-Suspension bridge-Landslips-Vegetation-Slope of river-bed
-Bees' nests-Glacial phenomena-Tibetans, clothing, ornaments, amu-
lets, salutation, children, dogs-Last Limboo village, Taptiatok-Beautiful
scenery-Tibet village of Lelyp-Opuntia-Edgeworthia-Crab-apple-
Chameleon and porcupine - Praying machine Abies Brunoniana
European plants-Grand scenery Arrive at Wallanchoon - Scenery
around--Trees-Tibet houses-Manis and Mendongs--Tibet household
-Food-Tea-soup-Hospitality-Yaks and Zobo, uses and habits of-
Bhoteeas-Yak-hair tents--Guobal of Walloong-Jhatamansi-Obstacles
to proceeding-Climate and weather-Proceed-Rhododendrons, &c.-
Lichens-Poa annua and Shepherd's purse-Tibet camp-Tuquoroma-
Scenery of pass-Glaciers and snow-
-Glaciers and snow- Summit-Plants, wooly, &c.
A g
Madag
ON the 18th November, we left Mywa Guola, and continued
up the river to the village of Wallanchoon or Walloong, which
was reached in six marches. The snowy peak of Junnoo (alt.
25,312 feet) forms a magnificent feature from this point, seen up
the narrow gorge of the river, bearing N.N.E. about thirty miles.
I crossed the Mewa, an affluent from the north, by another
excellent suspension bridge. In these bridges, the principal
chains are clamped to rocks on either shore, and the suspended
loops occur at intervals of eight to ten feet; the single sal-
plank laid on these loops swings terrifically, and the handrails not
being four feet high, the sense of insecurity is very great.
were
The Wallanchoon road follows the west bank, but the bridge
above having been carried away, we crossed by a plank, and
proceeded along very steep banks of decomposed chlorite schist,
much contorted, and very soapy, affording an insecure footing,
especially where great landslips had occurred, which
numerous, exposing acres of a reddish and white soil of felspathic
clay, sloping at an angle of 30°. Where the angle was less than
15°, rice was cultivated, and partially irrigated. The lateral
streams (of a muddy opal green) had cut beds 200 feet deep
in the soft earth, and were very troublesome to cross, from the
crumbling cliffs on either side, and their broad swampy channels.
Five or six miles above Mywa, the valley contracts much, and
the Tambur (whose bed is elevated about 3,000 feet) becomes a
turbulent river, shooting along its course with immense velocity,
torn into foam as it lashes the spurs of rock that flank it, and the
enormous boulders with which its bed is strewn.¹ From this
In some places torrents of stone were carried down by landslips, obstruct-
ing the rivers; when in the beds of streams, they were often cemented by
felspathic clay into a hard breccia of angular quartz, gneiss, and felspar
nodules,
140
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
elevation to 9,000 feet, its sinuous track extends about thirty
miles, which gives the mean fall of 200 feet to the mile, quadruple
of what it is for the lower part of its course. So long as its bed is
below 5,000 feet, a tropical vegetation prevails in the gorge and
along the terraces, consisting of tall bamboo, Bauhinia, Acacia,
Melastoma, &c. ; but the steep mountain sides above are either
bare and grassy, or cliffs with scattered shrubs and trees, and
their summits are of splintered slaty gneiss, bristling with pines :
those faces exposed to the south and east are invariably the driest
and most grassy, while the opposite are well wooded. Rhododen-
dron arboreum becomes plentiful at 5,000 to 6,000 feet, forming a
large tree on dry clayey slopes; it is accompanied by Indigofera,
Andromeda, Spiræa, shrubby Composite, and very many plants
absent at similar elevations on the wet outer Darjeeling
ranges.
In the contracted parts of the valley, the mountains often dip
to the river-bed, in precipices of gneiss, under the ledges of which
wild bees build pendulous nests, looking like huge bats suspended
by their wings; they are two or three feet long, and as broad at
the top, whence they taper downwards: the honey is much sought
for, except in spring, when it is said to be poisoned by Rhodo-
dendron flowers, just as that, eaten by the soldiers in the retreat
of the Ten Thousand, was by the flowers of the R. ponticum.
I
Above these gorges are enormous accumulations of rocks,
especially at the confluence of lateral valleys, where they rest
upon little flats, like the river-terraces of Mywa, but wholly
formed of angular shingle, flanked with beds of river-formed
gravel some of these boulders were thirty or forty yards across,
and split as if they had fallen from a height; the path passing
between the fragments. At first I imagined that they had been
precipitated from the mountains around; and I referred the
shingle to landshoots, which during the rains descend several
thousand feet in devastating avalanches, damming up the rivers,
and destroying houses, cattle, and cultivation; but though I still
refer the materials of many such terraces to this cause, I consider
those at the mouths of valleys to be due to ancient glacial action,
especially when laden with such enormous blocks as are probably
ice-transported.
The split fragments I was wholly unable to account for, till my attention
was directed by Mr. Darwin to the observations of Charpentier and Agassiz,
who refer similar ones met with in the Alps to rocks which have fallen
through crevasses in glaciers. See "Darwin on Glaciers and Transported
Boulders in North Wales.' London, "Phil. Mag.” xxi. p. 180,
TIBETANS. DRESSES. ORNAMENTS.
141
A change in the population accompanies that in the natural
features of the country, Tibetans replacing the Limboos and
Khass-tribes of Nepal, who inhabit the lower region. We daily
passed parties of ten or a dozen Tibetans, on their way to Mywa
Guola, laden with salt; several families of these wild, black, and
uncouth-looking people generally travelling together. The men
are middle-sized, often tall, very square-built and muscular; they
have no beard, moustache, or whiskers, the few hairs on their
faces being carefully removed with tweezers. They are dressed
in loose blanket robes, girt about the waist with a leather belt, in
which they place their iron or brass pipes, and from which they
suspend their long knives, chopsticks, tobacco-pouch, tweezers,
tinder-box, &c. The robe, boots, and cap are grey, or striped
with bright colours, and they wear skull-caps, and the hair plaited
into a pig-tail.
The women are dressed in long flannel petticoats and spencer,
over which is thrown a sleeveless, short striped cloak, drawn
round the waist by a girdle of broad brass or silver links, to which
hang their knives, scissors, needle-cases, &c., and with which they
often strap their children to their backs; the hair is plaited in two
tails, and the neck loaded with strings of coral and glass beads,
and great lumps of amber, glass, and agate. Both sexes wear
silver rings and ear-rings, set with turquoises, and square amulets
upon their necks and arms, which are boxes of gold or silver,
containing small idols, or the nail-parings, teeth, or other reliques
of some sainted Lama, accompanied with musk, written prayers,
and other charms. All are good- humoured and amiable-looking
people, very square and Mongolian in countenance, with broad
mouths, high cheek-bones, narrow, upturned eyes, broad, flat
noses, and low foreheads. White is their natural colour, and
rosy cheeks are common amongst the younger women and
children, but all are begrimed with filth and smoke; added to
which, they become so weather-worn from exposure to the most
rigorous climate in the world, that their natural hues are rarely to
be recognised. Their customary mode of saluting one another is
to loll out the tongue, grin, nod, and scratch their ear; but this
method entails so much ridicule in the low countries, that they
do not practise it to Nepalese or strangers; most of them when
meeting me, on the contrary, raised their hands to their eyes,
threw themselves on the ground, and kotowed most decorously,
bumping their foreheads three times on the ground; even the
women did this on several occasions. On rising, they begged for
a bucksheesh, which I gave in tobacco or snuff, of which they

142
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
are immoderately fond. Both men and women constantly spin
wool as they travel.
These motley groups of Tibetans are singularly picturesque,
from the variety in their parti-coloured dresses, and their odd
appearance. First comes a middle-aged man or woman, driving,
a little silky black yak, grunting under his load of 260 lb. of salt,
besides pots, pans, and kettles, stools, churn, 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
TIBET MASTIFF.
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 perfectly 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.
BHOTEÀ VILLAGE.
143
The last village of the Limboos, Taptiatok, is large, and occupies
a remarkable amphitheatre, apparently 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 strik-
ing: the mountains rose bare and steep, the west flank terminating
in shivered masses of rock, while that on the right was more
undulating, dry, and grassy: the surface was a flat gravel-bed,
through which meandered the rippling stream, fringed with alder.
It was a beautiful spot, the clear, cool, murmuring river, with its
rapids and shallows, forcibly reminding me of trout-streams in the
highlands of Scotland.
Beyond Taptiatok we again crossed the river, and ascended
over dry, grassy, or rocky spurs to Lelyp, the first Bhoteea
village; it stands on a hill fully 1,000 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 Kinchinjunga. There were about fifty houses in the
village, of wood and thatch, neatly fenced in with wattle, the
ground between being carefully cultivated with radishes, buck-
wheat, wheat, and millet. I was surprised to find in one enclo-
sure a fine healthy plant of Opuntia, in flower, at this latitude
and elevation. A Lama, who is the head man of the place, came
out to greet us, with his family and a whole troop of villagers;
they were the same class of people as I have elsewhere described
as Cis-nivean Tibetans, or Bhoteeas; none had ever before seen
an Englishman, and I fear they formed no flattering opinion from
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.
Eleagnus was common here, with Edgeworthia Gardneri,¹ 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 by Limboos, 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 6,000 to 7,000 feet, plants of the temperate
regions blend with the tropical; such as rhododendron, oak, ivy,
A plant allied to Daphne, from whose bark the Nepal paper is manu-
factured. It was named after the eminent Indian botanist, brother of the late
Miss Edgeworth.
·
£44
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
geranium, berberry, clematis, and shrubby Vaccinia, which all
made their appearance at Loongtoong, another Bhoteea 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, and was terminated by a wheel.
Above this the road followed the west bank of the river; the
latter was a furious torrent, flowing through a gorge, fringed with
a sombre vegetation, damp, and dripping with moisture, and
covered with long Usnea and pendulous mosses.
The road was
very rocky and difficult, sometimes leading along bluff faces of
cliffs by wooden steps and single rotten planks. At 8,000 feet I
met with pines, whose trunks I had seen strewing the river for
some miles lower down: the first that occurred was Abies Bruno-
niana, a beautiful species, which forms a stately blunt pyramid,
with branches spreading like the cedar, but not so stiff, and
drooping gracefully on all sides. It is unknown on the outer
ranges of Sikkim, and in the interior occupies a belt about 1,000
feet lower than the silver fir (A. Webbiana). Many sub-alpine
plants occur here, as Leycesteria, Thalictrum, rose, thistles, alder,
birch, ferns, berberry, holly, anemone, strawberry, raspberry,
Gnaphalium, 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, termina-
ting 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.
The rivers here are often fringed by flats of shingle, on which
grow magnificent yews and pines; some of the latter were from
from 120 to 150 feet high, and had been blown down, owing to
their scanty hold on the soil. I measured one, Abies Brunoniana,
twenty feet in girth. Many alpine rhododendrons occur at 9,000

TAMBUR RIVER AT THE LOWER LIMIT OF PINES.

145
feet, with Astragalus and creeping Tamarisk. Three miles below
Wallanchoon the river forks, being met by the Yangma from the
north-east; they are impetuous torrents of about equal volume;
the Tambur especially (here called the Walloong) is often broken
into cascades, and cuts a deep gorge-like channel.
WALLANCHOON.
WALLANCHOON VILLAGE.
I arrived at the village of Wallanchoon on the 23rd of Novem-
ber. It is elevated 10,385 feet, and situated in a fine open part
of the Tambur valley, differing from any part lower down in all
its natural features, being broad, with a rapid but not turbulent
I I
146
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
stream, very grassy, and both the base and the sides of the flanking
mountains covered with luxuriant dense bushes of rhododendron,
rose, berberry, and juniper. Red-legged crows, hawks, wild
pigeons, and finches, abounded. There was but little snow on
the 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 is rendered the more so from the comparatively
few trees; for though the silver fir and juniper are both abundant
higher up the valley, they have been felled here for building
materials, fuel, and export to Tibet. From the naked limbs and
tall gaunt black trunks of those that remain, stringy masses of
bleached lichen (Usnea) many feet long, stream in the wind.
Both men and women seem fond of decorating their hair with
wreaths of this lichen, which they dye yellow with leaves of
Symplocos.
The village is very large, and occupies a flat on the east bank
of the river, covered with huge boulders; the ascent to it is
extremely steep, probably over an ancient moraine, though I did
not recognise it as such at the time. Cresting this, the valley at
once opens, and I was almost startled with the sudden change
from a gloomy gorge to a broad 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 a swarm 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; while the hill-sides around were thickly studded with
bushes of deep green rhododendron, scarlet berberry, and with-
ered yellow rose. The village contained about one hundred
houses, irregularly crowded together, from twenty to forty feet
high, and forty to eighty feet long; each accommodating several
families. All were built of upright strong pine-planks, the
interstices of which were filled with yak-dung; and they some-
times rest 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,
147
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 infinilum.
A Tibetan household is very slovenly; the family live
higgledy-piggeldy 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 tea-pot are earthen and copper; and
these, with the bamboo churn for the brick tea, some wooden
and metal spoons, bowls, and platters, comprise all the kitchen
utensils.
WALLANCHOON.
Every one carries in the breast of his robe a little wooden cup
for daily use; neatly turned from the knotted roots of maple (see
P. 90). The Tibetan chiefly consumes barley, wheat, or buck-
wheat meal-the latter is 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 scalding hot into each pot, 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 inferior 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 Wallanchoon :
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 pinewood slung in pairs along either flank. Their cars
are generally pierced, and ornamented with a tuft of scarlet
worsted; they have large and beautiful eyes, spreading horns,
long silky black hair, and grand bushy tails: black is their pre-
vailing colour, but red, dun, parti-coloured, and white are common.
In winter, the flocks graze below 8,000 feet, on account of the
148
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
great quantity of snow above that height; in summer they find
pasturage as high as 17,000 feet, consisting of grass and small
tufted Carices, on which they browse with avidity.
The zobo, or cross between the yak and hill cow (much resem-
bling 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, eaten either fresh or dried, or
powdered into a kind of meal. The hair iş spun into ropes, and
woven into a covering for their tents, which is quite pervious to
wind and rain; from the same material are made the gauze
shades for the eyes used in crossing snowy passes. The bushy
tails form the well-known "chowry" o 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 delicious, 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
its 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, on which these beasts always sleep. Their average value is
from two to three pounds, but the price varies with the season.
In autumn, when her calf is killed for food, the mother will yield
no milk, unless the herdsman give it the calf's foot to lick, or lays
a stuffed skin before it, to fondle, which it does with eagerness,
expressing its satisfaction by short grunts, exactly like those of a
pig, a sound which 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 upon stony ground. Neither can it bear damp
heat, for which reason it will not live in summer below 7,000 feet,
where liver disease carries it off after a very few years.2 Lastly,
The latter is, however, of little consequence in the dry climate of Tibet.
2 Nevertheless, the yak seems to have survived the voyage to England. I
find in Turner's "Tibet " (p. 189), that a bull sent by that traveller to Mr.
Hastings_reached England alive, and after suffering from languor, so far
recovered its health and vigour as to become the father of many calves.
Turner does not state by what mother these calves were born, an important
omission, as he adds that all these died but one cow, which bore a calf by an
BHOTEEAS.
149
the yak is ridden, especially by the fat Lamas, who find its shaggy
coat warm, and its paces 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 is found; and the
Tibetans say, in reference to its size, that 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 hunted by
large dogs, and shot with a blunderbuss: it is untameable and
horridly 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 horn is used as a drinking-cup in marriage
feasts, and on other grand occasions. My readers are probably
familiar with Messrs. Huc and Gabet's account of a herd of these
animals being frozen fast in the head-waters of the Yangtsekiang
river. There is a noble specimen in the British Museum not yet
set up, and another is preparing for exhibition in the Crystal
Palace at Sydenham.
The inhabitants of these frontier districts belong to two very
different tribes, but all are alike called Bhoteeas (from Bhote, the
proper name of Tibet), and 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 for either the Lepcha or Nepalese,
migrating between 6,000 and 15,000 feet with the seasons, always
accompanied by their herds. In all respects of appearance, reli-
gion, manners, customs, and language, they are Tibetans and
Lama Booddhists, but they pay tax to the Nepal and Sikkim
Rajahs, 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 little 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
cultivate fine crops of buck-wheat, 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
Indian bull. A painting of the yak (copied into Turner's book) by Stubbs,
the animal painter, may be seen in the Museum of the Royal College of Sur-
geons, 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 the flanks.
150
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
dependent on Nepal and Tibet, they naturally hold themselves
independent of both; and I found that my roving commission.
from the Nepal Rajah was not respected, and the 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 placed 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 formed 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 sup-
ported on two short poles, kept to the ground 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
found, except with regard to spinning, which is their constant
occupation, every man and woman carrying a bundle 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 unknown.
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 spike-
nard roots (Nardostachys 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
¹ A broad ring of this material, agate, or chalcedony, is a mark of rank
here, as amongst the Man-choos, and throughout Central Asia.
WALLOONG.
15i
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 Rajah's authority to pass me through his
dominions; and besides the natural jealousy of these people
when intruded upon, they have very good reasons for concealing
the amount of revenue 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 Mywa 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, owing to there being no bazaar. My
provisions were running short, and for the same reason I had no
present hope of replenishing them. All my party had, I found,
reckoned with 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. My
servants I told that their pay and reward also depended on their
implicit obedience. I took the Guobah aside and showed him
troops of yaks (tethered by halters and toggles to a long rope
stretched between two rocks), which had that morning arrived
laden with salt from the north; I told him it was vain to try and
deceive me; that my passport was ample, and 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 Walloong, the weather was bitterly
cold: as heretofore, the nights and mornings were cloudless, but
by noon the whole sky became murky, the highest temperature
(50°) occurring at 10 A.M. At this season the prospect from this
elevation (10,385 feet) was dreary in the extreme; and the
quantity of snow on the mountains, which was continually in-
creasing, held out a dismal promise for my chance of exploring
152
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
lofty uninhabited regions. All annual and deciduous vegetation
had long past, and the lofty Himalayas are very poor in mosses
and lichens, as compared with the European Alps, and arctic
regions in general. The temperature fluctuated from 22° at
sunrise, to 50° at 10 A.M.; the mean being 35°; one night it fell
to 61. Throughout the day, a south wind blew strong and cold
up the valley, and at sunset was replaced by a keen north blast,
searching every corner, and piercing through tent and blankets.
Though the sun's rays were hot for an hour or two in the morning,
its genial influence was never felt in the wind. The air was never
very dry, the wet-bulb thermometer standing during the day 3°
below the dry, thus giving a mean dew-point of 301. A thermo-
meter sunk two feet stood at 44°, fully 9° above the mean
temperature of the air; one exposed to the clear sky, stood,
during the day, several degrees below the air in shade, and at
night, from 9° to 14° lower. The black-bulb thermometer, in
the sun, rose to 65 above the air, indicating upwards of 90°
difference at nearly the warmest part of the day, between con-
tiguous shaded and sunny exposures. The sky, when cloudless,
was generally a cold blue or steel-grey colour, but at night the
stars were large, and twinkled gloriously. The black-glass pho-
tometer indicated 10'521 inches 2 as the maximum intensity of
sunlight; the temperature of the river close by fell to 32° during
the night, and rose to 37° in the day. 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,
douce violence, 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 November,
grudgingly prepared for the trip to Wallanchoon, with a guide,
and some snow-boots for those of my party whom I took with
me.
I
The path lay north-west up the valley, which became thickly
wooded with silver-fir and juniper; we gradually ascended,
This gives 1° Fahr. for every 309 feet of elevation, using contemporaneous
observations at Calcutta, and correcting for latitude, &c.
2 On three mornings the maxima occurred at between 9 and 10 A.M. They
were, Nov. 24th, 10 509, Nov. 25th, 10:521. On the 25th, at Tuquoroma, I
recorded 10.510. The maximum effect observed at Darjeeling (7,340 feet) was
10.328, and on the plains of India 10.350. The maximum I ever recorded
was in Yangma valley (15,186 feet), 10'572 at I P.M.
DELIGHTS OF SCIENTIFIC TRAVEL.
153
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 south-east, and with no other shrubs or tree-vegetation,
but scattered bushes of rose, Spiræa, dwarf juniper, stunted birch,
willow, honey-suckle, berberry, and a mountain-ash (Pyrus). What
surprised me more than the prevalence of rhododendron bushes,
was the number of species of this genus, easily recognised by the
shape of their capsules, the form and woolly covering of the
leaves; none were in flower, but I reaped a rich harvest of seed.
At 12,000 feet the valley was wild, open, and broad, with sloping
mountains clothed for 1,000 feet with dark-green rhododendron
bushes; the river ran rapidly, and was broken into falls here and
there. Huge angular and detached masses of rock were scattered
about, and to the right and left snowy peaks towered over the
surrounding mountains, while amongst 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 (R. anthopogon and setosum), and abundance of a little.
Andromeda, exactly like ling, with woody stems and tufted
branches, gave a heathery appearance to the hill-sides. The
prevalence of lichens, common to this country and to Scotland
(especially L. geographicus), 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 and friends, 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 delight with which he recognises them, and
the more lasting is the impression which they leave. At this
moment these common weeds more vividly recall to me that wild
scene than does all my journal, and remind me how I went on
my way, taxing my memory for all it ever knew of the geographical
distribution of the shepherd's purse, and musing on the probability
of the plant having found its way thither over all Central Asia,
and the ages that may have been occupied in its march.
On reaching 13,000 feet, the ground was everywhere hard and
154
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
frozen, and I experienced the first symptoms of lassitude, head-
ache, and giddiness; which however, were but slight, 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 their salt-bags, removed from their herd of yaks,
which were grazing close by. They looked miserably cold and
haggard, and their little upturned 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 mouth-
pieces. 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 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 gneiss and granite I
had afterwards many opportunities of proving; and when driven.
for a night's shelter to such 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 of rough stone and plank as that of Tuquorama,
in which we took up our quarters, at 13,000 feet elevation. A
cheerful fire soon blazed on the earthern 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 Wallanchoon, owing to the
Guobah's obstinacy. I had not then learnt how to treat such
conduct, and just before retiring to rest had further been informed
by the Havildar that the Guobah 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
The night was clear and very cold; the thermometer
measures.
+
GLACIERS AND SNOW.
155
falling to 19° at 9 P.M., and to 12° in the night, and that by my
bedside to 20°.
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 at 13,500 feet, which had fallen the
previous month; and several glaciers were seen in lateral ravines
at about the same elevation. After a couple of miles we left the
broad valley, which continued north-west, and 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 atmo-
sphere over the dry rocks and earth, at 14,000 feet, vibrating from
the power of the sun's rays, whilst 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 where perpetual snow descends to the path,
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 henceforward, though
now deepened by the very heavy October fall; the path was cut
some three feet through it. Enormous boulders of gneiss cum-
bered the bottom of the gorge, which gradually widened as we
approached its summit; and rugged masses of black and red
gneiss and mica schist 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 it covered, into which we every now and
then stumbled; there was scarcely a trace of vegetation, and the
cold was excessive, except in the sun.
Towards the summit of the pass the snow lay very deep, and
we followed the course of a small stream which cut through it,
the walls of snow being breast-high on each side; the path was
still frequented by yaks, of which we overtook a small party going
to Tibet, laden with planks. All the party appeared alike over-
come by lassitude, shortness and difficulty of breathing, a sense
of weight on the stomach, giddiness and headache, with tightness
across the temples.
156
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
兔
​Just below the summit was a complete bay of snow, girdled
with two sharp peaks of red baked schists and gneiss, strangely
contorted, and thrown up at all angles with no prevalent dip or
strike, and permeated with veins of granite. The top itself, or
boundary between Nepal and Tibet, is a low saddle between two
rugged ridges of rock, 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 of these 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 plain or level ground of any kind before reaching
that river, of which the valley is said to be wide and flat.
Starting at 10 A.M., we 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 Darjeeling, 16,748 feet, as
the height of the pass. The thermometer stood at 18°, and the
sun being now hidden behind rocks, the south-east wind was
bitterly cold. Hitherto the sun had appeared as a clearly de-
fined sparkling globe against a dark blue sky; but the depth of
the azure blue was not so striking as I had been led to suppose,
by the accounts of previous travellers, in very lofty regions.
The plants gathered near the top of the pass were species of
Compositæ, grass, and Arenaria; the most curious was Saussurea
gossypina, which forms great clubs of the softest white wool, six
inches to a foot high, its flowers and leaves seeming uniformly
clothed with the warmest fur that nature can devise. Generally
speaking, the alpine plants of the Himalaya are quite unpro-
vided with any special protection of this kind; it is the prevalence
and conspicuous nature of the exceptions that mislead, and induce
the careless observer to generalise hastily from solitary instances:
for the prevailing alpine genera of the Himalaya, Arenarias, prim-
roses, saxifrages, fumitories, Ranunculi, gentians, grasses, sedges,
&c., have almost uniformly naked foliage.
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 by too great to permit of our returning thither
the same night, I had had a few things brought hither during the
:

COLD AND HEAT
157
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 some distance along the bed of 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 6:30 A.M.,
and rose to 30° when the sun appeared over the mountains at
815, at which time the black bulb thermometer suddenly
mounted to 112°, upwards of 80° above the temperature of the
air. The sky was brilliantly clear, with a very dry, cold, north
wind blowing down the snowy valley of the pass.
DEMON'S HEAD.
158
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
CHAPTER X.
Return from Wallanchoon pass-Procure a bazaar at village-Dance of Lamas
-Blacking face, Tibetan custom of-Temple and convent-Leave for
Kanglachem pass-Send part of party back to Darjeeling-Yangma
Guola-Drunken Tibetans-Guobah of Wallanchoon-Camp at foot of
Great Moraine-View from top-Geological speculations - Height of
moraines-Cross dry lake-bed-Glaciers-More moraines-Terraces-
Yangma temples-Jos, books and furniture-Peak of Nango-Lake—
Arrive at village-Cultivation-Scenery-Potatos-State of my provisions
-Pass through village-Gigantic boulders-Terraces-Wild sheep-
Lake-beds-Sun's power-Piles of granite and detritus-Glaciers and
moraines-Pabuk, elevation of-Moonlight scene-Return to Yangma
-Temperature, &c.-Geological causes of phenomena in valley-
Scenery of valley on descent.
Dagbladet
I RETURNED to the village of Wallanchoon, after collecting all
the plants I could around my camp; amongst them a common-
looking dock abounded in the spots which the yaks had
frequented.
The ground was covered, as with heather, with abundance of
creeping dwarf juniper, Andromeda, and dwarf rhododendron.
On arriving at the village, I refused to receive the Guobah,
unless he opened a bazaar at daylight on the following morning,
where my people might purchase food; and threatened to bring
charges against him before his Rajah. At the same time I
arranged for sending the main body of my party down the Tam-
bur, and so 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, Kambachen
and Kanglanamo passes, reach Jongri in Sikkim, on the south
flank of Kinchinjunga.
I
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 attached; thus equipped, they marched through the
village, every now and then halting, when they danced and ges-
ticulated 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,
several stories high, built of wood, and daubed with red and grey
I shall elsewhere have to refer to the Tibetan custom of daubing the face
with black pigment to protect the skin from the excessive cold and dryness of
these lofty regions; and to the ludicrous imposition that was passed on the
credulity of MM. Huc and Gabet.
}
TEMPLE AND CONVENT.
159 ·
paint.
The priests were nowhere to be found, and an old
withered nun, whom I disturbed husking millet in a large wooden
mortar, fled at my approach. The temple stood close by the
convent, and had a broad low architrave : the walls sloped in-
wards, 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 everywhere;
and though in every respect rude, the effect was somewhat im-
posing. The similarly proportioned gloomy portals of Egyptian
fanes naturally invite comparison; but the Tibetan temples lack
the sublimity of these; and the uncomfortable creeping sensation
produced by the many sleepless eyes of Boodh's numerous incar-
nations is very different from the awe with which we contemplate
the outspread wings of the Egyptian symbol, and feel as in the
presence of the God 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 mendongs 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 hold-
ing 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 great amount of food, intending to
send most of the people back by the Tambur to Darjeeling. I
kept nineteen persons in all, selecting the most willing, as it was
evident the journey at this season would be one of great hard-
ship: 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
the party for Darjeeling, 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 path 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 road was very bad, often up ladders, and along
planks lashed to the faces of precipices, and overhanging the
torrent, which it crossed several times by plank bridges. By dark
we arrived at Yangma Guola, a collection of empty wood huts
buried in the rocky forest-clad valley, and took possession of a
160
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
挂架
​couple. They were well built, raised on posts, with a stage and
ladder at the gable end, and consisted of one good-sized apart-
ment. Around was abundance of dock, together with three
common English plants.¹
Min. 290
The night was calm, misty, and warm (Max. 405) for the elevation
(9,300 feet). During the night, I was startled out of my sleep
by a blaze of light, and jumping up, found myself in presence of
a party of most sinister-looking, black, ragged Tibetans, armed
with huge torches of pine, that filled the room with flame and
pitchy smoke. I remembered their arriving just before dark, and
their weapons dispelled 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 diffi-
culty), and with some trouble ejected the visitors, happily without
setting the house on fire. I heard them toppling head over
heels down the stair, which I afterwards had 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 north up the
Yangma valley, which after five miles opened considerably, the
trees disappearing, and the river flowing more tranquilly, and
through a broader valley, when above 11,000 feet elevation.
The Guobah of Wallanchoon overtook us on the road; on his
way, he said, to collect 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 6,000 rupees (£600) to the
Rajah 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 considerable. Every yak going and
coming is said to pay Is., and every horse 4s.; 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 tea with salt, butter, and soda, of which he
partook, snuffed, smoked, rose up, had all his traps repacked, and
was off again.
We encamped at a most remarkable place: the valley was
I Cardamine hirsuta, Limosella aq atica, and Juncus bufonius
A

ANCIENT MORAINE THROWN ACROSS THE YANGMA VALLEY, EAST NEPAL. ELEVATION, 11,000 FT,
161
broad, with little vegetation but stunted tree-junipers: 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 and
schist, with abundance of granite in blocks and veins. A superb
view opened from the top, revealing its nature to be a vast
moraine, far below the influence of any existing glaciers, but
which at some antecedent period had been thrown across by a
glacier descending to 10,000 feet, from a lateral valley 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-tipped mountains, whose rocky flanks
mingled with the black pine forest below. Eastward the moraine
stretched south of the 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 from every gulley on its
side, but these were 2,000 to 3,000 feet above this moraine; they
were small too, and their moraines were mere gravel, compared
with this. Many smaller consecutive moraines, also, were
evident along the bottom of that lateral valley, from this great
one up to the existing glaciers. Looking up the Yangma was 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 all but the mountain tops to the north. The
river meandered through the grassy plain (which appeared a mile
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 valley, 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
ice-deposited moraine, and its remoteness from any existing ice,
the broad valley and open character of the country, were all
marked out as so many problems suddenly conjured up for my
unaided solution, and kept me awake for many hours. I had
never seen a glacier or moraine on land before, but being familiar
with sea ice and berg transport, from voyaging in the South
MORAINES OF YANGMA VALLEY.
12
162
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
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. The latter was grassy
and pebbly, perfectly level, and quite barren, except a very few
pines at the bases of the encircling mountains, and abundance of
rhododendrons, Andromeda and juniper on the moraines. Iso-
lated moraines occurred along both flanks of the valley, some
higher than that I have described, and a very long one was
thrown nearly across from the upper end of another lateral 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 of the valley, stretched nearly
across, and then swerving 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 glacial detritus at the mouth of the
second lateral valley, entirely formed of angular fragments of
gneiss and granite, loosely bound together by felspathic sand.
The whole was disposed in concentric ridges radiating from the
mouth of the valley, and descending to the flat; these were
moraines in petto, formed by the action of winter snow and ice
upon the loose débris. A stream flowed over this débris, dividing
into many branches before reaching the lake-bed, where its waters
were collected, and whence it meandered southward to fall into
the Yangma.
齄
​From the top of the second moraine, a very curious scene
opened up the valley, of another but more stony and desolate
level lake-bed, through which the Yangma (here very rapid)
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 subdivided into others, so that the
general appearance was that of many raised beaches, but each so
broken up, that, with the exception of one on the banks of the

LAKE BEDS. YANGMA CONVENTS.
163
river, none were continuous for any distance. We descended
200 feet, and crossed the valley and river
obliquely in a north-west direction, to a
small temple and convent which stood
on a broad flat terrace under the black,
precipitous, west flank; this gave me a
good opportunity of examining the struc-
ture of 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 lateral valleys, perfectly horizontal
for the short distance that they were
continuous, and very barren; there were
no traces of fossils, nor could I assure
myself of stratification. The accumu-
lation was wholly glacial; and probably
a lake had supervened on the melting
of the great glacier and its recedence,
which lake, confined by a frozen moraine,
would periodically lose its waters by
sudden accessions of heat melting the
ice of the latter. 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 opera-
tion amongst the stupendous glaciers
of north-east Sikkim, where valleys,
dammed up by moraines, exhibit lakes
hemmed in between these, the base of
the glacier, and the flanks of the
valleys.
Yangma convents stood at the mouth.
of a gorge which opened upon the upper-
most terrace; and the surface of the
latter, here well covered with grass,
was furrowed into concentric radiating
ANCIENT MORAINES IN THE YANGMA VALLEY.
ridges, which were very conspicuous from a distance. The
buildings consisted of a wretched collection of stone huts,
164
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
painted red, enclosed by loose stone dykes. Two shockingly
dirty Lamas received me and 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 full
of old battered gongs, drums, scraps of silk hangings, red cloth,
broken praying machines-relics 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 oil-paper. On one side was the
library, a carved case, with a hundred gilded pigeon-holes, each
holding a real or sham book, and each closed by a little square
door, on which hung a bag full of amulets. In the centre of the
book-case was a recess, containing a genuine Jos or Fo, 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 sus-
pended around, with paintings of Lhassa, Teshoo Loombo, and
various incarnations of Boodh. 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 a Daphne,
bound 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, con-
sisting of a cube, pyramid, hemisphere, and cone placed on the
top of one another, forming together a tasteful combination.
Beyond the convents the valley again contracted, and on cross-
ing a third, but much lower, moraine, a lake opened to view,
surrounded by flat terraces, and a broad gravelly shore, 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 1,500 feet
up with blue glaciers, led (as did the other lateral valleys) to the
gleaming snows of Nango'; the moraine, too, here abutted on
the east flank of the Yangma valley, below the mouth of the
lateral one. Much snow (from the October fall) 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, every snowy crest and ridge being rendered with
perfect precision.

YANGMA VALLEY. NANGO.
165
Nango is about 18,000 feet high; it is the next lofty mountain
of the Kinchinjunga group to the west of Junnoo, and I doubt
if any equally high peak occurs 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 2,000 to 3,000 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, zigzag lines,
LOOKING ACROSS YANGMA VALLEY.
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 outlines.
Towards the head of the lake, its bed was quite dry and
gravelly, and the river formed a broad delta over it; the terraces
here were perhaps 100 feet above its level, those at the lower end
not nearly so much. Beyond the lake the river became again a
166
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
·
violent torrent, rushing in a deep chasm, till we arrived at the
fork of the valley, where we once more met with numerous dry
lake-beds, with terraces high up on the mountain sides.
In the afternoon we reached the village of Yangma, a miser-
able collection of 200 to 300 stone huts, nestling under the steep
south-east flank of a lofty, flat-topped terrace, laden with gigantic
glacial boulders, and projecting southward from a snowy moun-
tain which divides the valley. We encamped on the flat under
the village, amongst some stone dykes, enclosing cultivated fields.
One arm of the valley runs hence N.N.E. amongst snowy
mountains, and appeared quite full of moraines; the other, or
continuation of the Yangma, runs W.N.W., and leads to the
Kanglachem pass.
Near our camp (of which the elevation was 13,500 feet),
radishes, barley, wheat, potatos, and turnips, were cultivated as
summer crops, and we even saw some on the top of the terrace,
400 feet above our camp, or nearly 14,000 feet above the sea;
these were grown in small fields cleared of stones, and protected
by dykes.
The scenery, though dismal (no juniper even 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 débris, 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 Boodhist monuments of
quaint, 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 night,
heightened by the light of the stars, that blaze and twinkle with a
lustre unknown in less lofty regions: all these were subjects for
contemplation, rendered more impressive by the stillness of the
atmosphere, and the silence that reigned around. The village
seemed buried in repose throughout the day: the inhabitants had
already hybernated, 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 think of Boodh, if
of anything at all, the dead, long winter through. The yaks
alone can find anything to do; so long as any vegetation remains
they roam and eat it, still yielding milk, which the women take
morning and evening, when their shrill whistle and cries are heard.
YANGMA VILLAGË.
167
for a few minutes, as they call the grunting animals. No other
sounds, save the harsh roar and hollow echo of the falling rock,
glacier, or snow-bed, disturbed the perfect silence of the day or
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 insidious
piercing night-wind that descended from the northern glaciers in
calm, but most keen, breezes. There was no food to be pro-
cured in the village, except a little watery milk, and a few small
watery potatos. The latter have only very recently been intro-
duced 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 Kinchinjunga, but they will very
soon penetrate into Tibet, from Darjeeling, or eastward from
Nepal. My private stock of provisions-consisting chiefly of
preserved meats from my kind 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 inop-
portunely; 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 diet under cold and fatigue. The poorer Tibetans,
especially, who undergo great privation and toil, live almost
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. Huc and Gabet, as having
been observed by them in other parts of Tibet.
(C
On the 1st of December I visited the village and terrace, and
proceeded to the head of the Yangma valley, in order to ascend
the Kanglachem pass as far as practicable. The houses are low,
built of stone, of no particular shape, and are clustered in groups
against the steep face of the terrace; filthy lanes wind amongst
* Snow covers the ground at Yangma from December till April, and the
falls are said to be very heavy, at times amounting to 12 feet in depth.
168
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
them, so narrow, that if you are not too tall, you look into the
slits of windows on either hand, by turning your head, and feel
the noisome warm air in whiffs against your face. Glacial
boulders lie scattered throughout the village, around and beneath
the cluster of houses, from which it is sometimes difficult to dis-
tinguish the native rock. I entered one house by a narrow low-
door through walls four feet thick, and found myself in an apart-
ment full of wool, juniper-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 Kamschatk 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
employed in spinning wool and smoking. A hole in the wall of
the upper apartment led me on to the stone roof of the neigh-
bouring house, from which I passed to the top of a glacial
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 gypsies 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 to the top of the terrace, which
is perfectly level, sandy, triangular plain, pointing down the
valley at the fork of the latter, and abutting against the flank of a
steep, rocky, snow-topped mountain to the northward. Its length
is probably half a mile from north to south, but it runs for two
miles westward up the valley, gradually contracting. The
surface, though level, is very uneven, being worn into hollows,
and presenting ridges and hillocks of blown sand and gravel, with
small black tufts of rhododendron. Enormous boulders of gneiss
and granite were scattered over the surface: one of the ordinary
size, which I measured, was seventy feet in girth, and fifteen feet
above the ground, into which it had partly sunk. From the
southern pointed end I took sketches of the opposite flanks of
the valleys east and west. The river was about 400 feet below
me, and flowed in a little flat lake-bed; other terraces skirted it,
On the
cut out, as it were, from the side of that I was on.
opposite flank of the valley were several superimposed terraces,
of which the highest appeared to tally with the level we 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

WILD SHEEP.
169
valley, whilst, on looking across to the eastern valley, a much
higher, but less distinctly
marked one appeared on
it. The road to the pass
lay west-north-west up the
north bank of the Yangma
river, on the great terrace;
for two miles it was nearly
level along the gradually
narrowing shelf, at times
dipping into the steep gul-
leys formed by lateral tor-
rents from the mountains;
and as the terrace disap-
peared, or melted, as it
were, into the rising floor
of the valley, the path
descended upon the lower
and smaller shelf.
, DIAGRAM OF THE GLACIAL TERRACES AT THE FORK OF THE YANGMA VALLEY.
We came suddenly upon
a flock of gigantic wild
sheep, feeding on scanty
tufts of dried sedge and
grass; there were twenty-
five of these enormous
animals, of whose dimen-
sions the term sheep gives
no idea they are very
long-legged, stand as high
as a calf, and have immense
horns, so large that a fox
is said to take up his abode
in their hollows, when de-
tached and bleaching, on
the barren mountains of
Tibet. Though very wild,
I am sure I could easily
have killed a couple had I
had my gun, but I had
found it necessary to re-
duce my party so un-
compromisingly, that I could not afford a man both for my gun.
and instruments, and had sent the former back to Darjeeling, with
170
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
!
Mr. Hodgson's bird-stuffers, who had broken one of theirs.
Travelling without firearms sounds strange in India, but in these
regions animal life is very rare, game is only procured with much
hunting and trouble, and to come within shot of a flock of wild
sheep was a contingency I never contemplated. Considering how
very short we were of any food, and quite out of animal diet, I could
not but bitterly 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 off, and turned to tantalise me by
grazing within an easy stalking distance. We 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 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 bed of the valley, which is broad
and open, we came on a second dry lake-bed, a mile long, with
shelving banks all round, heavily snowed on the shaded side;
the river was divided into many arms, and meandered over it,
and a fine glacier-bound valley opened into it from the south.
There were no boulders on its surface, which was pebbly, with
tufts of grass and creeping tamarisk. On the banks I observed
much granite, with large mica crystals, hornstone, tourmaline,
and stratified quartz, with granite veins parallel to the foliation or
lamination.
A rather steep ascent of a mile, through a contracted part of
the valley, led to another and smaller lake-bed, a quarter of a mile
long and 100 yards broad, covered with patches of snow, and
having no lateral valley opening into it: it faced the now
stupendous masses of snow and ice which filled the upper part of
the Yangma valley. This lake-bed (elevation, 15,186 feet) was
strewed with enormous boulders; a rude stone hut stood near it,
where we halted for a few minutes at 1 P.M., when the tempera-
ture was 42 2°, while the dew-point was only 20'7°. At the same
time the black bulb thermometer, fully exposed to the snow, rose
54° above the air, and the photometer gave 10:572. Though the
sun's power was so great, there was, however, no appearance
↑ This indicates a very dry state of the air, the saturation-point being 0·133°;
whereas, at the same hour at Calcutta it was o‘559º.

KANGLACHEM PASS.
171
of the snow melting, evaporation proceeding with too great
rapidity.
Enormous piles of gravel and sand had descended upon the
upper end of this lake-bed, forming shelves, terraces, and curving
ridges, apparently consolidated by ice, and covered in many places
with snow. Following the stream, we soon came to an immense
moraine, which blocked up the valley, formed of angular
boulders, some of which were fifty feet high. Respiration had
been difficult for some time, and the guide we had taken from the
village said we were some hours from the top of the pass, and
KANGLACHEM PASS.
could get but a little way further; we however proceeded, plunging
through the snow, till on cresting the moraine a stupendous scene
presented itself. A gulf of moraines, and enormous ridges of
débris, lay at our feet, girdled by an amphitheatre of towering,
snow-clad peaks, rising to 17,000 and 18,000 feet all around.
Black scarped precipices rose on every side; deep snow-beds and
blue glaciers rolled down every gully, converging in the hollow
below, and from each transporting its own materials, there
ensued a complication of moraines, that presented no order to the
172
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
'eye. In spite of their mutual interference, however, each had
raised a ridge of débris or moraine parallel to itself.
We descended with great difficulty through the soft snow that
covered the moraine, to the bed of this gulf of snow and glaciers;
and halted by an enormous stone, above the bed of a little lake,
which was snowed all over, but surrounded by two superimposed
level terraces, with sharply defined edges. The moraine formed
a barrier to its now frozen waters, and it appeared to receive the
drainage of many glaciers, which filtered through their gravelly
ridges and moraines.
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 rolled that had deposited this great
moraine; the pass had been closed since October, it being very
lofty, and the head of this valley was far more snowy than that at
Wallanchoon. 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 16,038 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 304.*
I
After fixing in my note and sketch books the principal features
of this sublime scene, we returned down the valley: the distance
to our camp being fully 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 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 by moonlight the varied
phenomena, which seemed to crowd upon the restless imagina-
tion, in the different forms of mountain, glacier, moraine, lake,
boulder and terrace. 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 noting 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
begin observing too soon, or to observe too much: if the excur-
sion is long, little is ever done on the way home: the bodily powers
being mechanically exerted, the mind seeks repose, and being
* At 4 o'clock, to 29º:5, the average dew-point was 16º3, and dryness 0'55 ;
weight of vapour in a cubic foot, 133 grains.

YANGMA TEMPERATURE.
fevered through over-exertion, it can endure no train of thought,
or be brought to bear on a subject.
173
During my stay at Yangma, the thermometer never rose to 50°,
it fell to 14 at night; the ground was frozen for several inches
SKULLS OF OVIS AMMON.
below the surface, but at two feet depth its temperature was 374°.
The black bulb thermometer rose on one occasion 84° above the
surrounding air. Before leaving, I measured by angles and a
base-line the elevations of the great village terrace above the
174
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
river, and that of a loftier one, on the west flank of the main
valley; the former was about 400 and the latter 700 feet.
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 elevation of the upper terrace,
with an enormous accumulation of débris; though it does not
follow that the whole valley was filled by ice-action 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 great valley, 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, though on a small scale, are found at the terminations and
sides of existing glaciers, and are surrounded by terraces of
shingle and débris; these terraces being laid bare by the sudden
drainage of the lakes during seasons of unusual warmth. To
explain the phenomena of the Yangma valley, it may be necessary
to demand larger lakes and deeper accumulations of débris than
are now familiar to us, but the proofs of glaciers having once
descended to from 8,000 to 10,000 feet in every Sikkim and east
Nepal valley communicating with mountains above 16,000 feet
elevation, are overwhelming, and the glaciers must, in some
cases, have been fully forty miles long, and 500 feet in depth.
The absence of any remains of a moraine, or of blocks of rock in
the valley below the fork, is, I believe, the only apparent object-
tion to this theory; but, as I shall elsewhere have occasion to
observe, the magnitude of a moraine bears no fixed proportion
to that of the glacier which formed it, and at Pabuk, the steep
ridges of debris, 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 com-
pass, and angles by means of a pocket sextant. The result of
my running-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.
:
NANGO MOUNTAIN.
S
175
CHAPTER XI.
Ascend to Nango mountain-Moraines-Glaciers-Vegetation-Rhododendron
Hodgsoni-Rocks-Honeycombed surface of snow-Perpetual snow-
Top of pass-View-Elevation--Geology-Distance of sound-Plants
-Temperature-Scenery-Cliffs of granite and hurled boulders-Camp
-Descent-Pheasants-Larch-Himalayan pines-Distribution of Deo-
dar, note on-Tassichooding temples-Kambachen 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-Rocks of its summit-Misty ocean
-Nepal peaks-Top of pass--Temperature, and observations-Gorgeous
sunset-Descent to Yalloong valley-Loose 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 immediately ascends steeply to the south-east, over a rocky
moraine, clothed with a dense thicket of rhododendrons, moun-
tain-ash, maples, pine, birch, juniper, &c. The ground was covered
with silvery flakes of birch bark, and that of Rhododendron Hodg
soni, which is as delicate as tissue-paper, and of a pale flesh-colour.
I had never before met with this species, and was astonished at
the beauty of its foliage, which was of a beautiful bright green,
with leaves sixteen inches long.
Beyond the region of trees and large shrubs the alpine rhodo-
dendrons filled the broken surface of 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, rocky cliffs, sprinkled with snow; narrow
defiles opened up through these cliffs to blue glaciers, and their
mouths were invariably closed by beds of gravelly moraines, curving
outwards from either flank in concentric ridges.
Towards the base of the peak, at about 14,000 feet, the scenery
is very grand; a great moraine rises suddenly to the north-west,
under the principal mass of snow and ice, and barren slopes of
gravel descend from it; on either side are rugged precipices; the
ground is bare and stony, with patches of brown grass: and, on
looking back, the valley appears very steep to the first shrubby
vegetation, of dark green rhododendrons, bristling with ugly
stunted pines.
176
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
We followed a valley to the south-east, so as to turn the flank
of the peak; the path lying over beds of October snow at 14,000
feet, and over plashy ground, from its melting. Sometimes our
way 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. Granite
appeared in large veins in the crumpled gneiss at a great elevation,
in its most beautiful and loosely-crystallised form, of pearly white.
prisms of felspar, glassy quartz, and milk-white flat plates of mica,
with occasionally large crystals of tourmaline. Garnets were very
frequent in the gneiss near the granite veins. Small rushes, grasses,
and sedges formed the remaining vegetation, amongst which were
the withered stalks of gentians, Sedum, Arenaria, Silene, and
many Composite plants.
At a little below 15,000 feet, we reached enormous flat beds of
snow, which were said to be perpetual, but covered deeply with
the October fall. They were continuous, and like all the snow I
saw at this season, the surface was honeycombed into thin plates,
dipping north at a high angle; the intervening fissures were 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 cold 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 half's toilsome ascent, during which we
made but little progress, we reached the crest, crossing a broad
shelf of snow between two rocky eminences; the ridge was un-
snowed 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 warm and melting south-east winds that blow
up the deep Kambachen valley, and to the fact that the great
snow-beds on the west side are drifted accumulations. The mist
་
I
* Such enormous beds of snow in depressions, or on gentle slopes, are
generally adopted as indicating the lower limit of perpetual snow. They are,
however, winter accumulations, due mainly to eddies of wind, of far more
snow than can be melted in the following summer, being hence perennial in
the ordinary sense of the word. They pass into the state of glacier ice, and,
obeying the laws that govern the motions of a viscous fluid, so admirably
elucidated by Forbes ("Travels in the Alps"), they flow downwards. A
careful examination of those great beds of snow in the Alps, from whose
NANGÒ MOUNTAIN.
17
cleared off, and I had a partial, though limited, view. To the
north the blue ice-clad peak of Nango was still 2,000 feet above
us, its snowy mantle falling in great sweeps and curves into glacier-
bound valleys, over which the ice streamed out of sight, bounded
by black aiguilles of gneiss. The Yangma valley was quite hidden,
but to the eastward the view across the stupendous gorge of the
Kambachen, 5,000 feet below, to the waste of snow, ice, and rock,
piled in confusion along the top of the range of Junnoo and
Choonjerma, parallel to this but higher, was very grand indeed :
this we were to cross in two days, and its appearance was such,
that our guide doubted the possibility of our doing it. A third
and fourth mountain mass (unseen) lay beyond this, between us
and Sikkim, divided by valleys as deep as those of Yangma and
Kambachen.
Having hung up my instruments, I ascended a few hundred
feet to some naked rocks, to the northward; they were of much-
crumpled and dislocated gneiss, thrown up at a very high angle,
and striking north-west. Chlorite, schist, and quartz, in thin beds,
alternated with the gneiss, and veins of granite and quartz were
injected through them.
1
It fell calm; when the distance to which the voice was carried
was very remarkable; I could distinctly hear every word spoken
300 to 400 yards off, and did not raise my voice when I asked
one of the men to bring me a hammer.
The few plants about were generally small tufted Arenarias and
woolly Composite, 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 tempera-
ture at 4 P.M. was 23°, and bitterly cold; the elevation, 15,770
feet; dew-point, 16°. The air was not very dry; saturation-
point, 0670°, whereas at Calcutta it was o'498° at the same
hour.
The descent was to a broad, open valley, into which the flank
of Nango dipped in tremendous precipices, which reared their
heads in splintered snowy peaks. At their bases were shoots of
débris fully 700 feet high, sloping at a steep angle. Enormous
masses of rock, detached by the action of the frost and ice from
the crags, were scattered over the bottom of the valley; they had
been precipitated from above, and gaining impetus in their
position the mean lower level of perpetual show, in that latitude, is deduced,
has convinced me that these are mainly due to accumulations of this kind, and
that the true limit of perpetual snow, or that point where all that falls melts,
is much higher than it is usually supposed to be.
13
178
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
descent, had been hurled to almost inconceivable distances from
the parent cliff. All were of a very white, fine-grained crystal-
lised granite, full of small veins of the same rock still more finely
crystallised. The weathered surface of each block was black, and
covered with moss and lichens; the others beautifully white,
with clean, sharp-fractured edges. 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. A little sleet fell during the night, which was tolerably.
fine, and not very cold; the minimum thermometer indicating
143°.
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 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 scorching, and my back freezing. Rice,
boiled with a few ounces of greasy dindon aux truffes 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.
December 5.-On looking out this 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 débris 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 skinned, and ate 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 Nepalese name is "Khalidge." The
crop was distended with juniper berries, of which the flesh tasted
CONIFERS OF THE HIMALAŸA.
179
ströngly, and it was the very hardest, toughest bird I ever did
eat.
We descended at first through rhododendron and juniper, then
through black silver-fir (Abies 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 high, perfectly
similar in general characters to a European larch, but with larger
cones, which are erect upon the very long, pesile, whip-like
branches; its leaves-now red-were falling, and covering the
rocky ground on which it grew, scattered amongst other trees. It
is called "Saar" by the Lepchas and Cis-himalayan Tibetans, and
"Boarga-sella" by the Nepalese, who say it is found as far west
as the heads of the Così river: it does not inhabit Central or
West Nepal, nor the North-west Himalaya. The distribution of
the Himalayan pines is very remarkable. The Deodar has not
been seen east of Nepal, nor the Pinus Gerardiana, Cupressus
torulosa, or Juniperus communis. On the other hand, Podocarpus
is confined to the east of Katmandoo. Abies Brunoniana does
not occur west of the Gogra, nor the larch west of the Cosi, nor
funereal cypress (an introduced plant, however) west of the Teesta
(in Sikkim). Of the twelve Sikkim and Bhotan Conifera (in-
cluding yew, junipers, and Podocarpus) eight are common to the
North-west Himalaya (west of Nepal), and four 2 are not of the
thirteen natives of the north-west provinces, again, only five ³ are
not found in Sikkim, and I have given their names below, because
they show how European the absent ones are, either specifically
or in affinity. I have stated that the Deodar is possibly a variety
of the Cedar of Lebanon. This 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 ; such are
the yew, Juniperus communis, Berberis vulgaris, Quercus Ballota,
Populus alba and Euphratica, &c. 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
I
Juniper, 3; yew, Abies Webbiana, Brunoniana, and Smithiana: Larch,
Finus excelsa, and longifolia, and Podocarpus neriifolia.
2 Larch, Cupressus funebris, Podocarpus neriifolia, Abies Brunoniana.
3 A juniper (the European communis), Deodar (possibly only a variety of
the Cellar of Lebanon and of Mount Atlas), Pinus Gerardiana, P. excelsa, and
Cupressus torulosa.
4 Since writing the above, I have seen, in the magnificent Pinetum at
180
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
in our gardens; for several gentlemen, well acquainted with the
Deodar at Simla, when asked to point it out in the Kew Gardens,
have indicated the cedar of Lebanon, and when shown the Deo-
dar, declare that they never saw that plant in the Himalaya!
At the bottom of the valley we turned up the stream, and
passing the Tassichooding convents and temple, 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 and dung, 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 foggy, the elevation (11,380 feet)
being 2,000 feet less than that of the Yangma village, and the tem-
perature therefore 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 hybernate here is indeed
extraordinary, for there is no route up the valley, and all com-
munication with Lelyp, two marches down the river, is cut off in
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 pine wood,
appeared to the west, towering over head; while across the
narrow valley wilder and less wooded crags rose in broken ridges
to the glaciers of Nango. Up the valley, the view was cut off
by bluff cliffs; whilst down it, the scene was most remarkable :
2
Dropmore, noble cedars, with the length and hue of leaf, and the pensile
branches of the Deodar, and far more beautiful than that is, and as unlike the
common Lebanon Cedar as possible. When it is considered from how very
few wild trees (and these said to be exactly alike) the many dissimilar varieties
of the C. Libani have been derived; the probability of this, the Cedar of
Algiers, and of the Himalayas (Deodar) being all forins of one species, is
greatly increased. We cannot presume to judge from the few cedars which
still remain, what the habit and appearance of the tree may have been, when
it covered the slopes of Libanus, and seeing how very variable Conifera are in
habit, we may assume that its surviving specimens give us no information on
this head. Should all three prove one, it will materially enlarge our ideas of
the distribution and variation of species. The botanist will insist that the
typical form of cedar is that which retains its characters best over the greatest
area, namely, the Deodar; in which case the prejudice of the ignorant, and
the preconceived ideas of the naturalist, must yield to the fact that the old
familiar Cedar of Lebanon is an unusual variety of the Himalayan Deodar.
1 These were built by the Sikkim people, when the eastern valleys of Nepal
belonged to the Sikkim rajah.
2 Which I passed, on the Tambur, on the 21st Nov.
E
KAMBACHEN VALLEY.
181
enormous black, round-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 valley, 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-rises 13,932 feet above the village. Few facts
show more decidedly the extraordinary steepness and depth of
the Kambachen valley near the village, which, though nearly
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.
not
The villagers received us very kindly, and furnished us with a
guide for the Choonjerma pass, leading to the Yalloong valley,
the most easterly in Nepal; but he recommended our
attempting any part of the ascent till the morrow, as it was past
I P.M., and we should find no camping-ground for half the way
up. The villagers gave us the leg of a musk deer, and some red
potatos, about as big as walnuts-all they could spare from their
winter-stock. With this scanty addition to our stores we started
down the valley, for a few miles alternately along flat lake-beds
and over moraines, till we crossed the stream from the lateral
valley, and ascending a little, camped on its bank, at 11,400 feet
elevation.
In the afternoon I botanized amongst the moraines, which
were very numerous, and had been thrown down at right-angles
to the main valley, which latter being here very narrow, and
bounded by lofty precipices, must have stopped the parent
glaciers, and effected the heaping of some of these moraines to
at least 1,000 feet above the river. The general features were
modifications of those seen in the Yangma valley, but contracted
into a much smaller space.
The moraines were all accumulated in a sort of delta, through
which the lateral river debouched into the Kambachen, and were
all deposited more or less parallel to the course of the lateral
valley, but curving outwards from its mouth. The village flat, or
terrace, continued level to the first moraine, which had been
*
This is one of the most sudden slopes in this part of the Himalaya, the
angle between the top of Junnoo and Kambachen being 2,786 feet per mile,
or I in 18. The slope from the top of Mont Blanc to the Chamouni valley is
2,464 feet per mile, or 1 in 2'1. That from Monte Rosa top to Macugnaga
greatly exceeds either.
周
​
182
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
thrown down on the upper or north side of the lateral valley, on
whose steep flanks it abutted, and curving outwards seemed to
encircle the village-flat on the south and west; where it dipped
into the river. This was crossed at the height of about 100 feet,
by a stony path, leading to the bed of the rapid torrent flowing
through shingle and boulders, beyond which was another moraine,
250 feet high, and parallel to it a third gigantic one.
Ascending the great moraine at a place where it overhung the
main river, I had a good coup-d'œil of the whole. The view
south-east up the glacial valley-(represented in the accom-
wwwww
ANCIENT MORAINES IN THE KAMBACHEN VALLEY.
panying cut)-to the snowy peaks south of Junnoo, was par-
ticularly 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, as it were,
a vast raised gutter, or channel, ascending from perhaps 16,000
feet elevation, till it was hidden behind a spur in the valley.
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.
VEGETATION, &c., OF KAMBACHEN.
183
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 prim-
rose, gentian, anemone, potentilla, orchis, saxifrage, parnassia,
campanula, and pedicularis, that in summer they must be perfect
gardens of wild flowers. Around 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 ever-
green 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, pink, amber, and gold.
The boulders forming the moraine were so enormous and
angular, that I had great difficulty in ascending it. I saw some
pheasants feeding on the black berries of the juniper, but
where the large rhododendrons grew amongst the rocks I
found it impossible to penetrate. The largest of the moraines
is piled to upwards of 1,000 feet against the south flank of the
lateral valley, 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 Yalloong. The sheep I observed to feed on
the Rhododendron Thomsoni and campylocarpum. On the roots
of one of the latter species a parasitical Broom-rape (Orobanche)
grew abundantly; and about the moraines were more mosses,
lichens, &c., than I have elsewhere seen in the loftier Hima-
laya, encouraged no doubt by the dampness of this grand
mountain gorge, which is so hemmed in that the sun never
reaches it until four or five hours after it has gilded the over-
hanging peaks.
December 5.-The morning was bright and clear, and we left
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, Crypto-
gramma crispa!
184
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
·
The clouds early commenced gathering, and it was curious to
watch their rapid formation in coalescing streaks, which became
first cirrhi, and then stratus, being apparently continually added
to from below by the moisture-bringing southerly wind.
Ascending a lofty spur, 1,000 feet above the valley, against
which the moraine was banked, I found it to be a distinct anti-
clinal axis. The pass, bearing north-west, and the valley we had
descended on the previous day, rose immediately over the
curved strata of quartz, topped by the glacier-crowned mountain.
of Nango, with four glaciers descending from its perpetual
snows. The stupendous cliffs on its flanks, under which I had
camped on the previous night, were very grand, but not more so
than those which dipped into the chasm of the Kambachen
below. Looking up the valley of the latter, was another wilder-
ness of ice full of enormous moraines, round the bases of which
the river wound.
Ascending, we reached an open grassy valley, and overtook the
Tibetans who had preceded us, and who had halted here to feed
their sheep. A good-looking girl of the party 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 measuring-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.
Above, the path up the ascent was blocked with snow-beds, and
for several miles we alternately scrambled among rocks and over
slippery slopes, to the top of the first ridge, there being two to
cross. The first consisted of a ridge of rocks running east and
west from a superb sweep of snowy mountains to the north-west,
which presented 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, though it did not reveal the very bottom of the
valley and its moraines: the black precipices of its opposite
flank seemed to rise to the glaciers of Nango, fore-shortened
into snow-capped precipices 5,000 feet high, amongst which lay
the Kambachen pass, bearing north-west by north. Lower down
the valley appeared a broad flat, called Jubla, a halting-place onę
CHOONJERMA PASS. MIST VIEWS.
185
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 hori-
zontally 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, bearing north-east by cast, and subtending an
angle of 12° 23, and is much the steepest and most conical of
all the peaks of these regions. From whichever side it is viewed,
it rises 9,000 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 (like those of Kin-
chinjunga) being of white granite, and not contrasting with the
snow. Whether the top is stratified or not, I cannot tell, but
waving parallel lines are very conspicuous near it, as shown in
the accompanying view.¹
Looking south, 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 3,000 feet
beneath me, just below the upper level of the black pines; 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 salt-water 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 calm unruffled ocean, boundless to the south and west, where
the horizon over-arched it. A little to the north of west I dis-
cerned the most lofty group of mountains in Nepal2 (mentioned.
The appearance of Mont Cervin, from the Riffelberg, much reminded me
of that of Junnoo, trom the Choonjerma pass, the former bearing the same
relation to Monte Rosa that the latter does to Kinchinjunga. Junnoo, though
incomparably the more stupendous mass, not only rising 10,000 feet higher
above the sea, but towering 4,000 feet higher above the ridge on which it is
supported, is not nearly so remarkable in outline, so sharp, or so peaked as
is Mont Cervin 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 diminish both its apparent height and distance.
2 Called Tsungau by the Bhotceas. Junnoo is called Kumbo-Kurma by the
Hill-men of Nepal (the Mont Everest group).
186
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
previously), 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 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, and the
dew-point 10°, giving the humidity 0.610, and the amount of
vapour 1.09 grains in a cubic foot of air; the same elements at
Calcutta, at the same hour, being thermometer 661°, dew-point
60°, humidity o'840, and weight of vapour 5'9 grains.
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: I then bade adieu to the sublime and majestic
peak of Junnoo. Thence we continued at nearly the same level
for about four miles, 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 to the north-east, whose bases we
skirted: it resembles the Capuchin on the shoulder of Mont
Blanc, as seen from the Jardin. Evening overtook us while
still on the snow near the last ascent. As the sun declined, the
snow at our feet reflected the most exquisitely 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, amongst some cirrhi and stratus,
all in a blaze of the ruddiest coppery hue. As it sank, the
Nepal peaks to the right assumed more definite, darker, and
gigantic forms, and floods of light shot across the misty ocean,
bathing the landscape around me in the most wonderful and
indescribable changing tints. As the luminary was vanishing, the
whole horizon glowed like copper run from a smelting furnace,
and when it had quite disappeared, the little inequalities of the
ragged edges of the mist were lighted up and shone like a row
of volcanos in the far 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 Choon-
jerma pass. In some of Turner'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
I
YALLOONG VALLEY.
187
"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 effects,
but any combination of science and art can no more recall the
scene, than it can the
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, which was to the south,
obliquely into the Yalloong valley. I was very uneasy about the
coolies, who were far behind, and some of them 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 flat
with a small tarn, whose waters gleamed illusively in the pale
moonlight: the opposite flanks of the valley were so well re-
flected on its gloomy surface, that we were at once brought to a
standstill on its banks: it looked like a chasm, and whether to
jump across it, or go down it, or along it, was the question, so
deceptive was the spectral landscape. Its true nature was, how-
ever, soon discovered, and we proceeded round it, descending.
Of course there was no path, and after some perplexity amongst
rocks and ravines, we reached the upper limit of wood, and
halted by some bleached juniper-trees, which were soon converted
into blazing fires.
I wandered away from my party to listen for the voices of the
men who had lingered behind, about whom I was still more
anxious, from the very great difficulty they would encounter if, as
we did, they should get off the path. The moon was shining
clearly in the black heavens; and its bright light, with the pale
glare of the surrounding snow, obscured the milky way, and all
the smaller stars; whilst the planets appeared to glow with broader
orbs than elsewhere, and the great stars flashed steadily and
periodically.
Deep black chasms seemed to yawn below, and cliffs rose on
all sides, except down the valley, where looking across the Yalloong
river, a steep range of mountains rose, seamed with torrents that
were just visible like threads of silver coursing down broad land-
slips. 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 appeared thus to be marked by the ear

188
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
alone. Sometimes 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 very seductive, and withal very dangerous, for the tem-
Ot
TIBETAN CHARM-BOX.
perature was at freezing-point, my feet and legs were wet through,
and it was well that I was soon roused from my reveries by the
monosyllable exclamations of my coolies. They were quite knocked
up, and came along grunting, and halting every minute to rest, by
supporting their loads, still hanging to their backs, on their stout
staves. I had still one bottle of brandy left, with which to splice
the main brace. It had been repeatedly begged for in vain, and
being no longer expected, was received with unfeigned joy. For-
tunately with these people a little spirits goes a long way, and I
kept half for future emergencies,
MUSK-DEER.
189
We camped at 13,290 feet; the air was calm and mild to the
feeling, though the temperature fell to 223. 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 8,000 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 roebuck, and something resembling it, with
coarse fur, short horns, and two projecting teeth from the upper
jaw, said to be used in rooting up the aromatic herbs from which
the Bhoteeas believe that it derives the odour of musk. This I
much doubt, because the animal never frequents those very lofty
regions where the herbs supposed to provide the scent are found,
nor have I ever seen signs of any having been so rooted up. The
Delphinium glaciale smells strongly and disagreeably of musk, but
it is one of the most alpine plants in the world, growing at an ele-
vation of 17,000 feet, far above the limits of Kosturah. The
female and young male are very good eating, much better than any
Indian venison I ever tasted, being sweet and tender. Mr. Hodg-
son 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.
We descended 3,000 feet to the deep valley of the Yalloong
river which runs west-by-south to the Tambur, from between
Junnoo and Kubra: the path was very bad, over quartz, granite,
and gneiss, which cut the shoes and feet severely. The bottom
of the valley, which is elevated 10,450 feet, was filled with an
immense accumulation of angular gravel and débris 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 a good many miles, and varied exceedingly in
height, in some places being evidently increased by landslips, and
at others apparently by moraines.
·
""
There are two species of musk-deer in the Himalaya, besides the Tibetan
kind, which appears identical with the Siberian animal originally described by
Pallas.
190
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
CHAPTER XII.
Yalloong valley-Find Kanglanamo pass closed-Change route for the south-
ward-Picrorhiza-View of Kubra-Rhododendron Falconeri-Yalloong
river-Junction of gneiss and clay-slate--Cross Yalloong range-View-
Descent-Yew-Vegetation-Misty weather-Tongdam village-Kha-
bang-Tropical vegetation-Sidingbah Mountain-View of Kinchinjunga
-Yangyading village-Slopes of hills, and courses of rivers-Khabili
valley-Ghorkha Havildar's bad conduct-Ascend Singalelah-Plague of
ticks-Short commons-Cross Islumbo pass-Boundary of Sikkim-
Kulhait valley--Lingcham-Reception by Kajee-Hear of Dr. Camp-
bell's going to meet Rajah-Views in valley-Leave for Teesta river-
Tipsy Kajee-Hospitality-Murwa beer-Temples-Acorus Calamus-
Long Mendong-Burning of dead-Superstitions-Cross Great Rungeet
Boulders, origin of Purchase of a dog-Marshes-Lamas-Dismiss
Ghorkhas-Bhoteea 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, being always blocked up by the October
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 of the many passes over it which 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 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, called "Hoonling" by the
Tibetans. They had with them above 100 sheep, of a tall, long-
legged, roman-nosed breed. Each carried upwards of forty pounds
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 or
steep ground.
Looking east I had a splendid view of the broad snowy mass of
Kubra, blocking up, as it were, the head of the valley with a white
screen. Descending to about 10,000 feet, the Abies Brunoniana
appeared, with fine trees of Rhododendron Falconeri forty feet high,
RHODODENDRON FOREST.
191
and with leaves nineteen inches long! while the upper part of the
valley was full of Abies Webbiana.
At the elevation of 9,000 feet, we crossed to the east bank, and
passed the junction of the gneiss and mica slate: the latter crossed
the river, striking north-west, and the stream cut a dark chasm-
like channel through it, foaming and dashing the spray over the
splintered ridges, and the broad water-worn hog-backed masses
that projected from its bed. Immense veins of granite permeated
the rocks, which were crumpled in the strangest manner : isolated
angular blocks of schist had been taken up by the granite in a
fluid state, and remained imbedded in it.
KA
The road made great ascents to avoid landslips, and to sur-
mount the enormous piles of débris which encumber this valley
more than any other. We encamped at 10,050 feet, on a little
flat 1,000 feet above the bed of the river, and on its east flank. A
Hydrangea was the common small wood, but Abbies Webbiana
formed the forest, with great Rhododendrons. The weather was
foggy, whence I judged that we were in the sea of mist I saw beneath
me from the passes; the temperature, considering the elevation,
was mild, 37° and 38°, which was partly due to the evolution of
heat that accompanies the condensation of these vapours, the
atmosphere being loaded with moisture. The thermometer fell to
28° during the night, and in the morning the ground was thickly
covered with hoar-frost.
December 7.-We 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 we bade
adieu to the grand alpine scenery, and for several days our course
lay in Nepal in a southerly direction, parallel to Singalelah, and
crossing every spur and river sent off by that mighty range. The
latter flow towards the Tambur, and their beds for forty or fifty miles
are elevated about 3,000 or 4,000 feet. Few of the spurs are as-
cended above 5,000 feet, but all of them rise to 12,000 or 14,000
feet to the westward, where they join the Singalelah range.
I clambered to the top of a lofty hummock, through a dense
thicket of interwoven Rhododendron bushes, the clayey soil under
which was slippery from the quantity of dead leaves. I had hoped
for a view of the top of Kinchinjunga, which bore north-east, but
it was enveloped in clouds, as were all the snows in that direction ;
to the north-west, however, I obtained bearings of the principal
peaks, &c., of the Yangma and Kambachen valleys. To the south
and south-east, lofty, rugged and pine-clad mountains rose in con-
fused masses, and white sheets of mist came driving up, clinging
192
HÌMALAYAN JOURNALS'
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 almost precipitous,
first through dense woods of silver fir, with Rhod. Falconeri and
Hodgsoni, then through Abies Brunoniana, with yew (now covered
with red berries) to the region of Magnolias and Rhod. arboreum
and barbatum. One bush of the former 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 Darjeeling trees and shrubs. A heavy mist
clung to the rank luxuriant foliage, tantalising from its obscuring
all the view. Mica schist replaced the gneiss, and a thick slippery
stratum of clay rendered it very difficult to keep one's footing.
After so many days of bright sunshine and dry weather, I found
this quiet, damp, foggy atmosphere to have a most depressing
effect there was little to interest in the meteorology, the atmo-
spheric fluctuations being far too small; geographical discovery
was at an end, and we groped our way along devious paths in
wooded valleys, or ascended spurs and ridges, always clouded
before noon, and clothed with heavy forest.
:
At 6,000 feet we emerged from the mist, and found ourselves
clambering down a deep gully, hemmed in by frightful rocky
steeps, which exposed a fine and tolerably continuous section of
schistose rocks, striking north-west, and dipping north-east, at a
very high angle.
At the bottom three furious torrents met: we descended the
course of one of them, over slanting precipices, or trees lashed to
the rocks, and after a most winding course our path conducted us
to the village of Tarbu, high above a feeder of the Khabili river,
which flows west, joining the Tambur three days' march lower
down. Having no food, we had made a very long and difficult
march to this place, but finding none here, proceeded on to
Tonghem village on the Khabili, descending through thickets of
Rhod. arboreum to the elevation of 5,560.
This village, or spur, called "Tonghem" by the Limboos, and
"Yankutang" by the Bhoteeas, is the winter resort of the inhabi-
tants of the upper Yalloong valley: they received us very kindly,
sold us two fowls, and rice enough to last for one or two days,
which was all they could spare, and gave me a good deal of infor-
mation. I found that the Kanglanamo pass had been disused
VEGETATION. TICKS.
193
since the Nepal war, that it was very lofty, and always closed in
October.
The night was fine, clear and warm, but the radiation so power-
ful that the grass was coated with ice the following morning,
though the thermometer did not fall below 33°. The next day
the sun rose with great power, and the vegetation reeked and
steamed with the heat. Crossing the river, we first made a con-
siderable descent, and then ascended a ridge to 5,750 feet, through
a thick jungle of Camellia, Eurya, and small oak: from the top
I obtained bearings of Yalloong and Choonjerma pass, and had
also glimpses of the Kinchin range through a tantalising jungle;
after which a very winding and fatiguing up-and-down march south-
wards brought us to the village of Khabang, in the magnificent
valley of the Tawa, about 800 feet above the river, and 5,500 feet
above the sea.
I halted here for a day, to refresh the people, and if possible to
obtain some food. I hoped, too, to find a pass into Sikkim, east
over Singalelah, but was disappointed: if there had ever been
one, it had been closed since the Nepal war; and there was none,
for several marches further south, which would conduct us to the
Iwa branch of the Khabili.
Khabang is a village of Geroongs, or shepherds, who pasture
their flocks on the hills and higher valleys during the summer, and
bring them down to this elevation in the winter: the ground was
consequently infested with a tick, equal in size to that so common
in the bushes, and quite as troublesome, but of a different
species.
The temperature rose to 72°, and the black-bulb thermometer
to 140°. Magnolias and various almost tropical trees were com-
mon, and the herbaceous vegetation was that of low elevations.
Large sugar cane (Saccharum), palm (Wallichia), and wild plan-
tains grew near the river, and Rhod. arboreum was very common
on dry slopes of mica-slate rocks, with the gorgeous and sweet-
scented Luulia gratissima.
Up the valley of the Tawa the view was very grand of a magnifi-
cent rocky mountain called Sidingbah, bearing south-east by south,
on a spur of the Singalelah range that runs westerly, and forms the
south flank of the Tawa, and the north of the Khabili valleys.
This mountain is fully 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 pines.
From the opposite side of the Tawa to Khabang (alt. 6,020
14
194
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
feet), I was, during our march southwards, most fortunâté in ob-
taining a splendid view of Kinchinjunga (bearing north-east by
north), with its associates, rising over the dark mass of Singalelah,
its flanks showing like tier above tier of green glaciers: its dis-
tance was fully twenty-five miles, and as only about 7,000 or 8,000
feet from its summit 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 we proceeded southward, and our daily marches were.
up ridges, and down into deep valleys, with feeders from the
flanks of Sidingbah to the Tambur. We passed through the vil-
lage of Tchonboong, and camped at Vangyading (4,100 feet),
sighted Yamroop, a large village and military post to the west of
our route, crossed the Pangwa river, and reached the valley of the
Khabili. During this part of the journey, I did not once see the
Tambur river, though I was day after day marching only seven
to ten miles distant from it, so uneven is the country. The moun-
tains around Taptiatok, Mywa Guola, and Chingtam, were pointed
out to me, but they presented no recognizable feature.
I often looked for some slope, or strike of the slopes of the
spurs, in any one valley, or that should prevail through several,
but could seldom trace any, except on one or two occasions, at
low elevations. Looking here across the valleys, there was a ten-
dency in the gentle slopes of the spurs to have plane faces dip-
ping north-east, and to be bounded by a line of cliffs striking
north-west, and facing the south-east. In such arrangements, the
upheaved cliffs may be supposed to represent parallel lines of
faults, dislocation, or rupture, but I could never trace any
secondary valleys at right angles to these. There is no such
uniformity of strike as to give to the rivers a zig-zag course of any
regularity, or one having any apparent dependence on a prevailing
arrangement of the rocks; for, though the strike of the chlorite
and clay-slate at elevations below 6,000 feet along its course is
certainly north-west, with a dip to north-east, the flexures of the
river, as projected on the map, deviate very widely from these
directions.
The valley of the Khabili is very grand, broad, open, and inter-
sected by many streams and cultivated spurs: the road from
Yamroop to Sikkim, once well frequented, runs up its north
flank, and though it was long closed we determined to follow and
clear it.
On the 11th of December we camped near the village of
GHORKHA HÁVILDAR.
195
Sablakoo (4,680 feet), and procured five days' food, to last us as
far as the first Sikkim village. Thence we proceeded eastward up
the valley, but descending to the Iwa, an affluent of the Khabili,
through a tropical vegetation of Pinus longifolia, Phyllanthus
Emblica, dwarf date-palm, &c.
Gneiss was here the prevailing rock, uniformly dipping north-
east 20°, and striking north-west. The same rock no doubt forms
the mass Sidingbah, which reared its head 8,000 feet above the
Iwa river, by whose bed we camped at 3,780 feet. Sand-flies
abounded, and were most troublesome: troops of large monkeys
were skipping about, and the whole scene was thoroughly tropical;
still, the thermometer fell to 38° in the night, with heavy
dew.
Though we passed numerous villages, I found unusual difficulty
in getting provision, and received none of the presents so uni-
formly brought by the villagers to a stranger. I was not long in
discovering, to my great mortification, that these were appro-
priated by the Ghorkha 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 on 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, even 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.
We proceeded east for three days, up the valley, through
gloomy forests of tropical trees below 5,000 feet; and ascended to
oaks and magnolias at 6,000 feet. The path was soon obstructed,
and we had to tear and cut our way, from 6,000 to 10,000 feet,
which took two days' very hard work. Ticks swarmed in the
196
HÌMALAYAN JOURNALS
small bamboo jungle, and my body was covered with these loath-
some insects, which got into my bed and hair, and even attached
themselves to my eyelids during the night, when the constant
annoyance and irritation completely banished sleep. In the day-
time they penetrated my trousers, piercing to my body in many
places, so that I repeatedly took off as many as twelve at one
time. It is indeed marvellous how so large an insect can pain-
lessly insert a stout barbed proboscis, which requires great force
to extract it, and causes severe smarting in the operation. What
the ticks feed upon in these humid forests is a perfect mystery to
me, for from 6,000 to 9,000 feet they literally swarmed, where there
was neither path nor animal life. They were, however, more
tolerable than a commoner species of parasite, which I found it
impossible to escape from, all classes of mountaineers being
infested with it.
On the 14th, after an arduous ascent through the pathless
jungle, we camped at 9,300 feet on a narrow spur, in a dense
forest, amongst immense loose blocks of gneiss. The weather
was foggy and rainy, and the wind cold. I ate the last supply
of animal food, a miserable starved pullet, with rice and Chili
vinegar; my tea, sugar, and all other superfluities having been
long before exhausted.
On the following morning, we crossed the Islumbo pass over
Singalelah into Sikkim, the elevation being 11,000 feet. Above
our camp the trees were few and stunted, and we quickly emerged
from the forest on a rocky and grassy ridge, covered with
withered Saxifrages, Umbellifera, Parnassia, Hypericum, &c.
There were no pines on either side of the pass; a very remark-
able peculiarity of the damp mountains of Sikkim, which I have
elsewhere had occasion to notice: we had left Pinus longifolia (a
far from common tree in these valleys) at 3,000 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, at 9,000 feet,
covered with red berries.
The top of the pass was broad, grassy, and bushy with dwarf
Bamboo, Rose, and Berberry, in great abundance, covered with
mosses 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 our
teeth. I collected some very curious and beautiful mosses, put-
ting these frozen treasures in 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,
THE ISLUMBO PASS. TREATY WITH SIKKIM. 197
where I halted for half an hour, and hung up my instruments :
the temperature was 32°.
We descended rapidly, proceeding eastward down the broad
valley of the Kulhait river, an affluent of the great Rungeet; and
as it had begun to sleet and snow hard, we continued until we
reached 6,400 feet before camping.
On the following day we proceeded down the valley, and
reached habitations of 4,000 feet: passing many villages and
much cultivation, we crossed the river, and ascended by 7 P.M.
to the village of Lingcham, just below the convent of Changa-
chelling, very tired and hungry. Bad weather had set in, and it
was pitch dark and raining hard when we arrived; but the
Kajee, or head man, had sent out a party with torches to
conduct us, and he gave us a most hospitable reception,
honoured us with a salute of musketry, and brought abundance
of milk, eggs, fowls, plantains, and Murwa beer. Plenty of
news was awaiting me here, and a messenger with letters was
three marches further north, at Yoksun, waiting my expected return
over the Kanglanamo pass. Dr. Campbell, I was told, had left
Darjeeling, and was en route to meet the Rajah at Bhomsong on
the Teesta river, where no European had ever yet been; and
as the Sikkim authorities had for sixteen years steadily rejected
every overture for a friendly interview, and even refused to allow
the agent of the Governor-General to enter their dominions, it
was evident that grave doings were pending. I knew that Dr.
Campbell had long used every exertion to bring the Sikkim
Rajah to a friendly conference, without having to force his way
into the country for the purpose, but in vain. It will hardly be
believed that though this chief's dominions were redeemed by us
from the Nepalese and given back to him; though we had bound
ourselves by a treaty to support him on his throne, and to defend
him against the Nepalese on the west, the Bhotan people on the
east, and the Tibetans on the north; and though the terms of the
treaty stipulated for free intercourse, mutual protection, and
friendship; the Sikkim authorities had hitherto been allowed to
obstruct all intercourse, and in every way to treat the Governor-
General's agent and the East India Company with contempt. An
affectation of timidity, 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 Darjeeling.
On the following morning the Kajee waited on me with a mag-
>
198
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
nificent present of a calf, a kid, fowls, eggs, rice, oranges, plan-
tains, egg-apples, Indian corn, 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 Darjeeling, who had
been sent a week beforehand by my kind and thoughtful friend,
Mr. Hodgson, with provisions and money.
The valley 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 Rungeet, for ten of which it is inhabited, the
villages being invariably on long meridional spurs that project
north and south from either flank; they are about 2,000 feet
above the river, and from 4,500 to 5,000 feet above the sea.
Except where these spurs project, the flanks of the valley are very
steep, the mountains rising to 7,000 or 8,000 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 valley, and then an abrupt
descent to the river. They were about a quarter of a mile broad
at the widest, and often narrower, and a mile or so long; some
parts of their surfaces and sides were quite flat, and occasionally
occupied by marshes or ponds. Cultivation is almost confined to
these spurs, and is carried on both on their summits and steep
flanks; between every two is a very steep gully and water-course.
The timber has long since been either wholly or partially cleared
from the tops, but, to a great extent, still clothes their flanks and
the intervening gorges. I have been particular in describing
these spurs, because it is impossible to survey them without
ascribing their comparative uniformity of level to the action of
water. Similar ones are characteristic features of the valleys of
Sikkim between 2,000 and 8,000 feet, and are rendered con-
spicuous by being always sites for villages and cultivation : the
soil is a vegetable mould, over a deep stratum of red clay.
I am far from supposing that any geologically recent action of
the sea has levelled these spurs; but as the great chain of the
Himalaya has risen from the ocean, and as every part of it has
been subjected to sea-action, it is quite conceivable that intervals
of rest during the periods of elevation or submergence would
effect their levelling. In a mountain mass so tumbled as is that
of Sikkim, any level surface, or approach to it, demands study;
and when, as in the Kulhait valley, we find several similar spurs
HIMALAYAN VALLEYS.
MURWA BEER.
199
with comparatively flat tops, to occupy about the same level, it
is necessary to look for some levelling cause. The action of
denudation is still progressing with astonishing rapidity, under
an annual fall of from 100 to 150 inches of rain; but its ten-
dency is to obliterate all such phenomena, and to give sharp,
rugged outlines to these spurs, in spite of the conservative
effects of vegetation.
The weather at Lingcham was gloomy, cold, and damp, with
much rain and fog, and the mean temperature (454°) was cold for
the elevation (4,860 feet): 52 was the highest temperature
observed, and 39° the lowest.
O
A letter from 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, where he was awaiting
my arrival. I therefore left on the 20th of December, accom-
panied by my friend the Kajee, who was going to pay his respects
to the Rajah. He was constantly 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 Hindoostanee, but was very com-
municative through my interpreters.
Leaving the Lingcham spur, we passed steep cliffs of mica and
schist, covered with brushwood and long grass, about 1,000 feet
above which the Changachelling convent is perched. Crossing a
torrent, we came to the next village, on the spur of Kurziuk,
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 to rest under,
of leaves and branches, and had fitted up a little bamboo stage, on
which to squat cross-legged as they do, 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 plunged a
clean drinking-tube to the bottom of the steaming bamboo jug
(described at p. 122), and held it to my mouth, then placing it by
my side, he bowed and withdrew. Nothing can be more fascinating
than the simple manners of these kind people, who really love
hospitality for its own sake, and make the stranger feel himself
welcome. Just now too, the Durbar had ordered every attention
200
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
to be paid me; and I hardly passed a village, however small,
without receiving a present, or a cottage, where beer was not
offered. This I found a most grateful beverage; and of the
occasional rests under leafy screens during a hot day's march,
and sips at the bamboo jug, I shall ever retain a grateful re-
membrance. Happily the liquor is very weak, and except by
swilling, as my friend the Kajee did, it would be impossible to get
fuddled by it.
At Kurziuk I was met by a most respectable Lepcha, who, as a
sort of compliment, sent his son to escort us to the next village
and spur of Pemiongchi, to reach which we crossed another gorge,
of which the situation and features were quite similar to those of
Kurziuk and Lingcham.
The Pemiongchi and Changachelling convents and temples
stand a few miles apart, on the ridge forming the north flank of
the Kulhait valley; and as they will be described hereafter, I now
only allude to the village, which is fully 1,000 feet below the
convent, and large and populous.
At Pemiongchi a superior Lama met me with another over-
whelming present: he was a most jolly fat monk, shaven and
girdled, and dressed in a scarlet gown; my Lepchas kotowed to
him, and he blessed them by the laying on of hands.
There is a marsh on this spur, full of the common English
Acorus Calamus, or sweet-flag, whose roots being very aromatic,
are used in griping disorders of men and cattle. Hence we
descended suddenly to the Great Rungeet, which we reached at
its junction with the Kulhait: the path was very steep and slippery,
owing to micaceous rocks, and led along the side of an enormous
Mendong, which ran down the hill for several hundred yards,
and had a large chait at each end, with several smaller ones at
intervals. Throughout its length were innumerable inscriptions of
"Om Mani Padmi om," with well carved figures of Boodh in his
At the lower end was a
many incarnations, besides Lamas, &c.
great flat area, on which are burnt the bodies of Sikkim people of
consequence: the poorer people are 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 Lepcha inter-
ment throughout Sikkim; though chaits are erected to the
This remarkable structure, called the Kaysing Mendong, is 200 yards long,
10 feet high, and 6 or 8 feet broad: it is built of flat, slaty stones, and both
faces are covered with inscribed slates, of which there are upwards of 700, and
the inscriptions, chiefly "Om Mani," &c., are in both the Uchen and Lencha
Ranja characters of Tibet. A tall stone, nine fect high, covered also with
inscriptions, terminates it at the lower end.

LEPCHA INTERMENTS. PEMIONGCHI GOOMPA. 201
memory of the departed, they have no necessary connection with
the remains, and generally none at all. Corpses in Sikkim are
never cut to pieces and thrown into lakes, or exposed on hills for
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
1310
-J. W. WHIMPER
11
CARLET
MARK
PEMIONGCHI GOOMPA AND CHAITS.
the evil spirit, who, in the eyes of the simple Lepchas, was answer-
able for all the mischief.
I crossed the Great Rungeet at 1,840 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. In the evening I walked down the banks of the river,
202
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
which flowed in a deep gorge, cumbered with enormous boulders
of granite, clay-slate, and mica-slate; the rocks in situ were all
of the latter description, highly inclined, and much dislocated.
Some of the boulders were fully ten feet in diameter, permeated
and altered very much by granite veins which had evidently been
injected when molten, and had taken up angular masses of the
chlorite, which remained, as it were, suspended in the veins.
It is not so easy to account for the present position of these
blocks of granite, a rock not common at elevations below 10,000
feet. They have been transported from a considerable distance
in the interior of the lofty valley to the north, and have descended
not less than 8,000 feet, and travelled fully fifteen miles in a straight
line, or perhaps forty along the river bed. It may be supposed
that moraines have transported them to 8,000 feet (the lowest
limit of apparent moraines), and the power of river water carried
them further; if so, the rivers must have been of much greater
volume formerly than they are now.
Our camp was on a gravel flat, like those of the Nepal valleys,
about sixty feet above the river; its temperature was 52°, which
felt cool when bathing.
From the river we proceeded west, following a steep and clayey
ascent up the end of a very long spur, from the lofty mountain range
called Mungbreu, dividing the Great Rungeet from the Teesta.
We ascended by a narrow path, accomplishing 2,500 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 4,000 feet above the sea, the spur became more open
and flat, like those of the Kulhait valley, with alternate slopes and
comparative flats: from this elevation the view north, south, and
west was very fine. Below me flowed the river, and a few miles up
it was the conical wooded hill of Tassiding, rising abruptly from a
fork of the deep river gorge, crowned with its curious temples and
mendongs, and bristling with chaits: on it is the oldest monastery
in Sikkim, occupying a singularly picturesque and prominent
position. North of this spur, and similar to it, lay that of Rāk-
lang, with the temple and monastery of the same name, at about
this elevation. In front, looking west across the Great Rungeet,
were the monasteries of Changachelling 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
spur. To the north, beyond Tassiding, were two other monasteries,
Doobdee and Sunnook, both apparently placed on the lower
BOODHIST LAMAS.
203
wooded flanks of Kinchinjunga; whilst close by was Dholing, the
seventh religious establishment now in sight.
We halted at a good wooden house to refresh ourselves with
Murwa beer, where I saw a woman with cancer in the face, an
uncommon disease in this country. I here bought a little black
puppy, to be my future companion in Sikkim : he was of a breed
between the famous Tibet mastiff and the common Sikkim hunt-
ing 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. 5,550 feet), occupying
a flat, and surrounded by extensive pools of water (for this country)
containing Acorus, Potamogeton, and duckweed. Such ponds I
have often met with on these terraces, and they are very remark-
able, not being dammed in by any conspicuous barrier, but simply
occupying depressions in the surface, from which, as I have
repeatedly observed, the land dips rapidly to the valleys below.
This being the high-road from Tumloong or Sikkim Durbar
(the capital, and Rajah's residence) to the numerous monasteries
which I had seen, we passed many Lamas and monks on their
way home from Tumloong, where they had gone to be present at
the marriage of the Tupgain Lama, the eldest son of the Rajah.
A dispensation having previously been procured from Lhassa,
this marriage had been effected by the Lamas, in order to counter-
act the efforts of the Dewan, who sought to exercise an undue
influence over the Rajah and his family. The Tupgain Lama
having only spiritual authority, and being bound to celibacy, the
temporal authority devolved on the second son, who was heir
apparent of Sikkim; he, however, having died, an illegitimate son
of the Rajah was favoured by the Dewan as heir apparent. The
bride was brought from Tibet, and the marriage party were feasted
for eighteen days at the Rajah'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,
especially yellow berberry and sandal-wood: some had staves,
and one a trident like an eel-fork, on a long staff, an emblem of
the Hindoo Trinity, called Trisool Mahadeo, which represents
Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu, in Hindoo; and Boodh, Dhurua, and
Sunga, in Boodhist theology. All 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,

204
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
having just received a letter from his Rajah, 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 dreadfully alarmed at my coming with the two
Ghorka Sepoys, whom I accordingly dismissed.
The house was of the usual Bhoteea form, of wood, well built
on posts, one-storied, containing a single apartment hung round
with bows, quivers, shields, baskets of rice, and cornucopias of
Indian corn, the handsomest and most generous looking of all the
Cerealia. 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 allow-
ance is then put into a vessel of wicker-work, lined with India-
rubber to make it water-tight; and boiling water is poured on it
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. At this season the whole population
are swilling, whether at home or travelling, and heaps of the red-
brown husks are seen by the side of all the paths.
Humen
SIKKIM LAMAS WITH PRAYING CYLINDER AND DORJE; THE LATERAL
FIGURES ARE MONKS OR GYLONGS.
RAKLANG PASS.
205
CHAPTER XIII.
Raklang pass-Uses of nettles-Edible plants-Lepcha war-Do-mani stone-
Neongong-Teesta valley-Pony, saddle, &c.-Meet Campbell-Vegeta-
tion and scenery-Presents-Visit of Dewan-Characters of Rajah and
Dewan-Accounts of Tibet-Lhassa-Siling-Tricks of Dewan-Walk
up Teesta-Audience of Rajah-Lamas-Kajees-Tchebu Lama, his
character and position-Effects of interview-Heir-apparent-Dewan's
house-Guitar-Weather-Fall of river-Tibet officers-Gigantic trees-
Neongong lake-Mainom, ascent of-Vegetation-Camp on snow-
Silver firs-View from top-Kinchin, &c.-Geology-Vapours-Sunset
effect-Elevation-Temperature, &c.-Lamas of Neongong-Temples-
Religious festival-Bamboo, flowering-Re-cross pass of Raklang-
Numerous temples, villages, &c.-Domestic animals-Descent to Great
Rungeet.
On the following morning, after receiving the usual presents from
the Lamas of Dholing, and from a large posse of women belonging
to the village of Barphiung, close by, we ascended the Raklang
pass, which crosses the range dividing the waters of the Teesta
from those of the Great Rungeet. The Kajee still kept beside.
me, and proved a lively companion; seeing me continually pluck-
ing and noting plants, he gave me much local information about
them. He told me the uses made of the fibres of the various
nettles: some being twisted for bowstrings, others as thread for
sewing and weaving; while many are eaten raw and in soups,
especially the numerous little succulent species. The great yellow-
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. The large
succulent fern, called Botrychium, 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 young tops of a Polypodium 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 affords food,
but only in times of scarcity, as does that of another species in
New Zealand (Cyathea medullaris): the pith of all is composed
of a coarse sago, that is to say, of cellular tissue with starch
granules.
I
A thick forest of Darjeeling vegetation covers the summit,
I
¹ Botrychium Virginicum, Linn. This fern is eaten abundantly by the New
Zealanders: its distribution is most remarkable, being found very rarely indeed
in Europe, and in Norway only. It abounds in many parts of the Southern
United States, the Andes of Mexico, &c., in the Himalaya mountains, Australia,
and New Zealand.

206
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
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 mountains are
on a range which is continuous with Kinchinjunga, 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 with their arrows for some hours, and then
retired towards the Teesta, making a second stand lower down,
at a place pointed out to me, where rocks on either side gave them
NY
YEMW X
AR15
TELE
R
FILL
THE
DO-MANI STONE
HOU
Millwass
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, slippery path, we came to a fine
mass of slaty gneiss, thirty feet long and thirteen feet high; not
in situ, but lying on the mountain side; on its sloping face was
carved in enormous characters, "Om Mani Padmi om; " of which
letters the top strokes afford an uncertain footing to the enthusiast
MAINOM. MEET DR. CAMPBELL.
207
who is willing to purchase a good metempsychosis by walking
along the slope, with his heels or toes in their cavities. A small
inscription in one corner is said to imply that this was the work
of a pious monk of Raklang; and the stone is called “Do-mani,”
literally, "stone of prayer.
""
The rocks and peaks of Mainom are said to overhang the descent
here with grandeur; but the continued rain hid everything but a
curious shivered peak, apparently of chlorite schist, which was
close by, and reflected a green colour; it is of course reported to
be of turquoise, and inaccessible. Descending, the rocks became
more micaceous, with broad seams of pipe-clay, originating in de-
composed beds of felspathic gneiss: the natives used this to
whitewash and mortar their temples.
I passed the monastery of Neongong, the monks of which were
building a new temple; they came to bring me a large present.
Below it is a pretty little lake, about 100 yards across, fringed
with brushwood. We camped at the village of Nampok, 4,370
feet above the sea; all thoroughly sodden with rain.
During the night much snow had fallen at and above 9,000 feet,
but the weather cleared on the following morning, and disclosed
the top of Mainom, rising close above my camp, in a series of
rugged shivered peaks, crested with pines, which looked like
statues of snow to all other quarters this mountain presents a
very gently sloping outline. Up the Teesta valley there was a
very pretty peep of snowy mountains, bearing north 35° east, of
no great height.
I
I was met by a messenger from Dr. Campbell, who told me he
was waiting breakfast; so I left my party, and, accompanied by
the Kajee and Meepo, hurried down to the valley of the Rungoon
(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's,
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 enough 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
On the top of the ridge above Broom, a tall stone is erected by the side of
the path, covered with private marks, indicating the height of various individuals
who are accustomed to measure themselves thus; there was but one mark above
5 feet 7 inches, and that was 6 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.
208
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
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
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 pre-
ferred walking; but Dr. Campbell had begged of me to use the
pony, as the Dewan had procured and sent it at great 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 awkward 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 without giving
the rider the trouble of dismounting. Thus I entered Dr. Camp-
bell's camp at Bhomsong, to the pride and delight of my attendants;
and received a hearty welcome from my old friend, who covered
me with congratulations on the successful issue of a journey which,
at this season, and under such difficulties and discouragements, he
had hardly thought feasible.
Dr. Campbell's tent was pitched in an orange-grove, occupying
a flat 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, consisting of
two species of oak, several palms, rattan-canes, screw-pine (Panda-
nus), and tall grasses, all the natives of dense hot jungles. The
river is a grand feature, broad, rocky, deep, swift, and broken by
enormous boulders of rock; its waters were of a pale opal green,
probably from the materials of the soft micaceous-rocks through
which it flows.
t
I
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
a strong cane.
Soon after arriving I received a present from the Rajah, con-
sisting of a brick of Tibet tea, eighty pounds of rancid yak butter,
done up in yak-hair cloth, three loads of rice, and one of Murwa
Whence the name of Bhomsong Samdong, the latter word meaning bridge.
THE SIKKIM RAJAH AND HIS DEWAN.
I
for beer; rolls of bread, fowls, eggs, dried plums, apricots, jujubes,
currants, and Sultana raisins, the latter fruits purchased at Lhassa,
but imported thither from western Tibet; also some trays of coarse
milk-white crystallised salt, as dug in Tibet.
209
In the evening we were visited by the Dewan, the head and
front of all our Sikkim difficulties, whose influence was para-
mount with the Rajah, owing to the age. and infirmities of the
latter, and his devotion to religion, which absorbed all his time
and thoughts. The Dewan was a good-looking Tibetan, very
robust, fair, muscular and well fleshed; 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 Rajah himself is a Tibetan of just respect-
able extraction, a native of the Sokpo province, north of Lhassa :
his Dewan was related to one of his wives, and I believe a
Lhassan by birth as well as extraction, having probably also
Kashmir blood in him.2 Though minister, he was neither
financier nor politician, but a mere plunderer of Sikkim, intro-
ducing his relations, and those whom he calls 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 are 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 England 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 prox-
imity, were apathetic, and dreaded the more active Dewan; and
the people had long given evidence of their confidence in the
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, but very dirtily
prepared.
The Tibetans court promiscuous intercourse between their families and
the Kashmir merchants who traverse their country.
15
210
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
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 the terms of our treaty, that Dr. Camp-
bell 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 Sikkim Rajah's part to
conduct business at Darjeeling, and the Dewan insisted on
sending a creature of his own, who had before been dismissed
for insolence. Malefactors who escaped into Sikkim were pro-
tected, and our police interrupted in the discharge of their duties;
slavery was practised; and government communications were
detained for weeks and months under false 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 many conversa-
tions with him, during which politics were never touched upon.
Our queries naturally referred to Tibet and its geography,
especially its great feature the Yarou Tsampoo river; this he
assured us was the Burrampooter of Assam, and that no one
doubted it in Tibet. Lhassa he described as a city in the
bottom of a flat-floored valley, surrounded by lofty snowy moun-
tains: neither grapes, tea, silk, or cotton are produced near it,
but in the Tartchi province of Tibet, one month's journey east
of Lhassa, rice, and a coarse kind of tea are both grown. Two
months' journey north-east of Lhassa is Siling, the well-known
great commercial entrepôt¹ in west China; and there coarse silk
is produced. All Tibet he described as mountainous, and an
inconceivably poor country: there are no plains, save flats in the
bottoms of the valleys, and the paths lead over lofty mountains.
Sometimes, 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; re-
maining as pillars of ice, to fall only when the thaw of the
ensuing spring commences.
We remained several days at Bhomsong, awaiting an inter-
view with the Rajah, whose movements the Dewan kept
shrouded in mystery. On Dr. Campbell's arrival at this river
a week before, he found messengers waiting to inform him that
the Rajah would meet him here; this being half way between
Darjeeling and Tumloong. Thenceforward every subterfuge was
The entrepôt is now removed to Tang-Keou-Eul.-See Huc and
Gabet.
✔**
INTERVIEW WITH THE sikkim RAJAH.
resorted to by the Dewan to frustrate the meeting; and even
after the arrival of the Rajah on the east bank, the Dewan com-
municated with Dr. Campbell by shooting across the river
arrows to which were attached letters, containing every possible
argument to induce him to return to Darjeeling; 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 jungle of Wallichia palm, prickly rattan canes,
and the Pandanus, or 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
uneatable 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 the rocks were chlorite, very soft and silvery, and so
curiously crumpled and contorted as to appear as though
formed of scales of mica crushed together, and confusedly
arranged in layers: the strike was north-west, and dip north-
east from 60° to 70°.
211
Messengers from the Dewan overtook us at the river to
announce that the Rajah was prepared and waiting to give us a
reception; so we returned, and I borrowed a coat from Dr.
Campbell instead of my tattered shooting-jacket; and we crossed
the river on the bamboo-raft. As it is the custom on these
occasions to exchange presents, I was officially 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
stealthily 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 Bhoteeas 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 over-
hung by a canopy of tattered blue silk, with which material part
212
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
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 it 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 Rajah, a genuine Tibetan, about seventy
years old. On some steps close by, and ranged down the apart-
ment, were his relations, all in brocaded silk robes reaching from
the throat to the ground, and girded about the waist; and wearing
caps similar to that of the Rajah. Kajees, counsellors, and
shaven 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 con-
taining burning juniper and other odoriferous plants. Alto-
gether the scene was solemn and impressive: as Campbell well
expressed it, the genius of Lamaism reigned supreme.
We saluted, but received no complimentary return; our chairs
were then placed, and we seated ourselves, when the Dewan
came in, clad in a superb purple silk robe, worked with circular
The Dewan then
gold figures, and formally presented us.
stood; and 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," clad in a scarlet
gown, who acted as interpreter. The conversation was short and
constrained: Tchebu was known as a devoted servant of the
Rajah and of the heir apparent; and in common with all the
Lamas he hates the Dewan, and desires a friendly intercourse
between Sikkim and Darjeeling. He is, further, the only servant
of the Rajah capable of conversing both in Hindoo and Tibetan,
and the uneasy distrustful look of the Dewan, who understands
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 satisfactory
could be done under such auspices.
¡
As a signal for departure white silk scarves were 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
Rajah, of his
CHARACTER OF LAMA. EFFECTS OF INTERVIEW. 213
utter ignorance of the usages of Oriental life, and of his not
having any one near to instruct him. The neglect of our salu-
tation, and the conversion of our presents into tribute, did not
arise from any ill-will: it was owing to the craft of the Dewan in
taking advantage of the Rajah's ignorance of his own position
and of good manners. Miserably poor, without any retinue,
taking no interest in what passes in his own kingdom, subsisting
on the plainest and coarsest food, passing his time in effectually
abstracting his mind from the consideration of earthly things, and
wrapt in contemplation, the Sikkim Rajah has arrived at great
sanctity, and is all but prepared for that absorption into the
essence of Boodh, which is the end and aim of all good
Boodhists. The mute conduct of his Court, who looked like
attendants at an inquisition, and the profound veneration ex-
pressed 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 very 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; they having just
effected the marriage of the heir apparent, himself a Lama, said
to possess much ability and prudence, and hence being very
obnoxious to the Dewan, who vehemently opposed the marriage.
As, however, the minister had established his influence over the
youngest, and estranged the Rajah 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
found 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 all his
beard with tweezers; an operation he civilly recommended to me,
1
2
214
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
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.
During our stay at Bhomsong, the weather was cool, con-
sidering the low elevation (1,500 feet), and very steady; the
mean temperature was 521, the maximum 714°, the minimum
423°0 The sun set behind the lofty mountains at 3 P.M., and in
the morning a thick, wet, white, dripping fog settled in the bottom
of the valley, and extended to 800 or 1,000 feet above the river-
bed; this was probably caused by the descent of cold currents
into the humid gorge: it was dissipated soon after sunrise, but
formed again at sunset for a few minutes, giving place to clear
starlight nights.
A thermometer sunk two feet seven inches, stood at 64°.
The temperature of the water was pretty constant at 51°: from
here to the plains of India the river has a nearly uniform fall
of 1,000 feet in sixty-nine miles, or sixteen feet to a mile were
its course straight for the same distance, the fall would be 1,000
feet in forty miles, or twenty-five feet to a mile.
Dr. Campbell's object being accomplished, he was anxious to
make the best use of the few days that remained before his return
to Darjeeling, and we therefore arranged to ascend Mainom, and
visit the principal convents in Sikkim together, after which he was
to return south, 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 left on Christmas-day, accom-
panied by two of the Rajah's, or rather Dewan's officers, of the
ranks of Dingpun and Soupan, answering to those of captain
and lieutenant; the titles were, however, nominal, the Rajah
having no soldiers, and these men being profoundly ignorant of
the mysteries of war or drill. They were splendid specimens
of Sikkim Bhoteeas (i.e., Tibetans, born in Sikkim, sometimes
called Arrhats), tall, powerful, and well built, but insolent and
bullying the Dingpun wore the Lepcha knife, ornamented
with turquoises, together with Chinese chopsticks. Near Bhom-
song, Campbell pointed out a hot bath to me, which he had
seen employed: it consisted of a hollowed prostrate tree trunk,
the water in which was heated by throwing in hot stones with
bamboo tongs. The temperature is thus raised to 114°, to which
HOT BATHS. SUMMIT OF MAINOM
215
the patient submits at repeated intervals for several days, never
leaving till wholly exhausted. These baths are called "Śa-choo,”
literally "hot-water," in Tibetan.
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 (Pentaptera), and called by the
Lepchas "Sillok-Kun," "Kun " meaning tree.
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 about 400 yards round, and has no out-
let. It contained two English plants, the common duckweed
(Lemna minor), and Potamogeton natans: some coots were
swimming in it, and having flushed a woodcock, I sent for my
gun, but 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 up 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.
The ascent was very gradual for 4,000 feet. We met with snow
at the level of Darjeeling (7,000 feet), indicating a colder climate
than at that station, where none had fallen; the vegetation was,
however, similar, but not so rich, and at 8,000 feet trees common
also to the top of Sinchul appeared, with Rhododendron Hodgsoni,
and the beautiful little winter-flowering primrose, Primula petiolaris,
whose stemless flowers spread like broad purple stars on the deep
green foliage. Above, the path runs along the ridge of the preci-
pices facing the south-east, and here we caught a glimpse of the
great valley of the Ryott, beyond the Teesta, with Tumloong, the
Rajah's residence, on its north flank, and the superb snowy peak
of Chola at its head.
One of our coolies, loaded with crockery and various indispen-
sables, had here a severe fall, and was much bruised; he however
recovered himself, but not our goods.
The rocks were all of chlorite slate, which is not usual at this
elevation; the strike was north-west, and dip north-east.
At
9,000 feet various shrubby rhododendrons prevailed, with moun-
tain-ash, birch, and dwarf-bamboo; also R. Falconeri, which grew
from forty to fifty feet high. The snow was deep and troublesome,
so we encamped at 9,800 feet, or 800 feet below the top, in a wood
of Pyrus, Magnolia, Rhododendron, and bamboo. As the ground
was deeply covered with snow, we laid our beds on a thick layer
218
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
:
of rhododendron twigs, bamboo, and masses of a pendent
moss.
We passed a very cold night, chiefly owing to damp, the tem-
perature falling to 24. On the following morning we scrambled
through the snow, reaching the summit after an hour's very
laborious ascent, and took up our quarters in a large wooden
barn-like 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 (Abies Webbiana) 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 continued chain, the distant snowy peaks
being seemingly at little further distance than the nearer ones.
The whole range (about twenty-two miles nearer than at Dar-
jeeling) appeared to rise uniformly and steeply out of black pine
forests, which were succeeded by the russet-brown of the rhodo-
dendron shrubs, 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 again, as those of Nursing, &c., present
rugged pinnacles of black and red stratified rocks, in many cases
resting on white granite, to which they present a remarkable
contrast. The general appearance was as if Kinchin and the
whole mass of mountains clustered around it, had been upheaved
by white granite, which still forms the loftiest summits, and has
raised the black stratified rocks in some places to 20,000 feet in
numerous peaks and ridges. One range presented on every
summit a cap of black stratified rocks of uniform inclination and
dip, striking north-west, with precipitous faces to the south-west:
this was clear to the naked eye, and more evident with the tele-.
scope, the range in question being only fifteen miles distant,
running between Pundim and Nursing. The fact of the granite
forming the greatest elevation must not be hastily attributed to
that igneous rock having burst through the stratified, and been
protruded beyond the latter it is much more probable that the
upheaval of the granite took place at a vast depth, and beneath
an enormous pressure of stratified rocks and perhaps of the
ocean; since which period the elevation of the whole mountain
GEOLOGICAL SPECULATIONS.
217
chain, and the denudation of the stratified rocks, has been slowly
proceeding.
To what extent denudation has thus lowered the peaks we dare
scarcely form a conjecture; but considering the number and
variety of the beds which in some places overlie the gneiss and
granite, we may reasonably conclude that many thousand feet
have been removed.
It is further assumable that the stratified rocks originally took
the forms of great domes, or arches. The prevailing north-west
strike throughout the Himalaya vaguely indicates a general
primary arrangement of the curves into waves, whose crests run
north-west and south-east; an arrangement which no minor or
posterior forces have wholly disturbed, though they have produced
endless dislocations, and especially a want of uniformity in the
amount and direction of the dip. Whether the loftiest waves
were the result of one great convulsion, or of a long-continued
succession of small ones, the effect would be the same, namely,
that the strata over those points at which the granite penetrated
the highest, would be the most dislocated, and the most exposed
to wear during denudation.
We enjoyed the view of this superb scenery till noon, when the
clouds which had obscured Darjeeling since morning were borne
towards us by the southerly wind, rapidly closing in the landscape
on all sides. At sunset they again broke, retreating from the
northward, and rising from Sinchul and Darjeeling last of all,
whilst a line of vapour, thrown by perspective into one nar ow
band, seemed to belt the Singalelah range with 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 pro-
jected; or that its true position was comparatively close to the
mountain on which we were standing, and was due to conden-
sation 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 dark-
218
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
ness 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 not very cold
(the mean temperature being 27°), and we kept ourselves quite
warm by pine-wood fires. On the following morning the sun
tinged the sky of a lurid yellow-red to the south-west, over the
plains, the belts of leaden vapour were fewer (twelve being dis-
tinguishable) and much lower than on the previous evening,
appearing as if depressed on the visible horizon. Heavy masses
of clouds nestled into all the valleys, and filled up the larger ones,
the mountain tops rising above them like islands.
The height of our position I calculated to be 10,613 feet.
Colonel Waugh had determined that of the summit by trigo-
nometry to be 10,702 feet, which probably includes the trees
which cover it, or some rocky peaks on the broad and compara-
tively level surface.
min. 27°
The mean temperature of the twenty-four hours was 32° 7
max. 4105), mean dew-point 29'7, and saturation o‘82. The mer-
cury suddenly fell below the freezing point at sunset: and from
early morning the radiation was so powerful, that a thermometer
exposed on snow sank to 21° 2, and stood at 25° 5, at 10 A.M.
The black bulb thermometer rose to 132°, at 9 A.M. on the 27th,
or 94° 2 above the temperature of the air in the shade. I did not
then observe that of radiation from snow; but if, as we may
assume, it was not less than on the following morning (21° 2), we
shall have a difference of 148° 6 Fahr., in contiguous spots; the
one exposed to the full effects of the sun, the other to that of
radiation through a rarefied medium to a cloudless sky. On the
28th the black bulb thermometer, freely suspended over the
snow and exposed to the sun, rose to 108°, or 78° above that of
the air in the shade (32°); the radiating surface of the same snow
in the shade being 21° 2, or 86° 8 colder.
Having taken a complete set of angles and panoramic sketches
from the top of Mainom, with seventeen hourly observations, and
collected much information from our guides, we returned on the
28th to our tents pitched by the temples at Neongong; descend-
ing 7,000 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
building, reminding Dr. Campbell that he and the Governor-
General had an ample share of their prayers, and benefited in
proportion. As for me, they said, I was bound to give alms, as I
BUILDING A TEMPLE. LAMA WORSHIP. 219
surely needed praying for, seeing how I exposed myself; besides
my having been the first Englishman who had visited the snows
of Kinchinjunga, the holiest spot in Sikkim.
On the following morning we visited the unfinished temple.
The outer walls were of slabs of stone neatly chiselled, but badly
mortared with felspathic clay and pounded slate, instead of lime;
the partition walls were of clay, shaped in moulds of wood;
parallel planks, four feet asunder, being placed in the intended
position of the walls, and left open above, the composition was
placed in these boxes, a little at a time, and rammed down by the
feet of many men, who walked round and round the narrow
enclosure, singing, and also using rammers of heavy wood. The
outer work was of good hard timber, of Magnolia (" Pendre-kun" of
the Lepchas) and oak, ("Sokka ”). The common "Ban," or
Lepcha knife, supplied the place of axe, saw, adze, and plane;
and the graving work was executed with small tools, chiefly on
Toon (Cedrela), a very soft wood (the "Simal-kun" of the
Lepchas).
This being a festival day, when the natives were bringing
offerings to the altar, we also visited the old temple, a small
wooden building Besides more substantial offerings, there were
little cones of rice with a round wafer of butter at the top, ranged
on the altar in order.¹ Six Lamas were at prayer, psalms, and
contemplation, sitting cross-legged on two small benches that ran
down the building: one was reading, with his hand and fore-
finger elevated, whilst the others listened; anon they all sang
hymns, repeated sacred or silly precepts to the bystanders, or
joined in a chorus with boys, who struck brass cymbals, and blew
straight copper trumpets six feet long, and conch-shells mounted
with broad silver wings, elegantly carved with dragons. There
were besides manis, or praying-cylinders, drums, gongs, books,
and trumpets made of human thigh-bones, plain or mounted in
silver.
Throughout Sikkim, we were roused each morning at daybreak
by this wild music, the convents being so numerous that we were
The worshippers, on entering, walk straight up to the altar, and before, or
after, having deposited their gifts, they lift both hands to the forehead, fall on
their knees, and ouch the ground three times with both head and hands, raising
the body a little between each prostration. They then advance to the head
Lama, kotow similarly to him, and he blesses them, laying both hands on their
heads and repeating a short formula. Sometimes the dorje is used in blessing,
as the cross is in Europe, and when a mass of people request a benediction,
the Lama pronounces it from the door of the temple with outstretched arms,
the people all being prostrate, with their foreheads touching the ground.

220
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
always within hearing of it. To me it was always deeply im-
pressive, sounding so foreign, and awakening me so effectually to
the strangeness of the wild land in which I was wandering, and of
the many new and striking objects it contained. After sleep, too,
during which the mind has either been at rest, or carried away to
more familiar subjects, the feelings of loneliness and sometimes
even of despondency, conjured up by this solemn music, were
often almost oppressive.
Ascending from Neongong, we reached that pass from the
Teesta to the Great Rungeet, which I had crossed on the 22nd;
and this time we had a splendid view, down both the valleys, of
25
IMN
ANY
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IMPLEMENTS USED IN BOODHIST TEMPLES.
Praying cylinder in stand (see p. 119, footnote); another to be carried in
the hand; cymbals; bell: brass cup; three trumpets; conch; dorje.
the rivers, and the many spurs from the ridge communicating
between Tendong and Mainom, with many scattered villages
and patches of cultivation. Near the top I found a plant of
"Praong," (a small bamboo), in full seed; this sends up many
flowering branches from the root, and but few leaf-bearing ones;
and after maturing its seed, and giving off suckers from the root,
the parent plant dies. The fruit is a dark, long grain, like rice;
it is boiled and made into cakes, or into beer, like Murwa.
Looking west from the summit, no fewer than ten monastic
establishments with their temples, villages and cultivation, were at
once visible, in the valley of the Great Rungeet, and in those of
CONVENTS AND TEMPLES.
its tributaries; namely, Changachelling, Raklang, Dholi, Molli,
Catsuperri, Dhoobdi, Sunnook, Powhungri, Pemiongchi and
Tassiding, all of considerable size, and more or less remarkable in
their sites, being perched on spurs or peaks at elevations varying
from 3,000 to 7,000 feet, and commanding splendid prospects.
We encamped at Lingcham, where I had halted on the 21st,
and the weather being fine, I took bearings of all the convents
and mountains around. There is much cultivation here, and
many comparatively rich villages, all occupying flat-shouldered
spurs from Mainom. The houses are large, and the yards are full
of animals familiar to the eye but not to the ear. The cows of
Sikkim, though generally resembling the English in stature, form,
and colour, have humps, and grunt rather than low; and the
cocks wake the morning with a prolonged howling screech, instead
of the shrill crow of chanticleer.
221
Hence we descended north-west to the Great Rungeet, opposite
Tassiding; which is one of the oldest monastic establishments in
Sikkim, and one we were very anxious to visit. The descent lay
through a forest of tropical trees, where small palms, vines,
peppers, Pandanus, wild plantain, and Pothos, were interlaced in
an impenetrable jungle, and air-plants clothed the trees.
CHAPTER XIV.
Tassiding, view of and from-Funereal cypress-Camp at Sunnook-Hot
vapours-Lama's house-Temples, decorations, altars, idols, general
effect-Chaits-Date of erection-Plundered by Ghorkas-Cross Ratong
-Ascend to Pemiongchi-Relation of river-beds to strike of rocks-
Slopes of ravines-Pemiongchi, view of Vegetation-Elevation-Temple,
decorations, &c.-Former capital of Sikkim-History of Sikkim-Night-
ingales-Campbell departs-Tchonpong-Edgeworthia-Cross Rungbee
and Ratong-Hoar-frost on plantains-Yoksun-Walnuts-View-Fu-
nereal cypresses-Doobdi-Gigantic cypresses-Temples-Snow-fall—
Sikkim, &c.-Toys.
TASSIDING hill is the steep conical termination of a long spur
from a pine-clad shoulder of Kinchinjunga, called Powhungri· it
divides the Great Rungeet from its main feeder, the Ratong,
which rises from the south face of Kinchin. We crossed the
former by a bridge formed of two bamboo stems, slung by canes
from two parallel arches of stout branches lashed together.
The ascent for 2,800 feet was up a very steep, dry, zigzag path,
amongst mica-slate rocks (strike north-east), on which grew many

222
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
tropical plants, especially the "Tukla" (Rottlera tinctoria), a
plant which yields a brown dye. The top was a flat, curving
north-west and south-east, covered with temples, chaits, and
mendongs of the most picturesque forms and m elegant groups,
and fringed with brushwood, wild plantains, small palms, and
apple-trees. Here I saw for the first time the funereal cypress, of
which some very old trees spread their weeping limbs and pensile
branchlets over the buildings. It is not wild in Sikkim, but
IRD
O
W. WHYMPER
GROUP OF CHAITS AT TASSIDING.
imported there and into Bhotan from Tibet: it does not thrive
well above 6,000 feet elevation. It is called "Tchenden " by the
Lepchas, Bhoteeas, and Tibetans, and its fragrant red wood is
burnt in the temples.
The Lamas met us on the top of the hill, bringing a noble
I was not then aware of this tree having been introduced into England by
the intrepid Mr. Fortune from China; and as I was unable to procure seeds,
which are said not to ripen in Sikkim, it was a great and unexpected pleasure,
on my return home, to find it alive and flourishing at Kew. It has proved too.
tender for out-door cultivation in England.
TASSIDING. LAMA'S HOUSE.
present of fowls, vegetables and oranges, the latter most acceptable
after our long and hot march. The site is admirably chosen, in
the very heart of Sikkim, commanding a fine view, and having a
considerable river on either side, with the power of retreating
behind to the convents of Sunnook and Powhungri, which are
higher up on the same spur, and surrounded by forest enough to
conceal an army. Considering the turbulent and warlike character
of their neighbours, it is not wonderful that the monks should
have chosen commanding spots, and good shelter for their
indolent lives: for the same reason these monasteries secured
views of one another: thus from Tassiding the great temple of
Pemiongchi was seen towering 3,000 feet over head, whilst to the
north-west, up the course of the river, the hill-sides seemed
sprinkled with monasteries.
We camped on a saddle near the village of Sunnook, at 4,000
feeet above the sea; and on the last day of the year we visited
this most interesting monastic establishment: ascending from our
camp along the ridge by a narrow path, cut here and there into
steps, and passing many rocks covered with inscriptions, broken
walls of mendongs, and other remains of the via sacra between
the village and temple. At one spot we found a fissure emitting
hot vapour of the temperature of 65° 5, that of the air being about
50°. It was simply a hole amongst the rocks; and near the
Rungeet a similar one is said to occur, whose temperature fluctu-
ates considerably with the season. It is very remarkable that such
an isolated spring should exist on the top of a sharp ridge, 2,800
feet above the bottom of this deep valley.
223
The general arrangement on the summit was, first the Lamas'
houses with small gardens, then three large temples raised on
rudely paved platforms, and beyond these, a square walled en-
closure facing the south, full of chaits and mendongs, looking
like a crowded cemetery, and planted with funereal cypress (Cupres-
sus funebris).
The house of the principal Lama was an oblong square, the
lower story of stone, and the upper of wood: we ascended a
latter to the upper room, which was 24 feet by 8 wattled all
round, with prettily latticed windows opening upon a bamboo
balcony used for drying grain, under the eaves of the broad
thatched roof. The ceiling (of neat bamboo work) was hung
with glorious bunches of maize, yellow, red, and brown; an altar
and closed wicker cage at one end of the room held the Penates,
and a few implements of worship. Chinese carpets were laid on
the floor for us, and the cans of Murwa brought round.

224
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
The Lama, though one of the red sect, was dressed in a
yellow flowered silk robe, but his mitre was red: he gave us
much information relative to the introduction of Boodhism into
Sikkim.
The three temples stand about fifty yards apart, but are not
parallel to one another, although their general direction is east
and west. Each is oblong, and narrowed upwards, with the
door at one end; the middle (and smallest) faces the west, the
others the east: the doorways are all broad, low and deep, pro-
ZANDERS
DOORWAY.
tected by a projecting carved portico. The walls are immensely
thick, of well-masoned slaty stones; the outer surface of each
slopes upwards and inwards, the inner is perpendicular. The
roofs are low and thickly thatched, and project from eight to ten
feet all round, to keep off the rain, being sometimes supported by
long poles. There is a very low upper story, inhabited by the
I Timkowski, in his travels through Mongolia (i. p. 193), says, " According
to the rules of Tibetan architecture, temples should face the south:" this is
certainly not the rule in Sikkim, nor, so far as I could learn, in Tibet either.

TASSIDING TEMPLES.
225
attendant monks and servants, accessible by a ladder at one end
of the building. The main body of the temple is one large apart-
ment, entered through a small tranverse vestibule, the breadth of
the temple, in which are tall cylindrical praying-machines. The
carving round the doors is very beautiful, and they are gaudily
painted and gilded. The northern temple is quite plain: the
middle one is simply painted red, and encircled with a row of
black heads, with goggle eyes and numerous teeth, on a white
ground; it is said to have been originally dedicated to the evil
SOUTHERN TEMPLE.
spirits of the Lepcha creed. The southern, which contains the
library, is the largest and best, and is of an irregular square shape.
The inside walls and floors are plastered with clay, and painted
with allegorical representations of Boodh, &c. From the vestibule
the principal apartment is entered by broad folding-doors, studded
with circular copper bosses, and turning on iron hinges. It is
lighted by latticed windows, sometimes protected outside by a
bamboo screen. Owing to the great thickness of the walls (three
to four feet), a very feeble light is admitted. In the principal
16

226
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
temple, called "Dugang," six hexagonal wooden columns,
narrowed above, with peculiar broad transverse capitals, ex-
quisitely gilded and painted, support the cross-beams of the roof,
which are likewise beautifully ornamented. Sometimes a curly-
maned gilt lion is placed over a column, and it is always furnished.
with a black bushy tail: squares, diamonds, dragons, and groups
of flowers, vermilion, green, gold, azure, and white, are dispersed
with great artistic taste over all the beams; the heavier masses of
colour being separated by fine white lines.
24/24
wa
107
ם כ ס
MIDDLE TEMPLE.
The altars and idols are placed at the opposite end; and two
long parallel benches, like cathedral stalls, run down the centre of
the building on these the monks sit at prayer and contemplation,
the head Lama occupying a stall (often of very tasteful design)
near the altar.
The principal Boodh, or image, is placed behind the altar under
a canopy, or behind a silk screen: lesser gods, and gaily dressed
and painted effigies of sainted male or female persons are ranged
on either side, or placed in niches around the apartment, some-

BOODHIST IMAGES.
227
times with separate altars before them; whilst the walls are more
or less covered with paintings of monks in prayer or contempla-
tion. The principal Boodh (Sakya Sing) sits cross-legged, with
the left heel up: his left hand always rests on his thigh, and holds
the padmi or lotus and jewel, which is often a mere cup; the right
hand is either raised, with the two forefingers up, or holds the
dorje, or rests on the calf of the upturned leg. Sakya has generally
JUWEN
200
PRZE
KUDOY
0000
του
ALTAR AND IMAGES.
Central figure Akshobya, the first of the Pancha Boodha.
curled hair, Lamas have mitres, females various head-dresses;
most wear immense ear-rings, and some rosaries. All are placed
on rude pediments, so painted as to convey the idea of their
rising out of the petals of the pink, purple, or white lotus. None
are in any way disagreeable; on the contrary most have a calm
and pleasing expression, suggestive of contemplation.
The great or south temple contained a side altar of very elegant
228
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
}*
shape, placed before an image encircled by a glory. Flowers,
juniper, peacock's feathers, pastiles, and rows of brass cups of
water were the chief ornaments of the altars, besides the instru-
ments I have elsewhere enumerated. In this temple was the
library, containing several hundred books, in pigeon-holes, placed
in recesses. I
The effect on entering these cold and gloomy temples is very
impressive; the Dugang in particular is exquisitely ornamented
and painted, and the vista from the vestibule to the principal idol,
of carved and coloured pillars and beams, is very picturesque.
Within, the general arrangement of the colours and gilding is felt

0 F
O
.0
V
0
C
PLAN OF THE SOUTH TEMPLE.
A. entrance; B. four praying cylinders; c. altar, with seven brass cups of
water; D. four columns; E. and F. images; G. library.
to be harmonious and pleasing, especially from the introduction
of slender white streaks between the contrasting masses of colour,
as adopted in the Great Exhibition building of 1851. It is also
well worthy of remark that the brightest colours are often used in
For a particular account of the images and decorations of these temples,
see Dr. Campbell's paper in "Bengal Asiatic Society's Trans.," May, 1849.
The principal object of veneration amongst the Ningma or red sect of Bood-
hists in Sikkim and Bhotan is Gorucknath, who is always represented sitting
crossed-legged, holding the dorje in one hand, which is raised; whilst the left
rests in the lap and holds a cup with a jewel in it. The left arm supports à
trident, whose staff pierces three sculls (a symbol of Shiva), a rosary hangs
round his neck, and he wears a red mitre with a lunar crescent and sun in front.
CHAITS AND MENDONGS AT TASSIDING.
229
broad masses, and when so, are always arranged chromatically, in
the sequence of the rainbow's hues, and are hence never dis-
pleasing to the eye. The hues, though bright, are subdued by
the imperfect light; the countenances of the images are all calm,
and their expression solemn. Whichever way you turn, the eye is
met by some beautiful specimen of colouring or carving, or some
object of veneration. The effect is much heightened by the
incense of juniper and sweet-smelling herbs which the priests
burn on entering, by their grave and decorous conduct, and by
the feeling of respect that is demanded by a religion which
theoretically inculcates and adores virtue in the abstract, and
those only amongst men who practise virtue. To the idol itself
the Boodhist attaches no real, importance; it is an object of
reverence, not of worship, and no virtue or attribute belong to it
per se; it is a symbol of the creed, and the adoration is paid to
the holy man whom it represents.
Beyond the temples are the chaits and mendongs, scattered
without much order; and I counted nearly twenty-five chaits of
the same form, between eight and thirty feet high.. The largest
is consecrated to the memory of the Rajah's eldest son, who,
however, is not buried here. A group of these structures is, as I
have often remarked, extremely picturesque, and those at Tassi-
ding, from their number, variety, and size, their commanding and
romantic position, and their being interspersed with weeping
cypresses, are particularly so.
The Tassiding temples and convents were founded upwards of
300 years ago, by the Lamas who accompanied the first Rajah to
Sikkim; and they have been continuously served by Lamas of
great sanctity, many of whom have been educated at Lhassa.
They were formerly very wealthy; but during the Nepal war they
were plundered of all their treasures, their silver gongs and bells,
their best idols, dorjes, and manis, and stripped of their orna-
ments; since which time Pemiongchi has been more popular. In
proof of their antiquity, it was pointed out that most of the symbols
and decorations were those of pure Lama Boodhism, as practised
in Tibet.
I
In Sikkim the form of the cube alone is always strictly preserved; that of
the pyramid and hemisphere being often much modified. The cube stands on
a flight of usually three steps, and is surmounted by a low pyramid of five
steps; on this is placed a swelling, urn-shaped body, which represents the
hemisphere, and is surmounted by another cube. On the latter is a slender,
round or angled spire (represented by a pyramid in Burma), crowned with a
crescent and disc, or sun, in moon. Generally the whole is of stone, with the
exception of the spire, which is of wood, painted red.
230
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
·
Although the elevation is but 4,840 feet, the weather was cold
and raw, with rain at noon, followed by thunder and lightning.
These electrical disturbances are frequent about midsummer and
midwinter, prevailing over many parts of India.
January 1st, 1849.—The morning of the new year was bright
and beautiful, though much snow had fallen on the mountains ;
and we left Sunnook for Pemiongchi, situated on the summit of
a lofty spur on the opposite side of the Ratong. We descended
very steeply to the bed of the river (alt. 2,480 feet) which joins
the Great Rungeet below the convents. The rocks were mica-
ceous, dipping west and north-west 45°, and striking north and
north-east, which direction prevailed for 1,000 feet or so up the
opposite spur. I had observed the same dip and strike on
the east flank of the Tassiding spur; but both the Ratong on
its west side, and the Great Rungeet on the east, flow in
channels that show no relation to either the dip or strike.
I have generally remarked in Sikkim that the channels of the
rivers when cutting through or flowing at the base of bluff cliffs,
are neither parallel to nor at right angles to the strike of the
rocks forming the cliffs. I do not hence conclude that there is
no original connection between the directions of the rivers, and
the lines of fracture; but whatever may have once subsisted be-
tween the direction of the fissues and that of the strike, it is in
the Sikkim Himalaya now wholly masked by shiftings, which
accompanied subsequent elevations and depressions.
Mr. Hopkins has mathematically demonstrated that the con-
tinued exertion of a force in raising superimposed strata would
tend to produce two classes of fractures in those strata; those of
the first order at right angles to the direction of the wave or ridge
(or line of strike); those of the second order parallel to the strike.
Supposing the force to be withdrawn after the formation of the two
fractures, the result would be a ridge, or mountain chain, with
diverging fissures from the summit, crossed by concentric fissures ;
and the courses which the rivers would take in flowing down the
ridge, would successively be at right angles and parallel to the
strike of the strata. Now, in the Himalaya, a prevalent strike to
the north-west has been recognised in all parts of the chain, but
it is everywhere interfered with by mountains presenting every
other direction of strike, and by their dip never remaining con-
stant either in amount or direction. Consequently, as might be
expected, the directions of the river channels bear no apparent
relation to the general strike of the rocks.
We crossed the Ratong (twenty yards broad) by a cane bridge,
PEMIONGCHI GOOMPA.
231
suspended between two rocks of green chlorite, full of veins of
granite. Ascending, we passed the village of Kameti on a spur,
on the face of which were strewed some enormous detached
blocks of white and pink stratified quartz: the rocks in situ were
all chlorite schist.
Looking across the valley to the flank of Mainom, the disposition
of the ridges and ravines on its sides was very evident; many of
the latter, throughout their westerly course, from their commence-
ment at 10,000 feet, to their debouchure in the Great Rungeet at
2,000, had a bluff, cliffy, northern flank, and a sloping southern
one. The dip of the surfaces is, therefore, north-west, the exposure
consequently of the villages which occupy terraces on the south
flanks of the lateral valleys. Tassiding spur presented exactly the
same arrangement of its ravines, and the dip of the rocks being
north-west, it follows that the planes of the sloping surfaces coincide
in direction, (though not in amount of inclination) with that
of the dip of the subjacent strata, which is anything but a usual
phenomenon in Sikkim.
The ascent to Pemiongchi continued very steep, through woods
of oaks, chesnuts, and magnolias, but no tree-fern, palms, Pothos,
or plantain, which abound at this elevation on the moister outer
ranges of Sikkim. The temple (elev. 7,083 feet) is large, eighty
feet long, and in excellent order, built upon the lofty terminal
point of the great east and west spur that divides the Kulhait from
the Ratong and Rungbee rivers; and the great Changachelling
temple and monastery stand on another eminence of the same
ridge, two miles further west.
The view of the snowy range from this temple is one of the
finest in Sikkim; the eye surveying at one glance the vegetation.
of the Tropics and the Poles. Deep in the valleys the river-beds
are but 3,000 feet above the sea, and are choked with fig trees,
plantains, and palms; to these succeed laurels and magnolias, and
higher up still, oaks, chestnuts, birches, &c. ; there is, however, no
marked line between the limits of these two last forests, which
form the prevailing arboreous vegetation between 4,000 and 10,000
feet, and give a lurid hue to the mountains. Pine forests succeed
for 2,000 feet higher, when they give place to a skirting of rhodo-
dendron and berberry. Among these appear black naked rocks,
rising up in cliffs, between which are gulleys, down which the
snow now (on the 1st January) descended to 12,000 feet. The
mountain flanks are much more steep and rocky than those at
similar heights on the outer ranges, and cataracts are very numerous,
and of considerable height, though small in volume.
232
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Pemiongchi is at the same elevation as Darjeeling, and the con
trast between the shoulders of 8,000 to 10,000 feet on Kinchinjunga,
and those of equal height on Tendong and Tonglo, is very remark-
able: looking at the latter mountains from Darjeeling, the observer
sees no rock, waterfall, or pine, throughout their whole height;
whereas the equally wooded flanks of these inner ranges are rocky,
streaked with threadlike waterfalls, and bristling with silver firs.
I
This temple, the most ancient in Sikkim, is said to be 400 years
old; it stands on a paved platform, and is of the same form and
general character as those of Tassiding. Inside, it is most beauti-
fully decorated, especially the beams, columns, capitals and archi-
traves, but the designs are coarser than those of Tassiding. The
square end of every beam in the roof is ornamented either with a
lotus flower or with a Tibetan character, in endless diversity of
colour and form, and the walls are completely covered with
allegorical paintings of Lamas and saints expounding or in con-
templation, with glories round their heads, mitred, and holding
the dorje and jewel.
The principal image is a large and hideous figure of Sakya-thoba,
in a recess under a blue silk canopy, contrasting with a calm figure
of the late Rajah, wearing a cap and coronet.
Pemiongchi was once the capital of Sikkim, and called the
Sikkim Durbar: the Rajah's residence was on a curious flat to the
south of the temple, and a few hundred feet below it, where are
the remains of (for this country) extensive walls and buildings.
During the Nepal war, the Rajah was driven west across the
Teesta, whilst the Ghorkas plundered Tassiding, Pemiongchi,
Changachelling, and all the temples and convents to the east of
that river.
It was then that the famous history of Sikkim,² com-
piled by the Lamas of Pemiongchi, and kept at this temple, was
destroyed, with the exception of a few sheets, with one of which
Dr. Campbell and myself were each presented. We were told
that the monks of Changachelling and those of this establishment
had copied what remained, and were busy compiling from oral
information, &c.: whatever value the original may have possessed,
Mr. Hodgson informed me that many of the figures and emblems in this
temple are those of Tantrica Boodhism, including Shiva, Devi, and other deities
usually called Brahminical; Katotak, or the snake king, a figure terminating
below in a snake, is also seen; with the tiger, elephant, and curly-maned
lion.
2 This remarkable and beautiful manuscript was written on thick oblong
sheets of Tibet paper, painted black to resist decay, and the letters were yellow
and gold. The Nepalese soldiers wantonly employed the sheets to roof the sheds
they erected, as a protection from the weather.

REN
20
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INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE AT PEMIONGCHI..
V
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​BOODHIST SCRIPTURES. DR. CAMPBELL LEAVES. 233
however, is irretrievably lost. A magnificent copy of the Boodhist
Scriptures was destroyed at the same time; it consisted of 400
volumes, each containing several hundred sheets of Daphne
paper.
The ground about the temple was snowed; and we descended
a few hundred feet, to encamp in a most picturesque grove, among
chaits and inscribed stones, with a peep of the temples above.
Nightingales warbled deliciously night and morning, which rather
surprised us, as the minimum thermometer fell to 27.8°, and the
ground next day was covered with hoar-frost; the elevation being
6,580 feet. These birds migrate hither in October and November,
lingering in the Himalayan valleys till the cold of early spring
drives them further south, to the plains of India, whence they
return north in March and April.
On the 2nd of January I parted from my friend, who was
obliged to hurry to the great annual fair at Titalya. I regretted
much being unable to accompany Dr. Campbell to this scene
of his disinterested labours, especially as the Nawab of
Moorshedabad was to be present, one of the few wealthy native
princes of Bengal who still keep a court worth seeing; but I was
more anxious to continue my explorations northward till the latest
moment: I however accompanied him for a short distance on his
way towards Darjeeling. We passed the old Durbar, called Phieun-
goong ("Bamboo-hill," so called from the abundance of a small
bamboo, "Phieung "). The buildings, now in ruins, occupy a
little marshy flat, hemmed in by slate rocks, and covered with
brambles and Andromeda bushes. A wall, a bastion, and an
arched gateway, are the only traces of fortifications; they are
clothed with mosses, lichens, and ferns.
I
A steep zigzag path, descending amongst long grass and scarlet
rhododendrons, leads to the Kaysing Mendong. Here I bade
adieu to Dr. Campbell, and toiled up the hill, feeling very lonely.
The zest with which he had entered into all my pursuits, and the
aid he had afforded me, together with the charm that always attends
companionship with one who enjoys every incident of travel, had
so attracted me to him that I found it difficult to recover my
spirits. It is quite impossible for any one who cannot from
experience realise the solitary wandering life I had been leading
for months, to appreciate the desolate feeling that follows the
parting from one who has heightened every enjoyment, and taken
far more than his share of every annoyance and discomfort. The
few days we had spent together appeared then, and still, as months.
Described at page 200.
t.
234
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
On my return to Pemiongchi I spent the remainder of the day
sketching in the great temple, gossiping with the Lamas, and
drinking salted and buttered tea-soup, which I had begun to like,
when the butter was not rancid.
My route hence was to be along the south flank of Kinchinjunga,
north to Jongri, which lay about four or five marches off, on the
road to the long deserted pass of Kanglanamo, by which I had
intended entering Sikkim from Nepal, when I found the route up
the Yalloong valley impracticable. The village and ruined con-
vents of Yoksun lay near the route, and the temples of Doobdi,
Catsuperri and Molli, on the Ratong river.
I descended to the village of Tchongpong (alt. 4,980 feet),
where I was detained a day to obtain, rice, of which I required ten
days' supply for twenty-five people. On the way I passed groves
of the paper-yielding Edgeworthia Gardneri: it bears round heads
of fragrant, beautiful, yellow flowers, and would be a valuable
acquisition to the English conservatory.
From Tchonpong we descended to the bed of the Rungbee
(alt. 3,160 feet), an affluent of the Ratong, flowing in a deep gulley
with precipitous sides of mica schist full of garnets, dipping west
and north-west 45°: it was spanned by a bridge of two loose
bamboo culms, about fifteen yards long, laid across without hand-
rails; after wet sand had been thrown on it the bare-footed coolies
crossed easily enough, but I, having shoes on, required a hand to
steady me. From this point we crossed a lofty spur to the Ratong
(alt. 3,000 feet), where we encamped, the coolies being unable to
proceed further on such very bad roads. This river descends from
the snows of Kinchin, and consequently retains the low tempera-
ture 42°, being fully 7° colder than the Rungbee, which at an eleva-
tion of but 3,000 feet, appears very remarkable: it must, however,
be observed that scarcely anywhere does the sun penetrate to the
bottom of its valley.
We encamped on a gravelly flat, fifty feet above the river, strewn
with water-worn boulders, and so densely covered with tall Arte-
misia, gigantic grasses, bamboo, plantain, fern, and acacia, that
we had to clear a space in the jungle, which exhaled a rank heavy
smell.
Hoar-frost formed copiously in the night, and though above the
sun's rays were very powerful, they did not reach this spot till
7.30 A.M., the frost remaining in the shade till nearly 9 A.M.;
and this on plantains, and other inhabitants of hot-houses in
England.
Hence I ascended to Yoksun, one of the most curious and
WILD WALNUT. YOKSUN.
235
picturesque spots in Sikkim, and the last inhabited place towards
Kinchinjunga. The path was excessively steep and rocky for the
first mile or two, and then alternately steep and flat. Mixed with
many tropical trees, were walnuts of the common English variety;
a tree which, though planted here, is wild near Darjeeling, where
it bears a full-sized fruit, as hard as a hickory-nut: those I gathered
in this place were similar, whereas in Bhotan the cultivated nut
is larger, thin-shelled, and the kernel is easily removed. We
ascended one slope, of an angle of 36° 30', which was covered
with light black mould, and had been recently cleared by fire; we
found millet now cultivated on it. From the top the view of the
Ratong valley was very fine: to the north lay Yoksun, appearing
from this height to occupy a flat, two miles long and one broad,
girdled by steep mountains to the north and east, dipping very
suddenly 2,200 feet to the Ratong on the west. To the right was
a lofty hill, crowned with the large temple and convents of Doobdi,
shadowed by beautiful weeping cypresses, and backed by lofty
pine-clad mountains. Northward, the gorge of the Ratong opened
as a gloomy defile, above which rose partially snowed mountains,
which shut out Kinchinjunga. To the west, massive pine-clad
mountains rose steeply; while the little hamlet of Lathiang occu-
pied a remarkable shelf overhanging the river, appearing inacessible
except by ropes from above. South-west, the long spurs of Molli
and Catsuperri, each crowned with convents or temples, descended
from Singalelah; and parallel to them on the south, but much
longer and more lofty, was the great mountain range north of the
Kulhait, with the temples and convents of Pemiongchi, and
Changachelling, towering in the air. The latter range dips suddenly
to the Great Rungeet, where Tassiding, with its chaits and cypresses,
closed the view. The day was half cloud, half sunshine, and the
various effects of light and shade, now bringing out one or other
of the villages and temples, now casting the deep valleys into
darker gloom, was wonderfully fine.
Yoksun was the earliest civilised corner of Sikkim, and derived
its name (which signifies in Lepcha "three chiefs ") from having
been the residence of three Lamas of great influence, who were the
means of introducing the first Tibetan sovereign into the country.
At present it boasts of but little cultivation, and a scattered popu-
lation, inhabiting a few hamlets, 5,500 feet above the sea: beautiful
lanes and paths wind everywhere over the gentle slopes, and
through the copsewood that has replaced the timber-trees of a
former period. Mendongs and chaits are very numerous, some of
great size; and there are also the ruins of two very large temples,

236
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
near which are some magnificent weeping cypresses, eighty feet
high. These fine trees are landmarks from all parts of the flat;
they form irregular cones of pale bright green, with naked gnarled
tops, the branches weep gracefully, but not like the picture in
Macartney's Embassy to China, whence originated the famous
willow-pattern of our crockery. The ultimate branchlets are
very slender and pendulous; my Lepcha boys made elegant
chaplets of them, binding the withes with scarlet worsted. The
trunk is quite erect, smooth, cylindrical, and pine-like; it harbours
W
SIL
TERASOO
aramdam
TEMPLE AND WEEPING CYPRESS.
no moss, but air-plants, Orchids, and ferns, nestle on the limbs,
and pendulous lichens, like our beard-moss, wave from the
branches.
In the evening I ascended to Doobdi. The path was broad,
and skilfully conducted up a very steep slope covered with forest:
the top, which is 6,470 feet above the sea, and nearly 1,000 above
Yoksun, is a broad partially paved platform, on which stand two
temples, surrounded by beautiful cypresses: one of these trees
(perhaps the oldest in Sikkim) measured sixteen and a half feet in
DOOBDI GOOMPA AND WEEPING CYPRESSES. 237
girth, at five feet from the ground, and was apparently ninety feet
high it was not pyramidal, the top branches being dead and
broken, and the lower limbs spreading; they were loaded with
masses of white-flowered Coelogynes, and Vacciniums. The
younger trees were pyramidal.
I was received by a monk of low degree, who made many
apologies for the absence of his superior, who had been ordered
an eight years' penance and seclusion from the world, of which
only three had passed. On inquiry, I learnt the reason for this;
the holy father having found himself surrounded by a family, to
which there would have been no objection, had he previously
obtained a dispensation. As, however, he had omitted this pre-
liminary, and was able to atone by prayer and payment, he had
been condemned to do penance; probably at his own suggestion,
as the seclusion will give him sanctity, and eventually lead to his
promotion, when his error shall have been forgotten.
Both temples are remarkable for their heavily ornamented, two-
storied porticos, which occupy nearly the whole of one end. The
interior decorations are in a ruinous condition, and evidently very
old; they have no Hindoo emblems.
The head Lama sent me a present of dried peaches, with a
bag of walnuts, called "Koal-kun " by the Lepchas, and "Taga-
sching" by the Bhoteeas; the two terminations alike signifying
tree.'
ik
**
The view of Yoksun from this height was very singular : it had
the appearance of an enormous deposit banked up against a spur
to the south, and mountains to the east, and apparently levelled
by the action of water: this deposit seemed as though, having
once completely filled the valley of the Ratong, that river had cut
a gorge 2,000 feet deep between it and the opposite mountain.
Although the elevation is so low, snow falls abundantly at
Doobdi in the winter; I was assured that it has been known of
the depth of five feet, a statement I consider doubtful; the
quantity is, however, certainly greater than at equal heights
about Darjeeling, no doubt owing to its proximity to Kinchin-
junga.
I was amused here by watching a child playing with a popgun,
made of bamboo, similar to that of quill, with which most
English children are familiar, and which propels pellets by means of
a spring-trigger made of the upper part of the quill. It is easy
to conclude such resemblances between the familiar toys of
different countries to be accidental, but I question their being
really so. On the plains of India, men may often be seen for
238
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
hours together, flying what with us are children's kites; and I
procured a jews'-harp from Tibet. These are not the toys of
savages, but the amusements of people more than half-civilised,
and with whom we have had indirect communication from the
earliest ages. The Lepchas play at quoits, using slate for the
purpose, and at the Highland games of "putting the stone" and
"drawing the stone." Chess, dice, draughts, Punch, hockey, and
battledore and shuttlecock, are all Indo-Chinese or Tartarian ;
and no one familiar with the wonderful instances of similarity
between the monasteries, ritual, ceremonies, attributes, vestments,
and other paraphernalia of the eastern and western churches, can
fail to acknowledge the importance of recording even the most
trifling analogies or similarities between the manners and customs
of the young as well as of the old.
TO SE V
CHAPTER XV.
Leave Yoksun for Kinchinjunga-Ascend Ratong valley-Salt-smuggling over
Ratong-Landslips-Plants-Buckeem-Blocks of gneiss-Mon Lepcha
-View-Weather-View from Gubroo-Kinchinjunga, views of tops of
Pundim cliff-Nursing-Vegetation of Himalaya-Coup d'œil of Jongri-
Route to Yalloong-Arduous route of salt-traders from Tibet-Kubra, ascent
of-Lichens-Surfaces sculptured by snow and ice-Weather at Jongri-
Snow Shades for eyes.
I LEFT Yoksun on an expedition to Ki..chinjunga on the 7th of
January. It was evident that at this season I could not attain
any height; but I was most anxious to reach the lower limit of
that mass of perpetual snow which descends in one continuous
sweep from 28,000 to 15,000 feet, and radiates from the summit
of Kinchin, along every spur and shoulder for ten to fifteen miles,
towards each point of the compass.
The route lay for the first mile over the Yoksun flat, and then
wound along the almost precipitous east flank of the Ratong,
1,000 feet above its bed, leading through thick forest. It was often
difficult, crossing torrents by culms of bamboo, and leading up
precipices by notched poles and roots of trees. I wondered what
could have induced the frequenting of such a route to Nepal,
when there were so many better ones over Singalelah, till I found
from my guide that he had habitually smuggled salt over this pass
to avoid the oppressive duty levelled by the Dewan on all imports
from Tibet by the eastern passes: he further told me that it took
five days to reach Yalloong in Nepal from Yoksun, on the third
¡
SMUGGLING SALT. MON LEPCHA.
239
of which the Kanglanamo pass is crossed, which is open from
April to November, but is always heavily snowed. Owing to this
duty, and the remoteness of the eastern passes, the people on the
west side of the Great Rungeet were compelled to pay an
enormous sum for salt; and the Lamas of Changachelling and
Pemiongchi petitioned Dr. Campbell to use his influence with
the Nepal Court to have the Kanglanamo pass re-opened, and the
power of trading with the Tibetans of Wallanchoon, Yangma, and
Kambachen, restored to them: the pass having been closed since
the Nepalese war, to prevent the Sikkim people from kidnapping
children and slaves, as was alleged to be their custom.¹
We passed some immense landslips, which had swept the
forest into the torrent, and exposed white banks of angular
detritus of gneiss and granite: we crossed one 200 yards long,
by a narrow treacherous path, on a slope of 35°: the subjacent
gneiss was nearly vertical, striking north-east. We camped at
6,670 feet, amongst a vegetation I little expected to find so close
to the snows of Kinchin; it consisted of oak, maple, birch, laurel,
rhododendron, white Daphne, jessamine, Arum, Begonia, Cyrtan-
dracea, pepper, fig, Menispermum, wild cinnamon, Scitamineæ,
several epiphytic orchids, vines, and ferns in great abundance.
On the following day, I proceeded north-west up the Ratong
river, here a furious torrent, which we crossed, and then ascended
a very steep mountain called "Mon Lepcha." Immense detached
masses of gneiss, full of coarse garnets, lay on the slope, some of
which were curiously marked with a series of deep holes, large
enough to put one's fist in, and said to be the footprints of the
sacred cow. They appeared to me to have been caused by the
roots of trees, which spread over the rocks in these humid regions,
and wear channels in the hardest material, especially when they
follow the direction of its lamination or stratification.
I encamped at a place called Buckeem (alt. 8,650 ft.), in a
forest of Abies Brunoniana and Webbiana, yew, oak, various
rhododendrons, and small bamboo. Snow lay in patches at
* An accusation in which there was probably some truth; for the Sikkim
Dingpun, who guided Dr. Campbell and myself to Mainom, Tassiding, &c.,
since kidnapped, or caused to be abducted, a girl of Brahmin parents, from the
Mai valley of Nepal, a transaction which cost him some 300 rupees. The
Nepal Durbar was naturally furious, the more so as the Dingpun had no caste,
and was therefore abhorred by all Brahmins. Restitution was demanded
through Dr. Campbell, who caused the incensed Dingpun to give up his para-
mour and her jewels. He vowed vengeance against Dr. Campbell, and found
means to gratify it, as I shall hereafter show.
240
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
8,000 feet, and the night was cold and clear. On the following
morning I continued the ascent, alternately up steeps and along
perfectly level shelves, on which were occasionally frozen pools,
surrounded with dwarf juniper and rhododendrons. Across one I
observed the track of a yak in the snow; it presented two ridges,
probably from the long hair of this animal, which trails on the
ground, sweeping the snow from the centre of its path. At
11,000 feet the snow lay deep and soft in the woods of silver fir,
and the coolies waded through it with difficulty.
Enormous fractured boulders of gneiss were frequent over the
whole of Mon Lepcha, from 7,000 to 11,000 feet: they were of
the same material as the rock in situ, and as unaccountable in
their origin as the loose blocks on Darjeeling and Sinchul spurs
at similar elevations, often cresting narrow ridges. I measured
one angular detached block, forty feet high, resting on a steep
narrow shoulder of the spur, in a position to which it was impos-
sible it could have rolled; and it is equally difficult to suppose
that glacial ice deposited it 4,000 feet above the bottom of the
gorge, except we conclude the valley to have been filled with ice
to that depth. A glance at the map will show that Mon Lepcha
is remarkably situated, opposite the face of Kinchinjunga, and at
the great bend of the Ratong. Had that valley ever been filled
with water during a glacial period, Mon Lepcha would have
formed a promontory, and many floating bergs from Kinchin
would have been stranded on its flank; but I nowhere observed
these rocks to be of so fine a granite as I believe the upper rocks
of Kinchin to be, and I consequently cannot advance even that
far-fetched solution with much plausibility.
As I ascended, the rocks became more granitic, with large
crystals of mica. The summit was another broad bare flat,
elevated 13,080 feet, and fringed by a copse of rose, berberry,
and very alpine rhododendrons: the Himalayan heather (Ardro-
meda fastigiata) grew abundantly here, affording us good fuel.
The toilsome ascent through the soft snow and brushwood
delayed the coolies, who scarcely accomplished five miles in the
day. Some of them having come up by dark, I prepared to camp
on the mountain-top, strewing thick masses of Andromeda and
moss (which latter hung in great tufts from the bushes) on the
snow; my blankets had not arrived, but there was no prospect of
a snow-storm.
The sun was powerful when I reached the summit, and I was
so warm that I walked about barefoot on the frozen snow without
inconvenience, preferring it to continuing in wet stockings: the
VIEWS FROM MON LEPCHA.
241
temperature at the time was 291°, with a brisk south east moist
wind, and the dew point 22° 8.
2
The night was magnificent, brilliant starlight, with a pale mist
over the mountains: the thermometer fell to 15° at 7½ P.M., and
one laid upon wood, with its bulb freely exposed, sank to 71°:
the snow sparkled with broad flakes of hoar-frost in the full moon,
which was so bright that I recorded my observations by its light.
Owing to the extreme cold of radiation I passed a very uncom-
fortable night. The minimum thermometer fell to 1° in shade.¹
The sky was clear, and every rock, leaf, twig, blade of grass,
and the snow itself, were covered with broad rhomboidal plates
of hoar-frost, nearly one-third of an inch across : while the metal
scale of the thermometer instantaneously blistered my tongue. As
the sun rose, the light reflected from these myriads of facets had
a splendid effect.
Before sunrise the atmosphere was still, and all but cloudless.
To the south-east were visible the plains of India, at least 140
miles distant; where, as usual, horizontal layers of leaden purple
vapour obscured the horizon: behind these the sun rose ma-
jestically, instantly dispersing them, while a thin haze spread
over all the intervening mountains, from its slanting beams
reaching me through otherwise imperceptible vapours: these, as
the sun mounted higher, again became invisible, though still
giving that transparency to the atmosphere and brilliant definition
of the distances, so characteristic of a damp, yet clear day.
Mon Lepcha commands a most extensive view of Sikkim,
southward to Darjeeling. At my feet lay the great and profound
valley of the Ratong, a dark gulf of vegetation. Looking north-
ward, the eye followed that river to the summit of Kinchinjunga (dis-
tant eighteen miles), which fronts the beholder as Mont Blanc does
when seen from the mountains on the opposite side of the valley
of Chamouni. To the east are the immense precipices and glaciers
of Pundim, and on the west those of Kubra, forming great sup-
porters to the stupendous mountain between them. Mon Lepcha
itself is a spur running south-east from the Kubra shoulder: it is
very open, and covered with rounded hills for several miles further
north, terminating in a conspicuous conical black hummock ²
At sunrise the temperature was 113°; that of grass, cleared on the previous
day of snow, and exposed to the sky, 6°; that on wool, 2° 2; and that on the
surface of the snow, o° 7.
2 This I have been told is the true Kubra; and the great snowy mountain
behind it, which I here, in conformity with the Darjeeling nomenclature, call
Kubra, has no name, being considered a part of Kinchin.
17
242
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
called Gubroo, of 15,000 feet elevation, which presents a black
cliff to the south.
Kinchinjunga rises in three heads, of nearly equal height,' which
form a line running north-west. It exposes many white or grey
rocks, bare of snow, and disposed in strata² sloping to the west ;
the colour of all which above 20,000 feet, and the rounded
knobbed form of the summit, suggest a granitic formation. Lofty
snowed ridges project from Kubra into the Ratong valley, pre-
senting black precipices of stratified rocks to the southward.
Pundim has a very grand appearance; being eight miles distant,
and nearly 9,000 feet above Mon Lepcha, it subtends an angle of
12°; while Kinchin top, though 15,000 feet higher than Mon
Lepcha, being eighteen miles distant, rises only 9° 30' above the
true horizon these angular heights are too small to give much
grandeur and apparent elevation to mountains, however lofty; nor
would they do so in this case, were it not that the Ratong valley
which intervenes, is seen to be several thousand feet lower, and
many degrees below the real horizon.
Pundim has a tremendous precipice to the south, which, to
judge from its bareness of snow, must be nearly perpendicular
and it presented a superb geological section. The height of this
precipice I found by angles with a pocket sextant to be upwards
of 3,400 feet, and that of its top to be 21,300 above the sea, and
consequently only 715 feet less than that of the summit of Pundim
itself (which is 22,015 feet). The cliff is of black stratified rocks,
sloping to the west, and probably striking north-west; permeated
from top to bottom by veins of white granite, disposed in zigzag
lines, which produce a contortion of the gneiss, and give it a marbled
appearance. The same structure may be seen in miniature on the
transported blocks which abound in the Sikkim rivers; where
veins of finely grained granite are forced in all directions through
the gneiss, and form parallel seams or beds between the lamina
The eastern and western tops are respectively 27,826 and 28,177 feet abovė
the level of the sea.
2 I am aware that the word strata is inappropriate here; the appearance of
stratification or bedding, if it indicate any structure of the rock, being, I can-
not doubt, due to that action which gives parallel cleavage planes to granite in
many parts of the world, and to which the so-called lamination or foliation of
slate and gneiss is supposed by many geologists to be due. It is not usual to
find this structure so uniformly and conspicuously developed through large
masses of granite, as it appeared to me to be on the sides of Kinchinjunga and
on the top of Junnoo, as seen from the Choonjerma pass (p. 185, plate); but
it is sometimes very conspicuous, and nowhere more than in the descent of the
Grimsel towards Meyringen, where the granite on the east flank of that mag-
nificent gorge seems cleft into parallel nearly vertical strata.
ROCK'S OF KINCHIN AND PUNDIM.
243
of that rock, united by transverse seams, and crumpling up the
gneiss itself, like the crushed leaves of a book. The summit of
Pundim itself is all of white rock, rounded in shape, and forming
a cap to the gneiss, which weathers into precipices.
A succession of ridges, 14,000 to 18,000 feet high, presented a
line of precipices running south from Pundim for several miles:
immense granite veins are exposed on their surfaces, and they are
capped by stratified rocks, sloping to the east, and apparently
striking to the north-west, which, being black, contrast strongly
with the white granite beneath them: these ridges, instead of
being round-topped, are broken into splintered crags, behind
above which rises the beautiful conical peak of Nursing, 19,139 feet
the sea, eight miles distant, and subtending an angle of 8° 30'.

Fikt
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KINCHINJUNGA AND PUNDIM FROM MON LEPCHA.
At the foot of these precipices was a very conspicuous series of
lofty moraines, round whose bases the Ratong wound; these
appeared of much the same height, rising several hundred feet
above the valley: they were comparatively level-topped, and had
steep shelving rounded sides.
I
I have been thus particular in describing the upper Ratong
valley, because it drains the south face of the loftiest mountain on
the globe; ¹ and I have introduced angular heights, and been pre-
cise in my details, because the vagueness with which all terms are
usually applied to the apparent altitude and steepness of moun-
tains and precipices, is apt to give false impressions. It is essen-
* Mount Everest (see p. 129) is now known to be a few hundred feet higher
than Kinchinjunga.
A
244
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
tial to attend to such points where scenery of real interest and
importance is to be described. It is customary to speak of
peaks as towering in the air, which yet subtend an angle of very
few degrees; of almost precipitous ascents, which, when measured,
are found to be slopes of 18° or 20°; and of cliffs as steep and
stupendous, which are inclined at a very moderate angle.
The effect of perspective is as often to deceive in details as to
give truth to general impressions; and those accessories are
sometimes wanting in nature, which, when supplied by art, give
truth to the landscape. Thus, a streak of clouds adds height to
a peak which should appear lofty, but which scarcely rises above
the true horizon; and a belt of mist will sunder two snowy moun-
tains which, though at very different distances, for want of a play
of light and shade on their dazzling surfaces, and from the
extreme transparency of the air in lofty regions, appear to be at
the same distance from the observer.
The view to the southward from Mon Lepcha, including the
country between the sea-like plains of India and the loftiest
mountain on the globe, is very grand, and neither wanting in
variety nor in beauty. From the deep valleys choked with
tropical luxuriance to the scanty yak pasturage on the heights
above, seems but a step at the first coup-d'œil, but resolves itself
on a closer inspection into five belts: 1, palm and plantain; 2,
oak and laurel; 3, pine; 4, rhododendron and grass; and 5,
rock and snow. From the bed of the Ratong, in which grow
palms with screw-pine and plantain, it is only seven miles in a
direct line to the perpetual ice. From the plains of India, or
outer Himalaya, one may behold snowy peaks rise in the distance
behind a foreground of tropical forest; here, on the contrary, all
the intermediate phases of vegetation are seen at a glance.
Except in the Himalaya this is no common phenomenon, and is
owing to the very remarkable depth of the river-beds. That part
of the valley of the Ratong where tropical vegetation ceases, is but
4,000 feet above the sea, and though fully fifty miles as the crow
flies (and perhaps 200 by the windings of the river) from the
plains of India, is only eight in a straight line (and forty by the
windings) from the snows which feed that river. In other words,
the descent is so rapid, that in eight miles the Ratong waters
every variety of vegetation, from the lichen of the poles to the
palm of the tropics; whilst throughout the remainder of its
mountain course, it falls from 4,000 to 300 feet, flowing amongst
tropical scenery, through a valley whose flanks rise from 5,000 to
12,000 feet above its bed.
JONGRI. KUBRA.
245
From Mon Lepcha we proceeded north-west towards Jongri,
along a very open rounded bare mountain, covered with enormous
boulders of gneiss, of which the subjacent rock is also composed,
The soil is a thick clay full of angular stones, everywhere
scooped out into little depressions which are the dry beds of pools,
and are often strewed with a thin layer of pebbles. Black tufts
of alpine aromatic rhododendrons of two kinds (R. anthopogon
and setosum), with dwarf juniper, comprised all the conspicuous
vegetation at this season.
After a two hours' walk, keeping at 13,000 feet elevation, we
sighted Jongri. There were two stone huts on the bleak face of
the spur, scarcely distinguishable at the distance of half a mile
from the great blocks around them. To the north Gubroo rose
in dismal grandeur, backed by the dazzling snows of Kubra,
which now seemed quite near, its lofty top (alt. 24,005 feet)
being only eight miles distant. Much snow lay on the ground in
patches, and there were few remains of herbaceous vegetation ;
those I recognised were chiefly of poppy, Potentilla, gentian,
geranium, fritillary, Umbelliferæ, grass, and sedges.
On our arrival at the huts the weather was still fine, with a
strong north-west wind, which meeting the warm moist current
from the Ratong valley, caused much precipitation of vapour.
As I hoped to be able to visit the surrounding glaciers from this
spot, I made arrangements for a stay of some days. Giving up the
only habitable hut to my people, I spread my blankets in a slope
from its roof to the ground, building a little stone dyke round thẹ
skirts of my dwelling, and a fire-place in front.
Hence to Yalloong in Nepal, by the Kanglanamo pass, is two
days' march the route crosses the Singalelah range at an elevation
of about 15,000 feet, south of Kubra, and north of a mountain
that forms a conspicuous feature south-west from Jongri, as a
crest of black fingered peaks, tipped with snow.
It is difficult to conceive the amount of labour expended upon
I am assured by Captain Sherwill, who, in 1852, proceeded along and
surveyed the Nepal frontier beyond this point to Gubroo, that this is not
Jongri, but Yangpoong. The difficulty of getting precise information, especially
as to the names of seldom-visited spots, is very great. I was often deceived
myself, undesignedly, I am sure, on the part of my informants; but in this
case I have Dr. Campbell's assurance, who has kindly investigated the subject,
that there is no mistake on my part. Captain Sherwill has also kindly commu-
nicated to me a map of the head waters of the Rungbee, Yungya, and Yalloong
rivers, of which, being more correct than my own, I have gladly availed myself
for my map. Gubroo, he informs me, is 15,000 feet in altitude, and dips in a
precipice 1,000 feet high, facing Kubra, which prevented his exploring further
north.
246
*
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
every pound of salt imported into this part of Sikkim from Tibet,
and as an enumeration of the chief features of the routes it must
follow, will give some idea of what the circuit of the loftiest
mountain in the globe involves, I shall briefly allude to them;
premising that the circuit of Mont Blanc may be easily accom-
plished in four days. The shortest route to Yoksun (the first
village south of Kinchin) from the nearest Tibetan village north
of that mountain, involves a detour of one-third of the circum-
ference of Kinchin. It is evident that the most direct way must
be that nearest the mountain-top, and therefore that which
reaches the highest accessible elevation on its shoulders, and
which, at the same time, dips into the shallowest valleys between
those shoulders. The actual distance in a straight line is about
fifty miles, from Yoksun to the mart at or near Tashirukpa.
The marches between them are as follows:-
1. To Yalloong two days; crossing Kanglanamo pass, 15,000
feet high.
3. To foot of Choonjerma pass, descending to 10,000 feet.
4. Cross Choonjerma pass, 15,260 feet, and proceed to Kam-
bachen, 11,400 feet.
5. Cross Nango pass, 15,770, and camp on Yangma river,
11,000 feet.
6. Ascend to foot of Kanglachem pass, and camp at 15,000
feet.
7. Cross Kanglachem pass, probably 16,500 feet; and
8-10. It is said to be three marches hence to the Tibetan
custom-house, and that two more snowy passes are crossed.
This allows no day of rest, and gives only five miles-as the
crow flies-to be accomplished each day, but I assume fully four-
teen of road distance; the labour spent in which would accom-
plish fully thirty over good roads. Four snowed passes at least
are crossed, all above 15,000 feet, and after the first day the path
does not descend below 10,000 feet. By this route about one.
third of the circuit of Kinchinjunga is accomplished. Supposing
the circuit were to be completed by the shortest practicable
route, that is, keeping as near the summit as possible, the average
time required for a man with his load would be upwards of a
month.
Sand
To reach Tashirukpa by the eastern route from Yoksun, being
a journey of about twenty-five days, requires a long detour to the
southward and eastward, and afterwards the ascent of the Teesta
valley, to Kongra Lama, and so north to the Tibetan Arun.
My first operation after encamping and arranging my instru-
Ag
ARCTIC AND ALPINE LICHENS.
247
ments, was to sink the ground thermometer; but the earth being
frozen to sixteen inches, it took four men several hours' work
with hammer and chisel, to penetrate so deep. There was much
vegetable matter for the first eight or ten inches, and below that
a fine red clay. I spent the afternoon, which was fine, in bota-
nising. When the sun shone, the smell of the two rhododendrons
was oppressive, especially as a little exertion at this elevation
brings on headache. There were few mosses; but crustaceous
lichens were numerous, and nearly all of them of Scotch, Alpine,
European, and Arctic kinds. The names of these, given by the
classical Linnæus and Wahlenberg, tell in some cases of their
birth-places, in others of their hardihood, their lurid colours and
weather-beaten aspects; such as tristis, gelida, glacialis, arctica,
alpina, saxatilis, polaris, frigida, and numerous others equally
familiar to the Scotch botanist. I recognised many as natives of
the wild mountains of Cape Horn, and the rocks of the stormy
Antarctic ocean; since visiting which regions I had not gathered
them. The lichen called geographicus was most abundant, and is
found to indicate a certain degree of cold in every latitude; de-
scending to the level of the sea in latitude 52° north, and 50°
south, but in lower latitudes only to be seen on mountains, It
flourishes at 10,000 feet on the Himalaya, ascending thence to
18,000 feet. Its name, however, was not intended to indicate its
wide range, but the curious maplike patterns which its yellow
crust forms on the rock.
Of the blocks of gneiss scattered over the Jongri spur, many
are twenty feet in diameter. The ridge slopes gently south-west
to the Choroong river, and more steeply north-east to the Ratong,
facing Kinchin: it rises so very gradually to a peaked mountain
between Jongri and Kubra, that it is not possible to account for
the transport and deposit of these boulders by glaciers of the
ordinary form, viz., by a stream of ice following the course of a
valley; and we are forced to speculate upon the possibility of ice
having capped the whole spur, and moved downwards, transport-
ing blocks from the prominences on various parts of the spur.
The cutting up of the whole surface of this rounded mountain
into little pools, now dry, of all sizes, from ten to about one
hundred yards in circumference, is a very striking phenomenon.
The streams flow in shallow transverse valleys, each passing
through a succession of such pools, accompanying a step-like
character of the general surface. The beds are stony, becoming
more so where they enter the pools, upon several of the larger
of which I observed curving ridges of large stones, radiating out-
248
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
wards on to their beds from either margin of the entering stream:
more generally large stones were deposited opposite every em-
brochure.
This superficial sculpturing must have been a very recent
operation; and the transport of the heavy stones opposite the
entrance of the streams has been effected by ice, and perhaps by
snow; just as the arctic ice strews the shores of the Polar ocean
with rocks.
The weather had been threatening all day, northern and
westerly currents contending aloft with the south-east trade-wind
of Sikkim, and meeting in strife over the great upper valley of the
Ratong. Stately masses of white cumuli wheeled round that gulf
of glaciers, partially dissipating in an occasional snow-storm, but
on the whole gradually accumulating.
On my arrival the thermometer was 32°, with a powerful sun
shining, and it fell to 28° at 4 P.M., when the north wind set in.
At sunset the moon rose through angry masses of woolly cirrus ;
its broad full orb threw a flood of yellow light over the serried
tops south of Pundim; thence advancing obliquely towards
Nursing, "it stood tiptoe" for a few minutes on that beautiful
pyramid of snow, whence it seemed to take flight and mount
majestically into mid-air, illuminating Kinchin, Pundim, and
Kubra.
I sat at the entrance of my gipsy-like hut, anxiously watching
the weather, and absorbed in admiration of the moonrise, from
which my thoughts were soon diverted by its fading light as it
entered a dense mass of mare's-tail cirrus. It was very cold, and
the stillness was oppressive. I had been urged not to attempt
such an ascent in January, my provisions were scanty, firewood
only to be obtained from some distance, the open undulating
surface of Jongri was particularly exposed to heavy snow-drifts,
and the path was, at the best, a scarcely perceptible track. I
followed every change of the wind, every fluctuation of the
barometer and thermometer, each accession of humidity, and the
courses of the clouds aloft. At 7 P.M., the wind suddenly shifted
to the west, and the thermometer instantly rose from 20° to 30°.
After 8 P.M., the temperature fell again, and the wind drew round
from west by south to north-east, when the fog cleared off. The
barometer rose no more than it usually does towards 10 P.M., and
though it clouded again. with the temperature at 17°, the wind
seemed steady, and I went to bed with a relieved mind.
Jan. 10.-During the night the temperature fell to 11° 2, and
at 6 A.M. was 19 8, falling again to 17° soon after. Though

WEATHER AT JONGRI.
249
clouds were rapidly coming up from the west and south-west, the
wind remained northerly till 8 A. M., when it shifted to south-west,
and the temperature rose to 25°. As it continued fine, with the
barometer high, I ventured on a walk towards Gubroo, carefully
taking bearing of my position. I found a good many plants in a
rocky valley close to that mountain, which I in vain attempted to
ascend. The air was 30°, with a strong and damp south-west
wind, and the cold was so piercing, that two lads who were with
me, although walking fast, became benumbed, and could not
return without assistance. At II A.M., a thick fog obliged us to re-
trace our steps: it was followed by snow in soft round pellets like
MAITRYA, THE SIXTH OR COMING BOODH.
sago, that swept across the hard ground. During the afternoon
it snowed unceasingly, the wind repeatedly veering round the
compass, always from west to east by south, and so by north to
west again. The flakes were so large, soft, and moist with the
south wind, and small, hard, and dry with the north. Glimpses
of blue sky were constantly seen to the south, under the gloomy
canopy above, but they augured no change. As darkness came
on, the temperature fell to 15°, and it snowed very hard; at 6
P.M., it was 11°, but rose afterwards to 18°.
The night was very cold and wintry: I sat for some hours
250
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
behind a blanket screen (which had to be shifted every few
minutes) at my tent-door, keeping up a sulky fire, and peering
through the snow for signs of improvement, but in vain. The
clouds were not dense, for the moon's light was distinct, shining
on the glittering snow-flakes that fell relentlessly: my anxiety was
great, and I could not help censuring myself severely for exposing
a party to so great danger at such a season. I found comfort in
the belief that no idle curiosity had prompted me, and that with
a good motive and a strong prestige of success, one can surmount
a host of difficulties. Still the snow fell; and my heart sank, as
my fire declined, and the flakes sputtered on the blackening
embers; my little puppy, who had gamboled all day amongst the
drifting white pellets, now whined, and crouched under my thick
woollen cloak; the inconstant searching wind drifted the snow
into the tent, whose roof so bagged in with the accumulation that
I had to support it with sticks, and dreaded being smothered, if
the weight should cause it to sink upon my bed during my sleep.
The increasing cold drove me, however, to my blankets, and
taking the precaution of stretching a tripod stand over my head,
so as to leave a breathing hole, by supporting the roof if it fell in,
I slept soundly, with my dog at my feet.
At sunrise the following morning the sky was clear, with a light
north wind; about two feet of snow had fallen, the drifts were
deep, and all trace of the path obliterated. The minimum ther-
mometer had fallen to 3° 7, the temperature rose to 27° at 9
A.M., after which the wind fell, and with it the thermometer to 18°.
Soon, however, southerly breezes set in, bringing up heavy masses
of clouds.
My light-hearted companions cheerfully prepared to leave the
ground; they took their appointed loads without a murmur, and
sought protection for their eyes from the glare of the newly fallen
snow, some with as much of my crape veil as I could spare, others
with shades of brown paper, or of hair from the yaks' tails, whilst
a few had spectacle-shades of woven hair; and the Lepchas
loosened their pigtails, and combed their long hair over their eyes
and faces. It is from fresh-fallen snow alone that much incon-
venience is felt; owing, I suppose, to the light reflected from the
myriads of facets which the crystals of snow present. I have
never suffered inconvenience in crossing beds of old snow,
or glaciers with weathered surfaces, which absorb a great deal
of light, and reflect comparatively little, and that little coloured
green or blue.
The descent was very laborious, especially through the several
TI
RATONG RIVER, FERNS.
251
miles of bush and rock which lie below the summit: so that,
although we started at 10 A.M., it was dark by the time we
reached Buckeem, where we found two lame coolies, whom we
had left on our way up, and who were keeping up a glorious fire
for our reception.
CHAPTER XVI.
Ratong river below Mon Lepcha-Ferns-Vegetation of Yoksun, tropical—
Araliacea, fodder for cattle-Rice-paper plant-Geology of Yoksun-
Lake-Old temples-Funereal cypresses-Gigantic chait-Altars-Song-
boom-Weather-Catsuperri-Velocity of Ratong-Worship at Catsuperri
lake-Scenery-Willow-Lamas and ecclesiastical establishments of Sik-
kim-Tengling—Changachelling temples and monks-Portrait of myself
on walls-Block of mica-schist-Lingcham Kajee asks for spectacles-
Hee-hill-Arrive at Little Rungeet-At Darjeeling-Its deserted and
wintry appearance.
On the following day we marched to Yoksun: the weather was
fair, though it was evidently snowing on the mountains above. I
halted at the Ratong river, at the foot of Mon Lepcha, where I
found its elevation to be 7,150 feet; its edges were frozen, and
the temperature of the water 36°; it is here a furious torrent
flowing between gneiss rocks which dip south-south-east, and is
flanked by flat-topped beds of boulders, gravel and sand, twelve
to fourteen feet thick. Its vegetation resembles that of Darjeeling,
but is more alpine, owing no doubt to the proximity of Kinchin-
junga. The magnificent Rhododendron argenteum was growing
on its banks. On the other hand, I was surprised to see a beauti-
ful fern (a Trichomanes, very like the Irish one) which is not
found at Dasjeeling. The same day, at about the same eleva-
tion, I gathered sixty species of fern, many of very tropical forms.*
No doubt the range of such genera is extended in proportion to
the extreme damp and equable climate, here, as about Darjeeling.
Tree-ferns are, however, absent, and neither plantains, epiphytical
Orchidea, nor palms, are so abundant, or ascend so high as on
the outer ranges. About Yoksun itself, which occupies a very
warm sheltered flat, many tropical genera occur, such as tall
bamboos of two kinds, grasses allied to the sugar-cane, scarlet
Erythrina, and various Araliacea, amongst which was one species
whose pith was of so curious a structure, that I had no hesitation
I
They consisted of the above-mentioned Trichomanes, three Hymenophylla,
Vittaria, Pleopeltis, and Marattia, together with several Selaginellas,
252
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
in considering the then unknown Chinese substance called rice
paper to belong to a closely allied plant.¹
The natives collect the leaves of many Aralias as fodder for
cattle, for which purpose they are of the greatest service in a
country where grass for pasture is so scarce; this is the more re-
markable, since they belong to the natural family of ivy, which is
usually poisonous; the use of this food, however, gives a peculiar
taste to the butter. In other parts of Sikkim, fig-leaves are used
for the same purpose, and branches of a bird-cherry (Prunus),
a plant also of a very poisonous family, abounding in prussic
acid.
We were received with great kindness by the villagers of Yok-
sun, who had awaited our return with some anxiety, and on
hearing of our approach had collected large supplies of food;
amongst other things were tares (called by the Lepchas "Kullai "),
yams (" Book "), and a bread made by bruising together damp
maize and rice into tough thin cakes ("Katch-ung tapha "). The
Lamas of Doobdi were especially civil, having a favour to ask,
which was that I would intercede with Dr. Campbell to procure
the permission of the Nepalese to reopen the Kanglanamo pass,
and thus give some occupation to their herds of yaks, which
were now wandering idly about.
I botanized for two days on the Yoksun flat, searching for
evidence of lacustrine strata or moraines, being more than ever
convinced by the views I had obtained of this place from Mon
Lepcha, that its uniformity of surface was due to water action. It
is certainly the most level area of its size that I know of in Sikkim,
though situated in one of the deepest valleys, and surrounded on
almost all sides by very steep mountains; and it is far above the
flat gravel terraces of the present river-beds. I searched the sur-
face of the flat for gravel beds in vain, for though it abounds in
depressions that must have formerly been lake-beds, and are now
marshes in the rainy season, these were all floored with clay.
Along the western edge, where the descent is very steep for 1,800
feet to the Ratong, I found no traces of stratified deposits, though
the spurs which projected from it were often flattened at top. The
only existing lake has sloping clay banks, covered with spongy
The Chinese rice-paper has long been known to be cut from cylinders of
pith which has always a central hollow chamber, divided into compartments by
septa or excessively thin plates. It is only within the last few months that my
supposition has been confirmed, by my father's receiving from China, after
many years of correspondence, specimens of the rice-paper plant itself, which
very closely resemble, in botanical characters, as well as in outward appearance
of size and habit, the Sikkim plant,
?

LAKE AT YOKSUN.
253
vegetable mould; it has no permanent affluent or outlet, its
present drainage being subterranean, or more probably by evapo-
ration; but there is an old water-channel several feet above its
level. It is eighty to a hundred yards across, and nearly circular;
its depth three or four feet, increased to fifteen or sixteen in the
rains; like all similar pools in Sikkim, it contains little or no
animal life at this season, and I searched in vain for shells, insects,
or frogs. All around were great blocks of gneiss, some fully
twelve feet square.
Quem
wwww
MRE
JWHVYROBEN
ALTAR AND SONG-BOOM AT YOKSUN.
ایا گیا ہے
The situation of this lake is very romantic, buried in a tall
forest of oaks and laurels, and fringed by wild camellia shrubs; the
latter are not the leafy, deep green, large-blossomed plants of our
greenhouses, but twiggy bushes with small scattered leaves, and
little yellowish flowers like those of the tea-plant. The massive
walls of a ruined temple rise close to the water, which looks like
the still moat of a castle: beside it are some grand old funereal
cypresses, with ragged scattered branches below, where they
254
HIMALAYÀN JOURNALS
struggle for light in the dense forest, but raising their heads aloft
as bright green pyramids.
After some difficulty I found the remains of a broad path that
divided into two; one of them led to a second ruined temple,
fully a mile off, and the other I followed to a grove, in which was
a gigantic chait; it was a beautiful lane throughout, bordered with
bamboo, brambles, gay-flowered Melastomaceæ like hedge-roses,
and scarlet Erythrina: there were many old mendongs and chaits
on the way, which I was always careful to leave on the right hand
in passing, such being the rule among Boodhists, the same which
ordains that the praying-cylinder or "Mani" be made to revolve
in a direction against the sun's motion,
This great chait is the largest in Sikkim; it is called "Nir-
bogong," and appears to be fully forty feet high; facing it is a
stone altar about fifteen feet long and four broad, and behind
this again is a very curious erection called "Song-boom," used for
burning juniper as incense; it resembles a small smelting furnace,
and consists of an elongated conical stone building eight feet high,
raised on a single block; it is hollow, and divided into three
stories or chambers; in the lower of which is a door by which
fuel is placed inside, and the smoke ascending through holes in
the upper slabs, escapes by lateral openings from the top compart
ment. These structures are said to be common in Tibet, but I
saw no other in Sikkim.
During my stay at Yoksun the weather was very cold, espe-
cially at night, considering the elevation (5,600 feet): the mean
temperature was 39°, the extremes being 19° 2 and 60°; and
even at 8 A.M. the thermometer, laid on the frosty grass, stood at
20°; temperatures which are at Darjeeling 1,500 feet higher.
I could not but regard with surprise such half-tropical genera as
perennial-leaved vines, Saccharum, Erythrina, large bamboos,
Osbeckia and cultivated millet resisting such low temperatures.
I
On the 14th January I left Yoksun for the lake and temples of
Catsuperri, the former of which is by much the largest in Sikkim.
After a steep descent of 1,800 feet, we reached the Ratong, where
its bed is only 3,790 feet above the sea; it is here a turbulent
stream, twelve yards across, with the usual features of gravel
terraces, huge boulders of gneiss and some of the same rock in
situ, striking north-east. Some idea of its velocity may be formed
↑ This is no doubt due to the temperature of the soil being always high :
did not sink a thermometer at Yoksun, but from observations taken at similar
elevations, the temperature of the earth, at three feet depth, may be assumed
to be 55°.
CATSUPERRI LAKE.
255
from the descent it makes from the foot of Mon Lepcha, where the
elevation of its bed was 7,150 feet, giving a fall of 3,350 feet in
only ten miles.
Hence I ascended a very steep spur, through tropical vegeta-
tion, now become so familiar to me that I used to count the number
of species belonging to the different large natural orders as I went
along. I gathered only thirty-five ferns at these low elevations.
in the same space as produces from fifty to sixty in the more
equable and humid regions of 6,000 feet; grasses, on the other
hand, were much more numerous. The view of the flat of Yoksun
from Lungschung village, opposite to it, and on about the same
level, is curious; as is that of the hamlet of Lathiang on the same
side, which I have before noticed as being placed on a very
singular flat shelf above the Ratong, and is overhung by rocks.
Ascending very steeply for several thousand feet, we reached a
hollow on the Catsuperri spur, beyond which the lake lies buried
in a deep forest. A Lama from the adjacent temple accompanied
us, and I found my people affecting great solemnity as they
approached its sacred bounds; they incessantly muttered "Om
mani," &c., kotowed to trees and stones, and hung bits of rag on
the bushes. A pretence of opposing our progress was made by
the priest, who of course wanted money; this I did not appear
to notice, and after a steep descent we were soon on the shores
of what is, for Sikkim, a grand sheet of water, (6,040 feet above
the sea), without any apparent outlet: it may be from three to five
hundred yards across in the rains, but was much less now, and
was bordered by a broad marsh of bog moss (Sphagnum), in
which were abundance of Azolla, colouring the waters red, and
sedges. Along the banks were bushes of Rhododendron barbatum
and Berberis insignis, but the mass of the vegetation was similar
to that of Darjeeling.
I
We crossed the marsh to the edge of the lake by a rude paved
way of decaying logs, through which we often plunged up to our
knees. The Lama had come provided with a piece of bark,
shaped like a boat, some juniper incense and a match-box, with
which he made a fire, and put it in the boat, which he then
launched on the lake as a votive offering to the presiding deity.
It was a dead calm, but the impetus he gave to the bark shot it
far across the lake, whose surface was soon covered with a thick
cloud of white smoke. Taking a rupee from me, the priest then
This magnificent new species has not been introduced into England; it
forms a large bush, with deep-green leaves seven inches long, and bunches of
yellow flowers.
256
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS,
waved his arm aloft, and pretended to throw the money into the
water, singing snatches of prayers in Tibetan, and at times
shrieking at the top of his voice to the Dryad who claims these
woods and waters as his own. There was neither bird, beast, nor
insect to be seen, and the scenery was as impressive to me as
the effect of the simple service was upon my people, who prayed
with redoubled fervour, and hung more rags on the bushes.
I need hardly say that this invocation of the gods of the woods
and waters forms no part of Lama worship; but the Lepchas are
only half Boodhists; in their hearts they dread the demons of the
grove, the lake, the snowy mountain and the torrent, and the
crafty Lama takes advantage of this, modifies his practices to suit
their requirements, and is content with the formal recognition of
the spiritual supremacy of the church. This is most remarkably
shown in their acknowledgment of the day on which offerings had
been made from time immemorial by the pagan Lepchas to the
genius of Kinchinjunga, by holding it as a festival of the church
throughout Sikkim.*
The two Catsuperri temples occupy a spur 445 feet above the
lake, and 6,485 feet above the sea; they are poor, and only
remarkable for a miserable weeping-willow tree planted near them,
said to have been brought from Lhassa. The monks were very
civil to me, and offered amongst other things a present of
excellent honey. One was an intelligent man, and gave me
much information: he told me that there were upwards of twenty
religious establishments in Sikkim, containing more than 1,000
priests. These have various claims upon the devout: thus,
Tassiding, Doobdi, Changachelling, and Pemiongchi are cele-
brated for their antiquity, and the latter also for being the resi-
On that occasion an invocation to the mountain is chanted by priests and
people in chorus. Like the Lama's address to the genius of Catsuperri lake,
its meaning, if it ever had any, is not now apparent. It runs thus :-
"Kanchin-jinga, Pemi Kadup
Gnetche Tangla, Dursha tember
Zu jinga Pemsum Serkiem
Dischze Kubra Kanchin tong."
This was written for me by Dr. Campbell, who, like myself, has vainly sought
its solution; it is probably a mixture of Tibetan and Lepcha, both as much
corrupted as the celebrated "Om mani padmi hoom," which is universally
pronounced by Lepchas "Menny pemmy hoom." This reminds me that I
never got a solution of this sentence from a Lama, of whatever rank or learning;
and it was only after incessant inquiry, during a residence of many years in
Nepal, that Mr. Hodgson at last, procured the interpretation, or rather para-
phrase: Hail to him (Sakya) of the lotus and the jewel," which is very much
the same as M. Klaproth and other authorities have given.
ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS, &c., OF SIKKIM. 257
dence of the head Lama; Catsuperri for its lake; Raklang for
its size, &c. All are under one spiritual head, who is the Tupgain
Lama, or eldest son of the Rajah; and who resides at the
Phadong convent, near Tumloong: the Lama of Pemiongchi is,
however, the most highly respected, on account of his age, posi-
tion, and sanctity. Advancement in the hierarchy is dependent.
chiefly on interest, but indirectly on works also; pilgrimages to
Lhassa and Teshoo Loombo are the highest of these, and it is
clearly the interest of the supreme pontiffs of those ecclesiastical
capitals to encourage such, and to intimate to the Sikkim
authorities the claims those who perform them have for pre-
ferment. Dispensations for petty offences are granted to Lamas
of low degree and monks by those of higher station, but crimes
against the church are invariably referred to Tibet, and decided
there.
The election to the Sikkim Lamaseries is generally conducted
on the principle of self-government, but Pemiongchi and some
others are often served by Lamas appointed from Tibet, or
ordained there, at some of the great convents. I never heard of
an instance of any Sikkim Lama arriving at such sanctity as to be
considered immortal, and to reappear after death in another
individual, nor is there any election of infants. All are of the
Ningma, Dookpa, or Shammar sect, and are distinguished by
their red mitres; they were once dominant throughout Tibet, but
after many wars with the yellow-caps, they were driven from
The following account of the early war between the red and the yellow.
mitred Lamas was given me by Tchebu Lama :-For twenty-five generations
the red-caps (Dookpa or Ningma) prevailed in Tibet, when they split into two
sects, who contended for supreme power; the Lama of Phado, who headed the
dissenters, and adopted a yellow mitre, being favoured by the Emperor of
China, to whom reference was made. A persecution of the red Lamas
followed, who were caught by the yellow-caps, and their mitres plunged into
dyeing vats kept always ready at the Lamaseries. The Dookpa, however,
still held Teshoo Loombo, and applied to the Sokpo (North Tibet) Lamas for
aid, who, bringing horses and camels, easily prevailed over the Gelookpa or
yellow sect, but afterwards treacherously went over to them, and joined them
in an attack on Teshoo Loombo, which was plundered and occupied by the
Gelookpas. The Dookpa thereafter took refuge in Sikkim and Bhotan,
whence the Bhotan Rajah became their spiritual chief under the name of
Dhurma Rajah, and is now the representative of that creed. Goorucknath is
still the Dookpa's favourite spiritual deity of the older creed, which is, how-
ever, no longer in the ascendant. The Dalai Lama of Teshoo Loombo is a
Gelookpa, as is the Rimbochay Lama, and the Potala Lama of Lhassa, accord-
ing to Tchebu Lama, but Turner ("Travels in Tibet," p. 315) says the con-
trary; the Gelookpa consider Sakya Thoba (or Tsongkaba), alias Mahamouni,
as their great avalar.
18
258
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
I
that country, and took refuge principally in the Himalaya. The
Bhotan or Dhurma Rajah became the spiritual head of this
Sect, and, as is well known, disputes the temporal government
also of his country with the Deva Rajah, who is the hereditary
temporal monarch, and never claims spiritual jurisdiction. Í
am indebted to Dr. Campbell for a copy and translation of the
Dhurma Rajah's great seal, containing the attributes of his
spirituality, a copy of which I have appended to the end of this
chapter.
The internal organization of the different monastic establish-
ments is very simple. The head or Teshoo Lama 2 rules
supreme; then come the monks and various orders of priests,
and then those who are candidates for orders, and dependents,
both lay-brothers and slaves: there are a few nunneries in
Sikkim, and the nuns are all relatives or connections of the Rajah,
his sister is amongst them. During the greater part of the year
all lead a more or less idle life; the dependents being the most
occupied in carrying wood and water, cultivating the land, &c.
The lay-brothers are often skilful workmen, and are sometimes
lent or hired out as labourers, especially as house-builders and
decorators. No tax of any kind is levied on the church, which is
frequently very rich in land, flocks, and herds, and in contribu-
tions from the people: land is sometimes granted by the Rajah,
but is oftener purchased by the priests, or willed, or given by the
proprietor. The services, to which I have already alluded, are
very irregularly performed; in most temples 'only on festival days,
which correspond to the Tibetan ones so admirably described in
MM. Huc and Gabet's narrative; in a few, however, service is
performed daily, especially in such as stand near frequented roads,
and hence reap the richest harvest.
Like all the natives of Tibet and Sikkim, the priests are intoler-
ably filthy; in some cases so far carrying out their doctrines as
All are
not even to kill the vermin with which they swarm.
nominally bound to chastity, but exemptions in favour of Lamas
of wealth, rank, or power, are granted by the supreme pontiffs,
both in Tibet and Sikkim. I constantly found swarms of children
about the Lamaseries, who were invariably called nephews and
nieces.
See page 93, in
4
2 I have been informed by letters from Dr. Campbell that the Pemiongchi
Lama is about to remove the religious capital of Sikkim to Darjeeling, and
build there a grand temple and monastery; this will be attractive to visitors,
and afford the means of extending our knowledge of East Tibet.
* Bhotan is generally known as the Dhurma country.
note.
CHANGACHELLING TEMPLE.
259
Descending from the Catsuperri temples, I encamped at the
village of Tengling (elevation 5,257 feet), where I was waited
upon by a bevy of forty women, Lepchas and Sikkim Bhoteeas,
accompanied by their children, and bringing presents of fowls,
rice and vegetables, and apologising for the absence of their male
relatives, who were gone to carry tribute to the Rajah. Thence
I marched to Changachelling, first descending to the Tengling
river, which divides the Catsuperri from the Molli ridge, and
which I crossed.
66
Tree-ferns here advanced further north than in any other part
of Sikkim. I did not visit the Molli temples, but crossed the
spur of that name, to the Rungbee river, whose bed is 3,300 feet
above the sea; thence I ascended upwards of 3,500 feet to the
Changachelling temples, passing Tchongpong village. The ridge
on which both Pemiongchi and Changachelling are built is ex-
cessively narrow at top; it is traversed by a via sacra," con-
necting these two establishments; this is a pretty wooded walk,
passing mendongs and chaits hoary with lichens and mosses; to
the north the snows of Kinchinjunga are seen glimmering between
the trunks of oaks, laurels, and rhododendrons, while to the south
the Sinchul and Darjeeling spurs shut out the view of the plains
of India.
Changachelling tempies and chaits crown a beautiful rocky
eminence on the ridge, their roofs, cones and spires peeping
through groves of bamboo, rhododendrons, and arbutus; the.
ascent is by broad flights of steps cut in the mica-slate rocks, up
which shaven and girdled monks, with rosaries and long red
gowns, were dragging loads of bamboo stems, that produced a
curious rattling noise. At the summit there is a fine temple, with
the ruins of several others, and of many houses: the greater part
of the principal temple, which is two-storied and divided into
several compartments, is occupied by families. The monks were
busy repairing the part devoted to worship, which consists of a
large chamber and vestibule of the usual form: the outside walls
are daubed red, with a pigment of burnt felspathic clay, which is
dug hard by. Some were painting the vestibule with colours
brought from Lhassa, where they have been trained to the art.
Amongst other figures was one playing on a guitar, a very common
symbol in the vestibules of Sikkim temples; I also saw an angel
playing on the flute, and a snake-king offering fruit to a figure in
the water, who was grasping a serpent. Amongst the figures I
was struck by that of an Englishman, whom, to my amusement,
and the limner's great delight, I recognized as myself. I was
260
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
depicted in a flowered silk coat instead of a tartan shooting-
jacket, my shoes were turned up at the toes, and I had on spec-
tacles and a tartar cap, and was writing notes in a book.
On one
side a snake king was politely handing me fruit, and on the other
a horrible demon was writhing.
A crowd had collected to see whether I should recognize myself,
and when I did so, the merriment was extreme. They begged
me to send them a supply of vermilion, gold-leaf, and brushes;
our so-called camel's-hair pencils being much superior to theirs,
which are made of marmot's hair.
I was then conducted to a house, where I found salted and
buttered tea and Murwa beer smoking in hospitable preparation.
As usual, the house was of wood, and the inhabited apartments
above the low basement story were approached by an outside
ladder, like a Swiss cottage: within were two rooms floored with
earth; the inner was small, and opened on a verandah that faced
Kinchinjunga, whence the keen wind whistled through the apart-
ment.
The head Lama, my jolly fat friend of the 20th of December,
came to breakfast with me, followed by several children, nephews
and nieces he said; but they were uncommonly like him for such
a distant relationship, and he seemed extremely fond of them, and
much pleased when I stuffed them with sugar.
Changachelling hill is remarkable for having on its summit an
immense tabular mass of chlorite slate, resting apparently hori-
zontally on variously inclined rocks of the same: it is quite flat-
topped, ten to twelve yards each way, and the sides are squared
by art; the country people attribute its presence here to a
miracle.
4
The view of the Kinchin range from this spot being one of the
finest in Sikkim, and the place itself being visible from Darjeeling,
I took a very careful series of bearings, which, with those obtained
at Pemiongchi, were of the utmost use in improving my map,
which was gradually progressing. To my disappointment I found
that neither priest nor people knew the name of a single snowy
mountain. I also asked in vain for some interpretation of the
lines I have quoted at p. 256; they said they were Lepcha wor-
ship, and that they only used them for the gratification of the
people, on the day of the great festival of Kinchinjunga.
Hence I descended to the Kulhait river, on my route back to
Darjeeling, visiting my very hospitable tippling friend, the Kajee
of Lingcham, on the way down he humbly begged me to get
him a pair of spectacles, for no other object than to look wise, as
RETURN TO DARJEELING.
261
he had the eyes of a hawk; he told me that mine drew down
universal respect in Sikkim, and that I had been drawn with them
on, in the temple at Changachelling; and that a pair would not
only wonderfully become him, but afford him the most pleasing
recollections of myself. Happily I had the means of gratifying
him, and have since been told that he wears them on state
occasions.
I encamped by the river, 3,160 feet above the sea, amongst
figs and plantains, on a broad terrace of pebbles, boulders and
sand, ten feet above the stream; the rocks in the latter were
covered with a red conferva. The sand on the banks was dis-
posed in layers, alternately white and red, the white being quartz,
and the red pulverised garnets. The arranging of these sand-
bands by the water must be due to the different specific gravities
of the garnet and quartz; the former being lighter, is lifted by the
current on to the surface of the quartz, and left there when the
waters retire.
On the next day I ascended Hee hill, crossed it at an elevation
of 7,290 feet, and camped on the opposite side at 6,680 feet, in a
dense forest. The next march was still southward to the little
Rungeet guard-house, below Darjeeling spur, which I reached
after a fatiguing walk amidst torrents of rain. The banks of the
little Rungeet river, which is only 1,760 feet above the sea, are
very flat and low, with broad terraces of pebbles and shingle,
upon which are huge gneiss boulders, fully 200 feet above the
stream.
On the 19th of January, I ascended the Tukvor spur to Dar-
jeeling, and received a most hospitable welcome from my friend
Mr. Muller, now almost the only European inhabitant of the
place. Mr. Hodgson having gone down on a shooting excursion
in the Terai, and Dr. Campbell being on duty on the Bhotan
frontier, the place looked what it really was-wholly deserted.
The rain I had experienced in the valley had here been snow,
and the appearance of the broad snowed patches clear of trees,
and of the many houses without smoke or inhabitant, and the tall
scattered trees with black bark and all but naked branches, was
dismal in the extreme. The effect was heightened by an occa-
sional Hindoo, who flitted here and there along the road,
crouching and shivering, with white cotton garments and bare
legs.
The delight of my Lepcna attendants at finding themselves
safely at home again knew no bounds; and their parents waited on
-me with presents, and other tokens of their goodwill and grati-
262
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS,
tude. I had no lack of volunteers for a similar excursion in the
following season, though with their usual fickleness, more than
half failed me, long before the time arrived for putting their zeal
to the proof.
I am indebted to Dr. Campbell for the accompanying impression and
description of the seal of the Dhurma Rajah, or sovereign pontiff of Bhotan,
and spiritual head of the whole sect of the Dookpa, or red-mitred Lama Bood-
hists. The translations were made by Aden Tchebu Lama, who accompanied
us into Sikkim in 1849, and I believe they are quite correct. The Tibetan
characters run from left to right.
The seal of the Dhurma Rajah is divided into a centre portion and sixteen
rays. In the centre is the word Dookyin, which means
"The Dookpa
Creed; " around the "Dookyin" are sixteen similar letters, meaning "I," or
The sixteen radial compartment contain his titles and attributes,
thus, commencing from the centre erect one, and passing round from left to
right:
""
" I am.
1. I am the Spiritual and Temporal Chief of
the Realm.
2. The Defender of the Faith.
3. Equal to Saruswati in learning.
4. Chief of all the Boodhs.
5. Head expounder of the Shasters.
6. Caster out of devils.
7. The most learned in the Holy Laws.
8. An Avatar of God (or, by God's will).
9. Absolver of sins.
IO. I am above all the Lamas of the Dookpa
Creed.
II. I am of the best of all Religions-the
Dookpa.
12. The punisher of unbelievers.
13. Unequalled in expounding the Shasters
14. Unequalled in holiness and wisdom.
15. The head (or fountain) of all Religious
Knowledge.
16. The Enemy of all false Avatars.
CHAPTER XVII.
EXCURSION TO TERAI.
Dispatch collections-Acorns-Heat-Punkabaree-Bees-Vegetation-Haze
—Titalya—Earthquake-Proceed to Nepal frontier-Terai, geology of—
Physical features of Himalayan valleys-Elephants, purchase of, &c.-
River-beds-Mechi river-Return to Titalya-Leave for Teesta-Climate
of plains-Jeelpigoree-Cooches-Alteration in the appearance of country
by fires, &c.-Grasses-Bamboos-Cottages-Rajah of Coochpigoree-
Condition of people-Hooli festival-Ascend Teesta-Canoes-Cranes
Forest-Baikant-pore-Rummai-Religion-Plants at foot of mountains
Exit of Teesta-Canoe voyage down to Rangmally-English genera of
plants-Birds Beautiful scenery-Botanizing on elephants-Willow—
Siligoree Cross Terai-Geology-Iron-Lohar-ghur-Coal and sand-
stone beds-Mechi fisherman-Hailstorm-Ascent to Khersiong-To
Darjeeling-Vegetation-Geology-Folded quartz-beds-Spheres of feld-
spar-Lime deposits.
HAVING arranged the collections (amounting to eighty loads)
made during 1848, they were conveyed by coolies to the foot of
DESCENT TO THE PLAINS.
263
the hills, where carts were provided to carry them five days'
journey to the Mahanuddy river, which flows into the Ganges,
whence they were transported by water to Calcutta.
On the 27th of February, I left Darjeeling to join Mr. Hodgson
at Titalya, on the plains. The weather was raw, cold, and
threatening snow lay here and there at 7,000 feet, and all vege-
tation was very backward, and wore a wintry garb. The laurels,
maples, and deciduous-leaved oaks, hydrangea and cherry, were
leafless, but the abundance of chestnuts and evergreen oaks, rho-
dodendrons, Aucuba, Limonia, and other shrubs, kept the forest
well clothed. The oaks had borne a very unusual number of
acorns during the last season, which were now falling, and strewing
the road in some places so abundantly, that it was hardly safe to
ride down hill.
The plains of Bengal were all but obscured by a dense haze,
partly owing to a peculiar state of the atmosphere that prevails in
the dry months, and partly to the fires raging in the Terai forest,
from which white wreaths of smoke ascended, stretching obliquely
for miles to the eastward, and filling the air with black particles of
grass-stems, carried 4,000 feet aloft by the heated ascending cur-
rents that impinge against the flanks of the mountains.
In the tropical region the air was scented with the white
blossoms of the Vitex Agnus castus, which grew in profusion by
the road-side; but the forest, which had looked so gigantic on my
arrival at the mountains the previous year, appeared small after
the far more lofty and bulky oaks and pines of the upper regions.
of the Himalaya.
The evening was sultry and close, the heated surface of the
earth seemed to load the surrounding atmosphere with warm
vapours, and the sensation, as compared with the cool pure air of
Darjeeling, was that of entering a confined tropical harbour after
a long sea-voyage.
I slept in the little bungalow of Punkabaree, and was wakened
next morning by sounds to which I had long been a stranger, the
voices of innumerable birds, and the humming of great bees that
bore large holes for their dwellings in the beams and rafters of
houses never before had I been so forcibly struck with the
absence of animal life in the regions of the upper Himalaya.
Breakfasting early, I pursued my way in the so-called cool of
the morning; but this was neither bright nor fresh; the night
having been hazy, there had been no terrestrial radiation, and the
earth was dusty and parched; while the sun rose through a
murky yellowish atmosphere with ill-defined orb. Thick clouds
264
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
TE
of smoke pressed upon the plains, and the faint easterly wind
wafted large flakes of grass charcoal sluggishly through the air.
Vegetation was in great beauty, though past its winter prime.
The tropical forest of India has two flowering seasons; one in
summer, of the majority of plants; and the other in winter, of
Acanthaceae, Bauhinia, Dillenia, Bombax, &c. Of these the.
former are abundant, and render the jungle gay with large and
delicate white, red, and purple blossoms. Coarse, ill-favoured
vultures wheeled through the air, languid Bengalees had
replaced the active mountaineers, jackal-like curs of low degree
teemed at every village, and ran howling away from the onslaught
of my mountain dog; and the tropics, with all their beauty of
flower and genial warmth, looked as forbidding and unwhole-
some as they felt oppressive to a frame that had so long
breathed the fresh mountain air.
•
Mounted on a stout pony, I enjoyed my scamper of sixteen
miles over the wooded plains and undulating gravelly slo es
of the Terai, intervening between the foot of the mountains
and Siligoree bungalow, where I rested for an hour. In the
afternoon I rode on leisurely to Titalya, sixteen miles further,
along the banks of the Mahanuddy, the atmosphere being so
densely hazy, that objects a few miles off were invisible, and the
sun quite concealed, though its light was so powerful that
no part of the sky could be steadily gazed upon. This state
of the air is very curious, and has met with various attempts
at explanation, all unsatisfactory to me; it accompanies great
heat, dryness, and elasticity of the suspended vapours, and is not
affected by wind. During the afternoon the latter blew with
violence, but being hot and dry, brought no relief to my still
unacclimated frame. My pony alone enjoyed the freedom of
the boundless plains, and the gallop or trot being fatiguing in the
heat, I tried in vain to keep him at a walk; his spirits did not
last long, however, for he flagged after a few days' tropical heat.
My little dog had run thirty miles the day before, exclusive of all
I
¹ Dr. M'Lelland ("Calcutta Journal of Natural History," vol. i., p. 52),
attributes the haze of the atmosphere during the north-west winds of this
season, wholly to suspended earthy particles. But the haze is present even
in the calmest weather, and extreme dryness is in all parts of the world
usually accompanied by an obscure horizon. Captain Campbell (“Çalcutta
Journal of Natural History," vol. ii., p. 44) also objects to Dr. M'Clelland's
theory, citing those parts of Southern India which are least likely to be
visited by dust-storms as possessing an equally hazy atmosphere; and
further denies its being influenced by the hygrometric state of the
atmosphere.
TITALYA. EARTHQUAQUE.
265
the detours he had made for his own enjoyment, and he flagged so
much after twenty more this day, that I had to take him on my
saddle-bow, where, after licking his hot swollen feet, he fell asleep,
in spite of the motion
After leaving the wooded Terai at Siligoree, trees became
-scarce, and clumps of bamboos were the prevalent features ;
these, with an occasional banyan, peepul, or betel-nut palm near
the villages, were the only breaks on the distant horizon. A
powerfully scented Clerodendron, and an Osbeckia gay with
blossoms like dog-roses, were abundant; the former especially
under trees, where the seeds are dropped by birds.
At Titalya bungalow I received a hearty welcome from Mr.
Hodgson, and congratulations on the success of my Nepal
journey, which afforded a theme for many conversations.
In the evening we had three sharp jerking shocks of an earth-
quake in quick succession, at 9.8 P.M., appearing to come up
from the southward: they were accompanied by a hollow
rumbling sound like that of a waggon passing over a wooden
bridge. The shock was felt strongly at Darjeeling, and regis-
tered by Mr. Muller at 9. 10 P.M.: we had accurately adjusted
our watches (chronometers) the previous morning, and the motion
may therefore fairly be assumed to have been transmitted north-
wards through the intervening distance of forty miles in two
minutes. Both Mr. Muller and Mr. Hodgson had noted a much
more severe shock at 6.10 P.M. the previous evening, which I,
who was walking down the mountain, did not experience; this
caused a good deal of damage at Darjeeling, in cracking well-
built walls. Earthquakes are frequent all along the Himalaya,
and are felt far in Tibet; they are, however, most common
towards the eastern and western extremities of India; owing in
the former case to the proximity of the volcanic forces in the
bay of Bengal. Cutch and Scinde, as is well known, have
suffered severely on many occasions, and in several of them the
motion has been propagated through Affghanistan and Little
Tibet, to the heart of Central Asia.
On the morning of the 1st of March, Dr. Campoell arrived at
the bungalow, from his tour of inspection along the frontier of
Bhotan and the Rungpore district; and we accompanied him
hence along the British and Sikkim frontier, as far west as thè
Mechi river, which bounds Nepal on the east.
Terai is a name loosely applied to a tract of country at the
* See "Wood's Travels to the Oxus,"
266
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
very foot of the Himalya: it is Persian, and signifies damp.
Politically, the Terai generally belongs to the hill-states beyond
it; geographically, it should appertain to the plains of India;
and geologically, it is a sort of neutral country, being composed
neither of the alluvium of the plains, nor of the rocks of the
hills, but for the most part of alternating beds of sand, grayel,
and boulders brought from the mountains. Botanically, it is
readily defined as the region of forest-trees; amongst which the
Sal, the most valuable of Indian timber, is conspicuous in most
parts, though not now in Sikkim, where it has been destroyed.
The Terai soil is generally light, dry, and gravelly (such as the
Sal always prefers), and varies in breadth, from ten miles along
the Sikkim frontier, to thirty and more on the Nepalese. In the
latter country it is called the Morung, and supplies Sal and
Sissoo timber for the Calcutta market, the logs being floated
down the Konki and Cosi rivers to the Ganges. The gravel-
beds extend uninterruptedly upon the plains for fully twenty
miles south of the Sikkim mountains, the gravel becoming
smaller as the distance increases, and large blocks of stone
not being found beyond a few miles from the rocks of the
Himalaya itself, even in the beds of rivers, however large and
rapid. Throughout its breadth this formation is conspicuously
cut into flat-topped terraces, flanking the spurs of the mountains,
at elevations varying from 250 to nearly 1,000 feet above the
sea. These terraces are of various breadth and length, the
smallest lying uppermost, and the broadest flanking the rivers
below. The isolated hills beyond are also flat-topped and
terraced. This deposit contains no fossils; and its general
appearance and mineral constituents are the only evidence of its
origin, which is no doubt due to a retiring ocean that washed the
base of the Sikkim Himalaya, received the contents of its rivers,
and, wearing away its bluff spurs, spread a talus upwards of 1,000
feet thick along its shores. It is not at first sight evident whether
the terracing is due to periodic retirements of the ocean, or to
the levelling effects of rivers that have cut channels through the
deposit. In many places, especially along the banks of the great
streams, the gravel is smaller, obscurely interstratified with sand,
and the flattened pebbles over-lap rudely, in a manner character-
istic of the effects of running water; but such is not the case
with the main body of the deposit, which is unstratified, and
much coarser.
The alluvium of the Gangetic valley is both interstratified with
the gravel, and passes into it, and was no doubt deposited in deep
THE GRAVEL BEDS OF THE TERAI.
267
I
water, whilst the coarser matter was accumulating at the foot of
the mountains.
M
This view is self-evident, and nas occurred, I believe, to almost
every observer, at whatever part of the base of the Himalaya he
may have studied this deposit. Its position, above the sand-
stones of the Se walik range in the north-west Himalaya, and
those of Sikkim, which appear to be modern fossiliferous rocks,
indicates its being geologically of recent formation; but it still
remains a subject of the utmost importance to discover the extent
and nature of the ocean to whose agency it is referred. I have
elsewhere remarked that the alluvium of the Gangetic valley may
to a great degree be the measure of the denudation which the
Himalaya has suffered along its Indian watershed. It was, no
doubt, during the gradual rise of that chain from the ocean, that
the gravel and alluvium were deposited; and in the terraces and
alternation of these there is evidence that there have been many
subsidences and elevations of the coast-line, during which the
gravel has suffered greatly from denudation.
I have never looked at the Sikkim Himalaya from the plains
without comparing its bold spurs enclosing sinuous river gorges,
to the weather-beaten front of a mountainous coast; and in
following any of its great rivers, the scenery of its deep valleys.
no less strikingly resembles that of such narrow arms of the sea
(or fiords) as characterize every mountainous coast, of whatever
geological formation such as the west coast of Scotland and
Norway, of South Chili and Fuegia, of New Zealand and Tas-
mania. There are, too, in these Himalayan valleys, at all
elevations below 6,000 feet, terraced pebble-beds, rising in some
cases eighty feet above the rivers, which I believe could only have
been deposited by them when they debouched into deep water;
and both these, and the beds of the rivers, are strewed, down to
1,000 feet, with masses of rock. Such accumulations and trans-
ported blocks are seen on the raised beaches of our narrow
Scottish salt-water lochs, exposed by the rising of the land, and
they are yet forming of immense thickness on many coasts by the
joint action of tides and streams.
I
This, too, is non-fossiliferous, and is of unknown depth, except at Cal-
cutta, where the sand and clay beds have been bored through, to the depth of
120 feet, below which the first pebbles were met with. Whence these pebbles
were derived is a curious problem. The great Himalayan rivers convey
pebbles but a very few miles from the mountains on to the plains of India;
and there is no rock in situ above the surface, within many miles of Calcutta,
in any direction,
*
"
268
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
I have described meeting with ancient moraines in every
Himalayan valley I ascended, or at about 7,000 or 8,000 feet
elevation, proving, that at one period, the glaciers descended fully
so much below the position they now occupy: this can only
be explained by a change of climate, or by a depression of the
mountain mass, equal to 8,000 feet, since the formation of these
moraines.
I
The country about Titalya looks desert, from that want of
trees and cultivation, so characteristic of the upper level through-
out this part of the plains, which is covered with short, poor
pasture-grass. The bungalow stands close to the Mahanuddy, on
a low hill, cut into an escarpment twenty feet high, which exposes
a section of river-laid sand and gravel, alternating with thick beds
of rounded pebbles.
Shortly after Dr. Campbell's arrival, the meadows about the
bungalow presented a singular appearance, being dotted over
with elephants, brought for purchase by Government. It was
curious to watch the arrival of these enormous animals, which
were visible nearly two miles across the flat plains; nor less
interesting was it to observe the wonderful docility of these giants
of the animal kingdom, often only guided by naked boys, perched
on their necks, scolding, swearing, and enforcing their orders
with the iron goad. There appeared as many tricks in elephant-
dealers as in horse-jockeys, and of many animals brought but
few were purchased. Government limits the price to about £75,
and the height to the shoulder must not be under seven feet,
which, incredible as it appears, may be estimated within a
fraction as being three times the circumference of the forefoot.
The pedigree is closely inquired into, the hoofs are examined for
cracks, the teeth for age, and many other points attended to.
The Sikkim frontier, from the Mahanuddy westward to the
Mechi, is marked out by a row of tall posts. The country is
undulating; and though fully 400 miles from the ocean, and not
• Such a change of temperature, without any depression or elevation of
the mountains, has been thought by Capt. R. Strachey ("Journal of Geo-
logical Society "), an able Himalayan observer, to be the necessary con-
sequence of an ocean at the foot of these mountains; for the amount of
perpetual snow, and consequent descent of the glaciers, increasing indirectly
in proportion to the humidity of the climate and the snow-fall, he con-
jectured that the proximity of the ocean would prodigiously increase such a
deposition of snow. To me, this argument appears inconclusive; for the first
effect of such a vast body of water would be to raise the temperature
winter; and as it is the rain, rather than the sun of summer, which removes
the Sikkim snow, so would an increase of this rain elevate, rather than
depress, the level of perpetual snow,
C
1
NEPEL MORUNG. SAL FORESTS.
269
sixty from the top of the loftiest mountain on the globe, its
average level is not 300 feet above that of the sea.
The upper
levels are gravelly, and loosely covered with scattered thorny
jujube bushes, occasionally tenanted by the Florican, a kind of
bustard, which scours these downs. Sometimes a solitary fig, or a
thorny acacia, breaks the horizon, and there are a few gnarled
trees of the scarlet Butea frondosa.
On our route I had a good opportunity of examining the line
of junction between the alluvial plains that stretch south to the
Ganges, and the gravel deposit flanking the hills. The rivers
always cut broad channels with scarped terraced sides, and their
low banks are very fertile, from the mud annually spread by the
ever-shifting streams that meander within their limits; there are,
however, few shrubs and no trees. The houses, which are very
few and scattered, are built on the gravelly soil above, the lower
level being very malarious.
Thirty miles south of the mountains, numerous isolated flat-
topped hills, formed of stratified gravel and sand with large
water-worn pebbles, rise from 80 to 200 feet above the mean
level, which is about 250 feet above the sea; these, too, haye
always scarped sides, and the channels of small streams com-
pletely encircle them.
At this season few insects but grasshoppers are to be seen,
even mosquitos being rare. Birds, however, abound, and we
noticed the common sparrow, hoopoe, water-wagtail, skylark,
osprey, and several egrets.
We arrived on the third day at the Mechi river, to the west of
which the Nepal Terai (or Morung) begins, whose belt of Sal
forest loomed on the horizon, so raised by refraction as to be
visible as a dark line from the distance of many miles. It is,
however, very poor, all the large trees having been removed.
We rode for several miles into it, and found the soil dry and
hard, but supporting a prodigious undergrowth of gigantic harsh
grasses that reached to our heads, though we were mounted on
elephants. Besides Sal there was abundance of Butea, Dios-
pyros, Terminalia, and Symplocos, with the dwarf Phoenix palm,
and occasionally Cycas. Tigers, wild elephants, and the rhi-
noceros, are said to be found here: but we saw none.
The old and new Mechi rivers are several miles apart, but flow
in the same depression, a low swamp many miles broad, which is
grazed at this season and cultivated during the rains. The grass
is very rich, partly owing to the moisture of the climate, and
partly to the retiring waters of the rivers; both circumstances
270
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
being the effects of proximity to the Himalaya. Hence cattle
(buffalos and the common humped cow of India) are driven from
the banks of the Ganges 300 miles to these feeding grounds, for
the use of which a trifling tax is levied on each animal. The
cattle are very carelessly herded, and many are carried off by
tigers.
Having returned to Titalya, Mr. Hodgson and I set off in an
eastern direction for the Teesta river, whose embouchure from
the mountains to the plains I was anxious to visit. Though the
weather is hot, and oppressively so in the middle of the day, there
are few climates more delicious than that of these grassy savan-
nahs from December to March. We all started soon after day-
break on ponies, and enjoyed a twelve to sixteen miles' gallop in
the cool of the morning before breakfast, which we found pre-
pared on our arrival at a tent sent on ahead the night before.
The road led across an open country, or followed paths through
interminable rice-fields, now dry and dusty. On poor soil a
white-flowered Leucas monopolized the space, like our charlock
and poppy; it was apparently a pest to the agriculturist, covering
the surface in some places like a sprinkling of snow. Sometimes
the river-beds exposed fourteen feet of pure stratified sand, with
only an inch of vegetable soil ab ove.
At this season the mornings are very hazy, with the thermometer
at sunrise 60°; one laid on grass during the night falling 7° below
that temperature: dew forms, but never copiously; by IO A.M.
the temperature has risen to 75°, and the faint easterly morning
breezes die away; the haze thickens, and covers the sky with a
white veil, the thermometer rising to 82° at noon, and the west
wind succeeding in parching tornados and furious gusts, increasing
with the temperature, which attains its maximum in the afternoon,
and falling again with its decline at sunset. The evenings are
calm;
but the earth is so heated, that the thermometer stands at
10 P.M. at 66°, and the minimum at night is not below 55°. Great
drought accompanies the heat at this season, but not to such a
degree as in North-west India, or other parts of this meridian
further removed from the hills. In the month of March, and
during the prevalence of west winds, the mean temperature was
79°, and the dew-point 22° lower, indicating great drought. The
temperature at Calcutta was 7° degrees warmer, and the atmo-
sphere very much damper.
On the second day we arrived at Jeelpigoree, a large straggling
village near the banks of the Teesta, a good way south of the
forest here we were detained for several days, waiting for
COOCHES. JUNGLE GRASSES. FIRES. 271
elephants with which to proceed northwards. The natives are
Cooches, a Mogul (Mongolian) race, who inhabit the open
country of this district, replacing the Mechis of the Terai forest.
They are a fine athletic people, not very dark, and formed the
once-powerful house of Coochpigoree. Latterly the upper classes
have adopted the religion of the Brahmins, and have had caste
conferred upon them; while the lower orders have turned
Mahomedans these, chiefly agriculturists, are a timid, oppressed
class, who everywhere fled before us, and were with difficulty pre-
vailed upon even to direct us along our road. A rude police is
established by the British Government all over the country, and
to it the traveller applies for guides and assistance; but the
Cooches were so shy and difficult to deal with, that we were
generally left to our own resources.
:
Grass is the prevailing feature of the country, as there are few
shrubs, and still fewer trees. Goats and the common Indian cow
are plentiful; but it is not swampy enough for the buffalo; and
sheep are scarce, on account of the heat of the climate. ´This
uniformity of feature over so immense an area is, however, due to
the agency of man, and is of recent introduction; as all concur
in affirming, that within the last hundred years the face of the
country was covered with the same long jungle-grasses which
abound in the Terai forest; and the troops cantoned at Titalya (a
central position in these plains) from 1816 to 1828, confirm this
statement as far as their immediate neighbourhood is concerned.
These gigantic Gramineæ seem to be destroyed by fire with
remarkable facility at one season of the year; and it is well that
this is the case; for, whether as a retainer of miasma, a shelter
for wild beasts, both carnivorous and herbivorous, alike dangerous
to man, or from their liability to ignite, and spread destruction far
and wide, the grass-jungles are most serious obstacles to civiliza-
tion. Next to the rapidity with which it can be cleared, the
adaptation of a great part of the soil to irrigation during the
rains has greatly aided the bringing of it under cultivation.
By far the greater proportion of this universal short turf grass
is formed of Andropogon acicularis, Cynodon Dactylon, and in
sandy places, Imperata cylindrica; where the soil is wetter,
Ameletia Indica is abundant, giving a heather-like colour to the
turf, with its pale purple flowers; wherever there is standing
water, its surface is reddened by the Azolla, and Salvinia is also
common.
* Called "Dhob." This is the best pasture grass in the plains of India, and
the only one to be found over many thousands of square miles.
372
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
At Jeelpigoree we were waited upon by the Dewan, who governs
the district for the Rajah. The latter is a boy about ten years old,
whose estates are locked up during the trial of an interminable suit
for the succession, that has been instituted against him by a natural
son of the late Rajah. We found the Dewan to be a man of intel-
ligence, who promised us elephants as soon as the great Hooli
festival, now commenced, should be over.
The large village, at the time of our visit, was gay with holiday
dresses. It is surrounded by trees, chiefly of banyan, jack,
mango, peepul, and tamarind; interminable rice-fields extend on
all sides, and except bananas, slender betel-nut palms, and some-
times pawn, or betel-pepper, there is little other extensive cultiva-
tion. The rose-apple, orange, and pine-apple are rare, as are
cocoa-nuts; there are few date or fan-palms, and only occasionally
poor crops of castor-oil and sugar-cane. In the gardens I noticed
jasmine, Justicia Adhatodu, Hibiscus, and others of the very com-
monest Indian ornamental plants; while for food were cultivated
Chenopodium, yams, sweet potatoes, and more rarely peas, beans,
and gourds. Bamboos were planted round the little properties
and smaller clusters of houses, in oblong squares, the ridge on
which the plants grew being usually bounded by a shallow ditch.
The species selected was not the most graceful of its family; the
stems, or culms, being densely crowded, erect, as thick at the
base as the arm, copiously branching, and very feathery through-
out their whole length of sixty feet.
A gay-flowered Osbeckia was common along the roadsides, and,
with a Clerodendron, whose strong, sweet odour was borne far
through the air, formed a low undershrub beneath every tree,
generally intermixed with three ferns (a Polypodium, Pteris, and
Goniopteris).
The cottages are remarkable, and have a very neat appearance,
presenting nothing but a low white-washed platform of clay, and
an enormous high, narrow, black, neatly-thatched roof, so arched
along the ridge, that its eaves nearly touch the ground at each
gable; and looking at a distance like a gigantic round-backed
elephant. The walls are of neatly-platted bamboo: each window
(of which there are two) is crossed by slips of bamboo, and wants
* Clerodendron leaves, bruised, are used to kill vermin, fly-blows, &c., in
cattle; and the twigs form toothpicks. The flowers are presented to Mahadeo,
as a god of peace; milk, honey, flowers, fruit, amrit (ambrosia), &c., being
offered to the pacific gods, as Vishnu, Krishna, &c. ; while Mudar (Asclepias),
Bhang (Cannabis sativa), Datura, flesh, blood, and spirituous liquors, are
offered to Siva, Doorga, Kali, and other demoniacal deities.
JEELPIGOREE. ZEMINDARS.
273
only glass to make it look European; they have besides shutters
of wattle, that open upwards, projecting during the day like the
port-hatches of a ship, and let down at night. Within, the rooms
are airy and clean: one end contains the machans (bedsteads),
the others some raised clay benches, the fire, frequently an
enormous Hookah, round wattled stools, and various imple-
ments. The inhabitants appeared more than ordinarily well-
dressed; the men in loose flowing robes of fine cotton or muslin,
the women in the usual garb of a simple thick cotton cloth, drawn
tight immediately above the breast, and thence falling perpen-
dicularly to the knee; the colour of this is a bright blue in
stripes, bordered above and below with red.
I anticipated some novelty from a visit to a Durbar (court) so
distant from European influence as that of the Rajah of Jeel-
pigoree. All Eastern courts, subject to the Company, are, how-
ever, now shorn of much of their glory; and the condition of the
upper classes is greatly changed. Under the Mogul rule, the
country was farmed out to Zemindars, some of whom assumed
the title of Rajah: they collected the revenue for the Sovereign,
retaining by law ten per cent. on all that was realized; there was
no intermediate class, the peasant paying directly to the Zemindar,
and he into the royal treasury. Latterly the Zemindars have
become farmers under the Company's rule; and in the adjudica-
tion of their claims, Lord Cornwallis (then Governor-General)
made great sacrifices in their favour, levying only a small tribute
in proportion to their often great revenues, in the hope that they
would be induced to devote their energies, and some of their
means, to the improvement of the condition of the peasantry.
This expectation was not realized; the younger Zemindars es-
pecially, subject to no restraint (except from aggressions on their
neighbours), fell into slothful habits, and the collecting of the
revenue became a trading speculation, entrusted to "middle
men." The Zemindar selects a number, who again are at liberty
to collect through the medium of several sub-renting classes.
Hence the peasant suffers, and except a generally futile appeal to
the Rajah, he has no redress. The law secures him tenure as long
as he can pay his rent, and to do this he has recourse to the
urer; borrowing in spring (at 50, and oftener 100 per cent.) the
seed, plough, and bullocks; he reaps in autumn, and what is then
not required for his own use, is sold to pay off part of his original
debt, the rest standing over till the next season; and thus it con-
tinues to accumulate, till, overwhelmed with difficulties, he is
ejected, or flees to a neighbouring district. The Zemindar}
+
19
274..
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
enjoys the same right of tenure as the peasant: the amount of
impost laid on his property was fixed for perpetuity; whatever his
revenue be, he must pay so much to the Company, or he forfeits
his estates, and they are put up for auction.
One evening we visited the young Rajah at his residence, which
has rather a good appearance at a distance, its white walls gleam-
ing through a dark tope of mango, betel, and cocoa-nut. A short
rude avenue leads to the entrance gate, under the trees of which
a large bazaar was being held; stocked with cloths, simple.
utensils, ornaments, sweetmeats, five species of fish from the
Teesta, and the betel-nut.
We entered through a guard-house, where were some of the
Rajah's sepoys in the European costume, and a few of the Com-
pany's troops, lent to the Rajah as a security against some of the
turbulent pretenders to his title. Within was a large court-yard,
flanked by a range of buildings, some of good stone-work, some
of wattle, in all stages of disrepair. A great crowd of people
occupied one end of the court, and at the other we were received
by the Dewan, and seated on chairs under a canopy supported
by slender silvered columns. Some slovenly Natch-girls were
dancing before us, kicking up clouds of dust, and singing or
rather bawling through their noses, the usual indelicate hymns in
honour of the Hooli festival; there were also fiddlers, cutting
uncouth capers in rhythm with the dancers. Anything more
deplorable than the music, dancing, and accompaniments cannot
well be imagined; yet the people seemed vastly pleased, and
extolled the performers.
The arrival of the Rajah and his brothers was announced by a
crash of tom-toms and trumpets, while over their heads were
carried great gilt canopies. With them came a troop of relations,
of all ages; and amongst them a poor little black girl, dressed in
honour of us in an old-fashioned English chintz frock and muslin
cap, in which she cut the drollest figure imaginable; she was
carried about for our admiration, like a huge Dutch doll, crying
lustily all the time.
The fe tivities of the evening commenced by handing round
trays full of pith-balls, the size of a nutmeg, filled with a mixture
of flour, sand, and red lac-powder; with these each pelted his
neighbour, the thin covering bursting as it struck any object, and
powdering it copiously with red dust. A more childish and dis-
agreeable sport cannot well be conceived; and when the balls
were expended, the dust itself was resorted to, not only fresh, but
that which had already been used, was gathered up, with whatever
HOOLI FESTIVAL.
275
dirt it might have become mixed. One rude fellow, with his
hand full, sought to entrap his victims into talking, when he would
stuff the nasty mixture into their mouths.
At the end attar of roses was brought, into which little pieces of
cotton, fixed on slips of bamboo, were dipped, and given to each
person. The heat, dust, stench of the unwashed multitude, noise,
and increasing familiarity of the lower orders, warned us to retire,
and we effected our retreat with precipitancy.
The Rajah and his brother were very fine boys, lively, frank,
unaffected, and well disposed: they have evidently a good guide
in the old Dewan; but it is melancholy to think how surely,
should they grow up in possession of their present rank, they will
lapse into slothful habits, and take their place amongst the im-
beciles who now represent the once powerful Rajahs of Bengal.
We rode back to our tents by a bright moonlight, very dusty
and tired, and heartily glad to breathe the cool fresh air, after the
stifling ordeal we had undergone.
On the following evening the elephants were again in waiting
to conduct us to the Rajah. He and his relations were assembled
outside the gates, mounted upon elephants, amid a vast concourse
of people. The children and Dewan were seated in a sort of
cradle; the rest were some in howdahs, and some astride on
elephants' backs, six or eight together. All the idols were
paraded before them, and powdered with red dust; the people
howling, shouting, and sometimes quarrelling. Our elephants
took their places amongst those of the Rajah; and when the mob
had sufficiently pelted one another with balls and dirty red
powder, a torchlight procession was formed, the idols leading the
way, to a very large tank, bounded by a high rampart,. within
which was a broad esplanade round the water.
The effect of the whole was very striking, the glittering cars
and barbaric gaud of the idols showing best by torchlight; while
the white robes and turbans of the undulating sea of people, and
the great black elephants picking their way with matchless care
and consideration, contrasted strongly with the quiet moonbeams
sleeping on the still broad waters of the tank.
Thence the procession moved to a field, where the idols were
placed on the ground, and all dismounted; the Dewan then took
the children by the hand, and each worshipped his tutelary deity
in a short prayer dictated by the attendant Brahmin, and threw a
handful of red dust in its face. After another ordeal of powder,
singing, dancing, and suffocation, our share in the Hooli ended;
and having been promised elephants for the following morning,
276
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
we bade a cordial farewell to our engaging little hosts and their
staid old governor.
On the 10th of March we were awakened at an early hour by
a heavy thunder-storm from the south-west. The sunrise was
very fine, through an arch 10° high of bright blue sky, above
which the whole firmament was mottled with cirrus. It con-
tinued cloudy, with light winds, throughout the day, but clear on the
horizon. From this time such storms became frequent, usher-
ing in the equinox; and the less hazy sky and rising hygrometer
predicted an accession of moisture in the atmosphere.
We left for Rangamally, a village eight miles distant in a
northerly direction, our course lying along the west bank of the
Teesta.
The river is here navigated by canoes, thirty to forty feet long,
some being rudely cut out of a solid log of Sal, while others are
built, the planks, of which there are but few, being sewed
together, or clamped with iron, and the seams caulked with the
fibres of the root of Dhak (Butea frondosa), and afterwards
smeared with the gluten of Diospyros embryopteris. The bed of
the river is here three-quarters of a mile across, of which the
stream does not occupy one-third; its banks are sand-cliffs, four-
teen feet in height. A few small fish and water-snakes swarm in
the pools. The whole country improved in fertility as we ad-
vanced towards the mountains; the grass became greener, and
more trees, shrubs, herbs, and birds appeared. In front, the
dark boundary-line of the Sal forest loomed on the horizon, and
to the east rose the low hills of Bhotan, both backed by the outer
ranges of the Himalaya.
Flocks of cranes were abundant over-head, flying in wedges, or
breaking up into "open order," preparing for their migration
northwards, which takes place in April, their return occuring in
October; a small quail was also common on the ground. Tamarisk
("Jhow ") grew in the sandy bed of the river; its flexible young
branches are used in various parts of India for wattling and bas-
ket-making.
In the evening we walked to the skirts of the Sal forest. The
great trunks of the trees were often scored by tigers' claws, this
animal indulging in the cat-like propensity of rising and stretch-
ing itself against such objects. Two species of Dillenia were
common in the forest, with long grass, Symplocos, Emblica, and
Cassia Fistula, now covered with long pods. Several parasitical
air-plants grew on the dry trees, as Oberonia, Vanda, and Erides.
At Rangamally, the height of the sandy banks of the Teesta
TEESTA RIVER. TERAI.
277
varies from fifteen to twenty feet. The bed is a mile across, and
all sand; the current much divided, and opaque green, from the
glacial origin of most of its head-streams. The west bank was
covered with a small Sal forest, mixed with Acacia Catechu, and
brushwood, growing in a poor vegetable loam, over very dry sand.
The opposite (or Bhotan) bank is much lower, and always
flooded during the rains, which is not the case on the western
side, where the water rises to ten feet below the top of the bank,
or from seven to ten feet above its height in the dry season, and
it then fills its whole bed. This information we had from a
police Jemadar, who has resided many years on this unhealthy
spot, and annually suffers from fever. The Sal forest has been
enroached upon from the south, for many miles, within the
memory of man, by clearing in patches, and by indiscriminate
felling.
About ten miles nortn of Rangamally, we came to an extensive
flat, occupying a recess in the high west bank, the site of the old
capital (Bai-kant-pore) of the Jeelpigoree Rajah. Hemmed in ast
it is on three sides by a dense forest, and on all by many miles
of malarious Terai, it appears sufficiently secure from ordinary
enemies during a great part of the year. The soil is sandy,
overlying gravel, and covered with a thick stratum of fine mud or
silt, which is only deposited on these low flats; on it grew many
naturalized plants, as hemp, tobacco, jack, mango, plantain, and
orange.
About eight miles on we left the river-bed, and struck westerly'
through a dense forest, to a swampy clearance occupied by the
village of Rummai, which appeared thoroughly malarious; and we
pitched the tent on a narrow, low ridge, above the level of the
plain.
It was now cool and pleasant, partly due, no doubt, to a dif
ference in the vegetation, and the proximity of swamp and forest,
and partly also to a change in the weather, which was cloudy and
threatening; much rain, too, had fallen here on the preceding day.
Brahmins and priests of all kinds are few in this miserable
country. Near the villages, and under the large trees, are, every
here and there, a few miniature thatched cottages, four to six feet
high, in which the tutelary deities of the place are kept; they are
idols of the very rudest description, of Vishnu as an ascetic
(Bai kant Nath), a wooden doll, gilt and painted, standing, with
the hands raised as if in exhortation, and one leg crossed over the
* Now covered with Anthistiria grass, fifteen feet high, a little Sissoo,
and Bombax.
278
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
J
other. Again, Kartik, the god of war, is represented sitting
astride on a peacock, with the right hand elevated and holding a
small flat cup.
The
Some fine muscular Cooches were here brought for Mr. Hodg-
son's examination, but we found them unable or unwilling to con-
verse in the Cooch tongue, which appears to be fast giving place
to Bengalee.
We walked to a stream, which flows at the base of the retir-
ing sand-cliffs, and nourishes a dense and richly-varied jungle,
producing many plants, as beautiful Acanthacea, Indian horse-
chestnut, loaded with white racemes of flowers, gay Convolvuli,
laurels, terrestrial, and parasitic Orchidea, Dillenia, casting its
enormous flowers as big as two fists, pepper, figs, and, in strange
association with these, a hawthorn, and the yellow-flowered
Indian strawberry, which ascends 7,500 feet on the mountains,
and Hodgsonia, a new Cucurbitaceous genus, clinging in profusion
to the trees, and also found 5,000 feet high on the mountains.
In the evening we rode into the forest (which was dry and very
unproductive), and thence along the river-banks, through Acacia
Catechu, belted by Sissoo, which often fringes the stream, always
occupying the lowest flats. The foliage at this season is brilliantly
green; and as the evening advanced, a yellow convolvulus burst
into flower like magic, adorning the bushes over which it
climbed.
It rained on the following morning; after which we left for the
exit of the Teesta, proceeding northwards, sometimes through a
dense forest of Sal timber, sometimes dipping into marshy de-
pressions, or riding through grassy savannahs, breast-high. The
coolness of the atmosphere was delicious, and the beauty of the
jungle seemed to increase the further we penetrated these primæval
forests.
Eight miles from Rummai we came on a small river from the
mountains, with a Cooch village close by, inhabited during the
dry season by timber-cutters from Jeelpigoree. It is situated upon
a very rich black soil, covered with Saccharum and various gigantic
grasses, but no bamboo. These long grasses replace the Sal, of
which we did not see one good tree.
We here mounted the elephants, and proceeded several miles
through the prairie, till we again struck upon the high Sal forest-
bank, continuous with that of Rummai and Rangamally, but
much loftier; it formed one of many terraces which stretch
along the foot of the hills, from Punkabaree to the Teesta, but of
which none are said to occur for eight miles eastwards along the
CANOEING DOWN TEESTA.
279
Bhotan Dooars. If true, this is probably due in part to the altera-
tion of the course of the Teesta, which is gradually working to the
westward, and cutting away these lofty banks.
The elephant-drivers appeared to have taken us by mistaké
to the exit of the Chawa, a small stream which joins the Teesta
further to the eastward. The descent to the bed of this rivulet,
round the first spur of rock we met with, was fully eighty feet,
through a very irregular depression, probably the old bed of the
stream; it runs southwards from the hills, and was covered from
top to bottom with slate-pebbles. We followed the river to its
junction with the Teesta, along a flat, broad gulley, bounded by
densely-wooded, steep banks of clay-slate on the north, and the
lofty bank on the south; between these the bed was strewed with
great boulders of gneiss and other rocks, luxuriantly clothed with
long grass, and trees of wild plantain, Erythrina and Bauhinia,
the latter gorgeously in flower.
The Sal bank formed a very fine object; it was quite perpen-
dicular, and beautifully stratified with various coloured sands and
gravel; it tailed off abruptly at the junction of the rivers, and then
trended away south-west, forming the west bank of the Teesta. The
latter river is at its outlet a broad and rapid, but hardly impetuous
stream, now fifty yards across, gushing from between two low, forest
clad spurs it appeared about five feet deep, and was beautifully
fringed on both sides with green Sissoo.
Some canoes were here waiting for us, formed of hollowed
trunks of trees, thirty feet long; two were lashed together with
bamboos, and the boatmen sat one at the head and one at the
stern of each: we lay along the bottom of the vessels, and in a
second we were darting down the river at the rate of at least ten
or fifteen miles an hour, the bright waters leaping up on all sides,
and bounding in jets-d'eau between prows and sterns of the
coupled vessels. Sometimes we glided along without perceptible
motion, and at others jolted down bubbling rapids the steersmen
straining every nerve to keep their bark's head to the current, as
she impatiently swerved from side.to side in the eddies. To our
jaded and parched frames, after the hot forenoon's ride on the
elephants, the effect was delicious: the fresh breeze blew on our
heated foreheads and down our open throats and chests; we
dipped our hands into the clear, cool stream, and there was
"music in the waters" to our ears. Fresh verdure on the banks,
clear pebbles, soft sand, long English river-reaches, forest glades,
and deep jungles, followed in rapid succession; and as often as
we rounded a bend or shot a rapid, the scene changed from bright
•
280
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
to brighter still; so continuing until dusk, when we were slowly
paddling along the then torpid current opposite Rangamally."
The absence of large stones or boulders of rock in the bed of
the Teesta is very remarkable, considering the great volume and
rapidity of the current, and that it shoots directly from the rocky
hills to the gravelly plains. At the embouchure there are boulders
as big as the head, and in the stream, four miles below the exit,
the boatmen pointed out a stone as large as the body as quite a
marvel.
They assured us that the average rise at the mouth of the river,
in the rains, was not more than five feet; the mean breadth of the
stream is from seventy to ninety yards. From the point where it
leaves the mountains, to its junction with the Megna, is at this
season thirteen days' voyage, the return occupying from twenty to
twenty-five days, with the boats unladen. The name "Teesta "
signifies "quiet," this river being so in comparison with other
Himalayan torrents further west, the Cosi, Konki, &c., which are
devastators of all that bounds their course.
We passed but two crossing-places: at one the river is divided
by an island, covered with the rude chaits and flags of the Bood-
hists. We also saw some Cooch fishermen, who throw the net
much as we do: a fine "Mahaser" (a very large carp) was the
best fish they had. Of cultivation there was very little, and the
only habitations were a few grass-huts of the boatmen or buffalo
herdsmen, a rare Cooch village of Catechu and Sal cutters, or the
shelter of timber-floaters, who seem to pass the night in nests of
long dry grass.
Our servants not having returned with the elephants from
Rummai, we spent the following day at Rangamally shooting and
botanizing. I collected about 100 species in a couple of hours,
and observed perhaps twice that number: the more common I
The following temperatures of the waters of the Teesta were taken at intervals
during our passage from its exit to Rangamally, a distance of fifteen linear miles,
and thirty miles following the bends :-
kataraktaty
Exit 2h. 30m. P.M.
3344550
30
:
4 30
30
+
Water.
62°
62° 2
63° 2
64°
65°
65° 4
66°
66°
Air.
74°
72° 5 opposite Rummai.
71° 7 opposite Baikant.
281
BIRDS, &C., OF THE TERAI.
have repeatedly alluded to, and excepting some small terrestrial
Orchids, I added nothing of particular interest to my collection.¹
On the 14th of March we proceeded west to Siligoree, along
the skirts of the ragged Sal forest. Birds are certainly the most
conspicuous branch of the natural history of this country, and we
saw many species, interesting either from their habits, beauty, or
extensive distribution. We noticed no less than sixteen kinds of
swimming birds, several of which are migratory and English.
The Shoveller, white-eyed and common wild ducks; Merganser,
Brahminee, and Indian goose (Anser Indica); common and
Gargany teal; two kinds of gull; one of Shearwater (Rhynchops
ablacus); three of tern, and one of cormorant. Besides these
there were three egrets, the large crane, stork, green heron, and
the demoiselle; the English sand-martin, kingfisher, peregrine-
falcon, sparrow-hawk, kestrel, and the European vulture; the wild
peacock, and jungle-fowl. There were at least 100 peculiarly
Indian birds in addition, of which the more remarkable were
several kinds of mina, of starling, vulture, kingfisher, magpie,
quail, and lapwing.
The country gradually became quite beautiful, much undulated
and diversified by bright green meadows, sloping lawns, and
deeply-wooded nullahs, which lead from the Sal forest and
meander through this varied landscape. More beautiful sites for
fine mansions could not well be, and it is difficult to suppose so
lovely a country should be so malarious as it is before and after
the rains, excessive heat probably diffusing widely the miasma
from small stagnant surfaces. We noticed a wild hog, absolutely
the first wild beast of any size I saw on the plains, except the
hispid hare (Lepts hispidus) and the barking deer (Stylocerus
ratna). The hare we found to be the best game of this part of
India, except the teal. The pheasants of Darjeeling are poor, the
deer all but uneatable, and the florican, however dressed, I con-
sidered a far from excellent bird.
A good many plants grow along the streams, the sandy beds of
which are everywhere covered with the marks of tigers' feet. The
only safe way of botanizing is by pushing through the jungle on
elephants; an uncomfortable method, from the quantity of ants
and insects which drop from the foliage above, and from the risk.
of disturbing pendulous bees' and ants' nests.
The following is a list of the principal genera, most of which are English :
Polygonum, Quercus, Sonchus, Gnaphalium, Cratagus, Lobelia, Lactuca, Hydro-
cotyle, Saponaria, Campanula, Bidens, Rubus, Oxalis, Artemisia, Fragaria,
Clematis, Dioscorca, Potamogeton, Chara, Veronica, Viola, Smilax.
282
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
A peculiar species of willow (Salix tetrasferma) is common
here; which is a singular fact, as the genus is characteristic of
cold and arctic latitudes, and no species is found below 8,000 feet
elevation on the Sikkim mountains, where it grows on the inner
Himalaya only, some kinds ascending to 16,000 feet.
East of Siligoree the plains are unvaried by tree or shrub, and
are barren wastes of short turf or sterile sand, with the dwarf-palm
(Phænix acaulis), a sure sign of a most hungry soil.
The latter part of the journey I performed on elephants during
the heat of the day, and a more uncomfortable mode of convey-
ance surely never was adopted; the camel's pace is more fatiguing,
but that of the elephant is extremely trying after a few miles, and
is so injurious to the human frame that the Mahouts (drivers)
never reach an advanced age, and often succumb young to spine-
diseases, brought on by the incessant motion of the vertebral
column. The broiling heat of the elephant's black back, and the
odour of its oily driver, are disagreeable accompaniments, as are
its habits of snorting water from its trunk over its parched skin,
and the consequences of the great bulk of green food which it
consumes.
From Siligoree I made a careful examination of the gravel beds
that occur on the road north to the foot of the hills, and thence
over the tertiary sandstone to Punkabaree. At the Rukti river,
which flows south-west, the road suddenly rises, and crosses the
first considerable hill, about two miles south of any rock in situ.
This river cuts a cliff from 60 to 100 feet high, composed of
stratified sand and water-worn gravel; further south, the spur
declines into the plains, its course marked by the Sal that thrives
on its gravelly soil. The road then runs north-west over a plain
to an isolated hill about 200 feet high, also formed of sand and
gravel. We ascended to the top of this, and found it covered
with blocks of gneiss, and much angular detritus. Hence the
road gradually ascends and becomes clayey. Argillaceous rocks,
and a little ochreous sandstone appeared in highly-inclined strata,
dipping north, and covered with great water-worn blocks of gneiss.
Above, a flat terrace, flanked to the eastward by a low wooded
hill, and another rise of sandstone, lead on to the great Baisarbatti
terrace.
Bombax, Erythrina, and Duabanga (Lagærstræmia grandiflora)
were in full flower, and with the profusion of Bauhinia, rendered
the tree-jungle gay: the two former are leafless when flowering.
The Duabanga is the pride of these forests. Its trunk, from
eight to fifteen feet in girth, is generally forked from the base, and
+
283
LOHAR-GHUR IRON HILL. COAL-FOSSILS.
the long pendulous branches which clothe the trunk for 100 feet
are thickly leafy, and terminated by racemes of immense white
flowers, which, especially when in bud, smell most disagreeably
of assafoetida. The magnificent Apocyneous climber, Beaumontia,
was in full bloom, ascending the loftiest trees, and clothing their
trunks with its splendid foliage and festoons of enormous funnel-
shaped white flowers.
The report of a bed of iron-stone eight or ten miles west of
Punkabaree determined our visiting the spot; and the locality
being in a dense jungle, the elephants were sent on ahead.
We descended to the terraces flanking the Balasun river, and
struck west along jungle paths to a loosely-timbered flat. A
sudden descent of 150 feet landed us on a second terrace.
Further on, a third dip of about twenty feet (in some places
obliterated) flanks the bed of the Balasun; the river itself being
split into many channels at this season. The west bank, which is
forty feet high, is of stratified sand and gravel, with vast slightly-
worn blocks of gneiss: from the top of this we proceeded
south-west for three miles to some Mechi villages, the inhabi-
tants of which flocked to meet us, bringing milk and refresh-
ments.
The Lohar-ghur, or "iron hill," lies in a dense dry forest. Its
plain-ward flanks are very steep, and covered with scattered
weather-worn masses of ochreous and black iron-stone, many of
which are several yards long: it fractures with faint metallic
lustre, and is very earthy in parts; it does not affect the compass.
There are no pebbles of iron-stone, nor water-worn rocks of any
kind found with it.
The sandstones, close by, cropped out in thick beds (dip north
70°) they are very soft, and beds of laminated clay, and of a slaty
rock, are intercalated with them; also an excessively tough con-
glomerate, formed of an indurated blue or grey paste, with nodules
of harder clay. There are no traces of metal in the rock, and the
lumps of ore are wholly superficial.
Below Punkabaree the Baisarbatti stream cuts through banks
of gravel overlying the sandstone (dip north 65°). The sandstone
is gritty and micaceous, intercalated with beds of indurated shale
and clay; in which I found the shaft (apparently) of a bone;
there were also beds of the same clay conglomerate which I had
seen at Lohar-ghur, and thin seams of brown lignite, with a rhom-
boidal cleavage. In the bed of the stream were carbonaceous
shales, with obscure impressions of fern-leaves, of Trizygia, and
Vertebraria: both fossils characteristic of the Burdwan coal-fields
284
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
(see p. 6), but too imperfect to justify any conclusion as to the
relation between these formations.¹
Ascending the stream, these shales are seen in situ, overlain
by the metamorphic clay-slate of the mountains, and dipping
inwards (northwards). This is at the foot of the Punkabaree
spur, and close to the bungalow, where a stream and land-slip
expose good sections. The carbonaceous beds dip north 60° and
70°, and run east and west; much quartz rock is intercalated with
them, and soft white and pink micaceous sandstones. The coal-
seams are few in number, six to twelve inches thick, very confused
and distorted, and full of elliptic nodules, or spheroids of quartzy
slate, covered with concentric scaly layers of coal; they overlie
the sandstones mentioned above. These scanty notices of super-
position being collected in a country clothed with the densest
tropical forest, where a geologist pursues his fatiguing investiga-
tions under disadvantages that can hardly be realized in England,
will, I fear, long remain unconfirmed. I may mention, however,
that the appearance of inversion of the strata at the foot of
great mountain masses has been observed in the Alleghany chain,
and I believe in the Alps.2
A poor Mech was fishing in the stream, with a basket curiously
formed of a cylinder of bamboo, cleft all round in innumerable
strips, held together by the joints above and below; these strips
being stretched out as a balloon in the middle, and kept apart by
a hoop. A small hole is cut in the cage, and a mouse-trap en-
trance formed; the cage is place in the current with the open end
upwards, where the fish get in, and though little bigger than
minnows, cannot find their way out.
On the 20th we had a change in the weather: a violent storm
These traces of fossils are not sufficient to identify the formation with that
of the Sewalik hills of North-west India; but its contents, together with its
strike, dip, and position relatively to the mountains, and its mineralogical cha-
racter, incline me to suppose it may be similar. Its appearance in such small
quantities in Sikkim (where it rises but a few hundred feet above the level of
the sea, whereas in Kumaon it reaches 4,000 feet) may be attributed to the
greater amount of wearing which it must have undergone; the plains from
which it rises being 1,000 feet lower than those of Kumaon, and the sea having
consequently retired later, exposing the Sikkim sandstone to the effects of
denudation for a much longer period. Hitherto no traces of this rock, or of
any belonging to a similar geological epoch, have been found in the valleys of
Sikkim; but when the narrowness of these is considered, it will not appear
strange that such may have been removed from their surfaces: first, by the
action of a tidal ocean; and afterwards, by that of tropical rains.
2 Dr. M'Lelland informs me that in the Curruckpore hills, south of the
Ganges, the clay-slates are overlain by beds of mica-slate, gneiss, and granite,
which pass into one another.

HAIL STORM.
285
from the south-west occurred at noon, with hail of a strange
form, the stones being sections of hollow spheres, half an inch
across and upwards, formed of cones with truncated apices and
convex bases; these cones were aggregated together with their
bases outwards. The large masses were followed by a shower of
the separate conical pieces, and that by heavy rain. On the moun-
MON-A
A MECH, NATIVE OF THE SIKKIM TERAI.
tains this storm was most severe; the stones lay at Darjeeling
for seven days, congealed into masses of ice several feet long and a
foot thick in sheltered places: at Purneah, fifty miles south, stones
one and two inches across fell, probably as whole spheres.
Ascending to Khersiong, I found the vegetation very backward
286
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
by the road-sides. The rain had cleared the atmosphere, and the
view over the plains was brilliant. On the top of the Khersiong
spur a tremendous gale set in with a cold west wind: the storm
cleared off at night, which at 10 P.M. was beautiful, with forked
and sheet lightning over the plains far below us. The equinoctial
gales had now fairly set in, with violent south-east gales, heavy
thunder, lightning, and rain.
Whilst at Khersiong I took advantage of the very fair section
afforded by the road from Punkabaree, to examine the structure
of the spur, which seems to be composed of very highly inclined
contorted beds (dip north) of metamorphic rocks, gneiss, mica-
slate, clay-slate, and quartz; the foliation of which beds is parallel
to the dip of the strata. Over all reposes a bed of clay, capped
with a layer of vegetable mould, nowhere so thick and rich as in
the more humid regions of 7,000 feet elevation. The rocks ap-
peared in the following succession in descending: Along the top
are found great blocks of very compact gneiss buried in clay.
Half a mile lower the same rock appears, dipping north-north-east
50°. Below this, beds of saccharine quartz, with seams of mica,
dip north-north-west 20°. Some of these quartz beds are folded
on themselves, and look like flattened trunks of trees, being com-
posed of concentric layers, each from two to four inches thick; we
exposed twenty-seven feet of one fold running along the side of
the road, which was cut parallel to the strike. Each layer of
quartz was separted from its fellows by one of mica scales, and
was broken up into cubical fragments, whose surfaces are no
doubt cleavage and jointing-planes. I had previously seen, but
not understood, such flexures produced by metamorphic action on
masses of quartz when in a pasty state, in the Falkland Islands,
where they have been perfectly well described by Mr. Darwin ; ¹
in whose views of the formation of these rocks I entirely concur.
I
The flexures of the gneiss are incomparably more irregular and
confused than those of the quartz, and often contain flattened
spheres of highly crystalline felspar, that cleave perpendicularly
to the shorter axis. These spheres are disposed in layers parallel
to the foliation of the gneiss; and are the result of a metamorphic
action of great intensity, effecting a complete rearrangement and
crystallization of the quartz and mica in parallel planes, whilst the
felspar is aggregated in spheres; just as in the rearrangement of
the mineral constituents of mica-schists the alumina is crystallized
in the garnets, and in the clay-slates the iron into pyrites.
I
"Journal of Geological Society" for 1846, p. 267, and "Voyage of the
Beag'e."

ROCKS OF OUTER HIMALAYA.
287
The quartz below this dips north-north-west 45° to 50°, and
alternates with a very hard slaty schist, dipping north-west 45°, and
still lower is a blue-grey clay-slate, dipping north-north-west 30°.
These rest on beds of slate, folded like the quartz mentioned above,
but with cleavage-planes, forming lines radiating from the axis of
each flexure, and running through all the concentric folds. Below
this are the plumbago and clay slates of Punkabaree, which alter-
nate with beds of mica-schist with garnets, and appear to repose
immediately upon the carboniferous strata and sandstone; but
there is much disturbance at the junction.
On re-ascending from Punkabaree, the rocks gradually appear
m
POCKET-COMB USED BY THE MECH TRIBES.
R
more and more dislocated, the clay-slate less so than the quartz
and mica-schist, and that again far less than the gneiss, which is
so shattered and bent, that it is impossible to say what is in situ,
and what not. Vast blocks lie superficially on the ridges; and the
tops of all the outer mountains, as of Khersiong spur, of Tonglo,
Sinchul, and Darjeeling, appear a pile of such masses, Injected
veins of quartz are rare in the lower beds of schist and clay-slate,
whilst the gneiss is often full of them; and on the inner and
loftier ranges, these quartz veins are replaced by granite with tour-
maline.
Lime is only known as a stalactitic deposit from various streams,
288
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
at elevations from 1,000 to 7,000 feet; one such stream occurs
above Punkabaree, which I have not seen; another within the
Sinchul range, on the great Rungeet river, above the exit of the
Rummai; a third wholly in the great central Himalayan range,
flowing into the Lachen river. The total absence of any cal-
careous rock in Sikkim, and the appearance of the deposit in
isolated streams at such distant localities, probably indicates a
very remote origin in the lime-charged waters.
From Khersiong to Darjeeling, gneiss is the only rock, and is
often decomposed into clay-beds, 20 feet deep, in which the
narrow, often zigzag, folia of quartz remain quite entire and
undisturbed, whilst every trace of the foliation of the softer mineral
is lost.
At Pacheem, Darjeeling weather, with fog and drizzle, com-
menced, and continued for two days; we reached Darjeeling on
the 24th of March, and found that the hail which had fallen on
the 20th was still lying in great masses of crumbling ice in
sheltered spots. The fall had done great damage to the gardens,
and Dr. Campbell's tea-plants were cut to pieces.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Arrangements for second journey into Sikkim-Opposition of Dewan-Lassoo
Kajee-Tendong-Legend of flood-Lama of Sillok-foke-Namtchi-
Tchebu Lama-Top of Tendong-Gigantic oak-Plants-Teesta valley
-Commencement of rains-Bhomsong-Ascent to Lathiang-View-
Bad road-Orchids-Gorh-Opposition of Lama-Arrival of Meepo-
Cross Teesta-Difficulties of travelling-Lepchas swimming-Moxa for
sprains-Singtam-Grandeur of view of Kinchinjunga-Wild men-
Singtam Soubah-Landslips-Bees'-nests and honey-seekers-Leeches,
&c.-Chakoong - Vegetation -Gravel terraces-Unpleasant effects of
wormwood-Choongtam, scenery and vegetation of-Inhabitants-Tibetan
salute-Lamas-Difficulty of procuring food-Contrast of vegetation of
inner and outer Himalaya-Rhododendrons-Yew-Abies Brunoniana-
Venomous snakes-Hornets and other insects-Choongtam temple-
Pictures of Lhassa-Minerals-Scenery.
K
AFTER my return from the Terai, I was occupied during the
month of April in preparations for an expedition to the loftier
parts of Sikkim. The arrangements were the same as for my
former journey, except with regard to food, which it was necessary
should be sent out to me at intervals; for I had had ample
proof that the resources of the country were not equal to provi-
PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER JOURNEY.
289
sioning a party of from forty to fifty men, even had the Dewan
been favourable to my travelling, which was clearly not the case.
Dr. Campbell communicated to the Rajah my intention of
starting early in May for the upper Teesta valley, and, in the
Governor-General's name, requested that he would facilitate my
visiting the frontier of Sikkim, north-east of Kinchinjunga. The
desired permission was, after a little delay, received; which
appeared to rouse the Dewan to institute a series of obstructions
to my progress, which caused so many delays that my exploration
of the country was not concluded till October, and I was prevented
returning to Darjeeling before the following Christmas.
Since our visit to the Rajah in December, no Vakeel (agent)
had been sent by the Durbar to Darjeeling, and consequently we
could only communicate indirectly with his Highness, while we
found it impossible to ascertain the truth of various reports pro-
mulgated by the Dewan, and meant to deter me from entering
the country. In April, the Lassoo Kajee was sent as Vakeel, but,
having on a previous occasion been dismissed for insolence and
incapacity, and again rejected when proposed by the Dewan at
Bhomsong, he was refused an audience; and he encamped at the
bottom of the Great Rungeet valley, where he lost some of his
party through fever. He retired into Sikkim, exasperated, pretending
that he had orders to delay my starting, in consequence of the
death of the heir apparent; and that he was prepared to use strong
measures should I cross the frontier.
No notice was taken of these threats; the Rajah was again
informed of my intended departure, unless his own orders to
the contrary were received through a proper accredited agent,
and I left Darjeeling on the 3rd of May, accompanied by Dr.
Campbell, who insisted on seeing me fairly over the frontier at
the Great Rungeet river.
Arrangements were made for supplies of rice following me by
instalments; our daily consumption being 80 lbs., a man's load.
After crossing into Sikkim, I mustered my party at the Great
Rungeet river. I had forty-two in all, of whom the majority
were young Lepchas, or Sikkim-born people of Tibetan races:
all were active and cheerful-looking fellows; only one was goitred,
and he had been a salt-trader. I was accompanied by a guard
of five sepoys, and had a Lepcha and Tibetan interpreter. I
took but one personal servant, a Portuguese half-caste (John
Hoffman by name), who cooked for me; he was a native of
Calcutta, and though hardy, patient, and long-suffering, and far
better-tempered, was, in other respects, very inferior to Clamanze,
20
290
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
who had been my servant the previous year, and who, having
been bred to the sea, was as handy as he was clever; but who,
like all other natives of the plains, grew intolerably weary of the
hills, and left me.
The first part of my route lay over Tendong, a very fine.
mountain, which rises 8,613 feet, and is a conspicuous feature
from Darjeeling, where it is known as Mount Ararat. The
Lepchas have a curious legend of a man and woman having
saved themselves on its summit 'during a flood that once deluged
Sikkim. The coincidence of this story with the English name
of Ararat suggests the probability of the legend being fabulous;
but I am positively assured that it is not so, but that it was
current amongst the Lepchas before its English name was heard
of, and that the latter was suggested from the peculiar form of its
summit resembling that given in children's books as the resting-
place of the ark.
The ascent from the Great Rungeet (alt. 818 feet) is through
dry woods of Sal and Pines (P. longifolia). I camped the first
night at the village of Mikk (alt. 3,900 feet), and on the following
day ascended to Namtchi (alt. 5,600 feet).
+
On the route I was met by the Lama of Silok-foke Goompa.
Though a resident on the Lassoo Kajee's estates, he politely
brought me a present, at the same time apologizing for not waiting
till I had encamped, owing to his excessive fat, which prevented
his climbing. I accepted his excuses, though well aware that
his real reason was that he wished to pay his respects, and show
his good feeling, in private. Besides his ordinary canonicals, he
carried a tall crozier-headed staff, and had a curious horn slung
round his neck, full of amulets; it was short, of a transparent
red colour, and beautifully carved, and was that of the small cow
of Lhassa, which resembles the English species, and is not a yak
(it is called "Tundro ").
Namtchi was once a place of considerable importance; and
still possesses a mendong, with six rows of inscribed slabs; a
temple, and a Lama attached thereto : the latter waited on me
soon after I had encamped, but he brought no present, and I was
not long kept in suspense as to his motives. These people are
poor dissemblers; if they intend to obstruct, they do it clumsily
and hesitatingly; in this instance the Lama first made up to my
people, and, being coolly received, kept gradually edging up to
my tent-door, where, after an awkward salute, he delivered himself
with a very bad grace of his mission, which was from the Lassoo
Kajee to stop my progress. I told him I knew nothing of the
·
TCHEBU LAMA. TENDONG.
Lassoo Kajee or his orders, and should proceed on the following
morning; he then urged the bad state of the roads, and advised
me to wait two days till he should receive orders from the Rajah';
upon which I dismissed him.
291
Soon afterwards, as I sat at my tent-door, looking along the
narrow bushy ridge that winds up the mountain, I saw twenty or
thirty men rapidly descending the rocky path: they were Lepchas,
with blue and white striped garments, bows and quivers, and with
their long knives gleaming in the sun; they seemed to be following
a figure in red Lama costume, with a scarlet silk handkerchief
wound round his head, its ends streaming behind him. Though
expecting this apparition to prove the renowned Kajee and his
myrmidons, coming to put a sudden termination to my progress,
I could not help admiring the exceeding picturesqueness of the
scenery and party. My fears were soon dissipated by my men
joyfully shouting, "The Tchebu Lama! the Tchebu Lama !" and
I soon recognized the rosy face and twinkling eyes of my friend
of Bhomsong (p. 208), the only man of intelligence about the
Rajah's court, and the one whose services as Vakeel were
particularly wanted at Darjeeling.
He told me that the Lassoo Kajee had orders (from whom he
would not say) to stop my progress, but that I should proceed
nevertheless, and that there was no objection to my doing so;
and he despatched a messenger to the Rajah, announcing my
progress, and requesting him to send me a guide, and to grant
me every facility, asserting that he had all along fully intended
doing so.
On the following morning the Lama proceeded to Darjeeling,
and I continued the ascent of Tendong, sending my men round
the shoulder to Temi in the Teesta valley, where I proposed to
pass the night. The road rapidly ascends by a narrow winding
path, covered with a loose forest of oaks, rhododendrons, and
various shrubs, not found at equal elevations on the wetter
Darjeeling ranges: amongst them the beautiful laburnum-like
Piptanthus Nepalensis, with golden blossoms, was conspicuous.
Enormous blocks of white and red stratified quartz and slate,
some 20 and even 40 yards long, rest on the narrow ridge at
7,000 feet elevation. The last ascent is up a steep rounded cone
with a broad flat top, covered with dwarf bamboo, a few oaks,
laurels, magnolias, and white-flowered rhododendron trees (R.
argenteum), which obstructed the view. I hung the barometers
near one of the many chaits on the summit, where there is also
a rude temple, in which worship is performed once a year. The
292
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
:
elevation is 8,671 feet by my observations.¹ The geological
formation of Tendong in some measure accounts for its peculiar
form. On the conical summit are hard quartzoze porphyries,
which have apparently forced up the gneiss and slates, which dip
in all directions from the top, and are full of injected veins of
quartz. Below 7,000 feet, mica-schist prevails, always inclined at
a very high angle; and I found jasper near Namtchi, with other
indications of Plutonic action.
The descent on the north side was steep, through a rank vege-
tation, very different from that of the south face. The oaks are
very grand, and I measured one (whose trunk was decayed, and
split into three, however), which I found to be 49 feet in girth at
5 feet from the ground. Near Temi (alt. 4,770 feet) I gathered
the fruit of Kadsura, a climbing plant allied to Magnolia, bearing
round heads of large fleshy red drupes, which are pleasantly acid
and much eaten; the seeds are very aromatic.
From Temi the road descends to the Teesta, the course of
which it afterwards follows. The valley was fearfully hot, and
infested with mosquitos and peepsas. Many fine plants grew in
it: I especially noticed Aristolochia saccata, which climbs the
loftiest trees, bearing its curious pitcher-shaped flowers near the
ground only; its leaves are said to be good food for cattle.
Houttuynia, a curious herb allied to pepper, grew on the banks,
which, from the profusion of its white flowers, resembled straw-
berry-beds; the leaves are eaten by the Lepchas. But the most
magnificent plant of these jungles is Hodgsonia, (a genus I have
dedicated to my friend, Mr. Hodgson), a gigantic climber allied
to the gourd, bearing immense yellowish-white pendulous blossoms,
whose petals have a fringe of buff-coloured curling threads, several
inches long. The fruit is of a rich brown, like a small melon in
form, and contains six large nuts, whose kernels (called "Katior-
pot" by the Lepchas) are eaten. The stem, when cut, discharges
water profusely from whichever end is held downwards. The
"Took" (Hydnocarpus) is a beautiful evergreen tree, with tufts
of yellow blossoms on the trunk; its fruit is as large as an orange,
and is used to poison fish, while from the seeds an oil is expressed.
Tropical oaks and Terminalias are the giants of these low forests,
the latter especially, having buttressed trunks, appear truly
gigantic; one, of a kind called "Sung-lok" measured 47 feet
* 8,663 by Col. Waugh's trigonometrical observations.
2 Especially upon the broad terraces of gravel, some of which are upwards
of a mile long, and 200 feet above the stream; they are covered with boulders
of rock, and are generally opposite feeders of the river.
COMMENCEMENT OF RAINS. BHOMSONG.
293
in girth, at 5 feet, and 21 and 15 feet from the ground, and was
fully 200 feet high. I could only procure the leaves by firing a
ball into the crown. Some of their trunks lay smouldering on
the ground, emitting a curious smell from the mineral matter in
their ashes.
Birds are very rare, as is all animal life but insects, and a
small fresh-water crab, Thelphusa, ("Ti-hi" of the Lepchas.)
Shells, from the absence of lime, are extremely scarce, and I
scarcely picked up a single specimen; the most common are
species of Cyclostoma.
•
The rains commenced on the 10th of May, greatly increasing
the discomforts of travelling, but moderating the heat by drench-
ing thunder-storms, which so soaked the men's loads, that I was
obliged to halt a day in the Teesta valley to have waterproof
covers made of platted bamboo work, enclosing Phrynium leaves.
I was delighted to find that my little tent was impervious to
water, though its thickness was of but one layer of blanket; it
was a single ridge with two poles, 7 feet high, 8 feet long, and 8
feet broad at the base, forming nearly an equilateral triangle in
front.
Bhomsong was looking more beautiful than ever in its rich
summer clothing of tropical foliage. I halted during an hour of
heavy rain on the spot where I had spent the previous Christmas,
and could not help feeling doubly lonely in a place where every
rock and tree reminded me of that pleasant time. The isolation
of my position, the hostility of the Dewan, and consequent
uncertainty of the success of a journey that absorbed all my
thoughts, the prevalence of fevers in the valleys I was traversing,
and the many difficulties that beset my path, all crowded on the
imagination when fevered by exertion and depressed by gloomy
weather, and my spirits involuntarily sank as I counted the many
miles and months intervening between me and my home.
The little flat on which I had formerly encamped was now
covered with a bright green crop of young rice. The house then
occupied by the Dewan was now empty and unroofed; but the
suspension bridge had been repaired, and its light framework of
canes, spanning the boiling flood of the Teesta, formed a graceful
object in this most beautiful landscape. The temperature of the
river was 58°, only 7° above that of mid-winter, owing to the now
melting snows. I had rather expected to meet either with a
guide, or with some further obstruction here, but as none appeared,
I proceeded onwards as soon as the weather moderated.
Higher up, the scenery resembles that of Chingtam on the
R

294
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Tambur (p. 137): the banks are so steep as to allow of no road,
and the path ascends from the river, at 1,000 feet, to Lathiang
village, at 4,800 feet, up a wild, rocky torrent that descends from
Mainom to the Teesta. The cliffs here are covered with wild.
plantains and screw-pines (Pandanus), 50 feet high, that clasp
4WB
PANDANUS. SIKKIM SCREW-PINE.
the rocks with cable-like roots, and bear one or two crowns of
drooping leaves, 5 feet long: two palms, Rattan (Calamus) and
Areca gracilis, penetrate thus far up the Teesta valley, but are
scarcely found further.
From the village the view was superb, embracing the tropical
LAMA OF GORH.
295
gulley below, with the flat of Bhomsong deep down in the gorge,
its bright rice-fields gleaming like emeralds amid the dark vegeta-
tion that surrounded it; the Teesta winding to the southward,
the pine-clad rocky top of Mainom, 10,613 feet high, to the
south-west, the cone of Mount Ararat far to the south, to the
north black mountains tipped with snow, and to the east the
magnificent snowy range of Chola, giruling the valley of the Ryott
with a diadem of frosted silver. The coolies, each carrying
upwards of 80 lb. load, had walked twelve hours that day, and
besides descending 2,000 feet, they had ascended nearly 4,000
feet, and gone over innumerable ups and downs besides.
Beyond Lathiang, a steep and dangerous path runs along the
east flank of Mainom, sometimes on narrow ledges of dry rock,
covered with long grass, sometimes dipping into wooded gullies,
full of Edgeworthia Gardneri and small trees of Andromeda and
rhododendron, covered with orchids of great beauty.
I
:
Descending to Gorh (4,100 feet), I was met by the Lama of
that district, a tall, disagreeable-looking fellow, who informed me
that the road ahead was impassable. The day being spent, I
was obliged to camp at any rate; after which he visited me in
full canonicals, bringing me a handsome present, but assuring me
that he had no authority to let me advance. I treated him with
civility, and regretted my objects being so imperative, and my
orders so clear, that I was obliged to proceed on the following
morning on which he abruptly decamped, as I suspected, in
order to damage the paths and bridges. He came again at
daylight, and expostulated further; but finding it of no use, he
volunteered to accompany me, officiously offering me the choice
of two roads. I asked for the coolest, knowing full well that it
was useless to try and outwit him in such matters. At the first
stream the bridge was destroyed, but seeing the planks peeping
through the bushes in which they had been concealed, I desired
the Lama to repair it, which he did without hesitation. So it was
at every point: the path was cumbered with limbs of trees,
crossing-stones were removed from the streams, and all natural
difficulties were increased. I kept constantly telling the Lama
that as he had volunteered to show me the road, I felt sure he
intended to remove all obstacles, and accordingly I put him to
all the trouble I possibly could, which he took with a very
indifferent grace. When I arrived at the swinging bridge across
the Teesta, I found that the canes were loosened, and that slips
I
Especially some species of Sunipia and Cirrhopetalum, which have not
yet been introduced into England.
296
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
of bamboo, so small as nearly to escape observation, were
ingeniously placed low down over the single bamboo that formed
the footing, intended to trip up the unwary passenger, and over-
turn him into the river, which was deep, and with a violent
current. Whilst the Lama was cutting these, one of my party
found a charcoal writing on a tree, announcing the speedy
arrival from the Rajah of my old guide, Meepo; and he shortly
afterwards appeared, with instructions to proceed with me, though
not to the Tibetan frontier. The lateness of the season, the
violence of the rains, and the fears, on the Rajah's part, that I
might suffer from fever or accident, were all urged to induce me
to return, or at least only to follow the west branch of the Teesta
to Kinchinjunga. These reasons failing, I was threatened with.
Chinese interference on the frontier. All these objections I over-
ruled, by refusing to recognize any instructions that were not.
officially communicated to the Superintendent of Darjeeling.
The Gorh Lama here took leave of me: he was a friend of the
Dewan, and was rather surprised to find that the Rajah had sent
me a guide, and now attempted to pass himself off as my friend,
pompously charging Meepo with the care of me, and bidding me
a very polite farewell. I could not help telling him civilly, but
plainly, what I thought of him; and so we parted.
Meepo was very glad to join my party again: he is a thorough
Lepcha in heart, a great friend of his Rajah and of Tchebu Lama,
and one who both fears and hates the Dewan. He assured me
of the Rajah's good wishes and intentions, but spoke with great
doubt as to the probability of a successful issue to my journey:
he was himself ignorant of the road, but had brought a guide,
whose appearance, however, was against him, and who turned out
to be sent as a spy on us both.
Instead of crossing the Teesta here, we kept on for two days up
its west bank, to a cane bridge at Lingo, where the bed of the
river is still only 2,000 feet above the sea, though 45 miles distant
from the plains, and flowing in a valley bounded by mountains
12,000 to 16,000 feet high. The heat was oppressive, from the
closeness of the atmosphere, the great power of the sun, now
high at noon-day, and the reflection from the rocks. Leeches
began to swarm as the damp increased, and stinging flies of various
kinds. My clothes were drenched with perspiration during five
hours of every day, and the crystallising salt irritated the skin,
On sitting down to rest, I was overcome with languor and sleep.
and, but for the copious supply of fresh water everywhere,
travelling would have been intolerable. The coolies were all but
-
"
TREE-FERN. MOXAS.
297
naked, and were constantly plunging into the pools of the rivers;
for, though filthy in their persons, they revel in cold water in
summer. They are powerful swimmers, and will stem a very
strong current, striking out with each arm alternately. It is an
animated sight when twenty or thirty of these swarthy children of
nature are disporting their muscular figures in the water, diving
after large fish, and sometimes catching them by tickling them..
under the stones.
Of plants I found few not common at similar elevations below
Darjeeling, except another kind of Tree-fern,¹ whose pith is eaten
in times of scarcity. The India-rubber fig penetrates thus far
amongst the mountains, but is of small size. A Gentian, Arenaria,
and some sub-alpine plants are met with, though the elevation is
only 2,000 feet, and the whole climate thoroughly tropical: they
were annuals usually found at 7,000 to 10,000 feet elevation, and
were growing here on mossy rocks, cooled by the spray of the
river, whose temperature was only 56° 3. My servant having
severely sprained his wrist by a fall, the Lepchas wanted to apply
a moxa, which they do by lighting a piece of puff ball, or Nepal
paper that burns like tinder, laying it on the skin, and blowing it
till a large open sore is produced; they shook their heads at my
treatment, which consisted in transferring some of the leeches
from our persons to the inflamed part.
After crossing the Teesta by the cane bridge of Lingo, our
route lay over a steep and lofty spur, round which the river makes
a great sweep. On the ascent of this ridge we passed large villages
on flats cultivated with buckwheat. The saddle is 5,500 feet
high, and thence a rapid descent leads to the village of Singtam,
which faces the north, and is 300 feet lower, and 3,000 feet above
the river, which is here no longer called the Teesta, but is known
as the Lachen-Lachoong, from its double origin in the rivers of
these names, which unite at Choongtam, twenty miles higher up.
Of these, the source of the Lachen is in the Cholamoo lakes in
Tibet; while the Lachoong rises on the south flank of Donkia
mountain, both many marches north of my present position. At
Singtam the Lachen-Lachoong runs westward, till joined by the
Rihi from the north, and the Rinoong from the west, after receiv-
ing which it assumes the name of Teesta. Of these affluents, the
Rinoong is the largest, and drains the south-east face of Kinchin-
I
Alsophila spinulosa, the “Pugjik" of the Lepchas, who eat the soft watery
pith it is abundant in East Bengal and the Peninsula of India. The other
Sikkim Tree-fern, A. gigantea, is far more common from the level of the plains
to 6,500 elevation, and is found as far south as Java.
W
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HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
$
9
•
junga and Pundim, and the north of Nursing; all which mountains
are seen to the north-north-west of Singtam. The Rinoong valley
is cultivated for several miles up, and has amongst others the
village and Lamasery of Bah. Beyond this the view of black,
rugged precipices with snowy mountains towering above them, is
one of the finest in Sikkim. There is a pass in that direction,
from Bah over the Tekonglah to the Thlonok valley, and thence
to the province of Jigatzi in Tibet, but it is almost impracticable.
A race of wild men, called "Harrum-mo," are said to inhabit
the head of the valley, living in the woods of a district called
Mund-po, beyond Bah; they shun habitations, speak an unintel-
ligible tongue, have more hair on the face than Lepchas, and do
not plait that of their heads, but wear it in a knot; they use the
bow and arrow, and eat snakes and vermin, which the Lepchas
will not touch. Such is the account I have heard, and which is
certainly believed in Sikkim ; similar stories are very current in
half civilized countries; and if this has any truth, it possibly refers
to the Chepangs,¹ a very remarkable race, of doubtful affinity and
origin, inhabiting the Nepal forests.
At Singtam I was waited on by the Soubah of the district, a tall
portly Bhoteea, who was destined to prove a most active enemy
to my pursuits. He governs the country between Gorh and the
Tibet frontier, for the Maha-Ranee (wife of the Rajah), whose
dowry it is; and she being the Dewan's relative, I had little
assistance to expect from her agent. His conduct was very polite,
and he brought me a handsome offering for myself; but after
delaying me a day on the pretext of collecting food for my people,
of which I was in want, I was obliged to move on with no addition
to my store, and trust to obtaining some at the next village, or
from Darjeeling. Owing, however, to the increasing distance, and
the destruction of the roads by the rains, my supplies from that
place were becoming irregular: I therefore thought it prudent to
reduce my party, by sending back my guard of sepoys, who could
be of no further use.
From this point the upper portion of the course of the Teesta
(Lachen-Lachoong) is materially different from what it is lower
down; becoming a boisterous torrent, as suddenly as the Tambur
does above Mywa Guola. Its bed is narrower, large masses of
rock impede its course, nor is there any place where it is prac-
ticable for rafts at any season; the only means of passing it
being by cane bridges that are thrown across, high above the
stream.
Hodgson, in "Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal" for 1848.
I
BEE'S NESTS. LAND-SLIPS.
299
The slope on either side of the valley is very steep; that on the
north, in particular, appearing too precipitous for any road, and
being only frequented by honey seekers, who scale the rocks by
cane ladders, and thus reach the pendulous bees'-nests, which are
so large as in some instances to be conspicuous features at the
distance of a mile. This pursuit appeared extremely perilous,
the long thread-like canes in many places affording the only foot-
ing, over many yards of cliff; the procuring of this honey, however,
is the only means by which many of the idle poor raise the rent
which they must pay to the Rajah.
The most prominent effect of the steepness of the valleys is
the prevalence of land-slips, which sometimes descend for 3,000
feet, carrying devastation along their course: they are caused
either by the melting of the snow-beds on the mountains, or by
the action of the rains on the stratified rocks, and are much in-
creased in effect and violence by the heavy timber-trees which,
swaying forwards, loosen the earth at their roots, and give impetus.
to the mass. This phenomenon is as frequent and destructive as
in Switzerland, where, however, more lives are lost, from the
country being more populous, and from the people recklessly
building in places particularly exposed to such accidents. A most
destructive one had, however, occurred here the previous year, by
which a village was destroyed, together with twelve of its inhabi-
tants, and all the cattle. The fragments of rock precipitated are
sometimes of enormous size, but, being a soft mica schist, are soon
removed by weathering. It is in the rainy season that landslips
are most frequent, and shortly after rain they are pretty sure to be
heard far or near. I crossed the débris of the great one alluded
to on the first march beyond Singtam : the whole face of the
mountain appeared more or less torn up for fully a mile, presenting
a confused mass of white micaceous clay, full of angular masses
of rock. The path was very difficult and dangerous, being carried
along the steep slope, at an angle, in some places, of 35°; and it
was constantly shifting, from the continued downward sliding, and
from the action of streams, some of which are large, and cut deep
channels. In one I had the misfortune to lose my only sheep,
which was carried away by the torrent. These streams were crossed
by means of sticks and ricketty bamboos, and the steep sides
(sometimes twenty or thirty feet high), were ascended by notched
poles.
The weather continued very hot for the elevation (4,000 to
5,000 feet), the rain brought no coolness, and for the greater part
of the three marches between Singtam and Chakoong, we were
300
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
either wading through deep mud, or climbing over rocks. Leeches
swarmed in incredible profusion in the streams and damp grass,
and among the bushes: they got into my hair, hung on my eyelids,
and crawled up my legs and down my back. I repeatedly took
upwards of a hundred from my legs, where the small ones used
to collect in clusters on the instep: the sores which they produced
were not healed for five months afterwards, and I retain the scars
to the present day. Snuff and tobacco leaves are the best antidote,
but when marching in the rain, it is impossible to apply this simple
remedy to any advantage. The best plan I found to be rolling
the leaves over the feet, inside the stockings, and powdering the
legs with snuff.
Another pest is a small midge, or sand-fly, which causes in-
tolerable itching, and subsequent irritation, and is in this respect
the most insufferable torment in Sikkim; the minutest rent in
one's clothes is detected by the acute senses of this insatiable
bloodsucker, which is itself so small as to be barely visible without
a microscope. We daily arrived at our camping-ground, streaming
with blood, and mottled with the bites of peepsas, gnats, midges,
and mosquitos, besides being infested with ticks.
As the rains advanced, insects seemed to be called into existence
in countless swarms; large and small moths, cockchafers, glow-
worms, and cockroaches made my tent a Noah's ark by night,
when the candle was burning; together with winged ants, May-flies,
flying earwigs, and many beetles, while a very large species of
Tipula (daddy-long-legs,) swept its long legs across my face as I
wrote my journal, or plotted off my map. After retiring to rest
and putting out the light, they gradually departed, except a few
which could not find the way out, and remained to disturb my
slumbers.
Chakoong is a remarkable spot in the bottom of the valley, at
an angle of the Lachen-Lachoong, which here receives an affluent
from Gnarem, a mountain 17,577 feet high, on the Chola range
to the east. * There is no village, but some grass huts used by
travellers, which are built close to the river on a very broad flat,
fringed with alder, hornbeam, and birch; the elevation is 4,400
feet, and many European genera not found about Darjeeling, and
belonging to the temperate Himalaya, grow intermixed with
tropical plants that are found no further north. The birch, willow,
alder, and walnut grow side by side with wild plantain, Erythrina,
This is called Black Rock in Col. Waugh's map. I doubt Gnarem being
a generally known name: the people hardly recognize the mountain as
sufficiently conspicuous to bear a name.
MIXTURE OF TROPICAL AND TEMPERATE PLANTS. 301
MIXTURE
Wallichia palm, and gigantic bamboos: the Cedrela Toona, figs,
Melastoma, Scitamineæ, balsams, Pothos, peppers, and gigantic
climbing vines, grow mixed with brambles, speedwell, Paris,
forget-me-not, and nettles that sting like poisoned arrows. The
wild English strawberry is common, but bears a tasteless fruit: its
inferiority is, however, counterbalanced by the abundance of a
grateful yellow raspberry. Parasitical orchids (Dendrobium nobile,
and densiflorum, &c.), cover the trunks of oaks, while Thalictrum
and Geranium grow under their shade. Monotropa and Balano-
"phora, both parasites on the roots of trees (the one a native of
north Europe and the other of a tropical climate), push their leaf-
less stems and heads of flowers through the soil together; and
lastly, tree-ferns grow associated with the Pteris aquilina (brake)
and Lycopodium clavatum of our British moors; and amongst
mosses, the superb Himalayan Lyellia crispa,' with the English
Funaria hygrometrica.
The dense jungles of Chakoong completely cover the beautiful
flat terraces of stratified sand and gravel, which rise in three
shelves to 150 feet above the river, and whose edges appear as
sharply cut as if the latter had but lately retired from them. They
are continuous with a line of quartzy cliffs, covered with scarlet
rhododendrons, and in the holes of which a conglomerate of
pebbles is found, 150 feet above the river. Everywhere immense
boulders are scattered about, some of which are sixty yards long:
their 'surfaces are water-worn into hollows, proving the river to
have cut through nearly 300 feet of deposit, which once floored
its valley. Lower down the valley, and fully 2,000 feet above the
river, I had passed numerous angular blocks resting on gentle
slopes where no landslips could possibly have deposited them ;
and which I therefore refer to ancient glacial action: one of these,
near the village of Niong, was nearly square, eighty feet long, and
ten high.
It is a remarkable fact, that this hot, damp gorge is never
malarious; this is attributable to the coolness of the river, and to
the water on the flats not stagnating; for at Choongtam, a march
further north, and 1,500 feet higher, fevers and ague prevail in
summer on similar flats, but which have been cleared of jungle,
and are therefore exposed to the sun.
I had had constant headache for several mornings on waking,
This is one of the most remarkable mosses in the Himalaya mountains,
and derives additional interest-from having been named after the late Charles
Lyell, Esq., of Kinnordy, the father of the most eminent geologist of the present
day.
*
302
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
•
W
which I did not fail to attribute to coming fever, or to the un-
healthiness of the climate; till I accidentally found it to arise
from the wormwood, upon a thick couch of the cut branches of
which I was accustomed to sleep, and which in dry weather pro-
duced no such effects."I
From Chakoong to Choongtam the route lay northwards, follow-
ing the course of the river, or crossing steep spurs of vertical
strata, of mica-schist, that dip into the valley, and leave no space
between their perpendicular sides and the furious torrent. Im-
mense landslips seamed the steep mountain flanks; and we crossed
with precipitation one that extended fully 4,000 feet (and perhaps
much more) up a mountain 12,000 feet high, on the east bank: it
moves every year, and the mud and rocks shot down by it were
strewn with the green leaves and twigs of shrubs, some of the
flowers on which were yet fresh and bright, while others were
crushed these were mixed with gigantic trunks of pines, with
ragged bark and scored timbers. The talus which had lately been
poured into the valley formed a gently sloping bank, twenty feet
high, over which the Lachen-Lachoong rolled, from a pool above,
caused by the damming up of its waters. On either side of the
pool were cultivated terraces of stratified sand and pebbles, fifty
feet high, whose alder-fringed banks, joined by an elegant cane
bridge, were reflected in the placid water; forming a little spot of
singular quiet and beauty, that contrasted with the savage grandeur
of the surrounding mountains, and the headstrong course of the
foaming torrent below, amid whose deafening roar it was im-
possible to speak and be heard.
The mountain of Choongtam is about 10,000 feet high; it
divides the Lachen from the Lachoong river, and terminates a
lofty range that runs for twenty-two miles south from the lofty
mountain of Kinchinj how. Its south exposed face is bare of
trees, except clumps of pines towards the top, and is very steep,
grassy, and rocky, without water. It is hence quite unlike the
forest-clad mountains further south, and indicates a drier and
more sunny climate. The scenery much resembles that of Swit-
zerland, and of the north-west Himalaya, especially in the great
contrast between the southern and northern exposures, the latter
being always clothed with a dense vegetation. At the foot of
this very steep mountain is a broad triangular flat, 5,270 feet above
the sea, and 300 feet above the river, to which it descends by
I This wormwood (Artemisia Indica) is one of the most common Sikkim plants
at 2,000 to 6,000 feet elevation, and grows twelve feet high: it is a favourite
food of goats.
R

CHOONGTAM. LIMIT OF RICE CULTIVATION. 303
three level cultivated shelves. The village, consisting of a temple
and twenty houses, is placed on the slope of the hill. I camped
on the flat in May, before it became very swampy, close to some
great blocks of gneiss, of which many lie on its surface: it was
covered with tufts of sedge (like Carex stellulata), and fringed
with scarlet rhododendron, walnut, Andromeda, Eleagnus (now
bearing pleasant acid fruit), and small trees of a Photinia, a plant
allied to hawthorn, of the leaves of which the natives make tea
(as they do of Gualtheria, Andromeda, Vaccinium, and other
allied plants). Rice, cultivated in pools surrounded by low
MOR NAVANEVALS
CANE-BRIDGE ANU TUKCHAM MOUNTAIN.
banks, was just peeping above ground; and scanty crops of
millet, maize, and buckwheat flourished on the slopes around.
The inhabitants of Choongtam are of Tibetan origin; few of
them had seen an Englishman before, and they flocked out,
displaying the most eager curiosity: the Lama and Phipun (or
superior officer) of the Lachoong valley came to pay their respects
I
Choongtam is in position and products analogous to Lelyp, on the Tambur.
Rice cultivation advances thus high up each valley, and at either place
Bhoteeas replace the natives of the lower valleys.
304
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
with a troop of followers, and there was lolling out of tongues,
and scratching of ears, at every sentence spoken, and every object
of adıniration. This extraordinary Tibetan salute at first puzzled
me excessively, nor was it until reading MM. Huc and Gabet's
travels on my return to England, that I knew of its being the ton
at Lhassa, and in all civilised parts of Tibet.
As the valley was under the Singtam Soubah's authority, I
experienced a good deal of opposition; and the Lama urged the
wrath of the gods against my proceeding. This argument, I said,
had been disposed of the previous year, and I was fortunate in
recognising one of my Changachelling friends, who set forth my
kindly offices to the Lamas of that convent, and the friendship
borne me by its monks, and by those of Pemiongchi. Many
other modes of dissuading me were attempted, but with Meepo's
assistance I succeeded in gaining my point. The difficulty and
delays in remittance of food, caused by the landslips having
destroyed the road, had reduced our provisions to a very low
ebb; and it became not only impossible to proceed, but necessary
to replenish my stores on the spot. At first provisions enough
were brought to myself, for the Rajah had issued orders for my
being cared for, and having some practice among the villagers in
treating rhematism and goîtres, I had the power of supplying my
own larder; but I found it impossible to buy food for my people.
At last, the real state of the case came out ; that the Rajah heving
gone to Choombi, his usual summer-quarters in Tibet, the Dewan
had issued orders that no food should be sold or given to my
people, and that no roads were to be repaired during my stay in
the country; thus cutting off my supplies from Darjeeling, and,
in short, attempting to starve me out. At this juncture, Meepo
received a letter from the Durbar, purporting to be from the
Rajah, commanding my immediate return, on the grounds that I
had been long enough in the country for my objects it was not
addressed to me, and I refused to receive it as an official commu-
nication; following up my refusal by telling Meepo that if he
thought his orders required it, he had better leave me and return
to the Rajah, as I should not stir without directions from Dr.
Campbell, except forwards. He remained, however, and said he
had written to the Rajah, urging him to issue stringent orders for
my party being provisioned.
We were reduced to a very short allowance before the long-
expected supplies came, by which time our necessities had almost
conquered my resolution not to take by force of the abundance I
might see around, however well I might afterwards pay. It is
VEGETATION OF INNER SIKKIM.
305
but fair to state that the improvident villagers throughout Sikkim
are extremely poor in vegetable food at this season, when the
winter store is consumed, and the crops are still green. They
are consequently obliged to purchase rice from the lower valleys,
which, owing to the difficulties of transport, is very dear; and to
obtain it they barter wool, blankets, musk, and Tibetan produce
of all kinds. Still, they had cattle, which they would willingly
have sold to me, but for the Dewan's orders.
I
There is a great difference between the vegetation of Darjeeling
and that of similar elevations near Choongtam situated far within
the Himalaya: this is owing to the steepness and dryness of the
latter locality, where there is an absence of dense forest, which is
replaced by a number of social grasses clothing the mountain
sides, many new and beautiful kinds of rhododendrons, and a
variety of European genera, which, (as I have elsewhere noticed)
are either wholly absent from the damper ranges of Darjeeling, or
found there several thousand feet higher up. On the hill above
Choongtam village, I gathered, at 5,000 to 6,000 feet, Rhododen-
dron arboreum and Dalhousie, which do not generally grow at
Darjeeling below 7,500 feet. The yew appears at 7,000 feet,
whilst, on the outer ranges (as on Tonglo), it is only found at
9,500 to 10,000 feet; and whereas on Tonglo it forms an immense
tall tree, with long sparse branches and slender drooping twigs,
growing amongst gigantic magnolias and oaks, at Choongtam it is
small and rigid, and much resembling in appearance our church-
yard yew.3 At 8,000 feet the Abies Brunoniana is found; a tree
quite unknown further south; but neither the larch nor the Abies
Smithiana (Khutrow) accompanied it, they being confined to still
more northern regions.
2
I have seldom had occasion to allude to snakes, which are rare
and shy in most parts of the Himalaya; I, however, found an
* Deutzia, Saxifraga ciliata, Thalictrum, Euphorbia, yellow violet, Labiatæ,
Androsace, Leguminosa, Coriaria, Delphinium, currant, Umbelliferæ, primrose,
Anemone, Convallaria, Roscoea, Mitella, Herminium, Drosera.
I collected here ten kinds of rhododendron, which, however, are not the
social plants that they become at greater elevations. Still, in the delicacy and
beauty of their flowers, four of them, perhaps, excel any others; they are R.
Aucklandii, whose flowers are five inches and a half in diameter; R. Maddeni,
R. Dalhousie, and R. Edgeworthii, all white-flowered bushes, of which the
two first rise to the height of small trees.
3 The yew spreads east from Kashmir to the Assam Himalaya and the
Khasia mountains; and the Japan, Philippine Island, Mexican, and other
North American yews, belong to the same widely-diffused species. In the
Khasia (its most southern limit) it is found as low as 5,000 feet above the
sea-level.
21
306
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
extremely venomous one at Choongtam; a small black viper, a
variety of the cobra di capello,' which it replaces in the drier
grassy parts of the interior of Sikkim, the large cobra not inha-
biting the mountain regions. Altogether I only collected about
twelve species in Sikkim, seven of which are venomous, and all
are dreaded by the Lepchas. An enormous hornet (Vespa magni-
fica, Sm.), nearly two inches long, was here brought to me alive in
a cleft-stick, lolling out its great thorn-like sting, from which drops
of a milky poison distilled its sting is said to produce fatal fevers
in men and cattle, which may very well be the case, judging from
that of a smaller kind, which left great pain in my hand for two
days, while a feeling of numbness remained in the arm for several
weeks. It is called Vok by the Lepchas, a common name for any
bee its larvæ are said to be greedily eaten, as are those of various
allied insects.
:
Choongtam boasts a profusion of beautiful insects, amongst
which the British swallow-tail butterfly (Papilio Machaon) disports
itself in company with magnificent black, gold, and scarlet-winged
butterflies, of the Trojan group, so typical of the Indian tropics.
At night my tent was filled with small water-beetles (Berosi) that
quickly put out the candle; and with lovely moths came huge
cockchafers (Encerris Griffithii), and enormous and fœtid flying-
bugs (of the genus Derecterix), which bear great horns on the
thorax. The irritation of mosquito and midge bites, and the
disgusting insects that clung with spiny legs to the blankets of
my tent and bed, were often as effectual in banishing sleep, as
were my anxious thoughts regarding the future.
The temple at Choongtam is a poor wooden building, but
contains some interesting drawings of Lhassa, with its extensive
Lamaseries and temples; they convey the idea of a town, gleam-
1 Dr. Gray, to whom I am indebted for the following information, assures
me that this reptile is not specifically distinct from the common Cobra of India ;
though all the mountain specimens of it which he has examined retain the
same size and dark colour. Of the other Sikkim reptiles which I procured,
seven are Colubrida and innocuous; five Crotalida are venomous, three of
which are new species belonging to the genera Parias and Trimesurus.
Lizards are not abundant, but I found at Choongtam a highly curious one,
Plestiodon Sikkimensis, Gray; a kind of Skink, whose only allies are two
North American congeners; and a species of Agama (a chameleon-like lizard)
which in many important points more resembled an allied American genus than
an Asiatic one. The common immense earth-worth of Sikkim, Ichthyophis
glutinosus, is a native of the Khasia mountains, Singapore, Ceylon and Java.
It is a most remarkable fact, that whereas seven out of the twelve Sikkim
snakes are poisonous, the sixteen species I procured in the Khasia mountains
are innocuous.

ACCOUNTS OF LHASSA.
307
Ing, like Moscow, with gilded and copper roofs; but on a nearer
aspect it is found to consist of a mass of stone houses, and large
religious edifices many stories high, the walls of which are regularly
pierced with small square ornamented windows:
JUNIPERUS RECURVA.
Height 30 feet. (See p. 318.)
1 MM. Huc and Gabet's account of Lhassa is. I do not doubt, excellent as
to particulars; but the trees which they describe as magnificent, and girdling
the city, have uniformly been represented to me as poor stunted willows,
apricots, poplars, and walnuts, confined to the gardens of the rich. No doubt,
the impression left by these objects on the minds of travellers from tree-less
Tartary, and of Sikkimites reared amidst stupendous forests, must be widely
different. The information concerning Lhassa collected by Timkowski,
"Travels of the Russian Mission to China" (in 1821), is greatly exaggerated,.
308
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
There is nothing remarkable in the geology of Choongtam: thể
base of the hill consists of the clay and mica slates overlain by
gneiss, generally dipping to the eastward; in the latter are granite
veins, containing fine tourmalines. Actinolites are found in some
highly metamorphic gneisses, brought by landslips from the neigh-
bouring heights. The weather in May was cloudy and showery,
but the rain which fell was far less in amount than that at Darjee-
ling during the day the sun's power was great; but though it
rose between five and six A.M., it never appeared above the lofty
peaked mountains that girdle the valley till eight A.M. Dark pines
crest the heights around, and landslips score their flanks with
white seams below; while streaks of snow remain throughout the
month at 9,000 feet above; and everywhere silvery torrents leap
down to the Lachen and Lachoong.
:
**
CHAPTER XIX.
Routes from Choongtam to Tibet frontier-Choice of that by the Lachen
river—Arrival of Supplies-Departure-Features of the valley-Eatable
Polygonum-Tumlong-Cross Taktoong river-Pines, larches, and other
trees-Chateng pool-Water-plants and insects-Tukcham mountain-
Lamteng village - Inhabitants-Alpine monkey - Botany of temperate
Himalaya-European and American fauna-Japanese and Malayan genera
Y
.
Superstitious objections to shooting-Customs of people-Řain-Run
short of provisions-Altered position of Tibet frontier-Zemu Samdong-
Imposition-Vegetation-Uses of pines-Ascent to Thlonok river--Bala-
nophora wood for making cups-Snow-beds-Eatable mushrooms and
Smilacina-Asarabacca-View of Kinchinjunga-Arum-roots, preparation
of for food-Liklo mountain-Behaviour of my party-Bridge constructed
over Zemu--Cross river-Alarm of my party-Camp on Zemu river.
FROM this place there were two routes to Tibet, each of about
six days' journey. One lay to the north-west up the Lachen
valley to the Kongra Lama pass, the other to the east up the
though containing much that is true and curious. The dyke to protect the
city from inundations I never heard of; but there is a current story in Sikkim
that Lhassa is built in a lake-bed, which was dried up by a miracle of the
Lamas, and that in heavy rain the earth trembles, and the waters bubble
through the soil: a Darjeeling rain-fall, I have been assured, would wash away
the whole city. Ermann ("Travels in Siberia," i., p. 186), mentions a town
(Klinchi, near Perm) thus built over subterraneous springs, and in constant
danger of being washed away. MM. Huc and Gabet allude to the same
tradition under another form. They say that the natives of the banks of the
Koko-nor affirm that the waters of that lake once occupied a subterranean
position beneath Lhassa, and that the waters sapped the foundations of the
temples as soon as they were built, till withdrawn by supernatural agency.
·
ROUTES TO THE TIBET FRONTIER.
309
Lachoong to the Donkia pass. The latter river has its source in
small lakes in Sikkim, south of the Donkia mountain, a shoulder
of which the pass crosses, commanding a magnificent view into
Tibet. The Lachen, on the other hand (the principal source of
the Teesta), rises beyond Sikkim in the Cholamoo lakes. The
frontier at Kongra Lama was described to me as being a political,
and not a natural boundary, marked out by cairns, standing on
a plain, and crossing the Lachen river, To both Donkia and
Kongra Lama I had every right to go, and was determined, if
possible, to reach them, in spite of Meepo's ignorance, our guide's
endeavours to frighten my party and mislead myself, and the
country people's dread of incurring the Dewan's displeasure.
The Lachen valley being pronounced impracticable in the
height of the rains, a month later, it behoved me to attempt it
first, and it possessed the attraction of leading to a frontier
described as far to the northward of the snowy Himalaya, on
a lofty plateau, whose plants and animals were different from
anything I had previously seen.
After a week the coolies arrived with supplies: they had been
delayed by the state of the paths, and had consequently consumed
a great part of my stock, reducing it to eight days' allowance.
I therefore divided my party, leaving the greater number at
Choongtam, with a small tent, and instructions to forward all
food to me as it arrived. I started with about fifteen attendants,
on the 25th of May, for Lamteng, three marches up the Lachen.
Descending the step-formed terraces, I crossed the Lachen by a
good cane bridge. The river is a headstrong torrent, and turbid
from the vast amount of earthy matter which it bears along; and
this character of extreme impetuosity, unbroken by any still bend,
or even swirling pool, it maintains uninterruptedly at this season
from 4,000 to 10,000 feet. It is crossed three times, always by
cane bridges, and I cannot conceive any valley of its nature to bẹ
more impracticable at such a season. On both sides the moun-
tains rose, densely forest-clad, at an average angle of 35° to 40°,
to 10,000 and 15,000 feet. Its extreme narrowness, and the
grandeur of its scenery, were alike recalled to my mind, on
visiting the Sachs valley in the Valais of Switzerland; from which,
however, it differs in its luxuriant forest, and in the slopes being
more uniform and less broken up into those imposing precipices
so frequent in Switzerland, but which are wanting in the temperate
regions of the Sikkim Himalaya.
At times we scrambled over rocks 1,000 feet above the river,
or descended into gorges, through whose tributary torrents we
310
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
waded, or crossed swampy terraced flats of unstratified shingle
above the stream; whilst it was sometimes necessary to round
rocky promontories in the river, stemming the foaming torrent
that pressed heavily against the chest as, one by one, we were
dragged along by powerful Lepchas. Our halting-places were on
flats close to the river, covered with large trees, and carpeted
with a most luxuriant herbage, amongst which a wild buckwheat
(Polygonum)¹ was abundant, which formed an excellent spinach :
it is called "Pullop bi "; a name I shall hereafter have occasion
to mention with gratitude.
A few miles above Choongtam, we passed a few cottages on a
very extensive terrace at Tumlong, but between this and Lam-
teng the country is uninhabited, nor is it frequented during the
rains. We consequently found that the roads had suffered, the
little bridges and aids to climb precipices and cross landslips had
been carried away, and at one place we were all but turned back.
This was at the Taktoong river, a tributary on the east bank,
which rushes down at an angle of 15°, in a sheet of silvery foam,
eighteen yards broad. It does not, where I crossed it, flow in a
deep gulley, having apparently raised its bed by an accumulation
of enormous boulders and a plank bridge was thrown across it,
against whose slippery and narrow foot-boards the water dashed,
loosening the supports on either bank, and rushing between their
foundation stones.
·
My unwilling guide had gone ahead with some of the coolies:
I had suspected him all along (perhaps unjustly) of avoiding the
most practicable routes; but when I found him waiting for me at
this bridge, to which he sarcastically pointed with his bow, I felt
that had he known of it, to have made difficulties before would
have been a work of supererogation. He seemed to think I
should certainly turn back, and assured me there was no other
crossing (a statement I afterwards found to be untrue); so, com-
forting myself with the hope that if the danger were imminent,
Meepo would forcibly stop me, I took off my shoes, and walked
steadily over: the tremor of the planks was like that felt when
standing on the paddle-box of a steamer, and I was jerked up
and down, as my weight pressed them into the boiling flood,
which shrouded me with spray. I looked neither to the right nor
to the left, lest the motion of the swift waters should turn my
head, but kept my eye on the white jets d'eau springing up
between the woodwork, and felt thankful when fairly on the
* Polygonum cymosum, Wall. This is a common Himalayan plant, and is
also found in the Khasia mountains.
TREES, ETC., OF CHATENG.
311
opposite bank: my loaded coolies followed, crossing one by one
without fear or hesitation. The bridge was swept into the Lachen
very shortly afterwards.
Ι
Towards Lamteng, the path left the river, and passed through a
wood of Abies Smithiana. Larch appears at 9,000 feet, with
Abies Brunoniana. An austere crab-apple, walnut, and the
willow of Babylon (the two latter perhaps cultivated), yellow
jessamine and ash, all scarce trees in Sikkim, are more or less
abundant in the valley, from 7,000 to 8,000 feet; as is an ivy,
very like the English, but with fewer and smaller yellow or
reddish berries; and many other plants, not found at equal
elevations on the outer ranges of the Himalaya.
2
Chateng, a spur from the lofty peak of Tukcham,3 19,472 feet
high, rises 1,000 feet above the west bank of the river; and where
crossed, commands one of the finest alpine views in Sikkim.
It was grassy, strewed with hugh boulders of gneiss, and adorned
with clumps of park-like pines: on the summit was a small pool,
beautifully fringed with bushy trees of white rose, a white-
blossomed apple, a Pyrus like Aria, another like mountain-ash,
scarlet rhododendrons (arboreum and barbatum), holly, maples,
and Goughia, 4 a curious evergreen laurel-like tree: there were
also Daphnes, purple magnolia, and a pink sweet-blossomed
Sphærostema. Many English water-plants 5 grew in the water,
but I found no shells; tadpoles, however, swarmed, which later
in the season became large frogs. The "painted-lady" butterfly
I Also called A. Khutrow and Morinda. I had not before seen this tree
in the Himalaya: it is a spruce fir, much resembling the Norway spruce in
general appearance, but with longer pendulous branches. The wood is white,
and considered indifferent, though readily cleft into planks; it is called
"Seh."
2 Wood-sorrel, a white-stemmed bramble, birch, some maples, nut, gi-
gantic lily (Lilium giganteum), Euphorbia, Pedicularis, Spiraa, Philadelphus,
Deutzia, Indigofera, and various other South Europe and North American
genera.
<<
3 "Tuk" signifies head in Lepcha, and "cheam " or chaum," I believe,
has reference to the snow. The height of Tukcham has been re-calculated by
Capt. R. Strachey, with angles taken by myself, at Darjeeling and Jillapahar,
and is approximate only.
4 This fine plant was named (Wight, "Ic. Plant.") in honour of Capt.
Gough, son of the late commander-in-chief, and an officer to whom the botany
of the peninsula of India is greatly indebted. It is a large and handsome
evergreen, very similar in foliage to a fine rhododendron, and would prove an
invaluable ornament on our lawns, if its hardier varieties were introduced into
this country. [Now known as Daphniphyllum Himalayense.]
5 Sparganium, Typha, Potamogeton, Callitriche, Utricularia, sedges and
rushes.
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HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
(Cynthia Cardui), and a pretty "blue" were flitting over the
flowers, together with some great tropical kinds, that wander so
far up these valleys, accompanying Marlea, the only sub-tropical
tree that ascends to 8,500 feet in the interior of Sikkim.
The river runs close under the eastern side of the valley, which
slopes so steeply as to appear for many miles almost a continuous
landslip, 2,000 feet high.
Lamteng village, where I arrived on the 27th of May, is quite
concealed by a moraine to the south, which, with a parallel ridge
on the north, forms a beautiful bay in the mountains, 8,900 feet
above the sea, and 1,000 above the Lachen. The village stands
on a grassy and bush flat, around which the pine-clad mountains
rise steeply to the snowy peaks and black cliffs which tower
above. It contains about forty houses, forming the winter-
quarters of the inhabitants of the valley, who, in summer, move
with their flocks and herds to the alpine pastures of the Tibet
frontier. The dwellings are like those described at Wallanchoon,
but the elevation being lower, and the situation more sheltered,
they are more scattered; whilst on account of the dampness of
the climate, they are raised higher from the ground, and the
shingles with which they are tiled (made of Abies Webbiana)
decay in two or three years. Many are painted lilac, with the
gables in diamonds of red, black, and white: the roofs are either
of wood, or of the bark of Abies Brunoniana, held down by large
stones within they are airy and comfortable. They are sur-
rounded by a little cultivation of buck-wheat, radishes, turnips,
and mustard. The inhabitants, though paying rent to the Sikkim
Rajah, consider themselves as Tibetans, and are so in language,
dress, features, and origin: they seldom descend to Choongtam,
but yearly travel to the Tibetan towns of Jigatzi, Kambajong,
Giantchi, and even to Lhassa, having always commercial and
pastoral transactions with the Tibetans, whose flocks are pastured
on the Sikkim mountains during summer, and who trade with the
plains of India through the medium of these villagers.
The snow having disappeared from elevations below 11,000
fect, the yaks, sheep, and ponies had just been driven 2,000 feet
up the valley, and the inhabitants were preparing to follow, with
their tents and goats, to summer quarters at Tallum and Tungu.
Many had goîtres and rheumatism, for the cure of which they
flocked to my tent; dry-rubbing for the latter, and tincture of
iodine for the former, gained me some credit as a doctor; I
could, however, procure no food beyond trifling presents of eggs,
meal, and more rarely, fowls,

مان
LAMTENG VILLAGE.
THE VEGETATION OF LAMTENG.
313
On arriving, I saw a troop of large monkeys¹ gambolling in a
wood of Abies Brunoniana: this surprised me, as I was not
prepared to find so tropical an animal associated with a vegetation
typical of a boreal climate. The only other quadrupeds seen here
were some small earless rats, and musk-deer, the young female of
which latter sometimes afforded me a dish of excellent venison;
being, though dark-coloured and lean, tender, sweet, and short-
fibred. Birds were scarce, with the exception of alpine pigeons
(Columba leuconota), red-legged crows (Corvus graculus, L.), and
the horned pheasant (Meleagris Satyra, L.). In this month
insects are scarce, Elater and a black earwig being the most
frequent; two species of Serica also flew into my tent, and at
night two moths, closely resembling European ones, came from
the fir-woods. The vegetation in the neighbourhood of Lamteng
is European and North American; that is to say, it unites the
boreal and temperate floras of the east and west hemispheres ;
presenting also a few features peculiar to Asia. This is a subject
of very great importance in physical geography; as a country
combining the botanical characters of several others, affords
materials for tracing the direction in which genera and species
have migrated, the causes that favour their migrations, and the
laws that determine the types or forms of one region, which
represent those of another. A glance at the map will show that
Sikkim is, geographically, peculiarly well situated for investiga-
tions of this kind, being centrally placed, whether as regards.
south-eastern Asia or the Himalayan chain. Again, the Lachen
valley at this spot is nearly equi-distant from the tropical forests
of the Terai and the sterile mountains of Tibet, for which reason
epresentatives both of the dry central Asiatic and Siberian, and
f the humid Malayan floras meet there.
The mean temperature of Lamteng (about 50°) is that of the
isothermal which passes through Britain in lat. 52°, and east
Europe in lat. 48°, cutting the parallel of 45° in Siberia (due
north of Lamteng itself), descending to lat. 42° on the east coast
of Asia, ascending to lat. 48° on the west of America, and de-
scending to that of New York in the United States. This mean
temperature is considerably increased by descending to the bed
of the Lachen at 8,000 feet, and diminished by ascending
Tukcham to 14,000 feet, which gives a range of 6,000 feet of
elevation, and 20° of mean temperature. But as the climate and
vegetation become arctic at 12,000 feet, it will be as well to

* Macacus Pelops? Hodgson. This is a very different species from the
ropical kind seen in Nepal, and mentioned at p. 195.
314
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
I
confine my observations to the flora of 7,000 to 10,000 feet; of
the mean temperature, namely, between 53° and 43° degrees, the
isothermal lines corresponding to which embrace, on the surface
of the globe, at the level of the sea, a space varying in different
meridians from three to twelve degrees of latitude. *
At first sight
it appears incredible that such a limited area, buried in the depths
of the Himalaya, should present nearly all the types of the flora of
the north temperate zone; not only, however, is this the case, but
space is also found at Lamteng for the intercalation of types of a
Malayan flora, otherwise wholly foreign to the north temperate
region.
A few examples will show this. Amongst trees the Conifers
are conspicuous at Lamteng, and all are of genera typical both of
Europe and North America: namely, silver fir, spruce, larch, and
juniper, besides the yew: there are also species of birch, alder,
ash, apple, oak, willow, cherry, bird-cherry, mountain-ash, thorn,
walnut, hazel, maple, poplar, ivy, holly, Andromeda, Rhamnus.
Of bushes: rose, berberry, bramble, rhododendron, elder, cornel,
willow, honeysuckle, currant, Spiræa, Viburnum, Cotoneaster,
Hippophae. Herbaceous plants are far too numerous to be
enumerated, as a list would include most of the common genera
of European and North American plants.
2
Of North American genera, not found in Europe, were
Tetranthera,
Buddleia, Podophyllum, Magnolia, Sassafras?
Hydrangea, Diclytra, Aralia, Panax, Symplocos, Trillium, and
Clintonia. The absence of heaths is also equally a feature in the
flora of North America. Of European genera, not found in
North America, the Lachen valley has Coriaria, Hypecoum, and
various Crucifera. The Japanese and Chinese floras are repre-
sented in Sikkim by Camellia, Deutzia, Stachyurus, Aucuba,
Helwingia, Stauntonia, Hydrangea, Skimmia, Eurya, Antho
gonium, and Enkianthus. The Malayan by Magnolias, Talauma,
many vacciniums and rhododendrons, Kadsura, Goughia, Marlea,
both coriaceous and deciduous-leaved Calogine, Oberonia, Cyrtosia,
Calanthe, and other orchids; Ceropegia, Parochetus, Balanophora,
1

On the west coast of Europe, where the distance between these isothermal
lines is greatest, this belt extends almost from Stockholm and the Shetlands
to Paris.
2 As an example, the ground about my tent was covered with grasses and
sedges, amongst which grew primroses, thistles, speedwell, wild leeks, Arum,
Convallaria, Callitriche, Oxalis, Ranunculus, Potentilla, Orchis, Charo-
phyllum, Galium, Paris, and Anagallis; besides cultivated weeds of shep
herd's purse, dock, mustard, Mithridate cress, radish, turnip, Thlaspi arvense
and Poa annua.
TIBETANS OF LAMTENG.
and many Scitamineæ; and amongst trees, by Engelhardlia,
Goughia, and various laurels.
315
Shortly after my arrival at Lamteng, the villagers sent to request
that I would not shoot, as they said it brought on excessive rain,
and consequent damage to the crops. My necessities did not
admit of my complying with their wish unless I could procure
food by other means; and I at first paid no attention to their
request. The people, however, became urgent, and the Choong-
tam Lama giving his high authority to the superstition, it ap-
peared impolitic to resist their earnest supplication; though I was
well aware that the story was trumped up by the Lama for the
purpose of forcing me to return. I yielded on the promise of
provisions being supplied from the village, which was done to a
limited extent; and I was enabled to hold out till more arrived
from Darjeeling, now, owing to the state of the roads, at the dis-
tance of twenty days' march. The people were always civil and
kind: there was no concealing the fact that the orders were
stringent, prohibiting my party being supplied with food, but
many of the villagers sought opportunities by night of replenish-
ing my stores. Superstitious and timorous, they regard a doctor
with great veneration; and when to that is added his power of
writing, drawing, and painting, their admiration knows no bounds:
they flocked round my tent all day, scratching their ears, lolling
out their tongues, making a clucking noise, smiling, and timidly
peeping over my shoulder, but flying in alarm when my little dog
resented their familiarity by snapping at their legs. The men
spend the whole day in loitering about, smoking, and spinning
wool: the women in active duties; a few were engaged in drying
the leaves of a shrub (Symplocos) for the Tibet market, which are
used as a yellow dye; whilst, occasionally, a man might be seen
cutting a spoon or a yak-saddle out of rhododendron wood.
I
During my stay at Lamteng, the weather was all but uni-
formly cloudy and misty, with drizzling rain, and a southerly, or
up-valley wind, during the day, which changed to an easterly one
at night: occasionally distant thunder was heard. My rain-gauges.
showed very little rain compared with what fell at Darjeeling
during the same period; the clouds were thin, both sun and
moon shining through them, without, however, the former warm-
ing the soil: hence my tent was constantly wet, nor did I once
sleep in a dry bed till the 1st of June, which ushered in the
In Griffith's narrative of "Pemberton's Mission to Bhotan" (" Posthumous
Papers, Journal," (p. 283), it is mentioned that the Gylongs (Lamas) attributed
a violent storm to the members of the mission shooting birds,
316
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
month with a brilliant sunny day. At night it generally rained
in torrents, and the roar of landslips and avalanches was then
all but uninterrupted for hour after hour: sometimes it was a
rumble, at others a harsh grating sound, and often accompanied
with the crashing of immense timber-trees, or the murmur of the
distant snowy avalanches. The amount of denudation by atmo-
spheric causes is here quite incalculable; and I feel satisfied that
the violence of the river at this particular part of its course
(where it traverses those parts of the valleys which are most snowy
and rainy), is proximately due to impediments thus accumulated
in its bed.
It was sometimes clear at sunrise, and I made many ascents
of Tukcham, hoping for a view of the mountains towards the
passes; but I was only successful on one occasion, when I saw
the table top of Kinchinjhow, the most remarkable, and one of
the most distant peaks of dazzling snow which is seen from
Darjeeling, and which, I was told, is far beyond Sikkim, in Tibet. *
I kept up a constant intercourse with Choongtam, sending my
plants thither to be dried, and gradually reducing my party as
our necessities urged my so doing; lastly, I sent back the
shooters, who had procured very little, and whose occupation
was now gone.
On the 2nd of June, I received the bad news that a large party
of coolies had been sent from Darjeeling with rice, but that being
unable or afraid to pass the landslips, they had returned: we
had now no food except a kid, a few handfuls of flour, and some
potatoes, which had been sent up from Choongtam. All my
endeavours to gain information respecting the distance and
position of the frontier were unavailing; probably, indeed, the
Lama and Phipun (or chief man of the village) were the only
persons who knew; the villagers calling all the lofty pastures a
few marches beyond Lamteng "Bhote" or "Cheen" (Tibet).
Dr. Campbell had procured for me information by which I might
recognise the frontier were I once on it; but no description could
enable me to find my way in a country so rugged and forest-clad,
through tortuous and perpetually forking valleys, along often
obliterated paths, and under cloud and rain. To these difficulties
must be added the deception of the rulers, and the fact (of which
I was not then aware) that the Tibet frontier was formerly at
Choongtam; but from the Lepchas constantly harassing the
I
• Such, however, is not the case; Kinchinjhow is on the frontier of Sikkim,
though a considerable distance behind the most snowy of the Sikkim moun-
tains.
- Mag A
ZEMU RIVER. FORMER SIKKIM FRONTIER.
317
Tibetans, the latter, after the establishment of the Chinese rule
over their country, retreated first to Zemu Samdong, a few hours'
walk above Lamteng, then to Tallum Samdong, 2,000 feet higher;
and, lastly, to Kongra Lama, 16,000 feet up the west flank of
Kinchinjhow.
On the third of June I took a small party, with my tent, and
such provisions as I had, to explore up the river. On hearing
of my intention, the Phipun volunteered to take me to the
frontier, which he said was only two hours distant, at Zemu
Samdong, where the Lachen receives the Zemu river from the
westward this I knew must be false, but I accepted his ser-
vices, and we started, accompanied by a large body of villagers,
who eagerly gathered plants for me along the road.
:
The scenery is very pretty; the path crosses extensive and
dangerous landslips, or runs through fine woods of spruce and
Abies Brunoniana, and afterwards along the river-banks, which
are fringed with willow (called "Lama "), and Hippophae. The
great red rose (Rosa, macrophylla), one of the most beautiful
Himalayan plants, whose single flowers are as large as the palm
of the hand, was blossoming, while golden Potentillas and purple
primroses flowered by the stream, and Pyrola in the fir-woods.
Just above the fork of the valley, a wooden bridge (Samdong)
crosses the Zemu, which was pointed out to me as the frontier,
and I was entreated to respect two sticks and a piece of worsted
stretched across it; this I thought too ridiculous, so as my fol-
lowers halted on one side, I went on the bridge, threw the sticks
into the stream, crossed, and asked the Phipun to follow; the
people laughed, and came over: he then told me that he had
authority to permit of my botanising there, but that I was in
Cheen, and that he would show me the guard-house to prove the
truth of his statement. He accordingly led me up a steep bank
to an extensive broad flat, several hundred feet above the river,
and forming a triangular base to the great spur which, rising
steeply behind, divides the valley. This flat was marshy and
covered with grass; and buried in the jungle were several ruined
, stone houses, with thick walls pierced with loopholes: these had
no doubt been occupied by Tibetans at the time when this was
the frontier.
·
•
The elevation which I had attained (that of the river being
8,970 feet) being excellent for botanising, I camped; and the
villagers, contented with the supposed success of their strategy,
returned to Lamteng.
My guide from the Durbar had stayed behind at Lamteng, and
318
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
though Meepo and all my men well knew that this was not the
frontier, they were ignorant as to its true position, nor could we
even ascertain which of the rivers was the Lachen. The only
routes I possessed indicated two paths northwards from Lamteng,
neither crossing a river: and I therefore thought it best to remain
at Zemu Samdong till provisions should arrive. I accordingly
halted for three days, collecting many new and beautiful plants,
and exploring the roads, of which five (paths or yak-tracks).
diverged from this point, one on either bank of each river, and
one leading up the fork.
On one occasion I ascended the steep hill at the fork; it was
dry and rocky, and crowned with stunted pines. Stacks of
different sorts of pine-wood were stored on the flat at its base,
for export to Tibet, all thatched with the bark of Abies Bruno-
niana. Of these the larch (Larix Griffithii, "Sah "), splits well,
and is the most durable of any; but the planks are small, soft, and
white. The silver fir (Abies Webbiana, "Dunshing") also splits
well; it is white, soft, and highly prized for durability. The wood
of Abies Brunoniana ("Semadoong ") is like the others in ap-
pearance, but is not durable; its bark is however very useful.
The spruce (Abies Smithiana, "Seh ") has also white wood, which
is employed for posts and beams,³ These are the only pines
whose woods are considered very useful; and it is a curious.
circumstance that none produce any quantity of resin, turpentine,
or pitch; which may perhaps be accounted for by the humidity
of the climate.
Pinus longifolia (called by the Lepchas "Gniet-koong," and by
the Boteeas "Teadong" only grows in low valleys, where better
timber is abundant. The weeping blue juniper (Tuniperus
recurva, Deschoo"), and the arboreous black one (called
Tchokpo " 4) yield beautiful wood, like that of the pencil
cedar, 5 but are comparatively scarce, as is the yew (Taxus
1
(6
The eastern afterwards proved to be the Lachen.
2 I never saw this wood to be red, close-grained, and hard, like that of the
old Swiss larch; nor does it ever reach so great a size.
3 These woods are all soft and loose in grain, compared with their European
allies.
This I at the time supposed to be the J. excelsa of the north-west
Himalaya, a plant which under various names is found in many parts of
Europe and many parts of Europe and North America ; but since Dr. Thomson
and I have had occasion to compare my Sikkim conifers with the north-west
Himalayan ones, we have found that this Sikkim species is probably new, and
that J. excelsa is not found east of Nepal. [It is . pseudo-sabina, a Siberian
species.]
5 Also a juniper, from Bermuda (J. Bermudiana).
319
PINES AND OTHER PLANTS OF LAMTENG.
baccata, "Tingschi "), whose timber is red. The "Tchenden,"
or funereal cypress, again, is valued only for the odour of its
wood: Pinus excelsa, "Tongschi," though common in Bhotan,
is, as I have elsewhere remarked, not found in east Nepal or
Sikkim; the wood is admirable, being durable, close-grained, and
so resinous as to be used for flambeaux and candles.
On the flat were flowering a beautiful magnolia with globular
sweet-scented flowers like snow-balls, several balsams, with species.
of Convallaria, Cotoneaster, Gentian, Spiræa, Euphorbia, Pedicu
laris, and honeysuckle. On the hill-side were creeping brambles,
lovely yellow, purple, pink, and white primroses, white-flowered
Thalictrum and Anemone, berberry, Podophyllum, white rose,
fritillary, Lloydia, &c. On the flanks of Tukcham, in the bed of
a torrent, I gathered many very alpine plants, at the compara-
tively low elevation of 10,000 feet, as dwarf willows, Pinguicula,
(a genus not previously found in the Himalaya), Oxyria, An-
drosace, Tofieldia, Arenaria, saxifrages, and two dwarf heath-like
Andromedas. I The rocks were all of gneiss, with granite veins,
tourmaline, and occasionally pieces of pure plumbago.
Our guide had remained at Lamteng, on the plea of a sore on
his leg from leech-bites: his real object, however, was to stop a
party on their way to Tibet with madder and canes, who, had
they continued their journey, would inevitably have pointed out
the road to me. The villagers themselves now wanted to proceed
to the pasturing-grounds on the frontier; so the Phipun sent me
word that I might proceed as far as I liked up the east bank of
the Zemu. I had explored the path, and finding it practicable,
and likely to intersect a less frequented route to the frontier (that
crossing the Tekonglah pass from Bah, see p. 298), I determined
to follow it. A supply of food arrived from Darjeeling on the 5th
of June, reduced, however, to one bag of rice, but with encourag-
ing letters, and the assurance that more would follow at once.
My men, of whom I had eight, behaved admirably, although our
diet had for five days chiefly consisted of Polygonum ("Pullop-
bi"), wild leeks ("Lagook "), nettles and Procris (an allied, and
• Besides these, a month later, the following flowered in profusion scarlet
Buddleia? gigantic lily, yellow jasmine, Aster, Potentilla, several kinds of
orchids, willow-herb (Epilobium), purple Roscoea, Neillia, Morina, many
grasses and Umbellifere. These formed a rank and dense herbaceous, mostly
annual vegetation, six feet high, bound with Cuscuta, climbing Leguminosa,
and Ceropegia. The great summer heat and moisture here favour the ascent
of various tropical genera, of which I found in August several Orchidea (Calan-
the, Microstylis, and Cælogyne), also Begonia, Bryonia, Cynanchum, Aristo-
lochia, Eurya, Procris, Acanthaceæa, Cyrtandraceœ.
320
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
more succulent herb), eked out by eight pounds of Tibet meal
("Tsamba "), which I had bought for ten shillings by stealth
from the villagers. What concerned me most was the destruction
of my plants by constant damp, and the want of sun to dry the
papers; which reduced my collections to a tithe of what they
would otherwise have been.
I
From Źemu Samdong the valley runs north-west, for two
marches, to the junction of the Zemu with the Thlonok, which
rises on the north-east flank of Kinchinjunga: at this place I
halted for several days, while building a bridge over the Thlonok.
The path runs first through a small forest of birch, alder, and
maple, on the latter of which I found Balanophora growing
abundantly this species produces the great knots on the maple
roots, from which the Tibetans form the cups mentioned by MM.
Huc and Gabet. I was so fortunate as to find a small store of
these knots, cleaned, and cut ready for the turner, and hidden
behind a stone by some poor Tibetan, who had never returned
to the spot they had evidently been there a very long time.
:
In the ravines there were enormous accumulations of ice, the
result of avalanches; one of them crossed the river, forming a
bridge thirty feet thick, at an elevation of only 9,800 feet above
the sea.
This ice-bridge was 100 yards broad, and flanked by
heaps of boulders, the effects of combined land and snowslips.
These stony places were covered with a rich herbage of rhubarb,
primroses, Euphorbia, Sedum, Polygonum, Convallaria, and a
purple Dentaria "Kenroop-bi ") a cruciferous plant much eaten
as a pot-herb. In the pine-woods a large mushroom (" Onglau,"2
Tibet.) was abundant, which also forms a favourite article of food.
Another pot-herb (to which I was afterwards more indebted than
any) was a beautiful Smilacina, which grows from two to five feet
high, and has plaited leaves and crowded panicles of white bell-
shaped flowers, like those of its ally the lily of the valley, which
it also resembles in its mucilaginous properties. It is called
“Chokli-bi,”³ and its young flower-heads, sheathed in tender
green leaves, form an excellent vegetable. Nor must I forget
to include amongst the eatable plants of this hungry country,
A curious leafless parasite, mentioned at p. 91.
2 Cortinarius Emodensis of the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, who has named and
described it from my specimens and drawings. It is also called “Yungla
tchamo" by the Tibetans, the latter word signifying a toadstool. Mr.
Berkeley informs me that the whole vast genus Cortinarius scarcely pos.
sesses a single other edible species; he adds that C. violaceus and violaceo-
cinereus are eaten in Austria and Italy, but not always with safety.
3 It is also found on the top of Sinchul, near Darjeeling.
ZEMU VALLEY. FOOD OF ARUM ROOTS.
321
young shoots of the mountain-bamboo, which are good either
raw or boiled, and may be obtained up to 12,000 feet in this
valley. A species of Asarum (Asarabacca) grows in the pine-
woods; a genus not previously known to be Himalayan. The
root, like its English medicinal congener, has a strong and
peculiar smell. At 10,000 feet Abies Webbiana commences, with
a close undergrowth of a small twiggy holly. This, and the dense
thicket of rhododendron on the banks of the river and edges
of the wood, rendered the march very fatiguing, and swarms of
midges kept up a tormenting irritation.
2
The Zemu continued an impetuous muddy torrent, whose
hoarse voice, mingled with the deep grumbling noise of the
boulders rolling along its bed, was my lullaby for many nights.
Its temperature at Zemu Samdong was 45° to 46° in June. At
its junction with the Thlonok, it comes down a steep gulley from
the north, foreshortened into a cataract 1,000 feet high, and
appearing the smaller stream of the two; whilst the Thlonok
winds down from the snowy face of Kinchinjunga, which is seen
up the valley, bearing W.S.W., about twenty miles distant. All
around are lofty and rocky mountains, sparingly wooded with
pines and larch, chiefly on their south flanks, which receive the
warm, moist, up-valley winds; the faces exposed to the north
being colder and more barren: exactly the reverse of what is the
case at Choongtam, where the rocky and sunny south-exposed
flanks are the driest.
My tent was pitched on a broad terrace, opposite the junction
of the Zemu and Thlonok, and 10,850 feet above the sea. It
was sheltered by some enormous transported blocks of gneiss,
fifteen feet high, and surrounded by a luxuriant vegetation of
most beautiful rhododendrons in full flower, willow, white rose,
white-flowered cherry, thorn, maple and birch.
Some great
tuberous-rooted Arums 3 were very abundant; and the ground
* Of which I had already gathered thirteen kinds in this valley.
2 The dull rumbling noise thus produced is one of the most singular pheno-
mena in these mountains, and cannot fail to strike the observer. At night,
especially, the sound seems increased, the reason of which is not apparent, for
in these regions, so wanting in animal life, the night is no stiller than the day,
and the melting of snow being less, the volume of waters must be somewhat,
though not conspicuously, diminished. The interference of sound by heated
currents of different density is the most obvious cause of the diminished
reverberation during the day, to which Humboldt adds the increased tension
of vapour, and possibly an echo from its particles.
3 Two species of Arisæma, called "Tong" by the Tibetans, and "Sinkree"
by the Lepchas.
22
322
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
was covered with small pits, in which were large wooden pestles:
these are used in the preparation of food from the arums, to
which the miserable inhabitants of the valley have recourse in
spring, when their yaks are calving. The roots are bruised with
the pestles, and thrown into these holes with water. Acetous
fermentation commences in seven or eight days, which is a sign
that the acrid poisonous principle is dissipated: the pulpy, sour,
and fibrous mass is then boiled and eaten; its nutriment being
the starch, which exists in small quantities, and which they have
not the skill to separate by grating and washing. This prepara-
tion only keeps a few days, and produces bowel complaints, and
loss of the skin and hair, especially when insufficiently fermented.
Besides this, the "chokli-bi," and many other esculents, abounded
here; and we had great need of them before leaving this wild
uninhabited region.
I repeatedly ascended the north flank of Tukcham along a
watercourse, by the side of which were immense slips of rocks
and snow-beds; the mountain-side being excessively steep. Some
of the masses of gneiss thus brought down were dangerously
poised on slopes of soft shingle, and daily moved a little down-
wards. All the rocks were gneiss and granite, with radiating
crystals of tourmaline as thick as the thumb. Below 12,000 to
13,000 feet the mountain-sides were covered with a dense scrub
of rhododendron bushes, except where broken by rocks, landslips,
and torrents: above this the winter's snow lay deep, and black
rocks and small glaciers, over which avalanches were constantly
falling with a sullen roar, forbade all attempts to proceed. My
object in ascending was chiefly to obtain views and compass-
bearings, in which I was generally disappointed: once only I had
a magnificent prospect of Kinchinjunga, sweeping down in one
unbroken mass of glacier and ice, fully 14,000 feet high, to the
head of the Thlonok river, whose upper valley appeared a broad
bay of ice; doubtless forming one of the largest glaciers in the
Himalaya, and increased by lateral feeders that flow into it from
either flank of the valley. The south side of this (the Thlonok)
valley is formed by a range from Kinchinjunga, running east to
Tukcham, where it terminates from it rises the beautiful moun-
tain Liklo, 22,582 feet high, which, from Darjeeling, appears as
I
I
D² of the peaks laid down in Colonel Waugh's "Trigonometrical Survey
from Darjeeling," I believe to be the "Liklo" of Dr. Campbell's itineraries
from Darjeeling to Lhassa, compiled from the information of the traders (See
Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal" for 1848); the routes in which proved of
the utmost value to me.
LE

SNOW BEDS AT 13,000 FT. IN THE TH'LONOK VALLEY, WITH RHODODENDRONS;
KINCHINJUNGA IN THE DISTANCE.
ENERGY OF LEPCHA BOYS.
323
a sharp peak, but is here seen to be a jagged crest running north
änd south. On the north flank of the valley the mountains are
more sloping and black, with patches of snow above 15,000 feet,
but little anywhere else, except on another beautiful peak (alt.
19,240 feet) marked D³ on the map. This flank is also continu-
ous from Kinchin; it divides Sikkim from Tibet, and runs north-
east to the great mountain Chomiomo (which was not visible),
the streams from its north flank flowing into the Arun river (in
Tibet). A beautiful blue arch of sky spanned all this range, indi-
cating the dry Tibetan climate beyond.
I made two futile attempts to ascend the Thlonok river to the
great glaciers at the foot of Kinchinjunga, following the south
bank, and hoping to find a crossing-place, and so to proceed
north to Tibet. The fall of the river is not great at this part of
its course, nor up to 12,000 feet, which was the greatest height I
could attain, and about eight miles beyond my tents; above that
point, at the base of Liklo, the bed of the valley widens, and the
rhododendron shrubbery was quite impervious, while the sides of
the mountain were inaccessible. We crossed extensive snow-
beds, by cutting holes in their steep faces, and rounded rocks in
the bed of the torrent, dragging one another through the violent
current, whose temperature was below 40°.
On these occasions, the energy of Meepo, Nimbo (the chief of
the coolies) and the Lepcha boys, was quite remarkable, and they
were as keenly anxious to reach the holy country of Tibet as I
could possibly be. It was sometimes dark before we got back to
our tents, tired, with torn clothes and cut feet and hands, return-
ing to a miserable dinner of boiled herbs; but never did any of
them complain, or express a wish to leave me.
In the evenings
and mornings they were always busy, changing my plants, and
drying the papers over a sulky fire at my tent-door; and at night
they slept, each wrapt in his own blanket, huddled together under
a rock, with another blanket thrown over them all. Provisions
reached us so seldom, and so reduced in quantity, that I could
never allow more than one pound of rice to each man in a day,
and frequently during this trying month they had not even that;
and I eked out our meagre supply with a few ounces of preserved
meats, occasionally "splicing the main brace" with weak rum
and water.
At the highest point of the valley which I reached, water boiled
at 1913, indicating an elevation of 11,903 feet. The temperature
at I P.M. was nearly 70°, and of the wet bulb 55°, indicating a
dryness of o'462, and dew point 470. Such phenomena of heat
324
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
and dryness are rare and transient in the wet valleys of Sikkim,
and show the influence here of the Tibetan climate.*
After boiling my thermometer on these occasions, I generally
made a little tea for the party; a refreshment to which they looked
forward with child-like eagerness. The fairness with which these
good-hearted people used to divide the scanty allowance, and
afterwards the leaves, which are greatly relished, was an engaging
trait in their simple character: I have still vividly before me their
sleek swarthy faces and twinkling Tartar eyes, as they lay stretched.
on the ground in the sun, or crouched in the sleet and snow be-
neath some sheltering rock; each with his little polished wooden
cup of tea, watching my notes and instruments with curious
wonder, asking. "How high are we?" "How cold is it?" and
comparing the results with those of other stations, with much in-
terest and intelligence.
On the 11th June, my active people completed a most ingenious
bridge of branches of trees, bound by withes of willow; by which
I crossed to the north bank, where I camped on an immense flat
terrace at the junction of the rivers, and about fifty feet above
their bed. The first step or ascent from the river is about five
feet high, and formed of water-worn boulders, pebbles, and sand,
scarcely stratified: the second, fully 1,000 yards broad, is ten feet
high, and swampy. The uppermost is fifteen feet above the
second, and is covered with gigantic boulders, and vast rotting
trunks of fallen pines, buried in an impenetrable jungle of dwarf
small-leaved holly and rhododendrons. The surface was com-
posed of a rich vegetable mould, which, where clear of forest,
supported a rank herbage, six to eight feet high.*
¹ I gathered here, amongst an abundance of alpine species, all of European
and arctic type, a curious trefoil, the Parochetus communis, which ranges
through 9,000 feet of elevation on the Himalaya, and is also found in Java and
Ceylon.
2 This consisted of grasses, sedges, Bupleurum, rhubarb, Ranunculus, Con-
vallaria, Smilacina, nettles, thistles, Arum, balsams, and the superb yellow
Meconopsis Nepalensis, whose racemes of golden poppy-like flowers were as
broad as the palm of the hand; it grows three and even six feet high, and re-
sembles a small hollyhock; whilst a stately Heracleum, ten feet high, towered
over all. Forests of silver fir, with junipers and larch, girdled these flats, and
on their edges grew rhododendrons, scarlet Spiræa, several honeysuckles, white
Clematis, and Viburnum. Ferns are much scarcer in the pine-woods than
elsewhere in the forest regions of the Himalaya. In this valley (alt. 10,850
feet), I found only ten kinds; Hymenophyllum, Lomaria, Cystopteris, Davallia,
two Polypodia, and several Aspidia and Asplenia. Selaginella ascends to Zemu
Samdong (9,000 feet). The Pteris aquilina (brake) does not ascend above
10,000 feet.

ZEMU VALLEY.
325
Our first discovery, after crossing, was of a good bridge across
the Zemu, above its junction, and of a path leading down to
Zemu Samdong; this was, however, scarcely traceable up either
stream. My men were better housed here in sheds: and I made
several more ineffectual attempts to ascend the valley to the
BLACK JUNIPER (height sixty feet) AND YOUNG LARCH.
(See p. 318.)
glaciers. The path, gradually vanishing, ran alternately through
fir-woods, and over open grassy spots, covered with vegetation,
amongst which the gigantic arum was plentiful, whose roots
seemed to be the only attraction in this wet and miserable valley.
On my return one day, I found my people in great alarm, the
326
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
2
Phipun having sent word that we were on the Tibet side of the
rivers, and that Tibetan troops were coming to plunder my goods,
and carry my men into slavery. I assured them he only wanted
to frighten them; that the Cheen soldiers were civil orderly
people; and that as long as Meepo was with us, there was no
cause for fear. Fortunately a young musk-deer soon afterwards
broke cover close to the tent, and its flesh wonderfully restored
their courage: still I was constantly harassed by threats; some
of my people were suffering from cold and bowel complaints, and
I from rheumatism; while one fine lad, who came from Darjee-
ling, was delirious with a violent fever, contracted in the lower
valleys, which sadly dispirited my party.
Having been successful in finding a path, I took my tent and
a few active lads 1,000 feet up the Zemu, camping on a high
rock above the forest region, at 12,070 feet, hoping thence to
penetrate northwards. I left my collection in the interim at the
junction of the rivers, where the sheds and an abundance of fire-
wood were great advantages for preserving the specimens. At
this elevation we were quite free from midges and leeches (the
latter had not appeared above 11,500 feet), but the weather con-
tinued so uniformly rainy and bad, that we could make no pro-
gress. I repeatedly followed the river for several miles, ascending
to 13,300 feet; but though its valley widened, and its current was
less rapid, the rhododendron thickets below, and the cliffs above,
defeated all endeavours to reach the drier climate beyond, of
which I had abundant evidence in the arch of brilliant blue that
spanned the heavens to the north, beyond a black canopy of
clouds that hid everything around, and poured down rain without
one day's intermission, during the eight which I spent here.
CAMP ON ZEMU RIVER.
327
CHAPTER XX.
Camp on Zemu river-Scenery-Falling rocks-Tukcham mountain-IIeight
of glaciers-Botany-Gigantic rhubarb-Insects-Storm-Temperature
of rivers-Behaviour of Lachen Phipun-Hostile conduct of Bhoteeas-
View from mountains above camp-Descend to Zemu Samdong-Vegeta-
tion-Letters from Darjeeling-Arrival of Singtam Soubah-Presents
from Rajah-Parties collecting Arum-roots-Insects-Ascend Lachen
river-Thakya-zong-Tallum Samdong village-Cottages-Mountains-
Plants-Entomology-Weather-Halo-Diseases-Conduct of Singtam
Soubah-His character and illness-Agrees to take me to Kongra Lama
-Tungu-Appearance of country-Houses-Poisoning by arum-roots-
Yaks and calves-Tibet ponies-Journey to Kongra Lama-Tibetan tents
-Butter, curds, and churns-Hospitality-Kinchinjhow and Chomiomo-
Magnificent Scenery-Reach Kongra Lama Pass.
My little tent was pitched in a commanding situation, on a rock
fifty feet above the Zemu, overlooking the course of that river to
its junction with the Thlonok. The descent of the Zemu in one
thousand feet is more precipitous than that of any other river of
its size with which I am acquainted in Sikkim, yet immediately
above my camp it was more tranquil than at any part of its course
onwards to the plains of India, whether as the Zemu, Lachen or
Teesta. On the west bank a fine mountain rose in steep ridges
and shrubby banks to 15,000 feet; on the east a rugged cliff
towered above the stream, and from this, huge masses of rock
were ever and anon precipitated into the torrent, with a roar that
repeatedly spread consternation amongst us. During rains
especially, and at night, when the chilled atmospheric currents
of air descend, and the sound is not dissipated as in the day-time,
the noise of these falls is sufficiently alarming. My tent was
pitched near the base of the cliff, and so high above the river,
that I had thought it beyond the reach of danger; but one
morning I found that a large fragment of granite had been hurled
during the night to my very door, my dog having had a very
narrow escape. To what depth the accumulation at the base of
this cliff may reach, I had no means of judging, but the rapid
slope of the river-bed is mainly due to this, and to old moraines
at the mouth of the valley below. I have seen few finer sights
than the fall of these stupendous blocks into the furious torrent,
along which they are carried amid feathery foam for many yards
before settling to rest.
Across the Thlonok to the southwards, rose the magnificent
mountain of Tukcham, but I only once caught a glimpse of its
summit, which even then clouded over before I could get my
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HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
instruments adjusted for ascertaining its height. Its top is a sharp
cone, surrounded by rocky shoulders, that rise from a mass of
snow. Its eastern slope of 8,000 feet is very rapid (about 38°)
from its base at the Zemu river to its summit.
Glaciers in the north-west Himalaya descend to 11,000 feet;
but I could not discover any in these valleys even so low as
14,000 feet, though at this season extensive snow-beds remain
unmelted at but little above 10,000 feet. The foot of the stupen-
dous glacier filling the broad head of the Thlonok is certainly not
below 14,000 feet; though being continuous with the perpetual
snow (or névé) of the summit of Kinchinjunga, it must have
14,000 feet of ice, in perpendicular height, to urge it forwards.
All my attempts to advance up the Zemu were fruitless, and a
snow bridge by which I had hoped to cross to the opposite bank
was carried away by the daily swelling river, while the continued
bad weather prevented any excursions for days together. Botany
was my only resource, and as vegetation was advancing rapidly
under the influence of the southerly winds, I had a rich harvest ;
for though Composita, Pedicularis, and a few more of the finer
Himalayan plants flower later, June is still the most glorious
month for show.
Rhododendrons occupy the most prominent place, clothing
the mountain slopes with a deep green mantle glowing with bells
of brilliant colours; of the eight or ten species growing here, every
bush was loaded with as great a profusion of blossoms as are
their northern congeners in our English gardens. Primroses are
next, both in beauty and abundance; and they are accompanied
by yellow cowslips, three feet high, purple polyanthus, and pink
large-flowered dwarf kinds nestling in the rocks, and an exquisitely
beautiful blue miniature species, whose blossoms sparkle like
sapphires on the turf. Gentians begin to unfold their deep
azure bells, aconites to rear their tall blue spikes, and fritillaries
and Meconopsis burst into flower. On the black rocks the gigantic
rhubarb [Rheum nobile] forms pale pyramidal towers a yard high,
of inflated reflexed bracts, that conceal the flowers, and overlapping
one another like tiles, protect them from the wind and rain: a whorl
of broad green leaves edged with red spreads on the ground at
the base of the plant, contrasting in colour with the transparent
bracts, which are yellow, margined with pink. This is the hand-
somest herbaceous plant in Sikkim : it is called "Tchuka,” and
the acid stems are eaten both raw and boiled; they are hollow
and full of pure water: the root resembles that of the medicinal
rhubarb, but it is spongy and inert; it attains a length of four
GIGANTIC RHUBARB. INSECTS. RAIN.
329
feet, and grows as thick as the arm. The dried leaves afford a
substitute for tobacco; a smaller kind of rhubarb is however
more commonly used in Tibet for this purpose it is called
"Chula."
❤
The elevation being 12,080 feet, I was above the limit of trees,
and the ground was covered with many kinds of small-flowered
honeysuckles, berberry, and white rose.i
I saw no birds, and of animals only an occasional musk-deer.
Insects were scarce, and quite different from what I had seen
before, chiefly consisting of Phryganea (Mayfly) and some
Carabida (an order that is very scarce in the Himalaya); with
various moths, chiefly Geometræ.
The last days of June (as is often the case) were marked by
violent storms, and for two days my tent proved no protection;
similar weather prevailed all over India, the barometer falling
very low. I took horary observations of the barometer in the
height of the storm on the 30th: the tide was very small indeed
(.024 inch, between 9.50 A.M. and 4 P.M.), and the thermometer
ranged between 47° and 57°8, between 7 A.M. and midnight,
Snow fell abundantly as low as 13,000 feet, and the rivers were
much swollen, the size and number of the stones they rolled
along producing a deafening turmoil. Only 3.7 inches of rain
fell between the 23rd of June and the 2nd of July; whilst
21 inches fell at Darjeeling, and 6.7 inches at Calcutta. During
the same period the mean temperature was 48°; extremes, 200
The humidity was nearly at saturation-point, the wind southerly,
very raw and cold, and drizzling rain constantly fell.
A com-
parison of thirty observations with Darjeeling gave a difference
of 14° temperature, which is at the rate of 1° for every 347 feet
of ascent.2
36° 5'
The temperature of these rivers varies extremely at different
1 Besides these I found a prickly Aralia, maple, two currants, eight or nine
rhododendrons, many Sedums, Rhodiola, white Clematis, red-flowered cherry,
birch, willow, Viburnum, juniper, a few ferns, two Andromedas, Menziesia,
and Spiræa. And in addition to the herbs mentioned above may be enu-
merated Parnassia, many Saxifrages, Soldanella, Draba, and various other
Crucifera, Nardostachys (spikenard), Epilobium, Thalictrum, and very many
other genera, almost all typical of the Siberian, North European, and Arctic
floras.
2 Forty-seven observations, comparative with Calcutta, gave 34° 8 difference,
and if 5º 5 of temperature be deducted for northing in latitude, the result is 1°
for every 412 feet of ascent. My observations at the junction of the rivers
(alt. 10,850 feet), during the early part of the month, gave 1° to 304 feet, as
the result of twenty-four observations with Darjeeling, and 1° to 394 feet,
from seventy-four observations with Calcutta.
ANA
330
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
parts of the course, depending on that of their affluents. The
Teesta is always cool in summer (where its bed is below 2,000
feet), its temperature being 20° below that of the air; whereas
in mid-winter, when there is less cloud, and the snows are not
melting, it is only a few degrees colder than the air. At this
season, in descending from 12,000 feet to 1,000 feet, its tem-
perature does not rise 10°, though that of the air rises 30° or 40°.
It is a curious fact, that the temperature of the northern feeders
of the Teesta, in some parts of their course, rises with the
increasing elevation! Of this the Zemu afforded a curious
example: during my stay at this junction with the Thlonok it.
was 46°, or 6° warmer than that river; at 1,100 feet higher it was
49°! These observations were repeated in different weeks, and
several times on the same day, both in ascending and descending,
and always with the same result: they told, as certainly as if I
had followed the river to its source, that it rose in a drier and
comparatively sunny climate, and flowed amongst little snowed
mountains.
Meanwhile, the Lachen Phipun continued to threaten us, and
I had to send back some of the more timorous of my party.
On the 28th of June fifty men arrived at the Thlonok, and turned
my people out of the shed at the junction of the rivers, together
with the plants they were preserving, my boards, papers, and
utensils. The boys came to me breathless, saying that there
were Tibetan soldiers amongst them, who declared that I was in
Cheen, and that they were coming on the following morning
to make a clean sweep of my goods and drive me back
to Darjeeling. I had little fear for myself, but was anxious
with respect to my collections: it was getting late in the day,
and raining, and I had no mind to go down and expose
myself to the first brunt of their insolence, which I felt
sure a night of such weather would materially wash away.
Meepo was too frightened, but Nimbo, my Bhotan coolie Sirdar,
volunteered to go, with two stout fellows; and he accordingly
brought away my plants and papers, having held a parley with the
enemy, who, as I suspected, were not Tibetans. The best news
he brought was, that they were half clad and without food; the
.
I
During my sojourn at Bhomsong in mid-winter of 1848 (see p. 214),
the mean temperature of the Teesta was 51°, and of the air 52° 3; at that
elevation the river water rarely exceeds 60° at midsummer. Between 4,000
feet and 300 (the plains) its mean temperature varies about 10° between
January and July; at 6,000 feet it varies from 55° to 43° during the same
period; and at 10,000 feet it freezes at the edges in winter and rises to 50°
in July.
HOSTILE BHOTEAS.
331
worst, that they swaggered and bullied: he added, with some
pride, that he gave them as good as he got, which I could readily
believe, Nimbo being really a resolute fellow,' and accomplished
in Tibet slang.
On the following morning it rained harder than ever, and the
wind was piercingly cold. My timid Lepchas huddled behind
my tent, which, from its position, was only to be stormed in
front. I dismantled my little observatory, and packed up the
instruments, tied my dog, Kinchin, to one of the tent-pegs, placed
a line of stones opposite the door, and seated myself on my bed
on the ground, with my gun beside me.
The dog gave tongue as twenty or thirty people defiled up the
glen, and gathered in front of my tent; they were ragged
Bhoteas, with bare heads and iegs, in scanty woollen garments
sodden with rain, which streamed off their shaggy hair, and fur-
rowed their sooty faces: their whole appearance recalled to my
mind Dugald Dalgetty's friends, the children of the mist.
They appeared nonplussed at seeing no one with me, and at
my paying no attention to them, whilst the valiant Kinchin
effectually scared them from the tent-door. When they requested
a parley, I sent the interpreter to say that I would receive three
men, and that only provided all the rest were sent down imme-
diately; this, as I anticipated 'was acceded to at once, and there
remained only the Lachen Phipun and his brother. Without
waiting to let him speak, I rated him soundly, saying that I was
ready to leave the spot when he could produce any proof of my
being in Bhote (or Cheen), which he knew well I was not; that,
since my arrival at Lachen, he had told me nothing but lies, and
had contravened every order, both of the Rajah and of Tchebu
Lama. I added, that I had given him and his people kindness
and medicine, their return was bad, and he must go about his
business at once, having, as I knew, no food, and I having none
for him. He behaved very humbly throughout, and finally took.
himself off much discomfited, and two days afterwards sent men
to offer to assist me in moving my things.
The first of July was such a day as I had long waited for to
obtain a view, and I ascended the mountain west of my camp, to
a point where water boiling at 185°7 (air 42°), gave an elevation
of 14,914 feet. On the top of the range, about 1,000 feet above
this, there was no snow on the eastern exposures, except in
hollows, but on the west slopes it lay in great fields twenty or
In East Nepal he drew his knife on a Ghorka sepoy; and in the following
winter was bold enough to make his escape in chains from Tumloong
→
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HIMALAYAN JOURNALS,
thirty feet thick; while to the north, the mountains all appeared.
destitute of snow, with grassy flanks and rugged tops.
Drizzling mist, which had shrouded Tukcham all the morning,
soon gathered on this mountain, and prevented any prospect.
from the highest point reached; but on the ascent I had an
excellent view up the Zemu, which opened into a broad grassy
valley, where I saw with the glass some wooden sheds, but no
cattle or people. To reach these, however, involved crossing the
river, which was now impossible; and I reluctantly made up my
mind to return on the morrow to Zemu Samdong, and thence try
the other river.
On my descent to the Thlonok, I found that the herbaceous
plants on the terraces had grown fully two feet during the fort-
night, and now presented almost a tropical luxuriance and beauty.
Thence I reached Zemu Samdong in one day, and found the
vegetation there even more gay and beautiful: the gigantic lily
was in full flower, and scenting the air, with the lovely red rose,
called the "Chirring" by the Tibetans. Neillia was blossoming
profusely at my old camping-ground, to which I now returned
after a month's absence.
Soon after my arrival I received letters from Dr. Campbell,
who had strongly and repeatedly represented to the Rajah his
opinion of the treatment I was receiving; and this finally brought
an explicit answer, to the effect that his orders had been full and
peremptory that I should be supplied with provisions and safely.
conducted to the frontier. With these came letters on the
Rajah's part from Tchebu Lama to the Lachen Phipun, ordering
him to take me to the pass, but not specifying its position;
fortunately, however, Dr. Campbell sent me a route, which
stated the pass to be at Kongra Lama, several marches beyond
this, and in the barren country of Tibet.
On the 5th of July the Singtam Soubah arrived from Chola
(the Rajah's summer residence): he was charged to take me to
the frontier, and brought letters from his highness, as well as a
handsome present, consisting of Tibet cloth, and a dress of
China silk brocaded with gold: the Ranee also sent me a basket
of Lhassa sweetmeats, consisting of Sultana raisins from Bokhara,
sliced and dried apricots from Lhassa, and Diospyros fruit from
China (called "Gubroon" by the Tibetans). The Soubah wanted
to hurry me on to the frontier and back at once, being no
doubt instigated to do so by the Dewan's party, and by his
having no desire to spend much time in the dreary lofty
regions I wanted to explore. I positively refused, however, tą
TIBETANS. ENTOMOLOGY.
333
start until more supplies arrived, except he used his influence
to provide me with food; and as he insisted that the frontier
was at Tallum Samdong, only one march up the Lachen, I
foresaw that this move was to be but one step forward, though
in the right direction. He went forward to Tallum at once,
leaving me to follow.
The Lamteng people had all migrated beyond that point to
Tungu, where they were pasturing their cattle: I sent thither
for food, and procured a little meal at a very high price, a few
fowls and eggs; the messenger brought back word that Tungu
was in Tibet, and that the villagers ignored Kongra Lama. A
large piece of yak-flesh being brought for sale, I purchased it;
but it proved the toughest meat I ever ate, being no doubt that
of an animal that had succumbed to the arduous duties of a salt-
carrier over the passes at this season, however, when the calves
are not a month old, it was in vain to expect better.
Large parties of women and children were daily passing my
tent from Tungu, to collect arum-roots at the Thlonok, all with
baskets at their backs, down to rosy urchins of six years old :
they returned after several days, their baskets neatly lined with
broad rhododendron leaves, and full of a nauseous-looking yellow
acid pulp, which told forcibly of the extreme poverty of the
people. The children were very fair; indeed the young Tibetan
is as fair as an English brunette, before his perennial coat of
smoke and dirt has permanently stained his face, and it has
become bronzed and wrinkled by the scorching sun and
rigorous climate of these inhospitable countries. Children and
women were alike decked with roses, and were all good-humoured
and pleasant, behaving with great kindness to one another, and
unaffected politeness to me.
During my ten days' stay at Zemu Samdong, I formed a large
collection of insects, which was in great part destroyed by damp:
many were new, beautiful, and particularly interesting, from
belonging to types whose geographical distribution is analogous to
that of the vegetation. The caterpillar of the swallow-tail butter-
fly (Papilio Machaon) was common, feeding on umbelliferous.
plants, as in England; and a Sphynx (like S. Euphorbia) was
devouring the euphorbias; the English Cynthia Cardui (painted-
lady butterfly) was common, as were "sulphurs," "marbles,
Pontia (whites), "blues," and Thecla, of British aspect but
foreign species. Amongst these, tropical forms were rare, except
one fine black swallow-tail. Of moths, Noctuce and Geometræ
abounded, with many flies and Tipula. Hymenoptera were
11
334
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
scarce, except a yellow Ophion, which lays its eggs in the cater-
pillars above-mentioned. Beetles were most rare, and (what is
remarkable) the wood-borers (longicorns and Curculio) particularly
So. A large Telephora was very common, and had the usual
propensity of its congeners for blood: lamellicorns were also
abundant.
On the 11th of July five coolies arrived with rice they had
been twenty days on the road, and had been obliged to make
great detours, the valley being in many places impassable. They
brought me a parcel of English letters; and I started up the
Lachen on the following day, with renewed spirits and high hopes.
The road first crossed the Zemu and the spur beyond, and then
ascended the west bank of the Lachen, a furious torrent for five
or six miles, during which it descends 1,000 feet, in a chasm from
which rise lofty black pine-clad crags, topped by snowy mountains,
14,000 to 16,000 feet high. One remarkable mass of rock, on the
east bank, is called "Sakya-zong" (or the abode of Sakya, often
pronounced Thakya, one of the Boodhist Trinity); at its base a
fine cascade falls into the river.
Above 11,000 feet the valley expands remarkably, the mountains
recede, become less wooded, and more grassy, while the stream is
suddenly less rapid, meandering in a broader bed, and bordered
by marshes, covered with Carex, Blysmus, dwarf Tamarisk, and
many kinds of yellow and red Pedicularis, both tall and beautiful.
There are far fewer rhododendrons here than in the damper Zemu
valley at equal elevations, and more Siberian, or dry country types
of vegetation, as Astragali of several kinds, Habenaria, Epipactis,
dandelion, and a caraway, whose stems (called in Tibet "Gzira ")
are much sought for as a condiment. The Singtam Soubah and
Lachen Phipun received me at the bridge (Samdong), at Tallum,
and led me across the river (into Cheen they affirmed) to a pretty
green sward, near some gigantic gneiss boulders, where I camped,
close by the river, and 11,480 feet above the sea.
I
The village of Tallum consists of a few wretched stone huts,
placed in a broad part of the valley, which is swampy, and crossed
by several ancient moraines, which descend from the gulleys on
I Umbelliferæ abound here; with sage, Ranunculus, Anemone, Aconites,
Halenia, Gentians, Panax, Euphrasia, speedwell, Prunella vulgaris, thistles,
bistort, Parnassia, purple orchis, Prenanthes, and Lactuca. The woody
plants of this region are willows, birch, Cotoneaster, maple, three species of
Viburnum, three of Spiræa, Vaccinium, Aralia, Deutzia, Philadelphus, rho-
dodendrons, two junipers, silver fir, larch, three honeysuckles, Neillia, and a
Pieris, whose white blossoms are so full of honey as to be sweet and
palatable.
TALLUM VILLAGE. SIBERIAN PLANTS.
335
the east flank.¹ The cottages are from four to six feet high,
without windows, and consist of a single apartment, containing
neither table, chair, stool, nor bed; the inmates huddle together
amid smoke, filth, and darkness, and sleep on a plank; and their
only utensils are a bamboo churn, copper, bamboo, and earthen-
ware vessels, for milk, butter, &c.
Grassy or stone mountains slope upwards, at an angle of 20°,²
from these flats to 15,000 feet, but no snow is visible, except on
Kinchinjhow and Chomiomo, about fifteen miles up the valley.
Both these are flat-topped, and dazzling white, rising into small
peaks, and precipitous on all sides; they are grand, bold, isolated
masses, quite unlike the ordinary snowy mountains in form, and
far more imposing even than Kinchinjunga, though not above
22,000 feet in elevation.
Herbaceous plants are much more numerous here than in any
other part of Sikkim ; and sitting at my tent-door, I could, with-
out rising from the ground, gather forty-three plants,3 of which all
but two belonged to English genera. In the rich soil about the
cottages were crops of dock, shepherd's-purse, Thlaspi arvense,
Cynoglossum of two kinds (one used as a pot-herb), balsams, nettle,
Galeopsis, mustard, radish, and turnip. On the neighbouring
hills, which I explored up to 15,000 feet, I found many fine
plants, partaking more or less of the Siberian type, of which
Corydalis, Leguminosa, Artemisia, and Pedicularis, are familiar
instances, I gathered upwards of 200 species, nearly all belonging
to north European genera. Twenty-five were woody shrubs above
three feet high, and six were ferns; 4 sedges were in great pro-
fusion, amongst them three of British kinds : seven or eight were
Orchidea, including a fine Cypripedium.
The entomology of Tallum, like its botany, was Siberian,
Arctic types occurring at lower elevations than in the wetter parts
of Sikkim. Of beetles the honey-feeding ones prevailed, with
• I have elsewhere noticed that in Sikkim, the ancient moraines about 9,000
feet are almost invariably deposited from valleys opening to the westward.
2 At Lamteng and up the Zemu the slopes are 40° and 50°, giving a widely
different aspect to the valleys.
3 In England thirty is, on the average, the equivalent number of plants,
which in favourable localities I have gathered in an equal space.
In both cases
many are seedlings of short-lived annuals, and in neither is the number a test
of the luxuriance of the vegetation; it but shows the power which the different
species exert in their struggle to obtain a place.
1
4 Cryptogramma crispa, Davallia, two Aspidia, and two Polypodia.
gathered ten at the same elevation, in the damper Zemu valley (see p. 49, note).
I gathered in this valley a new species of the remarkable European genus
Struthiopteris, which has not been found elsewhere in the Himalaya.
336
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
i
European forms of others that inhabit yak-droppings. Bees were
common, both Bombus and Andræna, but there were no wasps,
and but few ants. Grasshoppers and other Orthoptera were rare,
as were Hemiptera; Tipula was the common dipterous insect,
with a small sand-fly: there were neither leeches, mosquitos, ticks,
nor midges. Pigeons, red-legged crows, and hawks were the
common birds; with a few waders in the marshes.
Being now fairly behind most of the great snow and rain-
collecting mountains, I experienced a considerable change in
climate, which characterises all these rearward lofty valleys, where
very little rain falls, and that chiefly drizzle; but this is so con-
stant that the weather feels chilly, raw, and comfortless, and I
never returned dry from botanising. The early mornings were
bright with views northwards of blue sky and Kinchinjhow,
while to the south the lofty peak of Tukcham, though much
nearer, was seldom seem, and black cumuli and nimbi rolled up
the steep valley of the Lachen to be dissipated in mist over
Tallum. The sun's rays were, however, powerful at intervals
during the afternoon, whence the mean maximum temperature of
July occurred at about 10 A.M. The temperature of the river was
always high, varying with the heat of the day from 47° to 52°; the
mean being 50°.
These streams do not partake of the diurnal rise and fall, so
characteristic of the Swiss rivers and those of the western
Himalaya, where a powerful sun melts the glaciers by day, and
their head-streams are frozen by night. Here the clouds alike
prevent solar and nocturnal radiation, the temperature is more
uniform, and the corroding power of the damp southerly wind
that blows strongly throughout the day is the great melting agent.
One morning I saw a vivid and very beautiful halo 20° degrees
distant from the sun's disc; it was no doubt caused by snow in
the higher regions of the atmosphere, as a sharp shower of rain
fell immediately afterwards; these are rare phenomena in moun-
tainous countries.
The Singtam Soubah visited me daily, and we enjoyed long
friendly conversations: he still insisted that the Yangchoo (the
name he gave to the Lachen at this place) was the boundary, and
that I must not go any further. His first question was always
* As Aphodius and Geotrupes. Predlaceous genera were very rare, as Carabus
and Staphylinus, so typical of boreal regions. Coccinella (lady-bird), which
swarms at Darjeeling, does not ascend so high, and a Clytus was the only
longicorn. Buprestis, Elater, and Blaps were found but rarely. Of butterflies,
the Machaon seldom reaches this elevation, but the painted-lady, Pontia, Colias,
Hipparchia, Argynnis, and Polyommatus, are all found.
THE SINGTAM SOUBAH.
337
I
""
"How long do you intend to remain here? have you not got all
the plants and stones you want? you can see the sun much better
with those brasses and glasses lower down; it is very cold here,
and there is no food : -to all which I had but one reply, that I
should not return till I had visited Kongra Lama. He was a
portly man, and, I think, at heart good-natured: I had no difficulty
in drawing him on to talk about Tibet, and the holy city of
Teshoo Loombo, with its thousands of gilt temples, nunneries, and
convents, its holiest of all the holy grand Lamas of Tibet, and all
the wide Boodhist world besides. Had it even been politic, I
felt it would be unfair to be angry with a man who was evidently
in a false position between myself and his two rulers, the Rajah
and Dewan; who had a wife and family on the smiling flanks of
Singtam, and who longed to be soaking in the warm rain of
Sikkim, drinking Murwa beer (a luxury unknown amongst these
Tibetans) and gathering in his crops of rice, millet, and buck-
wheat. Though I may owe him a grudge for his subsequent
violence, I still recall with pleasure the hours we spent together
on the banks of the Lachen. In all matters respecting the
frontier, his lies were circumstantial; and he further took the
trouble of bringing country people to swear that this was Cheen,
and that there was no such place as Kongra Lama. I had written
to ask Dr. Campbell for a definite letter from Tchebu Lama on
this point, but unfortunately my despatches were lost; the mes-
senger who conveyed them missed his footing in crossing the
Lachen, and escaped narrowly with life, while the turban in which
the letters were placed was carried down the current.
Finally the Soubah tried to persuade my people that one so in-
corrigibly obstinate must be mad, and that they had better leave
One day, after we had had a long discussion about the
geography of the frontier, he inflamed my curiosity by telling me
that Kinchinjhow was a very holy mountain; more so than its
sister-peaks of Chumulari and Kinchinjunga; and that both the
Sikkim and Tibetan Lamas, and Chinese soldiers, were ready to
oppose my approach to it. This led to my asking him for a
sketch of the mountains; he called for a large sheet of paper,
and some charcoal, and wanted to form his mountains of sand;
I however ordered rice to be brought, and though we had but
little, scattered it about wastefully. This had its effect; he stared
at my wealth, for he had all along calculated on starving me out,
and retired, looking perplexed and crestfallen. Nothing puzzled
me.
I
Alluding to the sextant, &c.
J
23
338
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
HIM
25
him so much as my being always occupied with such, to him, un-
intelligible pursuits; a Tibetan "cui bono?" was always in his
mouth: "What good will it do you?” "Why should you spend
weeks on the coldest, hungriest, windest, loftiest place on the
earth, without even inhabitants ?" Drugs and idle curiosity he
believed were my motives, and possibly a reverence for the religion
of Boodh, Sakya, and Tsongkaba. Latterly he had made up
his mind to starve me out, and was dismayed when he found I
could hold out better than himself, and when I assured him that
I should not retrace my steps until his statements should be
verified by a letter from Tchebu; that I had written to him, and
that it would be at least thirty days before I could receive an
answer.
On the 19th of July he proposed to take me to Tungu,
at the foot of Kinchinjhow, and back, upon ponies, provided I
would leave my people and tent, which I refused to do. After
this I saw little of him for several days, and began to fear he was
offended, when one morning his attendant came to me for
medicine with a dismal countenance, and in great alarm: he
twisted his fingers together over his stomach to symbolise the
nature of the malady which produced a commotion in his master's
bowels, and which was simply the colic. I was aware that he
had been reduced to feed upon "Tong" (the arum-root) and
herbs, and had always given him half the pigeons I shot, which
was almost the only animal food I had myself. Now I sent him
a powerful dose of medicine; adding a few spoonfuls of China
tea and sugar for friendship.
·
On the 22nd, being convalescent, he visited me, looking wofully
yellow. After a long pause, during which he tried to ease himself
of some weighty matter, he offered to take me to Tungu with my
tent and people, and thence to Kongra Lama, if I would promise
to stay but two nights. I asked whether Tungu was in Cheen or
Sikkim; he replied that after great enquiry he had heard that it
was really in Sikkim ; Then," said I, "we will both go to-morrow
morning to Tungu, and I will stay there as long as I please :'
he laughed, and gave in with apparent good grace.
(C
""
After leaving Tallum, the valley contracts, passing over great
ancient moraines, and again expanding wider than before into
broad grassy flats. The vegetation rapidly diminishes in stature
and abundance, and though the ascent to Tungu is trifling, the
change in species is very great. The Spiraea, maple, Pieris, cherry,
and larch disappear, leaving only willow, juniper, stunted birch,
silver fir, white rose, Aralia, berberry, currant, and more rhodo-

TUNGU VILLAGE.
dendrons than all these put together;
other English fungi grew amongst the grass.
Tungu occupies a very broad valley, at the junction of the
Tungu-choo from the east, and the Lachen from the north. The
hill slope gently upwards to 16,000 feet, at an average angle of
15°; they are flat and grassy at the base, and no snow is anywhere
TUNGU VILLAGE.
339
while mushrooms and
I
1 Cyananthus, a little blue flower allied to Campanula, and one of the most
beautiful alpines I know, covered the turfy ground, with Orchis, Pedicularis,
Gentian, Potentilla, Geranium, purple and yellow Meconopsis and the Artemisia
of Darjeeling, which ascends to 12,000 feet, and descends to the plains, having
a range of 11,500 feet in elevation. Of ferns, Hymenophyllum, Cistopteris, and
Cryptogramma crispa ascend thus high.
2 One of great size, growing in large clumps, is the English Agaricus comans,
Fr., and I found it here at 12,500 feet, as also the beautiful genus Crucibulum,
which is familiar to us in England, growing on rotten sticks, and resembling a
diminutive bird's nest with eggs in it.
340
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
to be seen.¹ A stupendous rock, about fifty feet high, lay in the
middle of the valley, broken in two: it may have been detached
from a cliff, or have been transported thither as part of an ancient
moraine which extends from the mouth of the Tungu-choo valley
across that of the Lachen. The appearance and position of this
great block, and of the smaller piece lying beside it, rather sug-
gest the idea of the whole mass having fallen perpendicularly
from a great height through a crevasse in a glacier, than of its
having been hurled from so considerable a distance as from the
cliffs on the flanks of the valley: it is faithfully represented in the
accompanying woodcut. A few wooden houses were collected
near this rock, and several black tents were scattered about. I
encamped at an elevation of 12,750 and was waited on by the
Lachen Phipun with presents of milk, butter, yak-flesh, and curds;
and we were not long before we drowned old enmity in buttered
and salted tea.
2
On my arrival I found the villagers in a meadow, all squatted
cross-legged in a circle, smoking their brass and iron pipes, drink-
ing tea, and listening to a letter from the Rajah, concerning their
treatment of me. Whilst my men were pitching my tent, I
gathered forty plants new to me, all of Tartarian types. Wheat or
barley I was assured had been cultivated at Tungu when it was
possessed by Tibetans, and inhabited by a frontier guard, but I saw
no appearance of any cultivation. The fact is an important one,
as barley required a mean summer temperature of 48° to come to
maturity. According to my observations, the mean temperature
of Tungu in July is upwards of 50°, and, by calculation, that of
the three summer months, June, July, and August, should be
about 46° 5. As, however, I do not know whether these cerealia
were grown as productive crops, much stress cannot be laid upon
the fact of their having been cultivated, for in a great many parts
of 'Tibet the barley is annually cut green for fodder.
In the evening the sick came to me: their complaints, as usual,
being rheumatism, ophthalmia, goîtres, cuts, bruises, and poisoning
1. In the wood-cut the summit of Chomiomo is introduced, as it appears from
a few hundred feet above the point of view.
More Siberian plants appeared, as Astragali, Chenopodium, Artemisia,
some grasses, new kinds of Pedicularis, Delphinium, and some small Orchids.
Three species of Parnassia and six primroses made the turf gay, mixed with
saxifrages, Androsace and Campanula. By the cottages was abundance of
shepherd's-purse, Lepidium, and balsams, with dock, Galeopsis and Cuscuta.
Several low dwarf species of honeysuckle formed stunted bushes like heather;
and Anisodus, a curious plant allied to Hyoscyamus, whose leaves are greedily
eaten by yaks, was very common.
POISONING BY ARUM ROOT. YAKS.
341
by Tong (Arum), fungi, and other deleterious vegetables. At
Tallum I attended an old woman who dressed her ulcers with
Plantago (plantain) leaves, a very common Scotch remedy; the
ribs being drawn out from the leaf, which is applied fresh: it is
rather a strong application.
On the following morning I was awakened by the shrill cries
of the Tibetan maidens, calling the yaks to be milked, "Toosh
-toosh-toooosh," in a gradually higher key; to which Toosh
seemed supremely indifferent, till quickened in her movements
by a stone or stick, levelled with unerring aim at her ribs; these
animals were changing their long winter's wool for sleek hair, and
the former hung about them in ragged masses, like tow. Their
calves gambolled by their sides, the drollest of animals, like ass-
colts in their antics, kicking up their short hind-legs, whisking
their bushy tails in the air, rushing up and down the grassy slopes,
and climbing like cats to the top of the rocks.
The Soubah and Phipun came early to take me to Kongra
Lama, bringing ponies, genuine Tartars in bone and breed.
Remembering the Dewan's impracticable saddle at Bhomsong, I
stipulated for a horse-cloth or pad, upon which I had no sooner
jumped than the beast threw back his ears, seated himself on his
haunches, and, to my consternation, slid backwards down a turfy
slope, pawing the earth with his fore-feet as he went, and leaving
me on the ground, amid shrieks of laughter from my Lepchas.
My steed being caught, I again mounted, and was being led
forward, when he took to shaking himself like a dog till the pad
slipped under his belly, and I was again unhorsed. Other ponies
displayed equal prejudices against my mode of riding, or having
my weight anywhere but well on their shoulders, being all-power-
ful in their fore-quarters; and so I was compelled to adopt the
high demi-pique saddle with short stirrups, which forced me
to sit with my knees up to my nose, and to grip with the calves
of my legs and heels. All the gear was of yak or horse-hair, and
the bit was a curb and ring, or a powerful twisted snaffle.
I
The path ran N.N.W. for two miles, and then crossed the
Lachen above its junction with the Nunee from the west the
stream was rapid, and twelve yards in breadth; its temperature
was 48°. About six miles above Tungu, the Lachen is joined
by the Chomio-choo, a large affluent from Chomiomo mountain.
Above this the Lachen meanders along a broad stony bed, and
I suspect there is a pass by the Nunee to the sheds I saw up the Zemu
valley on the 2nd of July, as I observed yaks grazing high up the mountains :
the distance cannot be great, and there is little or no snow to interfere.
342
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
the path rises over a great ancient moraine, whose level top is
covered with pools, but both that and its south face are bare,
from exposure to the south wind, which blows with fury through
this contracted part of the valley to the rarified atmosphere of
the lofty, open, and dry country beyond. Its north slope, on the
contrary, is covered with small trees and brushwood, rhododen-
dron, birch, honeysuckle, and mountain-ash. These are the most
northern shrubs in Sikkim, and I regarded them with deep
interest, as being possibly the last of their kind to be met with in
this meridian, for many degrees further north: perhaps even no
similar shrubs occur between this and the Siberian Altai, a
distance of 1,500 miles. The magnificent yellow cowslip
(Primula Sikkimensis) gilded the marshes, and Caltha, Trollius,
Anemone, Arenaria, Draba, Saxifrages, Potentillas, Ranunculus,
and other very alpine plants abounded.
At the foot of the moraine was a Tibetan camp of broad, black,
yak-hair tents, stretched out with a complicated system of ropes,
and looking at a distance-(to borrow M. Huc's graphic simile)
-like fat-bodied, long-legged spiders! Their general shape is
hexagonal, about twelve feet either way, and they are stretched
over six short posts, and encircled with a low stone wall, except
in front. In one of them I found a buxom girl, the image of
good humour, making butter and curd from yak-milk. The
churns were of two kinds; one being an oblong box of birch-
bark, or close bamboo wicker-work, full of branched rhododen-
dron twigs, in which the cream is shaken: she good-naturedly
showed me the inside, which was frosted with snow-white butter,
and alive with maggots. The other churn was a goat-skin, which
was rolled about, and shaken by the four legs. The butter is
made into great squares, and packed in yak-hair cloths; the curd
is eaten either fresh, or dried and pulverised (when it is called
"Ts'cheuzip").
I
Except bamboo and copper milk-vessels, wooden ladles, tea-
churn, and pots, these tents contained no furniture but goat-skins
and blankets, to spread on the ground as a bed. The fire was
made of sheep and goats'-droppings, lighted with juniper-wood;
above it hung tufts of yaks'-hair, one for every animal lost during
the season, by which means a reckoning is kept. Although this
2
This is the C. scaposa, n. sp. The common Caltha palustris, or "marsh
marigold" of England, which is not found in Sikkim, is very abundant in the
north-west Himalaya.
2 The Siberians hang tufts of horse-hair inside their houses from supersti-
tious motives (Ermann's "Siberia," i., 281).
by
TIBETAN HOSPITALITY. SALT AND BUTTËR TEA. 343
girl had never before seen a European, she seemed in no way
discomposed at my visit, and gave me a large slice of fresh curd.
Beyond this place (alt. 14,500 feet), the valley runs up north-
east, becoming very stony and desolate, with green patches only
by the watercourses: at this place, however, thick fogs came on,
and obscured all view. At 15,000 feet, I passed a small glacier
on the west side of the valley, the first I had met with that
descended nearly to the river, during the whole course of the
Teesta.
Five miles further on we arrived at the tents of the Phipun,
whose wife was prepared to entertain us with Tartar hospitality:
magnificent tawny Tibet mastiffs were baying at the tent-door,
and some yaks and ponies were grazing close by. We mustered
twelve in number, and squatted cross-legged in a circle inside the
tent, the Soubah and myself being placed on a pretty Chinese
rug. Salted and buttered tea was immediately prepared in a tea-
pot for us on the mat, and in a great caldron for the rest of the
party; parched rice and wheat-flour, curd, and roasted maize ¹
were offered us, and we each produced our wooden cup, which
was kept constantly full of scalding tea-soup, which, being made
with fresh butter, was very good. The flour was the favourite
food, of which each person dexterously formed little dough-balls
in his cup, an operation I could not well manage, and only
succeeded in making a nauseous paste, that stuck to my jaws and
in my throat. Our hostess' hospitality was too exigeant for me,
but the others seemed as if they could not drink enough of the
scalding tea.
We were suddenly startled from our repast by a noise like loud
thunder, crash following crash, and echoing through the valley.
The Phipun got up, and coolly said, "The rocks are falling, it is
time we were off, it will rain soon." The moist vapours had by
this time so accumulated, as to be condensed in rain on the cliffs
of Chomiomo and Kinchinjhow; which, being loosened, pre-
cipitated avalanches of rocks and snow. We proceeded amidst
dense fog, soon followed by hard rain; the roar of falling rocks
on either hand increasing as these invisible giants spoke to one
another in voices of thunder through the clouds. The effect was
indescribably grand: and as the weather cleared, and I obtained
transient peeps of their precipices of blue ice and black rock
* Called "pop-corn" in America, and prepared by roasting the maize in an
iron vessel, when it splits and turns partly inside out, exposing a snow-white
spongy mass of farina. It looks very handsome, and would make a beautiful
dish for dessert.
344
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS:
towering 5,000 feet above me on either hand, the feeling of awe
produced was almost overpowering. Heavy banks of vapour still
veiled the mountains, but the rising mist exposed a broad stony
track, along which the Lachen wandered, split into innumerable
channels, and enclosing little oases of green végetation, lighted
up by occasional gleams of sunshine. Though all around was
enveloped in gloom, there was in front a high blue arc of cloud-
less sky, between the beetling cliffs that formed the stern portals
of the Kongra Lama pass.
meu abaratas ka ng
CHAPTER XXI.
Top of Kongra Lama - Tibet frontier-Elevation-View-Vegetation-
Descent to Tungu-Tungu-choo-Ponies-Kinchinjhow and Changok-
hang mountains-Palung plains-Tibetans-Dogs-Dingcham province
of Tibet-Inhabitants-Dresses-Women's ornaments-Blackening faces
-Coral-Tents-Elevation of Palung-Lama-Shawl-wool goats-
Shearing-Siberian plants-Height of glaciers, and perpetual snow-
Geology-Plants, and wild animals-Marmots-Insects-Birds-Choong-
tam Lama Religious exercises - Tibetan hospitality
Tibetan hospitality — Delphinium
Perpetual snow-Temperature at Tungu-Return to Tallum Samdong-
To Lamteng-Houses-Fall of Barometer-Cicadas-Lime deposit-
Landslips-Arrival at Choongtam-Cobra-Rageu-Heat of Climate-
Velocity and volume of rivers measured-Leave for Lachoong valley-
Keadom-General features of valley-Lachoong village-Tunkra moun-
tain - Moraines - Cultivation Lachoong Phipun Lama ceremonies
beside a sick-bed.
Ma
Mandala
M
A C
WE reached the boundary between Sikkim and Tibet early in the
afternoon; it is drawn along Kongra Lama, which is a low flat
spur running east from Kinchinjhow towards Chomiomo, at a
point where these mountains are a few miles apart, thus crossing
the Lachen river: it is marked by cairns of stone, some rudely
fashioned into chaits, covered with votive rags on wands of
bamboo. I made the altitude by barometer 15,745 feet above
the sea, and by boiling water, 15,694 feet, the water boiling at
184.1';,the temperature of the air between 2.40 and 4 P.M.
varied from 41° 3 to 42° 5, the dew-point 398°; that of the
Lachen was 47°, which was remarkably high. We were bitterly
cold; as the previous rain had wetted us through, and a keen
The upper valley of the Lachen in Tibet, which I ascended in the
following October, is very open, flat, barren, and stony; it is bounded on the
north by rounded spurs from Chomiomo, which are continued east to Donkia,
forming a watershed to the Lachen on the south, and to the Arun on the
north.
TIBETAN FRONTIER. ALPINE PLANTS.
345
wind was blowing up the valley. The continued mist and fog
intercepted all view, except of the flanks of the great mountains
on either hand, of the rugged snowy ones to the south, and of
those bounding the Lachen to the north. The latter were un-
snowed, and appeared lower than Kongra Lama, the ground.
apparently sloping away in that direction; but when I ascended
them, three months afterwards, I found they were 3,000 feet higher!
a proof how utterly fallacious are estimates of height, when
formed by the eye alone. My informants called them Peuka-t'hlo ;
"peu" signifies north in Tibetan, and "t'hlo" a hill in Lepcha.
I
Isolated patches of vegetation appeared on the top of the pass,
where I gathered forty kinds of plants, most of them being of a
tufted habit characteristic of an extreme climate; some (as species
of Caryophyllea) forming hemispherical balls on the naked soil;
others growing in matted tufts level with the ground. The
greater portion had no woolly covering; nor did I find any of the
cottony species of Saussurea, which are so common on the wetter
mountains to the southward. Some most delicate-flowered plants
even defy the biting winds of these exposed regions; such are a
prickly Meconopsis with slender flower-stalks and four large blue
poppy-like petals, a Cyananthus with a membranous bell-shaped
corolla, and a fritillary. Other curious plants were a little yellow
saxifrage with long runners (very like the arctic S. flagellaris, of
Spitzbergen and Melville Island), and the strong-scented spike-
nard (Nardostachys).
The rocks were chiefly of reddish quartz, and so was the base
of Chomiomo. Kinchinjhow on the contrary was of gneiss, with
granite veins the strike of both was north-west, and the dip
north-east 20° to 30°.
:
We made a fire at the top with sheep's droppings, of which the
Phipun had brought up a bagful, and with it a pair of goat-skin
bellows, which worked by a slit that was opened by the hand in
the act of raising; when inflated, the hole was closed, and the
skin pressed down, thus forcing the air through the bamboo
nozzle this is the common form of bellows throughout Tibet
and the Himalaya.
After two hours I was very stiff and cold, and suffering from
headache and giddiness, owing to the elevation; and having
The other plants found on the pass were; of smooth hairless ones,
Ranunculus, Fumitory, several species of Stellaria, Arenaria, Crucifera,
Parnassia, Morina, saxifrages, Sedum, primrose, Herminium, Polygonum,
Campanula, Umbellifera, grasses and Carices of woolly or hairy ones,
Anemone, Artemisia, Myosotis, Draba, Potentilla, and several Composita, &c.
346
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
walked about thirteen miles botanising, I was glad to ride down.
We reached the Phipun's tents about 6 P.M., and had more tea
before proceeding to Tungu. The night was fortunately fine and
calm, with a few stars and a bright young moon, which, with the
glare from the snows, lighted up the valley, and revealed magni-
ficent glimpses of the majestic mountains. As the moon sank,
and we descended the narrowing valley, darkness came on, and
with a boy to lead my sure-footed pony, I was at liberty unin-
terruptedly to reflect on the events of a day, on which I had
attained the object of so many years' ambition. Now that all
obstacles were surmounted, and I was returning laden with
materials for extending the knowledge of a science which had
formed the pursuit of my life, will it be wondered at that I felt
proud, not less for my own sake, than for that of the many
friends, both in India and at home, who were interested in my
success?
We arrived at Tungu at 9 P.M., my pony not having stumbled
once, though the path was rugged, and crossed by many rapid
streams. The Soubah's little shaggy steed had carried his portly
frame (fully fifteen stone weight) the whole way out and back,
and when he dismounted, it shook itself, snorted, and seemed
quite ready for supper.
On the following morning I was occupied in noting and
arranging my collections, which consisted of upwards of 200
plants; all gathered above 14,000 feet elevation.¹ Letters arrived
from Darjeeling with unusual speed, having been only seventeen
days on the road: they were full of valuable suggestions and
encouragement from my friends Hodgson, Campbell, and Tchebu
Lama.
On the 26th of July the Phipun, who waited on me every
morning with milk and butter, and whose civility and attentions
were now unremitting, proposed that I should accompany him to
an encampment of Tibetans, at the foot of Kinchinjhow. We
mounted ponies, and ascended the Tunguchoo eastwards: it was
a rapid river for the first thousand feet, flowing in a narrow gorge,
between sloping, grassy, and rocky hills, on which large herds of
yaks were feeding, tended by women and children, whose black
tents were scattered about. The yak-calves left their mothers to
run beside our ponies, which became unmanageable, being almost
callous to the bit; and the whole party was sometimes careering
I
¹ Amongst them the most numerous Natural orders and genera were,
Crucifera 10; Composite 20; Ranunculaceae 10; Alsineæ 9; Astragali 10;
Potentilla 8; grasses 12; Carices 15; Pedicularis 7; Boragineæ 7.
KINCHINJHOW.
347
over the slopes, chased by the grunting herds: in other places,
the path was narrow and dangerous, when the sagacious animals
proceeded with the utmost gravity and caution. Rounding one
rocky spur, my pony stumbled, and pitched me forward: fortu-
nately I lighted on the path.
The rocks were gneiss, with granite veins (strike north-east, dip
south-east): they were covered with Ephedra,' an Onosma which
yields a purple dye, Orchis, and species of Androsace; while the
slopes were clothed with the spikenard and purple Pedicularis,
and the moist grounds with yellow cowslip and long grass.
A
sudden bend in the valley opened a superb view to the north, of
the full front of Kinchinjhow, extending for four or five miles east
and west; its perpendicular sides studded with the immense
icicles, which are said to have obtained for it the name of "jhow,"
-the "bearded" Kinchin. Eastward a jagged spur stretches
south, rising into another splendid mountain, called Chango-
khang (the Eagle's crag), from whose flanks descend great glaciers,
the sources of the Tunguchoo.
:
We followed the course of an affluent, called the Chacoo, along
whose bed ancient moraines rose in successive ridges on these I
found several other species of European genera.2 Over one of
these moraines, 500 feet high, the path ascends to the plains of
Palung, an elevated grassy expanse, two miles long and four
broad, extending southward from the base of Kinchinjhow. Its
surface, though very level for so mountainous a country, is yet
varied with open valleys and sloping hills, 500 to 700 feet high:
it is bounded on the west by low rounded spurs from Kinchin-
jhow, that form the flank of the Lachen valley; while on the east
it is separated from Chango-khang by the Chachoo, which cuts a
deep east and west trench along the base of Kinchinjhow, and
then turns south to the Tunguchoo. The course of the Chachoo,
where it turns south, is most curious: it meanders in sickle-
shaped curves along the marshy bottom of an old lake-bed, with
steep shelving sides, 500 to 600 feet deep, and covered with
juniper bushes.3 It is fed by the glaciers of Kinchinjhow, and
some little lakes to the east.
A curious genus of small shrubs allied to pines, that grows in the south of
Europe. This species is the European E. vulgaris; it inhabits the driest parts
of north-west India, and ascends to 17,000 feet in Tibet, but is not found in
the moist intervening countries.
2 Delphinium, Hypecoum, Sagina, Gymnandra, Artemisia, Caltha, Draco-
cephalum, Leontopodium.
3 These, which grow on an eastern exposure, cxist at a higher elevation than
any other bushes I have met with.

348
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
The mean height of Palung plains is 16,000 feet: they are
covered with transported blocks, and I have no doubt their
surface has been much modified by glacial action. I was forcibly
reminded of them by the slopes of the Wengern Alp, but those of
Palung are far more level. Kinchinjhow rises before the spec-
tator, just as the Jungfrau, Mönch, and Eigher Alps do from that
magnificent point of view.
On ascending a low hill, we came in sight of the Tibet camp at
the distance of a mile, when the great mastiffs that guarded it
wwwwww
+4
14
πράσα και
Tatt
LEPCHA GIRLS (THE OUTER FIGURES), AND TIBETAN WOMEN.
immediately bayed; and our ponies starting off at full gallop, we
soon reached an enclosure of stone dykes, within which the black
tents were pitched. The dogs were of immense size, and ragged,
like the yaks, from their winter coat hanging to their flanks in
great masses; each was chained near a large stone, on and off
which he leapt as he gave tongue; they are very savage, but great
cowards, and not remarkable for intelligence.
The people were natives of Gearee and Kambajong, in the
adjacent province of Dingcham, which is the loftiest, coldest,
most windy and arid in Eastern Tibet, and in which are the sources
TIBETAN ENCAMPMENT AND PEOPLE.
349
of all the streams that flow to Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhotan on the
one side, and into the Yaru-tsampu on the other. These families
repair yearly to Palung, with their flocks, herds, and tents, paying
tribute to the Sikkim Rajah for the privilege: they arrive in June
and leave in September. Both men and women were inde-
scribably filthy; as they never wash, their faces were perfectly
black with smoke and exposure, and the women's with a pigment
of grease as a protection from the wind. The men were dressed
as usual, in the blanket-cloak, with brass pipes, long knives, flint,
steel, and amulets; the women wore similar, but shorter cloaks,
with silver and copper girdles, trowsers, and flannel boots. Their
head-dresses were very remarkable. A circular band of plaited
yak's hair was attached to the back hair, and encircled the head
like a saint's glory, at some distance round it. A band crossed
the forehead, from which coins, corals, and turquoises, hung down
to the eyebrows, while lappets of these ornaments fell over the
ears. Their own hair was plaited in two tails, brought over the
shoulders, and fastened together in front; and a little yellow felt
cap, traversely elongated, so as not to interfere with the shape of
the glory, was perched on the head. Their countenances were
pleasing, and their manners timid.
I
The children crawled half-naked about the tent, or burrowed
like moles in an immense heap of goats' and sheep-droppings,
piled up for fuel, upon which the family lounged. An infant in
arms was playing with a "coral," ornamented much like ours, and
was covered with jewels and coins. This custom of decorating
children is very common amongst half-civilised people; and the
coral is, perhaps, one of the last relics of a barbarous age that is
retained amongst ourselves. One mother was nursing her baby,
and churning at the same time, by rolling the goat-skin of yak-
milk about on the ground. Extreme poverty induces the practice.
of nursing the children for years; and in one tent I saw a lad
upwards of four years of age unconcernedly taking food from his
aunt, and immediately afterwards chewing hard dry grains of
maize.
·
The tents were pitched in holes about two feet and a half
deep; and within them a wall of similar height was built all
round in the middle was a long clay arched fire-place, with holes
* I find in Ermann's "Siberia " (i., p. 210), that the married women of
Yekaterinberg wear a head-dress like an ancient glory covered with jewels,
whilst the unmarried ones plait their tresses. The same distinguished traveller
mentions having seen a lad of six years old suckled, amongst the Tungooze of
East Siberia.
350
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
above, over which the cauldrons were placed, the fire being
underneath. Saddles, horse-cloths, and the usual accoutrements
and implements of a nomade people, all of the rudest description,
hung about there was no bed or stool, but Chinese rugs for
sleeping on. I boiled water on the fire-place; its temperature
(1845) with that of the air (45° 5) gave an elevation of 15,867
feet. Barometric observations, taken in October, at a point con-
siderably lower down the stream, made the elevation 15,620 feet,
or a few feet lower than Kongra Lama pass.
A Lama accompanied this colony of Tibetans, a festival in
honour of Kinchinjhow being annually held at a large chait hard
by, which is painted red, ornamented with banners, and sur-
mounted by an enormous yak's skull, that faces the mountain.
The Lama invited me into his tent, where I found a wife and
family. An extempore altar was at one end, covered with wafers
and other pretty ornaments, made of butter, stamped or moulded
with the fingers. The tents being insupportably noisome, I
preferred partaking of the buttered brick-tea in the open air; after
which, I went to see the shawl-wool goats sheared in a pen close
by. There are two varieties: one is a large animal, with great
horns, called "Rappoo;" the other smaller, and with slender
horns, is called "Tsilloo." The latter yields the finest wool, but
they are mixed for ordinary purposes. I was assured that the
sheep (of which large flocks were grazing near) afford the finest
wool of any. The animals were caught by the tail, their legs tied,
the long winter's hair pulled out, and the remainder cut away
with a broad flat knife, which was sharpened with a scythe-stone.
The operation was clumsily performed, and the skin much cut.
Turnips are grown at Palung during the short stay of the
people, and this is the most alpine cultivation in Sikkim the seed
is sown early in July, and the tubers are fit to be eaten in October,
if the season is favourable. They did not come to maturity this
year, as I found on again visiting this spot in October; but their
tops had afforded the poor Tibetans some good vegetables. The
mean temperature of the three summer months at Palung is
probably about 40°, an element of comparatively little importance
in regulating the growth and ripening of vegetables at great
elevations in Tibetan climates; where a warm exposure, the
I
The extensive use of these ornaments throughout Tibet, on the occasion of
religious festivals, is alluded to by MM. Huc and Gabet.
2This is the "Changra," and the smaller the "Chyapu " of Mr. Hodgson's
catalogue. (Sec "British Muscum Catalogue.")
PALUNG PLATEAU AND PASTURES.
351
amount of sunshine, and of radiated heat, have a much greater
influence.
During the winter, when these families repair to Kambajong, in
Tibet, the flocks and herds are all stall-fed, with long grass, cut
on the marshy banks of the Yaru. Snow is said to fall five feet
deep at that place, chiefly after January; and it melts in April.
After tea, I ascended the hills overhanging the Lachen valley,
which are very bare and stony; large flocks of sheep were feeding
on them, chiefly upon small tufted sedges, allied to the English
Carex pilularis, which here forms the greatest part of the pasture,
the grass grows mixed with it in small tufts, and is the common
Scotch mountain pasture-grass (Festuca ovina).
On the top of these hills, which, for barrenness, reminded me
of the descriptions given of the Siberian steppes, I found, at
17,000 feet elevation, several minute arctic plants, with Rhodo-
dendron nivale, the most alpine of woody plants. On their sterile
slopes grew a curious plant allied to the Cherleria of the Scotch
Alps, forming great hemispherical balls on the ground, eight to
ten inches across, altogether resembling in habit the curious
Balsam-bog (Bolax glebaria) of the Falkland Islands, which grows
in very similar scenes.¹
A few days afterwards, I again visited Palung, with the view of
ascertaining the height of perpetual snow on the south face of
Kinchinjhow; unfortunately, bad weather came on before I
* Arenaria rupifraga, Fenzl. This plant is mentioned by Dr. Thomson
("Travels in Tibet," p. 426) as common in Tibet, as far north as the Kara-
koram, at an elevation between 16,000 and 18,000 feet. In Sikkim it is found
at the same level. Specimens of it are exhibited in the Kew Museum. As
one instance illustrative of the chaotic state of Indian botany, I may here
mention that this little plant, a denizen of such remote and inaccessible parts
of the globe, and which has only been known to science a dozen years, bears
the burthen of no less than six names in botanical works. This is the
Bryomorpha rupifraga of Karelin and Kireloff (enumeration of Soongarian
plants), who first described it from specimens gathered in 1841, on the Älatau
mountains (east of Lake Aral). In Ledebour's "Flora Rossica" (i. p. 780) it
appears as Arenaria (sub-genus Dicranella) rupifraga, Fenzl, MS.
Decaisne and Cambessede's Plants of Jacquemont's "Voyage aux Indes
Orientales," it is described as Flourensix cespitosa, and in the plates of that
work it appears as Periandra cæspitosa; and lastly, in Endichler's "Genera
Plantarum," Fenzl proposes the long new generic name of Thylacospermum
for it. I have carefully compared the Himalayan and Alatau plants, and find
no difference between them, except that the flower of the Himalayan one has
4 petals and sepals, 8 stamens, and 2 styles, and that of the Alatau 5 petals and
sepals, to stamens, and 2-3 styles, characters which are very variable in allied
plants. The flowers appear polygamous, as in the Scotch alpine Cherleria,
which it much resembles in habit, and to which it is very nearly related in
botanical characters.
In
352
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
•
I
reached the Tibetans, from whom I obtained a guide in con-
sequence. From this place a ride of about four miles brought me
to the source of the Chachoo, in a deep ravine, containing the
terminations of several short, abrupt glaciers, and into which were
precipitated avalanches of snow and ice. I found it impossible to
distinguish the glacial ice from perpetual snow; the larger beds
of snow where presenting a flat surface, being generally drifts
collected in hollows, or accumulations that have fallen from
above when these accumulations rest on slopes they become
converted into ice, and, obeying the laws of fluidity, flow down-
wards as glaciers. I boiled water at the most advantageous.
position I could select, and obtained an elevation of 16,522 feet.²
It was snowing heavily at this time, and we crouched under a
gigantic boulder, benumbed with cold. I had fortunately brought
a small phial of brandy, which, with hot water from the boiling-
apparatus kettle, refreshed us wonderfully.
The spur that divides these plains from the Lachen river, rises
close to Kinchinjhow, as a lofty cliff of quartzy gneiss, dipping
north-east 30°: this I had noticed from the Kongra Lama side.
On this side the dip was also to the northward, and the whole
cliff was crossed by cleavage planes, dipping south, and apparently
cutting those of the foliation at an angle of about 60°: it is the
only decided instance of the kind I met with in Sikkim. I re-
gretted not being able to examine it carefully, but I was prevented
by the avalanches of stones and snow which were continually
being detached from its surface.³
De Saussure's glaciers of the second order: see "Forbes' Travels in the
Alps," p. 79.
2
Temperature of boiling water, 183°, air 35°.
3 I extremely regret not having been at this time acquainted with Mr. D.
Sharpe's able essays on the foliation, cleavage, &c., of slaty rocks, gneiss, &c.,
in the Geological Society's Journal (ii. p. 74, and v. p. 111), and still more so
with his subsequent papers in the Philosophical Transactions: as I cannot
doubt that many of his observations, and in particular those which refer to the
great arches in which the folia (commonly called strata) are disposed, would
receive ample illustration from a study of the Himalaya. At vol. i. p. 309, I
have distantly alluded to such an arrangement of the gneiss, &c., into arches,
in Sikkim, to which my attention was naturally drawn by the writings of Pro-
fessor Sedgwick ("Geolog. Soc. Trans.") and Mr. Darwin ("Geological Ob-
servations in South America") on these obscure subjects. I may add that
wherever I met with the gneiss, mica, schists, and slates, in Sikkim, very near
one another, I invariably found that their cleavage and foliation were con-
formable. This, for example, may be seen in the bed of the great Rungeet,
below Darjeeling, where the slates overlie mica schists, and where the latter
contain beds of conglomerate. In this volume I have often used the more
familiar term of stratification, for foliation. This arises from my own ideas of
the subject not having been clear when the notes were taken.
ANIMAL LIFE AT GREAT ELEVATIONS.
The plants found close to the snow were minute primroses,
Parnassia, Draba, tufted wormwoods (Artemisia), saxifrages,
gentians, small Composita, grasses, and sedges. Our ponies un-
concernedly scraped away the snow with their hoofs, and nibbled.
the scanty herbage. When I mounted mine, he took the bit
between his teeth, and scampered back to Palung, over rocks and
hills, through bogs and streams; and though the snow was so
blinding that no object could be distinguished, he brought me to
the tents with unerring instinct, as straight as an arrow.
Wild animals are few in kind and rare in individuáls, at Tungu
and elsewhere on this frontier; though there is no lack of cover
and herbage. This must be owing to the moist cold atmosphere;
and it reminds me that a similar want of animal life is characteristic
of those climates at the level of the sea, which I have adduced
as bearing a great analogy to the Himalaya, in lacking certain
natural orders of plants. Thus, New Zealand and Fuegia possess,
the former no land animal but a rat, and the latter very few indeed,
and none of any size. Such is also the case in Scotland and
Norway. Again, on the damp west coast of Tasmania, quadrupeds
are rare; whilst the dry eastern half of the island once swarmed
with opossums and kangaroos. A few miles north of Tungu,
the sterile and more lofty provinces of Tibet abound in wild
horses, antelopes, hares, foxes, marmots, and numerous other
quadrupeds; although their altitude, climate, and scanty vegeta-
tion are apparently even more unsuited to support such numbers
of animals of so large a size than the karroos of South Africa,
and the steppes of Siberia and Arctic America, which similarly
abound in animal life. The laws which govern the distribution
of large quadrupeds seem to be intimately connected with those
of climate; and we should have regard to these considerations in
our geological speculations, and not draw hasty conclusions from
the absence of the remains of large herbivora in formations dis-
closing a redundant vegetation.
353
Besides the wild sheep found on these mountains, a species of
marmot ("Kardiepieu " of the Tibetans) sometimes migrates in
swarms (like the Lapland "Lemming") from Tibet as far as
Tungu. There are few birds but red-legged crows and common
ravens. Most of the insects belonged to arctic types, and they
were numerous in individuals.2
I
* The Lagopus Tibetanus of Hodgson. I procured one that displayed an
extraordinary tenacity of life: part of the skull was shot away, and the brain
protruded; still it showed the utmost terror at my dog.
2 As Melo and some flower-feeding lamellicorns. Of butterflies I saw blues
24

354
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
The Choongtam Lama was at a small temple near Tungu during
the whole of my stay, but he would not come to visit me, pre-
tending to be absorbed in his devotions. Passing one day by the
temple, I found him catechising two young aspirants for holy
orders. He is one of the Dukpa sect, wore his mitre, and was
seated cross-legged on the grass with his scriptures on his knees:-
he put questions to the boys, when he who answered best took the
other some yards off, put him down on his hands and knees, threw
a cloth over his back, and mounted; then kicking, spurring, and
cuffing his steed, he was galloped back to the Lama and kicked
off; when the catechising recommenced.
I spent a week at Tungu most pleasantly, ascending the neigh-
Ergo
2건
​TIBET MARMOT.
bouring mountains, and mixing with the people, whom I found
uniformly kind, frank, and extremely hospitable; sending their
children after me to invite me to stop at their tents, smoke, and
drink tea; often refusing any remuneration, and giving my atten-
dants curds and yak-flesh. If on foot, I was entreated to take a
pony; and when tired I never scrupled to catch one, twist a yak-
hair rope over its jaw as a bridle, and throwing a goat-hair cloth
upon its back (if no saddle were at hand), ride away whither I
would. Next morning a boy would be sent for the steed, perhaps
bringing an invitation to come and take it again. So I became
(Polyommatus), marbled whites, Pontia, Colias and Argynnis. A small Curculio
was frequent, and I found Scolopendra, ants and earthworms, on sunny exposures
as high as 15,500 feet.
CHOMIOMO. MUSK PLANT.
355
fond of brick-tea boiled with butter, salt and soda, and expert in
the Tartar saddle; riding about perched on the shoulders of a
rough pony, with my feet nearly on a level with my pockets, and
my knees almost meeting in front.
On the 28th of July much snow fell on the hills around, as low
as 14,000 feet, and half an inch of rain at Tungu; the former
soon melted, and I made an excursion to Chomiomo on the
following day, hoping to reach the lower line of perpetual snow.
Ascending the valley of the Chomiochoo, I struck north up a
steep slope, that ended in a spur of vast tabular masses of quartz
and felspar, piled like slabs in a stone quarry, dipping south-west
5° to 10°, and striking north-west. These resulted from the de-
composition of gneiss, from which the layers of mica had been.
washed away, when the rain and frost splitting up the fragments,
the dislocation is continued to a great depth into the substance of
the rock.
Large silky cushions of a forget-me-not grew amongst the rocks,
spangled with beautiful blue flowers, and looking like turquoises
set in silver the Delphinium glaciale 2 was also abundant, exhal-
ing a rank smell of musk. It indicates a very great elevation in
Sikkim, and on my ascent far above it, therefore, I was not sur-
prised to find water boil at 182° 6 (air 43°), which gives an altitude
of 16,754 feet.
A dense fog, with sleet, shut out all view; and I did not know
in what direction to proceed higher, beyond the top of the sharp
stony ridge I had attained. Here there was no perpetual snow,
which is to be accounted for by the nature of the surface
facilitating its removal, the edges of the rocks which project.
through the snow, becoming heated, and draining off the water
as it melts.
During my stay at Tungu, from the 23rd to the 30th of July,
no day passed without much deposition of moisture, but generally
in so light a form that throughout the whole time but one inch
was registered in the rain-gauge; during the same time four inches
and a half of rain fell at Darjeeling, and three inches and a half
at Calcutta. The mean temperature was 50° (Max. 65); extremes,
The mean range (23° 3) was thus much greater than at
Darjeeling, where it was only 8° 9. A thermometer, sunk three
65°
Min. 40° 7
38°.
An inch and a half fell at Darjeeling during the same period.
2 This new species has been described for the "Flora Indica" of Dr. Thom-
son and myself: it is a remarkable plant, very closely resembling, and as it
were representing, the D. Brunonianum of the Western Himalaya. The
latter plant smells powerfully of musk, but not so disagreeably as this does.
356
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
feet, varied only a few tenths from 57° 6. By twenty-five com-
parative observations with Calcutta, 1° Fahr. is the equivalent of
every 362 feet of ascent; and twenty comparative observations
with Darjeeling give 1º for every 340 feet. The barometer rose
and fell at the same hours as at lower elevations; the tide amount-
ing to o‘060 inch, between 9'50 A.M. and 4 P.M.
I left Tungu on the 30th of July, and spent that night at
Tallum, where a large party of men had just arrived, with loads.
of madder, rice, canes bamboos, planks, &c., to be conveyed to
Tibet on yaks and ponies. On the following day I descended
to Lamteng, gathering a profusion of fine plants by the way.
I
The flat on which I had encamped at this place in May and
June, being now a marsh, I took up my abode for two days in
one of the houses, and paid the usual penalty of communication
with these filthy people; for which my only effectual remedy was
boiling all my garments and bedding. Yet the house was high,
airy, and light; the walls composed of bamboo, lath, and plaster.
Tropical Cicadas ascend to the pine-woods above Lamteng in
this month, and chirp shrilly in the heat of the day; and glow-
worms fly about at night. The common Bengal and Java toad,
Bufo scabra, abounded in the marshes, a remarkable instance of
wide geographical distribution, for a Batrachian which is common
at the level of the sea under the tropics.
On the 3rd of August I descended to Choongtam, which I
reached on the 5th. The lakes on the Chateng flat (alt. 8,750
feet) were very full, and contained many English water-plants: "
the temperature of the water was 92° near the edges, where a
water-insect (Notonecta) was swimming about.
Below this I passed an extensive stalactitic deposit of lime, and
a second occurred lower down, on the opposite side of the valley.
The apparently total abstinence of limestone rocks in any part of
Sikkim (for which I made careful search), renders these deposits,
which are far from unfrequent, very curious. Can the limestone,
which appears in Tibet, underlie the gneiss of Sikkim? We
cannot venture to assume that these lime-charged streams, which
in Sikkim burst from the steep flanks of narrow mountain spurs,
* About 300 loads of timber, each of six planks, are said to be taken across
the Kongra Lama pass annually; and about 250 of rice, besides canes, madder,
bamboos, cottons, cloths, and Symplocos leaves for dycing. This is, no doubt,
a considerably exaggerated statement, and may refer to both the Kongra Lama
and Donkia passes.
A
* Sparganium ramosum, Eleocharis palustris, Scirpus triqueter, and Calli-
triche verna? Some very tropical genera ascend thus high; as Paspalum
amongst grasses, and Scleria, a kind of sedge.
LIME DEPOSITS, LANDSLIPS. INSECTS.
357
at elevations between 1,000 and 7,000 feet, have any very remote
or deep origin. If the limestone be not below the gneiss, it must
either occur intercalated with it, or be the remains of a formation
now all but denuded in Sikkim.
Terrific landslips had taken place along the valley, carrying down
acres of rock, soil, and pine-forests, into the stream. I saw one
from Kampo Samdong, on the opposite flank of the valley, which
swept over 100 yards in breadth of forest. I looked in vain for
any signs of scratching or scoring, at all comparable to that pro-
duced by glacial action. The bridge at the Tuktoong, mentioned
at p. 310, being carried away, we had to ascend for 1,000 feet (to
a place where the river could be crossed) by a very precipitous
path, and descend on the opposite side. In many places we had
great difficulty in proceeding, the track being obliterated by the
rains, torrents, and landslips. Along the flats, now covered
with a dense rank vegetation, we waded ancle, and often knee,
deep in mud, swarming with leeches; and instead of descending
into the valley of the now too swollen Lachen, we made long
detours, rounding spurs by canes and bamboos suspended from
trees.
I
At Choongtam the rice-fields were flooded: and the whole flat
was a marsh, covered with tropical grasses and weeds, and alive
with insects, while the shrill cries of cicadas, frogs and birds,
filled the air. Sand-flies, mosquitos, cockroaches, and enormous
cockchafers, Mantis, great locusts, grasshoppers, flying-bugs,
crickets, ants, spiders, caterpillars, and leeches, were but a few of
the pests that swarmed in my tent and made free with my bed.
Great lazy butterflies floated through the air; Thecla and Hes-
perides skipped about, and the great Nymphalidæ darted around
like swallows. The venomous black cobra was common, and we
left the path with great caution, as it is a lazy reptile, and lies
basking in the sun; many beautiful and harmless green snakes,
* Eucerris Griffithii, a magnificent species. Three very splendid insects of
the outer ranges of Sikkim never occurred in the interior: these are a gigantic
Curculio (Calandra), a wood-borer; a species of Goliath-beetle, Cheirotonus
Macleaii, and a smaller species of the same rare family, Trigonophorus nepa-
lensis; of these the former is very scarce, the latter extremely abundant, flying
about at evenings; both are flower-feeders, eating honey and pollen. In the
summer of 1848, the months at Darjeeling were well marked by the swarms
of peculiar insects that appeared in inconceivable numbers; thus, April was
marked by a great black Pässalus, a beetle one-and-a-half inch long, that flies
in the face and entangles itself in the hair; May, by stag-beetles and longi-
corns; June, by Coccinella (lady-birds), white moths, and flying-bugs; July, by
a Dryptis? a long-necked and carabideous insect; August, by myriads of car-
wigs, cockroaches, Goliath-beetles, and cicadas; September, by spiders.
358
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
four feet long, glided amongst the bushes. My dogs caught a
“Rageu,” ¹ a very remarkable animal, half goat and half deer;
the flesh was good and tender, dark-coloured, and lean,
I
R
I remained here till the 15th of August, arranging my Lachen
valley collections previous to starting for the Lachoong, whence I
hoped to reach Tibet again by a different route, crossing the
Donkia pass, and thence exploring the sources of the Teesta at
the Cholamoo lakes.
Whilst here I ascertained the velocity of the currents of the
Lachen and Lachoong rivers. Both were torrents, than which
none could be more rapid, short of becoming cataracts: the
rains were at their height, and the melting of the snows at its
maximum I first measured several hundred yards along the
banks of each river above the bridges, repeating this several
times, as the rocks and jungle rendered it very difficult to do it
accurately then, sitting on the bridge, I timed floating masses
of different materials and sizes that were thrown in at the upper
point. I was surprised to find the velocity of the Lachen only
nine miles per hour, for its waters seemed to shoot past with the
speed of an arrow, but the floats showed the whole stream to be
so troubled with local eddies and backwaters, that it took from
forty-three to forty-eight seconds for each float to pass over 200
yards, as it was perpetually submerged by under-currents. The
breadth of the river averaged sixty-eight feet, and the discharge
was 4,420 cubic feet of water per second. The temperature was
57°.
At the Lachoong bridge the jungle was still denser, and the
banks quite inaccessible in many places. The mean velocity was
eight miles an hour, the breadth ninety-five feet, the depth
about the same as that of the Lachen, giving a discharge of 5,700
cubic feet of water per second; 3 its temperature was also 57°.
Ragoah," according to Hodgson but it is not the Procapra picticaudata
of Tibet:
2 Though 5° further north, and 5,268 feet above the level of Calcutta, the
mean temperature at Choongtam this month was only 12° 5 cooler than at
Calcutta ; forty observations giving 1° Fahr. as equal to 690 feet of elevation ;
whereas in May the mean of twenty-seven observations gave 1° Fahr. as equal
to 260 feet, the mean difference of temperature being then 25°. The mean
maximum of the day was 80°, and was attained at 11 A.M., after which clouds
formed, and the thermometer fell to 66° at sunset, and 56° at night. In my
blanket tent the heat rose to upwards of 100° in calm weather. The afternoons
were generally squally and rainy.
3 Hence it appears that the Lachoong, being so much the more copious
stream, should in one sense be regarded as the continuation of the Teesta,
rather than the Lachen, which, however, has by far the most distant source.
(
•
VELOCITY OF RIVERS. LOSS OF MY DOG. 359
These streams retain an extraordinary velocity, for many miles
upwards; the Lachen to its junction with the Zemu at 9,000 feet,
and the Zemu itself as far up as the Thlonok, at 10,000 feet, and
the Lachoong to, the village of that name, at 8,000 feet: their
united streams appear equally rapid till they become the Teesta
at Singtam.'
On the 15th of August, having received supplies from Dar-
jeeling, I started up the north bank of the Lachoong, following
the Singtam Soubah, who accompanied me officially, and with a
very bad grace; poor fellow, he expected me to have returned
with him to Singtam, and thence gone back to Darjeeling, and
many a sore struggle we had on this point. At Choongtam he
had been laid up with ulcerated legs from the bites of leeches and
sand-flies, which required my treatment.
2
The path was narrow, and ran through a jungle of mixed
tropical and temperate plants, many of which are not found at
this elevation on the damp outer ranges of Darjeeling. We
crossed to the south bank by a fine cane-bridge forty yards long,
the river being twenty-eight across and here I have to record
the loss of my dog Kinchin; the companion of all my late
journeyings, and to whom I had become really attached. He
had a bad habit, of which I had vainly tried to cure him, of
running for a few yards on the round bamboos by which the
cane-bridges are crossed, and on which it was impossible for a
dog to retain his footing: in this situation he used to get
thoroughly frightened, and lie down on the bamboos with his legs
hanging over the water, and having no hold whatever. I had
several times rescued him from this perilous position, which was
always rendered more imminent from the shaking of the bridge
as I approached him. On the present occasion, I stopped at the
foot of some rocks below the bridge, botanising, and Kinchin
having scrambled up the rocks, ran on to the bridge. I could
not see him, and was not thinking about him, when suddenly his
shrill, short barks of terror rang above the roaring torrent. I
Their united streams discharge upwards of 10,000 cubic feet of water per
second in the height of the rains! which is, however, a mere fraction of the
discharge of the Teesta when that river leaves the Himalaya. The Ganges at
Hurdwar discharges 8,000 feet per second during the dry season.
The slope of the bed of the Lachen from below the confluence of the Zemu
to the village of Singtam is 174 feet per mile, or I foot in 30; that of the
Lachoong from the village of that name to Singtam is considerably less.
2 As Paris, Dipsacus, Circea, Thalictrum, Saxifraga ciliaris, Spiranthes,
Malva, Hypoxis, Anthericum, Passiflora, Drosera, Didymocarpus, poplar,
Calamagrostis, and Eupatorium.
360
HIMALAYAN JOURNĀLS.
hastened to the bridge, but before I could get to it, he had lost
his footing, and had disappeared. Holding on by the canes,
I strained my eyes till the bridge seemed to be swimming up
the valley, and the swift waters to be standing still, but to no
purpose; he had been carried under at once, and swept away
miles below. For many days I missed him by my side on the
mountain, and by my feet in camp. He had become a very
handsome dog, with glossy black hair, pendent triangular ears,
short muzzle, high forehead, jet-black eyes, straight limbs, arched
neck, and a most glorious tail curling over his back.¹
A very bad road led to the village of Keadom, situated on a
flat terrace several hundred feet above the river, and 6,609 feet
above the sea, where I spent the night. Here are cultivated
plantains and maize, although the elevation is equal to parts of
Darjeeling, where these plants do not ripen.
The river above Keadom is again crossed, by a plank bridge,
at a place where the contracted streams flow between banks forty
feet high, composed of obscurely stratified gravel, sand, and´
water-worn boulders. Above this the path ascends lofty flat-
topped spurs, which overhang the river, and command some of
the most beautiful scenery in Sikkim. The south-east slopes are
clothed with Abies Brunoniana at 8,000 feet elevation, and cleft
by a deep ravine, from which projects what appears to be an old
moraine, fully 1,500, or perhaps 2,000 feet high. Extensive
landslips on its steep flank expose (through the telescope) a mass
of gravel and angular blocks, while streams cut deep channels
in it.
This valley is more open and grassy than that of the Lachen,
and the vegetation also differs much.2 In the afternoon
we reached Lachoong, which is by far the most picturesque
village in the temperate region of Sikkim. Grassy flats of
different levels, sprinkled with brushwood and scattered clumps
of pine and maple, occupy the valley; whose west flanks rise in
steep, rocky, and scantily wooded grassy slopes. About five
+
• The woodcut at p. 142, gives the character of the Tibet mastiff, to
which breed his father belonged; but it is not a portrait of himself, having
been sketched from a dog of the pure breed, in the Zoological Society's Gardens,
by C. Jenyns, Esq.
2 Umbellifera and Composite abound, and were then flowering; and an orchis
(Satyrium Nepalense), scented like our English Gymnadenia, covered the ground
in some places, with tall green Habenaria and a yellow Spathoglottis, a genus
with pseudo-bulbs. Of shrubs, Xanthoxylon, Rhus, Prinsepia, Cotoneaster,
Pyrus, poplar and oak, formed thickets along the path; while there were as
many as eight and nine kinds of balsams, some eight feet high.

LACHOONG VALLEY.
361
miles to the north the valley forks; two conspicuous domes of
The eastern
snow rising from the intermediate mountains.
valley leads to lofty snowed regions, and is said to be impracti-
cable; the Lachoong flows down the western, which appeared
rugged, and covered with pine woods. On the east, Tunkra
mountain rises in a superb unbroken sweep of dark pine-wood
and cliffs, surmounted by black rocks and white fingering peaks
Larch.
LACHOONG VALLEY AND VILLAGE, LOOKING SOUTH.
of snow. South of this, the valley of the Tunkrachoo opens,
backed by sharp snowed pinnacles, which form the continuation
of the Chola range; over which a pass leads to the Phari district
of Tibet, which intervenes between Sikkim and Bhotan. South-
wards the view is bounded by snowy mountains, and the valley
seems blocked up by the remarkable moraine-like spur which I
passed above Keadom.
* This mountain is seen from Darjeeling; its elevation is about 18,700 feet.

362
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Stupendous moraines rise 1,500 feet above the Lachoong in
several concentric series, curving downwards and outwards, so as
to form a bell-shaped mouth to the valley of the Tunkrachoo.
Those on the upper flank are much the largest ; and the loftiest
of them terminates in a conical hill crowned with Boodhist flags,
and its steep sides cut into horizontal roads or terraces, one of
which is so broad and flat as to suggest the idea of its having
been cleared by art. On the south side of the Tunkrachoo river
தி
w
022
Larch.
Abies Smithiana.
LOFTY ANCIENT MORAINES, IN THE LACHOONG VALLEY, LOOKING SOUTH-
EAST.
the moraines are also more or less terraced, as is the floor of the
Lachoong valley, and its east slopes, 1,000 feet up."
Abies Brunoniana.
I have since been greatly struck with the similarity between the features
of this valley, and those of Chamouni (though the latter is on a smaller scale)
above the Lavanchi moraine. The spectator standing in the expanded part
below the village of Argentière, and looking upwards, sees the valley closed

LACHOONG VILLAGE.
363
The river is fourteen yards broad, and neither deep nor rapid:
the village is on the east bank, and is large for Sikkim; it contains
fully 100 good wooden houses, raised on posts, and clustered
together without order. It was muddy and intolerably filthy, and
intersected by some small streams, whose beds formed the roads,
and, at the same time, the common sewers of the natives. There
is some wretched cultivation in fields,' of wheat, barley, peas,
radishes, and turnips. Rice was once cultivated at this elevation
(8,000 feet), but the crop was uncertain; some very tropical
grasses grow wild here, as Eragrostis and Panicum In gardens
the hollyhock is seen: it is said to be introduced through Tibet
from China; also Pinus excelsa from Bhotan, peaches, walnuts,
and weeping willows. A tall poplar was pointed out to me as a
great wonder; it had two species of Pyrus growing on its boughs,
evidently from seed; one was a mountain ash, the other like
Pyrus Aria.
LLA
HEAD AND FEET OF TIBET MARMOT.
Soon after camping, the Lachoong Phipun, a very tall, intelli-
gent, and agreeable looking man, waited on me with the usual
presents, and a request that I would visit his sick father. His
house was lofty and airy: in the inner room the sick man was
stretched on a board, covered with a blanket, and dying of
above by the ancient moraine of the Argentière glacier, and below by that of
Lavanchi; and on all sides the slopes are cut into terraces, strewed with
boulders. I found traces of stratified pebbles and sand on the north flank of
the Lavanchi moraine however, which I failed to discover in those of Lachoong.
The average slope of these pine-clad Sikkim valleys much approximates to that
of Chamouni, and never approaches the precipitous character of the Bernese
Alps' valleys, Kandersteg, Lauterbrunnen, and Grindelwald.
Full of such English weeds as shepherd's purse, nettles, Solanum nigrum,
and dock; besides many Himalayan ones, as balsams, thistles, a beautiful
geranium, mallow, Haloragis and Cucurbitaceous plants.
364
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
pressure on the brain; he was surrounded by a deputation of
Lamas from Teshoo Loombo, sent for in this emergency. The
principal one was a fat fellow, who sat cross-legged before a block-
printed Tibetan book, plates of raw meat, rice, and other offerings,
and the bells, dorje, &c. of his profession. Others sat around,
reading or chanting services, and filling the room with incense.
At one end of the apartment was a good library in a beautifully
carved book-case.
CHAPTER XXII.
Leave Lachoong for Tunkra pass-Moraines and their vegetation-Pines of
great dimensions-Wild currants-Glaciers-Summit of pass--Elevation
Views-Plants-Winds-Choombi district-Lacheepia rock-Extreme
cold—Kinchinjunga-Himalayan grouse-Meteorological observations—
Return to Lachoong-Oaks-Ascent to Yeumtong-Flats and debâcles-
Buried pine-trunks-Perpetual snow-Hot springs-Behaviour of Singtam
Soubah-Leave for Momay Samdong-Upper limit of trees-Distribution
of plants-Glacial terraces, &c.-Forked Donkia-Moutonnéed rocks-
Ascent to Donkia pass-Vegetation-Scenery-Lakes-Tibet-Bhomtso
--Arun river—Kiang-lah mountains-Yara-Tsampu river-Appearance of
Tibet — Kambajong-Jigatzi-Kinchinjhow, and Kinchinjunga-Chola
range-Deceptive appearance of distant landscape-Perpetual snow-
Granite Temperatures - Pulses - Plants-Tripe de roche-Return to
Momay-Dogs and yaks-Birds-Insects-Quadrupeds-Hot springs-
Marmots-Kinchinjhow glacier.
-
هی
THE Singtam Soubah being again laid up here from the conse-
quences of leech-bites, I took the opportunity of visiting the
Tunkra-lah pass, represented as the most snowy in Sikkim ; which
I found to be the case. The route lay over the moraines on the
north flank of the Tunkrachoo, which are divided by narrow dry
gullies,¹ and composed of enormous blocks disintegrating into a
deep layer of clay. All are clothed with luxuriant herbage and
flowering shrubs, besides small larches and pines, rhododendrons.
and maples; with Enkianthus, Pyrus, cherry, Pieris, laurel, and
¹ These ridges of the moraine, separated by gullies, indicate the progressive
retirement of the ancient glacier, after periods of rest. The same phenomena
may be seen, on a diminutive scale, in the Swiss Alps, by any one who carefully
examines the lateral and often the terminal moraines of any retiring or dimin-
ishing glacier, at whose base or flanks are concentric ridges, which are successive
deposits.
½ Ranunculus, Clematis, Thalictrum, Anemone, Aconitum variegatum of
Europe, a scandent species, Berberry, Deutzia, Philadelphus, Rose, Honey-
suckle, Thistles, Orchis, Habenaria, Fritillaria, Aster, Calimeris, Verbascum
thapsus, Pedicularis, Euphrasia, Senecio, Eupatorium, Dipsacus, Euphorbia,
Balsam, Hypericum, Gentiana, Halenia, Codonopsis, Polygonum.
ASCENT TO TUNKRA PASS.
365
Goughia.
The musk-deer inhabits these woods, and at this
season I have never seen it higher. Large monkeys are also
found on the skirts of the pine-forests, and the Ailurus ochraceus
(Hodgs.), a curious long-tailed animal peculiar to the Himalaya,
something between a diminutive bear and a squirrel. In the
dense and gigantic forest of Abies Brunoniana and silver fir,
I measured one of the former trees, and found it twenty-eight
feet in girth, and above 120 feet in height. The Abies Webbiana
attains thirty-five feet in girth, with a trunk unbranched for forty
feet.
The path was narrow and difficult in the wood, and especially
along the bed of the stream, where grew ugly trees of larch,
eighty feet high, and abundance of a new species of alpine straw-
berry with oblong fruit. At 11,560 feet elevation, I arrived at
an immense rock of gneiss, buried in the forest. Here currant-
bushes were plentiful, generally growing on the pine-trunks, in
strange association with a small species of Begonia, a hothouse
tribe of plants in England. Emerging from the forest, vast old
moraines are crossed, in a shallow mountain valley, several miles
long and broad, 12,000 feet above the sea, choked with rhodo-
dendron shrubs, and nearly encircled by snowy mountains.
Magnificent gentians grew here, also Senecio, Corydalis, and the
Aconitum luridum (n. sp.), whose root is said to be as virulent as
A. ferox and A. Napellus. The plants were all fully a month
behind those of the Lachen valley at the same elevation. Heavy
rain fell in the afternoon, and we halted under some rocks as
I had brought no tent, my bed was placed beneath the shelter of
one, near which the rest of the party burrowed. I supped off
half a yak's kidney, an enormous organ in this animal.
On the following morning we proceeded up the valley, towards
a very steep rocky barrier, through which the river cut a narrow
gorge, and beyond which rose lofty snowy mountains: the peak
of Tunkra being to our left hand (north). Saxifrages grew here
in profuse tufts of golden blossoms, and Chrysosplenium, rushes,
mountain-sorrel (Oxyria), and the bladder-headed Saussurea,
whose flowers are enclosed in inflated membranous bracts, and
smell like putrid meat: there were also splendid primroses, the
spikenard valerian, and golden Potentillas.
The ascent was steep and difficult, up a stony valley bounded
I
The result of Dr. Thomson's and my examination of the Himalayan
aconites (of which there are seven species) is that the one generally known as
A. ferox, and which supplies a great deal of the celebrated poison, is the
common A. Napellus of Europe.
366
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
by precipices; in this the river flowed in a north-west direction,
and we were obliged to wade along it, though its waters were
bitterly cold, the temperature being 39°. At 15,000 feet we
passed from great snow-beds to the surface of a glacier, partly an
accumulation of snow, increased by lateral glaciers: its slope was
very gentle for several miles; the surface was eroded by rain, and
very rough, whilst those of the lateral glaciers were ribboned, cre-
vassed, and often conspicuously marked with dirt-bands.
A gentle sloping saddle, bare of snow, which succeeds the
glacier, forms the top of the Tunkra pass; it unites two snowy
mountains, and opens on the great valley of the Machoo, which
flows in a part of Tibet between Sikkim and Bhotan; its height is
16,083 feet above the sea by barometer, and 16,137 feet by boiling-
point. Nothing can be more different than the two slopes of this
pass; that by which I had come presented a gentle snow acclivity,
bounded by precipitous mountains; while that which opened
before me was a steep, rocky, broad, grassy valley, where not a
particle of snow was to be seen, and yaks were feeding near a
small lake not 1,000 feet down. Nor were snowy mountains
visible anywhere in this direction, except far to the south-east, in
Bhotan. This remarkable difference of climate is due to the
southerly wind which ascends the Tibetan or Machoo valley being
drained by intervening mountains before reaching this pass, whilst
the Sikkim current brings abundant vapours up the Teesta and
Lachoong valleys.
Chumulari lies to the E.N.E of the Tunkra pass, and is only
twenty-six miles distant, but not seen; Phari is two marches off,
in an easterly direction, and Choombi one to the south-east.
Choombi is the general name given to a large Tibetan province
that embraces the head of the Machoo river, and includes Phari,
Eusa, Choombi, and about thirteen other villages, corresponding
to as many districts, that contain from under a dozen to 300
houses each, varying with the season and state of trade. The
latter is considerable, Phari being, next to Darjeeling, the greatest
Tibetan, Bhotan, Sikkim, and Indian entrepôt along the whole
Himalaya east of Nepal. The general form of Choombi valley is
triangular, the broader end northwards: it is bounded by the
Chola range on the west from Donkia to Gipmoochi, and by the
Kamphee or Chakoong range to the east; which is, I believe,
continuous with Chumulari. These meridonial ranges approxi-
mate to the southward, so as to form a natural boundary to
Choombi. The Machoo river, rising from Chumulari, flows
through the Choombi district, and enters Bhotan at a large mart
·
CHOOMBI. ROUTE TO LHASSA.
367
called Rinchingoong, whence it flows to the plains of India, where
it is called at Cooch-Behar, the Torsha, or, as some say, the
Godadda, and falls into the Burrampooter.
:
The Choombi district is elevated, for the only cultivation is a
summer or alpine one, neither rice, maize, nor millet being grown
there it is also dry, for the great height of the Bhotan mountains
and the form of the Machoo valley cut off the rains, and there is
no dense forest. It is very mountainous, all carriage being on
men's and yaks' backs, and is populous for this part of the
country, the inhabitants being estimated at 3,000 in the trading
season, when many families from Tibet and Bhotan erect booths
at Phari.
A civil officer at Phari collects the revenue under the Lhassan
authorities, and there is also a Tibetan fort, an officer, and guard.
The inhabitants of this district more resemble the Bhotanese than
Tibetans, and are a thievish set, finding a refuge under the Paro-
Pilo of Bhotan, who taxes the refugees according to the estimate
he forms of their plunder. The Tibetans seldom pursue the
culprits, as the Lhassan government avoids all interference south
of their own frontier.
I
From Choombi to Lhassa is fifteen days' long journey for a
man mounted on a stout mule; all the rice passing through Phari
is monopolised there for the Chinese troops at Lhassa. The
grazing for yaks and small cattle is excellent in Choombi, and the
Pinus excelsa is said to grow abundantly there, though unknown
in Sikkim, but I have not heard of any other peculiarity in its
productions.
Very few plants grew amongst the stones at the top of the
Tunkra pass, and those few were mostly quite different from
those of Palung and Kongra Lama. A pink-flowered Arenaria,
two kinds of Corydalis, the cottony Saussurea, and diminutive
primroses, were the most conspicuous.2 The wind was variable,
There was once a large monastery, called Kazioo Goompa, at Choombi,
with upwards of one hundred Lamas. During a struggle between the Sikkim
and Bhotan monks for superiority in it, the abbot died. His avatar reappeared
in two places at once! in Bhotan as a relative of the Paro-Pilo himself, and in
Sikkim as a brother of the powerful Gangtok Kajee.. Their disputes were
referred to the Dalai Lama, who pronounced for Sikkim. This was not to be
disputed by the Pilo, who, however, plundered the Goompa of its silver, gold,
and books, leaving nothing but the bare walls for the successful Lama! The
Lhassan authorities made no attempt to obtain restitution, and the monastery
has been consequently neglected.
2 The only others were Leontopodium [Edelweiss], Sedum, Saxifrage, Ranun-
culus hyperboreus, Ligularia, two species of Polygonum, a Trichostomum,
Stereocaulon, and Lecidea geographica, not one grass or sedge.
368
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
blowing alternately up both valleys, bringing much snow when it
blew from the Teesta, though deflected to a north-west breeze;
when, on the contrary, it blew from Tibet, it was, though south-
erly, dry. Clouds obscured all distant view. The temperature
varied between noon and 1.30 P.M. from 39° to 40° 5, the air
being extremely damp.
Returning to the foot of the glacier, I took up my quarters for
two days under an enormous rock overlooking the broad flat
valley in which I had spent the previous night, and directly
fronting Tunkra mountain, which bore north about five miles
distant. This rock was sixty to eighty feet high, and 15,250 feet
above the sea; it was of gneiss, and was placed on the top of a
bleak ridge, facing the north; no shrub or bush being near it.
The gentle slope outwards of the rock afforded the only shelter,
and a more utterly desolate place than Lacheepia, as it is called,
I never laid my unhoused head in. It commanded an incompa-
rable view due west across the Lachoong and Lachen valleys, of
the whole group of Kinchinjunga snows, from Tibet southwards,
and as such was a most valuable position for geographical purposes.
The night was misty, and though the temperature was 35°, I
was miserably cold; for my blankets being laid on the bare ground,
the chill seemed to strike from the rock to the very marrow of my
bones. In the morning the fog hung till sunrise, when it rose
majestically from all the mountain-tops; but the view obtained
was transient, for in less than an hour the dense woolly banks of
fog which choked the valleys ascended like a curtain to the warmed
atmosphere above, and slowly threw a veil over the landscape. I
waited till the last streak of snow was shut out from my view,
when I descended, to breakfast on Himalayan grouse (Tetrao-
perdix nivicola), a small gregarious bird which inhabits the loftiest.
stony mountains, and utters a short cry of "Quiok, quiok;" in
character and appearance it is between grouse and partridge, and
is good eating, though tough.
Hoping to obtain another view, which might enable me to
correct the bearings taken that morning, I was tempted to spend
a second night in the open air at Lacheepia, passing the day
botanising in the vicinity, and taking observations of the barometer
and wet-bulb: I also boiled three thermometers by turns, noting
I
I
A
* Scarcely a grass, and no Astragali, grow on these stony and snowy slopes:
and the smallest heath-like Andromeda, a still smaller Menziesia (an arctic
genus, previously unknown in the Himalaya) and a prostrate willow, are the
only woody-stemmed plants above 15,000 feet. [The supposed Menzieria,
proved to be a new genus. Diplarche, peculiar to Sikkim.]
EXORCİSİNG DEMONS AT LACHOÒNG.
369
the grave errors likely to attend observations of this instrument
for elevation. Little rain fell during the day, but it was heavy at
night, though there was fortunately no wind; and I made a more
comfortable bed with tufts of juniper brought up from below.
Our fire was principally of wet rhododendron wood, with masses
of the aromatic dwarf species, which, being full of resinous glands,
blazed with fury.
Next day, after a very transient glimpse of the Kinchinjunga
snows, I descended to Lachoong, where I remained for some
days botanising. During my stay I was several times awakened
by all the noises and accompaniments of a night-attack, or
alarm; screaming voices, groans, shouts, and ejaculations, the
beating of drums and firing of guns, and flambeaux of pine-
wood gleaming amongst the trees, and flitting from house to
house. The cause, I was informed, was the presence of a
demon, who required exorcisement, and who generally managed
to make the villagers remember his visit, by their missing
various articles after the turmoil made to drive him away. The
custom of driving out demons in the above manner is constantly
practised by the Lamas in Tibet: MM. Huc and Gabet give
a graphic account of such an operation during their stay in
Kounboum.
On the 29th of August I left Lachoong and proceeded up the
valley. The road ran along a terrace, covered with long grass,
and bounded by lofty banks of unstratified gravel and sand, and
passed through beautiful groves of green pines, rich in plants. No
oak or chestnut ascends above 9,000 feet here or elsewhere in the
interior of Sikkim, where they are replaced by a species of hazel
(Corylus); in the North Himalaya, on the other hand, an oak
(Quercus semecarpifolia, see p. 130) is amongst the most
alpine trees, and the nut is a different species, more resembling
the European. On the outer Sikkim ranges oaks (Q. annulata ?)
ascend to 10,000 feet, and there is no hazel. Above the fork,
the valley contracts extremely, and its bed is covered with moraines
and landslips, which often bury the larches and pines. Marshes
occur here and there, full of the sweet-scented Hierochloe grass,
the Scotch Thalictrum alpinum, and an Eriocaulon, which ascends
to 10,000 feet. The old moraines were very difficult to cross,
and on one I found a barricade, which had been erected to deceive
me regarding the frontier, had I chosen this route instead of the
Lachen one, in May.
Broad flats clothed with rhododendron, alternate with others
covered with mud, boulders, and gravel, which had flowed down
}
25
370
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
from the gorges on the west, and which still contained trees,
inclined in all directions, and buried up to their branches; some
of these débâcles were 400 yards across, and sloped at an angle
of 2° to 3º, bearing on their surface blocks fifteen yards in diameter.*
They seem to subside materially, as I perceived they had left
marks many feet higher on the tree-trunks. Such débâcles must
often bury standing forests in a very favourable material, climate,
and position for becoming fossilised.
On the 30th of August I arrived at Yeumtong, a small summer
cattle-station, on a flat by the Lachoong, 11,920 feet above the sea;
the general features of which closely resemble those of the narrow
Swiss valleys. The west flank is lofty and precipitous, with narrow
gullies still retaining the winter's snow, at 12,500 feet; the east
gradually slopes up to the two snowy domes seen from Lachoong;
the bed of the valley is alternately a flat lake-bed, in which the
river meanders at the rate of three and a half miles an hour, and
sudden descents, cumbered with old moraines, over which it
rushes in sheets of foam. Silver-firs ascend nearly to 13,000 feet,
where they are replaced by large junipers, sixty feet high up the
valley Chango Khang is seen, with a superb glacier descending to
about 14,000 feet on its south flank. Enormous masses of rock
were continually precipitated from the west side, close to the shed
in which I had taken up my quarters, keeping my people in con-
stant alarm, and causing a great commotion among the yaks,
dogs, and ponies. On the opposite side of the river is a deep
gorge; in which an immense glacier descends lower than any
have seen in Sikkim. I made several attempts to reach it
by the gully of its discharging stream, but was always foiled
by the rocks and dense jungle of pines, rhododendron, and dwarf
holly.
I
The snow-banks on the face of the dome-shaped mountain
appearing favourable for ascertaining the position of the level of
perpetual snow, I ascended to them on the 6th of September, and
found the mean elevation along an even, continuous, and gradual
slope, with a full south-west exposure, to be 15,985 feet by baro-
meter, and 15,816 feet by boiling-point. These beds of snow,
however broad and convex, cannot nevertheless be distinguished
from glaciers: they occupy, it is true, mountain slopes, and do not
fill hollows (like glaciers commonly so called), but they display
the ribboned structure of ice, and like viscous fluids, descend at
a rate and to a distance depending on the slope, and on the
+
I None were to be compared in size and extent with that at Box, at the
mouth of the Rhone valley.
HOT SPRINGS. THE SINGTAM SOUBAH SULKS. 371
amount of annual accumulation behind. Their termination must
therefore be far below that point at which all the snow that falls
melts, which is the theoretical line of perpetual snow. Before
returning I attempted to proceed northwards to the great glacier,
hoping to descend by its lateral moraine, but a heavy snow-storm
drove me down to Yeumtong.
Some hot-springs burst from the bank of the Lachen a mile or
so below the village; they are used as baths, the patient remaining
three days at a time in them, only retiring to eat in a little shed
close by.
The discharge amounts to a few gallons per minute;
the temperature at the source is 112°6, and 106° in the bath.¹
The water has a slight saline taste; it is colourless, but emits
bubbles of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, blackening silver. A cold
spring (temperature 42°) emerged close by, and the Lachoong not
ten yards off, was 47° to 50°. A conferva grows in the hot water,
and the garnets are worn out of the gneiss rock exposed to its
action.
The Singtam Soubah had been very sulky since leaving
Choongtam, and I could scarcely get a drop of milk or a slice
of curd here. I had to take him to task severely for sanctioning
the flogging of one of my men; a huntsman, who had offered me
his services at Choongtam, and who was a civil, industrious
fellow, though he had procured me little besides a huge monkey,
which had nearly bitten off the head of his best dog. I had made
a point of consulting the Soubah before hiring him, for fear of
accidents; but this did not screen him from the jealousy of the
Choongtam Lama, who twice flogged him in the Goompa with
rattans (with the Soubah's consent), alleging that he had quitted
his service for mine. My people knew of this, but were afraid to
tell me, which the poor fellow did himself.
The Lachoong Phipun visited me on the 7th of September: he
had officiously been in Tibet to hear what the Tibetan people
would say to my going to Donkia, and finding them supremely
indifferent, returned to be my guide. A month's provision for
ten men having arrived from Darjeeling, I left Yeumtong the
following day for Momay Samdong, the loftiest yak grazing station
in Sikkim (Palung being too cold for yaks), and within a day's
journey of the Donkia pass.
The valley remains almost level for several miles, the roads
continuing along the east bank of the Lachen. Shoots of stones
This water boiled at 191° 6, the same at which snow-water and that of the
river did; giving an elevation of 11,730 feet.
•
372
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS:
descend from the ravines, all of a white fine-grained granitë,
stained red with a minute conferva, which has been taken by
Himalayan travellers for red snow ; a phenomenon I never saw
În Sikkim.
I
At a fork of the valley several miles above Yeumtong, and
Below the great glacier of Chango Khang, the ancient moraines.
are prodigious, much exceeding any I have elsewhere seen, both
in extent, in the size of the boulders, and in the height to which
the latter are piled on one another. Many boulders I measured
were twenty yards across, and some even forty; and the chaotic
scene they presented baffles all description: they were scantily
clothed with stunted silver firs.
Beyond this, the path crosses the river, and ascends rapidly
over a mile of steeply sloping landslip, composed of angular
fragments of granite, that are constantly falling from above, and
are extremely dangerous. At 14,000 feet, trees and shrubs cease,
willow and honeysuckle being the last; and thence onward the
valley is bleak, open, and stony, with lofty rocky mountains on
either side. The south wind brought a cold drizzling rain, which
numbed us, and two of the lads who had last come up from Dar-
jeeling were seized with a remittent fever, originally contracted in
the hot valleys; luckily we found some cattle-sheds, in which I
left them, with two men to attend on them.
Momay Samdong is situated in a broad part of the Lachoong
valley, where three streams meet; it is on the west of Chango
Khang, and is six miles south-east of Kinchinjhow, and seven
south-west of Donkia: it is in the same latitude as Palung, but
scarcely so lofty. The mean of fifty-six barometrical observations
contemporaneous with Calcutta makes it 15,362 feet above
the sea; nearly the elevation of Lacheepia (near the Tunkra
pass), from which, however, its scenery and vegetation entirely
differ.
I pitched my tent close to a little shed, at the gently sloping
base of a mountain that divided the Lachoong river from a
western tributary. It was a wild and most exposed spot: long
stony mountains, grassy on the base near the river; distant
snowy peaks, stupendous precipices, moraines, glaciers, trans-
ported boulders, and rocks rounded by glacial action, formed the
dismal landscape which everywhere met the view. There was not
a bush six inches high, and the only approach to woody plants
Red snow was never found in the Antarctic regions during Sir James
Ross's South Polar voyage; nor do I know any authentic record of its having
been seen in the Himalaya.
;
MOMAY SAMDONG. HEAD OF LACHOONG VALLEY. 373
were minute creeping willows and dwarf rhododendrons, with a
very few prostrate junipers and Ephedra
The base of the spur was cut into broad flat terraces, composed
of unstratified sand, pebbles, and boulders; the remains, doubt-
less, of an enormously thick glacial deposit. The terracing is as
difficult to be accounted for in this valley as in that of Yangmą
(East Nepal); both valleys being far too broad, and descending
too rapidly, to admit of the hypothesis of their having been
blocked up in the lower part, and the upper filled with large
lakes.¹ Another tributary falls into the Lachoong at Momay,
which leads eastwards up to an enormous glacier that descends
from Donkia. Snowy mountains rise nearly all round it: thosę
on its south and east divide Sikkim from the Phari province in
Tibet; those on the north terminate in a forked or cleft peak,
which is a remarkable and conspicuous feature from Momay.
This, which I have called forked Donkia,² is the termination of
magnificent amphitheatre of stupendous snow-clad precipices, con-
tinuously upwards of 20,000 feet high, that forms the east flank of
the upper Lachoong. From Donkia top again, the mountains
sweep round to the westward, rising into fingered peaks of extra-
ordinary magnificence; and thence-still running west-dip to
18,500 feet, forming the Donkia pass, and rise again as the great
mural mass of Kinchinjhow. This girdle of mountains encloses
the head waters of the Lachoong, which rises in countless streams
from its perpetual snows, glaciers, and small lakes its north
drainage is to the Cholamoo lakes in Tibet; in which is the
source of the Lachen, which flows round the north base of Kin-
chinjhow to Kongra Lama.
The bottom of the Lachoong valley at Momay is broad,
tolerably level, grassy, and covered with isolated mounds and
ridges that point down the valley, and are the remains of glacial
deposits. It dips suddenly below this, and some gneiss rocks
that rise in its centre are remarkably moutonnéed or rounded.
* The formation of small lakes, however, between moraines and the sides of
the valleys they occupy, or between two successively formed moraines (as I
have elsewhere mentioned), will account for very extensive terraced areas of
this kind; and it must be borne in mind that when the Momay valley was filled
with ice, the breadth of its glacier at this point must have been twelve miles,
and it must have extended east and west from Chango Khang across the main
valley, to beyond Donkia. Still the great moraines are wanting at this par-
ticular point, and though atmospheric action and the rivers have removed
perhaps 200 feet of glacial shingle, they can hardly have destroyed a moraine
of rocks, large enough to block up the valley.
L
Its elevation by my observation is about 21,870 feet.
374
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Though manifestly rounded and grooved by ancient glaciers, I
failed to find scratches on these weather-worn rocks."
The Lachoong is here twelve or fifteen yards wide, and runs
over a pebbly bed, cutting a shallow channel through the deposits,
down to the subjacent rock, which is in some cases scooped out
six or eight feet deep by its waters. I do not doubt that the flat-
ness of the floor of the Momay valley is caused by the combined
action of the streams that drained the three glaciers which met
here; for the tendency of retiring glaciers is to level the floors of
valleys, by giving an ever-shifting direction to the rivers which
drain them, and which spread detritus in their course. Supposing
these glaciers to have had no terminal moraines, they might still
have forced immense beds of gravel into positions that would dam
up lakes between the ice and the flanks of the valleys, and thus
produce much terracing on the latter.2
On our arrival, we found that a party of buxom, good-natured
looking girls who were tending yaks, were occupying the hut,
which, however, they cheerfully gave up to my people, spreading
a black tent close by for themselves; and next morning they set
off with all their effects packed upon the yaks. The ground was
marshy, and covered with cowslips, Ranunculus, grasses and
I have repeatedly, and equally in vain, sought for scratchings on many of
the most conspicuously mountonnéed gneiss rocks of Switzerland. The retention
of such markings depends on other circumstances that the mere hardness of the
rock, or amount of aqueous action. What can be more astonishing than to see
these most delicate scratches retained in all their sharpness on rocks clothed
with seaweed and shells, and exposed at every tide, in the bays of Western
Scotland!
?
* We are still very ignorant of many details of ice action, and especially of
the origin of many enormous deposits which are not true moraines. These, so
conspicuous in the lofty Himalayan valleys, are not less so in those of the Swiss
Alps witness that broad valley in which Grindelwald village is situated, and
which is covered to an immense depth with an angular detritus, moulded into
hills and valleys; also the whole broad open Upper Rhone valley, above the
village of Munster, and below that of Obergestelen. The action of broad
glaciers on gentle slopes is to raise their own beds by the accumulation of gravel
which their lower surface carries and pushes forward. I have seen small
glaciers thus raised 300 feet; leaving little doubt in my mind that the upper
Himalayan valleys were thus choked with deposit 1,000 feet thick, of which
indeed the proofs remain along the flanks of the Yangma valley. The denuding
and accumulating effects of ice thus give a contour to mountain valleys, and
Sculpture their flanks and floors far more rapidly than sea action, or the
elements. After a very extensive experience of ice in the Antarctic ocean, and
in mountainous countries, I cannot but conclude that very few of our geologists
appreciate the power of ice as a mechanical agent, which can hardly be over-
estimated, whether as glacier, iceberg, or pack ice, heaping shingle along
coasts.
L
THE SINGTAM SOUBAH DEPARTS.
375
(6
sedges, Cyananthus, blue asters, gentians, &c. The spot appear-
ing highly favourable for observations, I determined to remain
here during the equinoctial month, and put my people on two-
thirds allowance," i.e., four pounds of rice daily for three men,
allowing them to send down the valley to cater for what more
they could get. The Singtam Soubah was intensely disgusted
with my determination: he accompanied me next day to the pass,
and having exhausted his persuasions, threats, and warnings about
snow, wind, robbers, starvation, and Cheen sepoys, departed on
the 12th for Yeumtong, leaving me truly happy for the first time
since quitting Darjeeling. I had now a prospect of uninter-
ruptedly following up my pursuits at an elevation little below that
of the summit of Mont Blanc, surrounded by the loftiest moun-
tains, and perhaps the vastest glaciers on the globe; my instru-
ments were in perfect order, and I saw around me a curious and
varied flora.
The morning of the 9th of September promised fair, though.
billowy clouds were rapidly ascending the valley. To the east-
ward my attention was directed to a double rainbow; the upper
was an arch of the usual form, and the lower was the curved
illuminated edge of a bank of cumulus, with the orange hues
below. I took the path to the Donkia pass, fording the river,
and ascending in a north-east direction, along the foot of stony
hills that rise at a gradual slope of 12° to broad unsnowed ridges,
18,000 to 19,000 feet high. Shallow valleys, glacier-bound at
their upper extremities, descend from the still loftier rearward
mountains; and in these occur lakes. About five miles up, a
broad opening on the west leads to Tomo Chamo, as the eastern
summit of Kinchinjhow is called. Above this the valley expands
very much, and is stony and desert: stupendous mountains,
upwards of 21,000 feet high, rear themselves on all sides, and the
desolation and grandeur of the scene are unequalled in my expe-
-
* On one occasion I ascended this valley, which is very broad, flat, and full
of lakes at different elevations: one, at about 17,000 feet elevation, is three-
quarters of a mile long, but not deep: no water-plants grew in it, but there
were plenty of others round its margin. I collected, in the dry bed of a stream
near it, a curious white substance like thick felt, formed of felspathic silt (no
doubt the product of glacial streams) and the siliceous cells of infusoriæ. It
much resembles the fossil or meteoric paper of Germany, which is also formed
of the lowest tribes of fresh-water plants, though considered by Ehrenberg as of
animal origin. A vein of granite in the bottom of the valley had completely
altered the character of the gneiss, which contained veins of jasper and masses
of amorphous garnet. Much olivine is found in the fissures of the gneiss: this
mineral is very rare in Sikkim, but I have also seen it in the fissures of the
white gneissy granite of the surrounding heights,
376
:
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
rience. The path again crosses the river (which is split into many
channels), and proceeds northwards, over gravelly terraces and
rocks with patches of Scotch alpine grasses (Festuca ovina and Poa
laxa), sedges, Stipa, dandelion, Allardia, gentians, Saussurea, and
Astragalus, varied with hard hemispherical mounds of the Arenaria
mentioned at p. 351.
I passed several shallow lakes at 17,500 feet; their banks were
green and marshy, and supported thirty or forty kinds of plants.
At the head of the valley a steep rock y crest, 500 feet high, rises
between two precipitous snowy peaks, and a very fatiguing ascent
(at this elevation) leads to the sharp rocky summit of the Donkia
pass, 18,466 feet above the sea by barometer, and 17,866 by boil-
ing-point. The view on this occasion was obscured by clouds and
fogs, except towards Tibet, in which direction it was magnificent;
but as I afterwards ascended this pass, and also crossed it, I shall
here bring together all the particulars I noted.
The Tibetan view, from its novelty, extent, and singularity,
demands the first notice: the Chola moo lake lay 1,500 feet below
me, at the bottom of a rapid and rocky descent; it was a blue
sheet of water, three or four miles from north to south, and one
and a half broad, hemmed in by rounded spurs from Kinchinjhow
on one side, and from Donkia on the other: the Lachen flowed
from its northern extremity, and turning westward, entered a broad
barren valley, bounded on the north by red stony mountains,
called Bhomtso, which I saw from Kongra Lama, and ascended
with Dr. Campbell in the October following: though 18,000 to
19,000 feet high, these mountains were wholly unsnowed. Be-
yond this range lay the broad valley of the Arun, and in the
extreme north-west distance, to the north of Nepal, were some
immense snowy mountains, reduced to mere specks on the
horizon. The valley of the Arun was bounded on the north by
very precipitous black rocky mountains, sprinkled with snow;
beyond these again, from north to north-west, snow-topped range
rose over range in the clear purple distance. The nearer of these
was the Kiang-lah, which forms the axis or water-shed of this
meridian; its south drainage being to the Arun river, and its
north to the Yara-tsampu: it appeared forty to fifty miles off, and
of great mean elevation (20,000 feet): the vast snowy mountains
that rose beyond it were, I was assured, beyond the Yaru, in the
salt lake country. A spur from Chomiomo cut off the view to
I
This salt country was described to me as enormously lofty, perfectly sterile,
and fourteen days' march for loaded men and sheep from Jigatzi; there is no
**

Hobar
TIBET AND CHOLAMOO LAKES FROM DONKIA PASS. ELEVATION 18,500 FT.
TIBET, FROM THE DONKIA PASS.
377
the southward of north-west, and one from Donkia concealed all
to the east of north.
The most remarkable features of this landscape were its enor-
mous elevation, and its colours and contrast to the black, rugged,
and snowy Himalaya of Sikkim. All the mountains between
Donkia pass and the Arun were comparatively gently sloped, and
of a yellow red colour, rising and falling in long undulations like
dunes, 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the mean level of the Arun
valley, and perfectly bare of perpetual snow or glaciers. Rocks
everywhere broke out on their flanks, and often along their tops,
but the general contour of that immense area was very open and
undulating, like the great ranges of Central Asia, described by
MM. Huc and Gabet. Beyond this again, the mountains were
rugged, often rising into peaks which, from the angles I took here,
and subsequently at Bhomtso, cannot be below 24,000 feet, and
are probably much higher. The most lofty mountains were on
the range north of Nepal, not less than 120 miles distant, and
which, though heavily snowed, were below the horizon of Donkia
pass.
Cholamoo lake lay in a broad, scantily grassed, sandy and stony
valley; snow-beds, rocks, and glaciers dipped abruptly towards its
head, but on its west bank a lofty brick-red spur sloped upwards
from it, conspicuously cut into terraces for several hundred feet
above its waters.
Kambajong, the chief Tibetan village near this, after Phari and
Giantchi, is situated on the Arun (called in Tibet "Chomachoo"),
on the road from Sikkim to Jigatzi¹ and Teshoo Loombo. I did
pasture for yaks, whose feet are cut by the rocks. The salt is dug (so they
express it) from the margin of lakes; as is the carbonate of soda, « Pieu” of
the Tibetans.
I
I have adopted the simplest mode of spelling this name that I could find,
and omitted the zong or jong, which means fort, and generally terminates it.
I think it would not be difficult to enumerate fully a dozen ways of spelling
the word, of which Shigatzi, Digarchi, and Djigatzi are the most common.
The Tibetans tell me that they cross two passes after leaving Donkia, or
Kongra Lama, en route for Jigatzi, on both of which they suffer from headaches
and difficulty of breathing; one is over the Kambajong range; the other, much
loftier, is over that of Kiang-lah: as they do not complain of Bhomtso, which
is also crossed, and is 18,500 feet, the others may be very lofty indeed. The
distance from Donkia pass to Jigatzi is said to be ten days' journey for loaded
yaks. Now, according to Turner's observations (evidently taken with great
care) that capital is in latitude 29° 4' 20" north, or only seventy miles north of
Donkia; and as the yak travels at the rate of sixteen miles a day, the country
must be extraordinarily rugged, or the valleys tortuous. Turner took eight or
nine days on his journey from Phari to Teshoo Loombo, a distance of only
eighty miles; yet he is quoted as an authority for the fact of Tibet being a
378
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
not see it, but a long, stony mountain range above the town is
very conspicuous, its sides presenting an interrupted line of cliffs,
resembling the port-holes of a ship: some fresh fallen snow lay at
the base, but none at the top, which was probably 18,500 feet
high. The banks of the Arun are thence inhabited at intervals all
the way to Tingré, where it enters Nepal.
Donkia rises to the eastward of the pass, but its top is not
visible. I ascended (over loose rocks) to between 19,000 and
20,000 feet, and reached vast masses of blue ribboned ice, cap-
ping the ridges, but obtained no further prospect. To the west,
the beetling east summit of Kinchinjhow rises at two miles.
distance, 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the pass. A little south of
it, and north of Chango Khang, the view extends through a gap
in the Sebolah range, across the valley of the Lachen, to Kinchin-
junga, distant forty-two miles. The monarch of mountains looked
quite small and low from this point, and it was difficult to believe
it was 10,000 feet more lofty than my position. I repeatedly
looked from it to the high Tibetan mountains in the extreme
north-west distance, and was more than ever struck with the
apparently immense distance, and consequent altitude of the
latter: I put, however, no reliance on such estimates.
To the south the eye wandered down the valley of the Lachoong
to the mountains of the Chola range, which appear so lofty from
Darjeeling, but from here are sunk far below the horizon: on
comparing these with the northern landscape, the wonderful
difference between their respective snow levels, amounting to
fully 5,000 feet, was very apparent. South-east the stupendous
snowy amphitheatre formed by the flank of Donkia was a magnifi-
cent spectacle.
This wonderful view forcibly impressed me with the fact, that
all eye-estimates in mountainous countries are utterly fallacious, if
not corrected by study and experience. I had been led to believe
that from Donkia pass the whole country of Tibet sloped away in
descending steppes to the Tsampu, and was more or less of a
plain; and could I have trusted my eyes only, I should have
confirmed this assertion so far as the slope was concerned. When,
however, the levelled theodolite was directed to the distance, the
plain! he certainly crossed an undulating country, probably 16,000 to 17,000
feet high; a continuation eastwards of the Cholamoo features, and part of the
same mountain range that connects Chumulari and Donkia: he had always
lofty mountains in sight, and rugged ones on either side, after he had entered
the Painomchoo valley. It is a remarkable and significant fact that Turner
never appears to have seen Chumulari after having passed it, nor Donkia,
Kinchinjhow, or Kinchinjunga at any time.
THE DONKIA PASS. TIBET FRONTIER.
reverse was found to be the case. Unsnowed and apparently
low mountains touched the horizon line of the telescope; which
proves that, if only 37 miles off, they must, from the dip of the
horizon, be at least 1,000 feet higher than the observer's position.
The same infallible guide cuts off mountain-tops and deeply
snowed ridges, which to the unaided eye appear far lower than
the point from which they are viewed; but which, from the
quantity of snow on them, must be many thousand feet higher,
and, from the angle they subtend in the instrument, must be at an
immense distance. The want of refraction to lift the horizon, the
astonishing precision of the outlines, and the brilliancy of the
images of mountains reduced by distance to mere specks, are all
circumstances tending to depress them to appearance.
The
absence of trees, houses, and familiar objects to assist the eye in
the appreciation of distance, throws back the whole landscape;
which, seen through the rarified atmosphere of 18,500 feet, looks
as if diminished by being surveyed through the wrong end of a
telescope.
379
A few rude cairns were erected on the crest of the pass, covered
with wands, red banners, and votive offerings of rags. I found a
fine slab of slate, inscribed with the Tibetan characters, "Om
Mani Padmi hom," which Meepo allowed me to take away, as the
reward of my exertions. The ridge is wholly formed of angular
blocks of white gneissy granite, split by frost.¹ There was no
snow on the pass itself but deep drifts and glaciers descended in
hollows on the north side, to 17,000 feet. The rounded northern
red shoulder of Kinchinjhow by Cholamoo lake, apparently
19,000 feet high, was quite bare, and, as I have said, I ascended
Donkia to upwards of 19,000 feet before I found the rocks crusted
with ice, and the ground wholly frozen. I assume, therefore, that
19,000 feet at this spot is not below the mean level at which all
the snow melts that falls on a fair exposure to the south: this
probably coincides with a mean temperature of 20°. Forty miles
further north (in Tibet) the same line is probably at 20,000 feet;
for there much less snow falls, and much more melts in propor-
2
It was not a proper granite, but a highly metamorphic felspathic gneiss,
with very little mica; being, I suspect, a gneiss which by metamorphic action
was almost remolten into granite: the lamination was obscure, and marked by
faint undulating lines of mica; it cleaves at all angles, but most generally along
fissures with highly polished undulated black surfaces. The strike of the same
rock near at hand was north-west, and dip north-east, at various angles.
2 Snow, transformed into ice throughout its whole mass: in short, glacial ice
in all physical characters,
380
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
tion. From the elevation of about 19,300 feet, which I attained
on Donkia, I saw a fine illustration of that atmospheric phenome-
non called the "spectre of the Brocken," my own shadow being
projected on a mass of thin mist that rose above the tremendous
precipices over which I hung. My head was surrounded with a
brilliant circular glory or rainbow." 2
The temperature of the Donkia pass is much higher than might
be anticipated from its great elevation, and from the fact of its
being always bitterly cold to the feelings. This is no doubt due
to the warmth of the ascending currents, and to the heat evolved
during the condensation of their vapours. I took the following
observations:
No Sug
Sept. 9 130—3'30 P.M.
27 1*15-315 P.M.
Oct. 19 30 -3.30 P.M.
""
Temp.
41° 8
49° 2
49° 2
40° I
D.P.
30° 3
32° 6
25° 0
Differ-
ence.
Ten-
sion.
11°.5—0·1876
11°·6-0·2037
15º·1—0*1551
Humidity.
0.665
0.560
0.585
The first and last of these temperatures were respectively 42° 3
and 46° 4 lower than Calcutta, which, with the proper deduction
for latitude, allows 508 and 460 feet as equivalent to 1° Fahr. I
left a minimum thermometer on the summit on the 9th of Sep-
tember, and removed it on the 27th, but it had been lifted and
turned over by the action of the frost and snow on the loose
rocks amongst which I had placed it; the latter appearing to
have been completely shifted. Fortunately, the instrument
escaped unhurt, with the index at 28°.
A violent southerly wind, with a scud of mist, and sometimes
snow, always blew over the pass; but we found shelter on the
north face, where I twice kindled a fire, and boiled my ther-
I Two secondary considerations materially affecting the melting of snow,
and hence exerting a material influence on the elevation of the snow-line,
appear to me never to have been sufficiently dwelt upon. Both, however, bear
directly upon the great elevation of the snow-line in Tibet. From the iinper-
fect transmission of the heating rays of the sun through films of water, which
transmit perfectly the luminous rays, it follows that the direct effect of the rays,
in clear sunshine, are very different at equal elevations of the moist outer and
dry inner Himalaya. Secondly, naked rock and soil absorb much more heat
than surfaces covered with vegetation, and this heat again radiated is infinitely
more rapidly absorbed by snow (or other white surfaces) than the direct heat
of the sun's rays is. Hence at equal elevations the ground heats sooner, and
the snow is more exposed to the heat thus radiated in arid Tibet, than in the
wooded and grassed mountains of Sikkim.
2
Probably caused by spicule of ice floating in the atmosphere, the lateral
surfaces of which would then have an uniform inclination of 60°: this, accord-
ing to the observations of Mariotte, Venturi, and Fraunhofer, being the angle
necessary for the formation of halos,
ad
W
THE DÓNKÍA PASS. IMPRESSIONS OF TIBET. 381
mometers.¹
On one occasion I felt the pulses of my party several
times during two hours' repose (without eating); the mean of
eight persons was 105°, the extremes being 92° and 120°, and my
own 108°.
One flowering plant ascends to the summit; the Arenaria one
mentioned at p. 351 and 376. The Fescue grass, a little fern
(Woodsia), and a Saussurea ascend very near the summit, and
several lichens grow on the top, as Cladonia vermicularis, the
yellow Lecidea geographica, and the orange L. miniata;3 also some
barren mosses. At 18,300 feet, I found on one stone only a fine
Scotch lichen, a species of Gyrophora, the "tripe de roche" of
Arctic voyagers, and the food of the Canadian hunters; it is also
abundant on the Scotch alps.
Before leaving, I took one more long look at the boundless
prospect; and, now that its important details were secured, I had
leisure to reflect on the impression it produced. There is no
loftier country on the globe than that embraced by this view, and
no more howling wilderness; well might the Singtam Soubah and
every Tibetan describe it as the loftiest, coldest, windiest, and
most barren country in the world. Were it buried in everlasting
snows, or burnt by a tropical sun, it might still be as utterly
sterile; but with such sterility I had long been familiar. Here
the colourings are those of the fiery desert or volcanic island,
while the climate is that of the poles. Never, in the course of
all my wanderings, had my eye rested on a scene so dreary
and inhospitable. The "cities of the plain" lie sunk in no more
death-like sea than Cholamoo lake, nor the tombs of Petra hewn
in more desolate cliffs than those which flank the valley of the
Tibetan Arun.
•
On our return my pony strained his shoulder amongst the
rocks; as a remedy, the Lachoong Phipun plunged a lancet
into the muscle, and giving me his own animal, rode mine down.4
On the 9th of September the boiling-point was 181° 3, and on the 27th,
181° 2.
In both observations, I believe the kettle communicated a higher
temperature to the thermometer than that of the water, for the elevations de-
duced are far too low.
2 A pink-flowered woolly Saussurea, and Delphinium glaciale, are two of
the most lofty plants; both being commonly found from 17,500 to 18,000
feet.
3 This is one of the most Arctic, Antarctic, and universally diffused plants.
The other lichens were Lecidea atro-alba, oreina, elegans, and chlorophana, all
alpine European and Arctic species. At 17,000 feet occur Lecanora ventosa,
physodes, candelaria, sordida, àtra, and the beautiful Swiss L. chrysoleuca, also
European species.
4 These animals, called Tanghan, are wonderfully strong and enduring; they
382
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
It drizzled and sleeted all the way, and was dark before we arrived
at the tent.
:
At night the Tibetan dogs are let loose, when they howl
'dismally on one occasion they robbed me of all my meat, a
fine piece of yak's flesh. The yaks are also troublesome, and
bad sleepers; they used to try to effect an entrance into my tent,
pushing their muzzles under the flaps at the bottom, and awaken-
ing me with a snort and moist hot blast. Before the second
night I built a turf wall round the tent, and in future slept with a
heavy tripod by my side, to poke at intruders.
Birds flock to the grass about Momay; larks, finches, warblers,
abundance of sparrows, feeding on the yak-droppings, and occa-
sionally the hoopoe; waders, cormorants, and wild ducks were
sometimes seen in the streams, but most of them were migrating
south. The yaks are driven out to pasture at sunrise, and home
at sunset, till the middle of the month, when they return to Yeum-
tong. All their droppings are removed from near the tents, and
piled in heaps; as these animals, unlike their masters, will not
sleep amid such dirt. These heaps swarm with the maggots of
two large flies, a yellow and black, affording abundant food to
red-legged crows, ravens, and swallows. Butterflies are rare; the
few are mostly Colias, Hipparchia, Poylommatus, and Melitaa;
these I have seen feeding at 17,000 feet; when found higher,
they have generally been carried up by currents. Of beetles, an
Aphodeus, in yak-droppings, and an Elaphrus, a predaceous genus
inhabiting swamps, are almost the only ones I saw. The wild
quadrupeds are huge sheep, in flocks of fifty, the Ovis Ammon
called "Gnow." I never shot one, not having time to pursue
them, for they were very seldom seen, and always at great eleva-
tions. The larger marmot is common, and I found the horns of
the "Tchiru" antelope. Neither the wild horse, fox, hare, nor
tailless rat, cross the Donkia pass. White clover, shepherd's
purse, dock, plantain, and chickweed, are imported here by yaks;
are never shod, and the hoof often cracks, and they become pigeon-toed; they
are frequently blind of one eye, when they are called "zemik" (blind ones),
but this is thought no great defect. They average 57. to 10l. for a good animal
in Tibet; and the best fetch 40%. to 50% in the plains of India, where they be
come acclimated and thrive well. Giantchi (Jhansi-jeung of Turner) is the
best mart for them in this part of Tibet, where some breeds fetch very high
prices. The Tibetans give the foals of value messes of pig's blood and raw
liver, which they devour greedily, and it is said to strengthen them wonder-
fully; the custom is, I believe, general in central Asia. Humboldt (Pers.
Nar. iv. p. 320) describes the horses of Caraccas as occasionally eating salt
meat.
GLACIER OF KINCHINJHOW. HOT SPRINGS. 383
but the common Prunella of Europe is wild, and so is a groundsel
like Senecio Jacobæa, Rununculus, Sibbaldia, and 200 other plants.
The grasses are numerous; they belong chiefly to Poa, Festuca,
Stipa, and other European genera.
I
I repeatedly attempted to ascend both Kinchinjhow and Donkia
from Momay, and generally reached from 18,000 to 19,000 feet, but
never much higher. The observations taken on these excursions
are sufficiently illustrated by those of Donkia pass; they served
chiefly to perfect my map, measure the surrounding peaks, and
determine the elevation reached by plants; all of which were
slow operations, the weather of this month being so bad that I
rarely returned dry to my tent; fog and drizzle, if not sleet and
snow, coming on during every day, without exception.
I made frequent excursions to the great glacier of Kinchin-
jhow. Its valley is about four miles long, broad and flat: Chango-
khang 2 rears its blue and white cliffs 4,500 feet above its west
flank, and throws down avalanches of stones and snow into the
valley. Hot springs 3 burst from the ground near some granite
rocks on its floor, about 16,000 feet above the sea, and only a
mile below the glacier, and the water collects in pools: its tem-
perature is 110°, and in places 116°, or 4° degrees hotter than
that of the Yeumtong hot-springs, though 4,000 feet higher, and
of precisely the same character. The common winter-cress,
Barbarea vulgaris, and some other plants make the neighbourhood
of the hot-springs a little oasis, and the larger marmot is common,
uttering its sharp, chirping squeak.
The terminal moraine is about 500 feet high, quite barren, and
thrown obliquely across the valley, from north-east to south-west,
completely hiding the glacier. From its top successive smaller
* An elevation of 20,000, and perhaps 22,000 feet might, I should think,
easily be attained by practice, in Tibet, north of Sikkim.
2 The elevation of this mountain is about 20,560 feet, by the mean of several
observations taken from surrounding localities.
3 Supposing the mean temperature of the air at the elevation of the Momay
springs to be 26° or 28°, which may be approximately assumed, and that, as some
suppose, the heat of thermal springs is due to the internal temperature of the
globe; then according to the law of increment of heat in descending (of 1° for
fifty feet) we should find the temperature of 110° at a depth of 4,100 feet, or at
11,900 feet above the level of the sea. Direct experiment with internal heat
has not, however, been carried beyond 2,000 feet below the surface, and as the
ratio of increment diminishes with the depth, that above assigned to the tem-
perature of 110° is no doubt much too little. The Momay springs more.
probably owe their temperature to chemical decomposition of sulphurets of
metals. I found pyrites in Tibet on the north flank of the mountain Kinchin-
jhow, in limestones associated with shales.
=

384
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
parallel ridges (indicating the periodic retirements of the glacier)
lead down to the ice, which must have sunk several hundred
feet. This glacier descends from Kinchinjhow, the huge cliff
of whose eastern extremity dips into it. The surface, less
than half a mile wide, is exceedingly undulated, and covered
with large holes of water and beds of snow, and is deeply
corroded; gigantic blocks are perched on pinnacles of ice
on its surface, and the gravel cones are often twenty feet
high. The crevassing so conspicuous on the Swiss glaciers is
not so regular on this, and the surface appears more like a
38.AKIMBER
GNEISS-BLOCK WITH GRANITE BANDS, ON THE KINCHINJHOW GLACIER.
troubled ocean; due, no doubt, to the copious rain and snow-
falls throughout the summer, and the corroding power of wet
fogs. The substance of the ice is ribboned, dirt-bands are seen
from above to form long loops on some parts, and the lateral
moraines, like the terminal, are high above the surface. These
notes, made previous to reading Professor Forbes's travels in
the Alps, sufficiently show that perpetual snow, whether as ice or
glacier, obeys the same laws in India as in Europe; and I have
For a description of this curious phenomenon, which has been illustrated
by Agassiz, see "Forbes's Alps," p. 26 and 347.
DONKIA GLACIERS.
385
no remarks to offer on the structure of glaciers, that are not
well illustrated and explained in the above-mentioned admirable
work.
•
Its average slope for a mile above the terminal moraines was
less than 5°, and the height of its surface above the sea 16,500
feet by boiling-point; the thickness of its ice probably 400 feet.
Between the moraine and the west flank of the valley is a large
lake, with terraced banks, whose bottom (covered with fine fels-
pathic silt) is several hundred feet above that of the valley;
it is half a mile long, and a quarter broad, and fed partly by
glaciers of the second order on Chango-khang and Sebolah, and
partly by filtration through the lateral moraine.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Donkia glaciers—Moraines-Dome of ice-Honeycombed surface-Rocks of
Donkia-Metamorphic action of granite veins-Accident to instruments--
Sebolah pass-Bees and May-flies-View-Temperature-Pulses of Party
-Lamas and travellers at Momay-Weather and climate-Dr. Campbell
leaves Darjeeling for Sikkim-Leave Momay-Yeumtong--Lachoong-
Retardation of vegetation at low elevations-Choongtam-Landslips and
débacle-Meet Dr. Campbell-Motives for his journey-Second visit to
Lachen valley-Autumnal tints-Red currants-Lachen Phipun-Tungu
-Scenery-Animals-Poisonous rhododendrons-Fire-wood-Palung-
Elevations-Sitong-Kongra Lama-Tibetans-Enter Tibet-Desolate
scenery-Plants-Animals-Geology-Cholamoo lakes-Antelopes-Re-
turn to Yeumtso-Dr. Campbell lost-Extreme cold-Headaches-
Tibetan Dingpun and guard-Arms and accoutrements-Temperature of
Yeumtso-Migratory birds-Visit of Dingpun-Yeumtso lakes.
ON the 20th of September I ascended to the great Donkia
glaciers, east of Momay; the valley is much longer than that
leading to the Kinchinjhow glacier, and at 16,000 or 17,000 feet
elevation, containing four marshes or lakes, alternating with as many
transverse moraines that have dammed the river. These moraines
seem in some cases to have been deposited where rocks in the
bed of the valley obstructed the downward progress of the ancient
glacier; hence, when this latter finally retired, it rested at these
obstructions, and accumulated there great deposits, which do not
cross the valley, but project from each side obliquely into it.
The rocks in situ on the floor of the valley are all moutonnéed
and polished on the top, sides, and face looking up the valley,
but are rugged on that looking down it: gigantic blocks are
26
386
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
t
poised on some. The lowest of the ancient moraines com-
pletely crosses the river, which finds its way between the boulders.
Under the red cliff of Forked Donkia the valley becomes very
broad, bare, and gravelly, with a confusion of moraines, and
turns more northwards. At the angle, the present terminal
moraine rises like a mountain (I assumed it to be about 800 feet
high), and crosses the valley from N.N.E. to S.S.W. From the
summit, which rises above the level of the glacier, and from
which I assume its present retirement, a most striking scene
opened. The ice filling an immense basin, several miles broad
and long, formed a low dome,2 with Forked Donkia on the west,
and a serried range of rusty-red scarped mountains, 20,000 feet
high on the north and east, separating large tributary glaciers.
Other still loftier tops of Donkia appeared behind these, upwards
of 22,000 feet high, but I could not recognize the true summit
(23,176 feet). The surface was very rugged, and so deeply
honeycombed that the foot often sank from six to eight inches in
crisp wet ice. I proceeded a mile on it, with much more diffi-
culty than on any Swiss glacier: this was owing to the elevation,
and the corrosion of the surface into pits and pools of water; the
crevasses being but few and distant. I saw no dirt-bands on
looking down upon it from a point I attained under the red cliff
of Forked Donkia, at an elevation of 18,307 feet by barometer,
and 18,597 by boiling-point. The weather was very cold, the
thermometer fell from 41° to 34°, and it snowed heavily after
3 P.M.
The strike of all the rocks (gneiss with granite veins) seemed
I
This is the largest and longest terminal moraine backed by an existing
glacier that I examined with care: I doubt its being so high as the moraine of
the Allalein glacier below the Mat-maark sea in the Sachs valley (Valais,
Switzerland); but it is impossible to compare such objects from memory: the
Donkia one was much the most uniform in height.
2 This convexity of the ice is particularly alluded to by Forbes ("Travels
in the Alps," p. 386), as the "renflément " of Rendu and "surface bombée ”
of Agassiz, and is attributed to the effects of hydrostatic pressure tending to
press the lower layers of ice upwards to the surface. My own impression at
the time was, that the convexity of the surface of the Donkia glacier was due
to a subjacent mountain spur running south from Donkia itself. I know, how-
ever, far too little of the topography of this glacier to advance such a conjec-
ture with any confidence. In this case, as in all similar ones, broad expanses
being covered to an enormous depth with ice, the surface of the latter must in
some degree be modified by the ridges and valleys it conceals. The typical
"surface bombée," which is conspicuous in the Himalaya glaciers, I was wont
(in my ignorance of the mechanical laws of glaciers) to attribute to the more
rapid melting of the edges of the glacier by the radiated heat of its lateral
moraines and of the flanks of the valley that it occupies.

ROCKS OF FORKED DONKIA.
387
to be north-east, and dip north-west 30°. Such also were the
strike and dip on another spur from Donkia, north of this, which
I ascended to 19,000 feet, on the 26th of September: it abutted
on the scarped precipices, 3,000 feet high, of that mountain. I
had been attracted to the spot by its bright orange-red colour,
which I found to be caused by peroxide of iron. The highly
crystalline nature of the rocks, at these great elevations, is due to
the action of veins of fine-grained granite, which sometimes alter
the gneiss to such an extent that it appears as if fused into a fine
SUMMIT OF FORKED DONKIA, AND "GOA" ANTELOPES.
granite, with distinct crystals of quartz and felspar; the most
quartzy layers are then roughly crystallised into prisms, or their
particles are aggregated into spheres composed of concentric
layers of radiating crystals, as is often seen in agates. The re-
arrangement of the mineral constituents by heat goes on here
just as in trap, cavities filled with crystals being formed in rocks
exposed to great heat and pressure. When mica abounds, it
becomes black and metallic; and the aluminous matter is
crystallised in the form of garnets.
388
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
At these great heights the weather was never fine for more
than an hour at a time, and driving sleet followed by thick snow
drove me down on both these occasions. Another time I as-
cended a third spur from this great mountain, and was overtaken.
by a heavy gale and thunderstorm: the latter is a rare pheno-
menon, it blew down my tripod and instruments which I had
thought securely propped with stones, and the thermometers
were broken, but fortunately not the barometer. On picking up
the latter, which lay with its top down the hill, a large bubble of
air appeared, when I passed up and down the tube, and then
allowed to escape; when I heard a rattling of broken glass in the
cistern. Having another barometer at my tent, I hastened to
ascertain by comparison whether the instrument which had
travelled with me from England, and taken so many thousand
observations, was seriously damaged: to my delight, an error of
0'020 was all I could detect at Momay and all other lower
stations. On my return to Darjeeling in December, I took it to
pieces, and found the lower part of the bulb of the attached
thermometer broken off, and floating on the mercury. Having
quite expected this, I always checked the observations of the
attached thermometer by another, but-how, it is not easy to
say—the broken one invariably gave a correct temperature.
The Kinchinjhow spurs are not accessible to so great an eleva-
tion as those of Donkia, but they afford finer views over Tibet,
across the ridge connecting Kinchinjhow with Donkia.
Broad summits here, as on the opposite side of the valley, are
quite bare of snow at 18,000 feet, though where they project as
sloping hog-backed spurs from the parent mountain, the snows of
the latter roll down on them and form glacial caps, the reverse of
glaciers in valleys, but which overflow, as it were, on all sides of
the slopes, and are ribboned and crevassed.
On the 18th of September I ascended the range which divides
the Lachen from the Lachoong valley, to the Sebolah pass, a
:
* This barometer (one of Newman's portable instruments) I have now at
Kew it was compared with the Royal Society's standard before leaving
England; and varied according to comparisons made with the Calcutta
standard o'012 during its travels; on leaving Calcutta its error was o; and on
arriving in England, by the standard of the Royal Society, +004. These
barometers (though they have obvious defects) are less liable to derangement,
far more portable, and stand much heavier shocks than those of any other
construction with which I am familiar.
2 The convexity of the curves, however, seem to be upwards. Such re-
versed glaciers, ending abruptly on broad stony shoulders quite free of snow,
should on no account be taken as indicating the lower limit of perpetual snow.

THE SEBOLAH PASS.
389
very sharp ridge of gneiss, striking north-west and dipping north-
east, which runs south from Kinchinjhow to Chango-khang. A
yak-track led across the Kinchinjhow glacier, along the bank of
the lake, and thence westward up a very steep spur, on which
was much glacial ice and snow, but few plants above 16,000 feet.
At nearly 17,000 feet I passed two small lakes, on the banks of
one of which I found bees, a May-fly (Ephemera) and gnat; the
two latter bred on stones in the water, which (the day being fine)
had a temperature of 53°, while that of the large lake at the
glacier, 1,000 feet lower, was only 39°.
The view from the summit commands the whole castellated
The
VIEW FROM AN ELEVATION OF 18,000 FEET OF THE EAST TOP OF KIN-
CHINJHOW, AND OF TIBET, OVER THE RIDGE THAT CONNECTS IT WITH
DONKIA. WILD SHEEP (OVIS AMMON) IN THE FOREGROUND.
Jw.w
front of Kinchinjhow, the sweep of the Donkia cliffs to the east,
Chango-khang's blunt cone of ribbed snow over head, while to
the west, across the grassy Palung dunes rise Chomiomo, the
This ridging or furrowing of steep snow-beds is explained at p. 165.
390
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
I
Thlonok mountains, and Kinchinjunga in the distance. The
Palung plains, now yellow with withered grass, were the most
curious part of the view: hemmed in by this range which rises.
2,000 feet above them, and by the Lachen hills on the east, they
appeared a dead level, from which Kinchinjhow reared its head,
like an island from the ocean.2 The black tents of the Tibetans
were still there, but the flocks were gone. The broad fosse-like
valley of the Chachoo was at my feet, with the river winding
along its bottom, and its flanks dotted with black juniper bushes.
The temperature at this elevation, between 1 and 3 P.M., varied
from 38° to 59°; the mean being 46°5, with the dew-point 34°6.
The height I made 17,585 feet by barometer, and 17,517 by
boiling-point. I tried the pulses of eight persons after two hours'
rest; they varied from 80 to 112, my own being 104. As usual
at these heights, all the party were suffering from giddiness and
headaches.
Throughout September various parties passed my tent at
Momay, generally Lamas or traders: the former, wrapped in
blankets, wearing scarlet and gilt mitres, usually rode grunting
yaks, which were sometimes led by a slave-boy or a mahogany-
faced nun, with a broad yellow sheep-skin cap with flaps over her
ears, short petticoats, and striped boots. The domestic utensils,
pots, pans, and bamboos of butter, tea-churn, bellows, stools,
books, and sacred implements, usually hung rattling on all sides
of his holiness, and a sumpter yak carried the tents and mats for
sleeping. On several occasions large parties of traders, with thirty
or forty yaks 3 laden with planks, passed, and occasionally a
shepherd with Tibet sheep, goats, and ponies. I questioned many
of these travellers about the courses of the Tibetan rivers; they
all agreed 4 in stating the Kambajong or Chomachoo river, north
The latter bore 241° 30'; it was distant about thirty-four miles, and sub-
tended an angle of 3° 2' 30. The rocks on its north flanks were all black,
while those forming the upper 10,000 feet of the south face were white: hence,
the top is probably granite, overlaid by the gneiss on the north.
2 It is impossible to contemplate the abrupt flanks of all these lofty moun-
tains, without contrasting them with the sloping outlines that prevail in the
southern parts of Sikkim. All such precipices are, I have no doubt, the results
of sea action; and all posterior influence or sub-aerial action, aqueous or
glacial, tends to wear these precipices into slopes, to fill up valleys and to level
mountains. Of all such influences heavy rain-falls and a luxuriant vegetation
are probably the most active; and these features are characteristic of the lower
valleys of Sikkim, which are consequently exposed to very different conditions
of wear and tear from those which prevail on these loftier rearward ranges.
3 About 600 loaded yaks are said to cross the Donkia pass annually.
4 One lad only, declared that the Kambajong river flowed north-west to
WEATHER AT MOMAY.
391
of the Lachen, to be the Arun of Nepal, and that it rose near the
Ramchoo lake (of Turner's route). The lake itself discharges
either into the Arun, or into the Painomchoo (flowing to the
Yaru); but this point I could never satisfactorily ascertain.
The weather at Momay, during September, was generally bad
after II A.M.: little snow or rain fell, but thin mists and drizzle
prevailed; less than one inch and a half of rain was collected,
though upwards of eleven fell at Calcutta, and rather more at
Darjeeling. The mornings were sometimes fine, cold, and sunny,
with a north wind which had blown down the valley all night,
and till 9 A.M., when the south-east wind, with fog, came on.
Throughout the day a north current blew above the southern ;
and when the mist was thin, the air sparkled with spicule of
snow, caused by the cold dry upper current condensing the
vapours of the lower. This southern current passes over the
tops of the loftiest mountains, ascending to 24,000 feet, and dis-
charging frequent showers in Tibet, as far north as Jigatzi, where,
however, violent dry easterly gales are the most prevalent.
I
The equinoctial gales set in on the 21st, with a falling baro-
meter, and sleet at night; on the 23rd and 24th it snowed heavily,
and being unable to light a fire at the entrance of my tent, I
spent two wretched days, taking observations; on the 25th it
cleared, and the snow soon melted. Frosty nights succeeded,
but the thermometer only fell to 31° once during the month, and
the maximum once rose to 62°.5. The mean temperature from
the 9th to the 30th September was 41°6, which coincided with
that of 8 A.M. and 8 P.M.; the mean maximum, 52°2, minimum,
34°7, and consequent range, 17°5.2 On seven nights the
radiating thermometer fell much below the temperature of the
air, the mean being 10°5 and maximum 14°2; and on seven
mornings the sun heated the black-bulb thermometer considerably,
on the mean to 62°6 above the air; maximum 75°2, and mini-
mum, 43°. The greatest heat of the day occurred at noon: the
Dobtah and Sarrh, and thence turned north to the Yaru; but all Campbell's
itineraries, as well as mine, make the Dobtah lake drain into the Chomachoo,
north of Wallanchoon; which latter river the Nepalese also affirm flows into
Nepal, as the Arun. The Lachen and Lachoong Phipuns both insisted on
this, naming to me the principal towns on the way south-west from Kambajong
along the river to Tingri Maidan, vid Tashirukpa Chait, which is north of
Wallanchoon pass.
The result of fifty-six comparative observations between Calcutta and
Momay give 40°.5 difference, which, after corrections, allows 1° Fahr. for
every 438 feet of ascent.
2 At Darjeeling the September range is only 9°5; and at Calcutta 10°.
392
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
most rapid rise of temperature (5°) between 8 and 9 A.M., and
the greatest fall (5°5) between 3 and 4 P.M. A sunk thermo-
meter fell from 52°5 to 51°5 between the 11th and 14th, when
I was obliged to remove the thermometer owing to the accident
mentioned above. The mercury in the barometer rose and fell
contemporaneously with that at Calcutta and Darjeeling, but the
amount of tide was considerably less, and, as is usual during the
equinoctial month, on some days it scarcely moved, whilst on
others it rose and fell rapidly. The tide amounted to o'062 of
an inch.
On the 28th of the month the Singtam Soubah came up from
Yeumtong, to request leave to depart for his home, on account
of his wife's illness; and to inform me that Dr. Campbell had
left Darjeeling, accompanied (in compliance with the Rajah's
orders) by the Tchebu Lama. I therefore left Momay on the
30th, to meet him at Choongtam, arriving at Yeumtong the same
night, amid heavy rain and sleet.
Autumnal tints reigned at Yeumtong, and the flowers had dis-
appeared from its heath-like flat; a small eatable cherry with a
wrinkled stone was ripe, and acceptable in a country so destitute
of fruit.I Thence I descended to Lachoong, on the 1st of
October, again through heavy rain, the snow lying on the Tunkra
mountain at 14,000 feet. The larch was shedding its leaves,
which turn red before they fall; but the annual vegetation was
much behind that at 14,000 feet, and so many late flowerers, such
as Umbellifera and Composita, had come into blossom, that the
place still looked gay and green: the blue climbing gentian
(Crawfurdia) now adorned the bushes; this plant would be a
great acquisition in English gardens. A Polygonum still in flower
here, was in ripe fruit near Momay, 6,000 feet higher up the
valley.
On the following day I made a long and very fatiguing march
to Choongtam, but the coolies were not all able to accomplish it.
The backwardness of the flora in descending was even more
conspicuous than on the previous day: the jungles, at 7,000 feet,
being gay with a handsome Cucurbitaceous plant. Crossing the
Lachoong cane-bridge, I paid the tribute of a sigh to the memory
of my poor dog, and reached my old camping-ground at Choong-
The absence of edible Vaccinia (whortleberries and cranberries) and
Rubi (brambles) in the alpine regions of the Himalaya is very remarkable, and
they are not replaced by any substitutes. With regard to Vaccinium, this is
the more anomalous, as several species grow in the temperate regions of
Sikkim.
LEAVE MOMAY. MEET DR. CAMPBELL.
393
tam by 10 P.M., having been marching rapidly for twelve hours.
My bed and tent came up two hours later, and not before the
leeches and mosquitos had taxed me severely. On the 4th of
October I heard the nightingale for the first time this season.
Expecting Dr. Campbell on the following morning, I proceeded
down the river to meet him: the whole valley was buried under
a torrent or débacle of mud, shingle, and boulders, and for half
a mile the stream was dammed up into a deep lake. Amongst
the gneiss and granite boulders brought down by this débacle, I
collected some actinolites; but all minerals are extremely rare in
Sikkim and I never heard of a gem or crystal of any size or
beauty, or of an ore of any consequence, being found in this
country.
I met my friend on the other side of the mud torrent, and I
was truly rejoiced to see him, though he was looking much the
worse for his trying journey through the hot valleys at this
season; in fact, I know no greater trial of the constitution than
the exposure and hard exercise that is necessary in traversing
these valleys, below 5,000 feet, in the rainy season: delay is
dangerous, and the heat, anxiety, and bodily suffering from
fatigue, insects, and bruises, banish sleep, and urge the restless
traveller onward to higher and more healthy regions. Dr.
Campbell had, I found, in addition to the ordinary dangers of
such a journey, met with an accident which might have proved
serious; his pony having been dashed to pieces by falling over a
precipice, a fate he barely escaped himself, by adroitly slipping
from the saddle when he felt the animal's foot giving way.
On our way back to Choongtam, he detailed to me the motives
that had led to his obtaining the authority of the Deputy-Governor
of Bengal (Lord Dalhousie being absent) for his visiting Sikkim.
Foremost, was his earnest desire to cultivate a better under-
standing with the Rajah and his officers. He had always taken
the Rajah's part, from a conviction that he was not to blame for
the misunderstandings which the Sikkim officers pretended to
exist between their country and Darjeeling; he had, whilst
urgently remonstrating with the Rajah, insisted on forbearance
on my part, and had long exercised it himself. In detailing the
treatment to which I was subjected, I had not hesitated to
express my opinion that the Rajah was more compromised by
it than his Dewan: Dr. Campbell, on the contrary, knew that
the Dewan was the head and front of the whole system of
annoyance. In one point of view it mattered little who was in
the right; but the transaction was a violation of good faith on
394
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
the part of the Sikkim government towards the British, for which
the Rajah, however helpless, was yet responsible. To act upon
my representations alone would have been unjust, and no course
remained but for Dr. Campbell to inquire personally into the
matter. The authority to do this gave him also the opportunity
of becoming acquainted with the country which we were bound
to protect, as well by our interest as by treaty, but from which
we were so jealously excluded, that should any contingency occur,
we were ignorant of what steps to take for defence, and, indeed,
of what we should have to defend.
On the 6th of October we left Choongtam for my second visit
to the Kongra Lama pass, hoping to get round by the Cholamoo
lakes and the Donkia pass. As the country beyond the frontier
was uninhabited, the Tchebu Lama saw no difficulty in this,
provided the Lachen Phipun and the Tibetans did not object.
Our great obstacle was the Singtam Soubah, who (by the Rajah's
order) accompanied us to clear the road, and give us every
facility, but who was very sulky, and undisguisedly rude to
Campbell; he was, in fact, extremely jealous of the Lama, who
held higher authority than he did, and who alone had the Rajah's
confidence.
Our first day's march was of about ten miles to one of the
river-flats, which was covered with wild apple-trees, whose fruit,
when stewed with sugar, we found palatable. The Lachen river,
though still swollen, was comparatively clear; the rains usually
ceasing, or at least moderating, in October: its water was about
5° colder than in the beginning of August.
During the second day's march we were stopped at the Taktoong
river by the want of a bridge, which the Singtam Soubah refused
to exert himself to have repaired; its waters were, however, so
fallen, that our now large party soon bridged it with admirable
skill. We encamped the second night on Chateng, and the
following day made a long march, crossing the Žemu, and
ascending half-way to Tallum Samdong. The alpine foliage was
rapidly changing colour; and that of the berberry turning scarlet,
gave a warm glow to the mountain above the forest. Lamteng
village was deserted: turnips were maturing near the houses, and
buckwheat on the slope behind; the latter is a winter-crop at
lower elevations, and harvested in April. At Zemu Samdong the
willow-leaves were becoming sear and yellow, and the rose-
bushes bore enormous scarlet hips, two inches long, and covered
with bristles; they were sweet, and rather good eating. Near
Tungu (where we arrived on the 9th) the great Sikkim currant
TUNGU. AUTUMN VEGETATION. YAK MEAT. 395
was in fruit; its berries are much larger than the English, and of
the same beautiful red colour, but bitter and very acid; they are,
however, eaten by the Tibetans, who call them "Kewdemah."
Near the village I found Dr. Campbell remonstrating with the
Lachen Phipun on the delays and rude treatment I had received
in June and July: the man, of course, answered every question
with falsehoods, which is the custom of these people, and pro-
duced the Rajah's orders for my being treated with every civility,
as a proof that he must have behaved as he ought! The Singtam
Soubah, as was natural, hung back, for it was owing to him alone
that the orders had been contravened, and the Phipun appealed
to the bystanders for the truth of this.
The Phipun (accompanied by his Larpun or subordinate officer)
had prepared for us a sumptuous refreshment of tea-soup, which
was brewing by the road, and in which all animosities were soon
washed away. We took up our abode at Tungu in a wooden hut
under the great rock, where we were detained for several days by
bad weather. I was assured that during all August and Septem-
ber the weather had been uniformly gloomy, as at Momay, though
little rain had fallen.
I
:
We had much difficulty in purchasing a sufficient number of
blankets for our people, and in arranging for our journey, to
which the Lachen Phipun was favourable, promising us ponies for
the expedition. The vegetation around was wholly changed since
my July visit the rhododendron scrub was verdigris-green from
the young leaves which burst in autumn, and expose at the end
of each branchlet a flower-bud covered with resinous scales, which
are thrown off in the following spring. The jungle was spotted
yellow with the withered birch, maple and mountain-ash, and
scarlet with berberry bushes; while above, the pastures were
yellow-brown with the dead grass, and streaked with snow.
Amongst other luxuries, we procured the flesh of yak calves,
which is excellent veal: we always returned the foot for the
mother to lick while being milked, without which she yields
nothing. The yak goes nine months with calf, and drops one
every two years, bearing altogether ten or twelve: the common
Sikkim cow of lower elevations, at Darjeeling invariably goes from
nine and a half to ten months, and calves annually: ponies go
eleven months, and foal nearly every year. In Tibet the sheep
are annually sheared; the ewes drop their young in spring and
autumn, but the lambs born at the latter period often die of cold
These were made of goat's wool, teazed into a satiny surface by little.
teazle-like brushes of bamboo.
396
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
and starvation, and double lambing is unknown; whereas, in
the plains of Bengal (where, however, sheep cannot be said to
thrive without pulse fodder) twins are constantly both. At
Darjeeling the sheep drop a lamb once in the season.
Tibetan mutton we generally found dry and stringy.
The
I
In these regions many of my goats and kids had died foaming
at the mouth and grinding their teeth; and I here discovered the
cause to arise from their eating the leaves of Rhododendron cinna-
barinum ("Kema Kechoong," Lepcha: Kema signifying Rhodo-
dendron): this species alone is said to be poisonous; and when
used as fuel, it causes the face to swell and the eyes to inflame;
of which I observed several instances. As the subject of fire-
wood is of every-day interest to the traveller in these regions, I
may here mention that the rhododendron wood affords poor fires;
juniper burns the brightest, and with least smoke. Abies
Webbiana, though emitting much smoke, gives a cheerful fire,
far superior to larch,2 spruce, or Abics Brunoniana. At Darjee-
ling, oak is the common fuel; adder is also good. Chestnut is
invariably used for blacksmith's charcoal. Magnolia has a dis-
agreeable odour, and laurel burns very badly.
The phenomenon of phosphorescence is most conspicuous on
stacks of fire-wood.. At Darjeeling, during the damp, warm,
summer months (May to October), at elevations of 5,000 to 8,000
feet, it may be witnessed every night by penetrating a few yards
into the forest—at least it was so in 1848 and 1849; and during
my stay there billets of decayed wood were repeatedly sent to me
by residents, with inquiries as to the cause of their luminosity. It
is no exaggeration to say that one does not need to move from the
fireside to see this phenomenon, for if there is a partially decayed
log amongst the fire-wood, it is almost sure to glow with a pale
phosphoric light. A stack of fire-wood, collected near my host's
(Mr. Hodgson) cottage, presented a beautiful spectacle for two
months (in July and August), and on passing it at night, I had to
quiet my pony, who was always alarmed by it. The phenomenon
invariably accompanies decay, and is common on oak, laurel
(Tetranthera), birch, and probably other timbers; it equally
appears on cut wood and on stumps, but is most frequent on
branches lying close to the ground in the wet forests. I have
The poisonous honey produced by other species is alluded to at p.
140. An Andromeda and a Gualtheria, I have been assured are equally
deleterious.
* The larch of northern Asia (Larix Europea) is said to produce a pungent
smoke, which I never observed to be the case with the Sikkim species.
PHOSPHORESCENT WOOD. PALUNG PLATEAU. 397
reason to believe that it spreads with great rapidity from old sur-
faces to freshly cut ones. That it is a vital phenomenon, and due
to the mycelium of a fungus, I do not in the least doubt, for I
have observed it occasionally circumscribed by those black lines
which are so often seen to bound mycelia on dead wood, and
to precede a more rapid decay. I have often tried, but always
in vain, to coax these mycelia into developing some fungus, by
placing them in damp rooms, &c. When camping in the moun-
tains, I frequently caused the natives to bring phosphorescent
wood into my tent, for the pleasure of watching its soft undulating
light, which appears to pale and glow with every motion of the
atmosphere; but except in this difference of intensity, it presents
no change of appearance night after night. Alcohol, heat and
dryness soon dissipate it; electricity I never tried. It has no
odour, and my dog, who had a fine sense of smell, paid no heed.
when it was laid under his nose.¹
The weather continuing bad, and snow falling, the country
people began to leave for their winter quarters at Lamteng. In
the evenings we enjoyed the company of the Phipun and Tchebu
Lama, who relished a cup of sugarless tea more than any other
refreshment we could offer. From them we collected much
Tibetan information :-the former was an inveterate smoker,
using a pale, mild tobacco, mixed largely with leaves of the
small wild Tibetan Rhubarb, called "Chula." Snuff is little
used, and is principally procured from the plains of India.
We visited Palung twice, chiefly in hopes that Dr. Campbell
might see the magnificent prospect of Kinchinjhow from its plains:
the first time we gained little beyond a ducking, but on the second
(October the 15th) the view was superb; and I likewise caught a
glimpse of Kinchinjunga from the neighbouring heights, bearing.
south 60° west and distant forty miles. I also measured baro-
metrically the elevation at the great chait on the plain, and found
it 15,620 feet, and by carefully boiled thermometers, 15,283, on the
13th October, and 15,566 on the 15th: the difference being due
•
As far as my observations go, this phenomenon of light is confined to the
lower orders of vegetable life, to the fungi alone, and is not dependent on irrita-
bility. I have never seen luminous flowers or roots, nor do I know of any
authenticated instance of such, which may not be explained by the presence of
mycelium or of animal life. In the animal kingdom, luminosity is confined, I
believe, to the Invertebrata, and is especially common amongst the Radiata and
Mollusca; it is also frequent in the Entromostracous Crustacea, and in various
genera of most orders of insects. In all these, as in the Sertulariæ, I have
invariably observed the light to be increased by irritation, in which respect
the luminosity of animal life differs from that of vegetable.
398
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
to the higher temperature on the latter day, and to a rise of o°3
on both boiling-point thermometers above what the same instru-
ments stood at on the 13th. The elevation of Tungu from the
October barometrical observations was only seven feet higher than
that given by those of July; the respective heights being 12,766
feet in July, and 12,773 in October. The mean temperature had
fallen from 50° in July to 41°, and that of the sunk thermometer
from 57° to 51° 4. The mean range in July was 23° 3, and in
October 13° 8; the weather during the latter period being, however,
uniformly cold and misty, this was much below the mean monthly
range, which probably exceeds 30°. Much more rain fell in
October at Tungu than at Darjeeling, which is the opposite to
what occurs during the rainy season.
October 15th. Having sent the coolies forward, with instructions
to halt and camp on this side the Kongra Lama pass, we followed
them, taking the route by Palung, and thence over the hills to the
Lachen, to the east of which we descended, and further up its
valley joined the advanced party in a rocky glen, called Sitong, an
advantageous camping ground, from being sheltered by rocks
which ward off the keen blasts: its elevation is 15,370 above the
sea, and the magnificent west cliff of Kinchinjhow towers over it
not a mile distant, bearing due east, and subtending an angle of
24° 3'. The afternoon was misty, but at 7 P.M. the south-east
wind fell, and was immediately succeeded by the biting north
return current, which dispelled the fog: hoar-frost sparkled on the
ground, and the moon shone full on the snowy head of Kinchin-
jhow, over which the milky-way and the broad flashing orbs of the
stars formed a jewelled diadem. The night was very windy and
cold, though the thermometer fell no lower than 22°, that placed
in a polished parabolic reflector to 20°, and another laid on herbage
to 17° 5.
On the 16th we were up early. I felt very anxious about the
prospect of our getting round by Donkia pass and Cholamoo,
which would enable me to complete the few remaining miles of my
long survey of the Teesta river, and which promised immense
results in the views I should obtain of the country, and of the
The elevation of Tungu by boiling point was 12,650 feet by a set of July
observations, 12,818 by a set taken on the 11th of October, and 12,544 by a
set on the 14th of October: the discrepancies were partly due to the tempera-
ture corrections, but mainly to the readings of the thermometers, which were-
July 28 sunset 189.5 air 47° 3 elev. 12,650
Oct. II noon 189′5
"1 37° 6
Oct. 14 sunset 190 I,,
" 45° 3
""
12,818
12,544
""
KONGRA LAMA PASS. RUSH INTO TIBET.
geology and botany of these lofty snowless regions. Campbell,
though extremely solicitous to obtain permission from the Tibetan
guard (who were waiting for us on the frontier), was nevertheless
bound by his own official position to yield at once to their wishes,
should they refuse us a passage.
The sun rose on our camp at 7.30 A.M., when the north wind fell;
and within an hour afterwards the temperature had risen to 45°.
Having had our sticks warmed and handed to us, we started on
ponies, accompanied by the Lama only, to hold a parley with the
Tibetans ; ordering the rest of the party to follow at their leisure.
We had not proceeded far when we were joined by two Tibetan
Sepoys, who, on our reaching the pass, bellowed lustily for their
companions; when Campbell and the Lama drew up at the chait
of Kongra Lama, and announced his wish to confer with their
commandant.
399
My anxiety was now wound up to a pitch; I saw men with
matchlocks emerging from amongst the rocks under Chomiomo,
and despairing of permission being obtained, I goaded my pony
with heels and stick, and dashed on up the Lachen valley, resolved
to make the best of a splendid day, and not turn back till I had
followed the river to the Cholamoo lakes. The Sepoys followed
me a few paces, but running being difficult at 16,000 feet, they soon
gave up the chase.
sea.
A few miles ride in a north-east direction over an open, undu-
lating country, brought me to the Lachen, flowing westwards in a
broad, open, stony valley, bounded by Kinchinjhow on the south
(its face being as precipitous as that on the opposite side), and on
the north by the Peukathlo, a low range of rocky, sloping moun-
tains, of which the summits were 18,000 to 19,000 feet above the
Enormous erratic blocks of gneiss strewed the ground, which
was sandy or gravelly, and cut into terraces along the shallow,
winding river, the green and sparkling waters of which rippled over
pebbles, or expanded into lagoons. The already scanty vegeta-
tion diminished rapidly: it consisted chiefly of scattered bushes
of a dwarf scrubby honeysuckle and tufts of nettle, both so brittle
as to be trodden into powder, and the short leafless twiggy Ephedra,
a few inches higher. The most alpine rhododendron (R. nivale)
spread its small rigid branches close to the ground; the hemi-
It was an invariable custom of our Lepcha and Tibetan attendants, to
warm the handles of our sticks in cold weather, before starting on our daily
marches. This is one of many little instances I could adduce, of their thought-
fulness and attention to the smallest comforts of the stranger and wanderer in
their lands.
!
400
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
spherical Arenaria, another type of sterility, rose here and there,
and tufts of Myosotis, Artemisia, Astragali and Androsace, formed
flat cushions level with the soil. Grass was very scarce, but a
running wiry sedge (Carex Moorcroftii) bound the sand, like the
Carex arenaria of our English coasts.
A more dismally barren country cannot well be conceived, nor
one more strongly contrasting with the pastures of Palung at an
equal elevation. The long lofty wall of Kinchinjhow and Donkia
presents an effectual barrier to the transmission of moisture to the
head of the Lachen valley, which therefore becomes a type of
such elevations in Tibet. As I proceeded, the ground became
still more sandy, chirping under the pony's feet; and where harder,
it was burrowed by innumerable marmots, foxes, and the "Goom-
chen," or tailless rat (Lagomys badius), sounding hollow to the
tread, and at last becoming so dangerous that I was obliged to
dismount and walk.
The geological features changed as rapidly as those of the
climate and vegetation, for the strike of the rocks being north-west,
and the dip north east, I was rising over the strata that overlie the
gneiss. The upper part of Kinchinjhow is composed of bold ice-
capped cliffs of gneiss; but the long spurs that stretch northwards
from it are of quartz, conglomerates, slates, and earthy red clays,
forming the rounded terraced hills I had seen from Donkia pass.
Between these spurs were narrow valleys, at whose mouths
stupendous blocks of gneiss rest on rocks of a much later geo-
logical formation.
Opposite the most prominent of these spurs the river (16,800
feet above the sea) runs west, forming marshes, which were full of
Zannichellia palustris and Ranunculus aquatilis, both English and
Siberian plants: the waters contained many shells, of a species of
Lymnæa;¹ and the soil near the edge, which was covered with
tufts of short grass, was whitened with effloresced carbonate of
soda. Here were some square stone enclosures two feet high,
used as pens, and for pitching tents in; within them I gathered
some unripe barley.
Beyond this I recognised a hill of which I had taken bearings
from Donkia pass, and a few miles further, on rounding a spur of
Kinchinjunga, I arrived in sight of Cholamoo lakes, with the
Donkia mountain rearing its stupendous precipices of rock and
ice on the east. My pony was knocked up, and I felt very giddy
This is the most alpine living shell in the world; my specimens being
from nearly 17,000 feet elevation; it is the Lymnæa Hookeri, Reeve (" Pro-
ceedings of the Zoological Society," No. 204).

CHOLAMOO LAKE.
4ci
from the exertion and elevation; I had broken his bridle, and so
led him on by my plaid for the last few miles to the banks of the
lake; and there, with the pleasant sound of the waters rippling at
my feet, I yielded for a few moments to those emotions of grati-
fied ambition which, being unalloyed by selfish considerations for
W
CHIRU ANTELOPE; "UNICORN" OF TIBET.'
the future, become springs of happiness during the remainder of
one's life.
The landscape about Cholamoo lake was simple in its elements,
stern and solemn; and though my solitary situation rendered it
doubly impressive to me, I doubt whether the world contains any
The accompanying figures of the heads of the Chiru (Antilope Hodgsoni)
were sketched by Lieut. Maxwell (of the Bengal Artillery), from a pair brought
to Darjeeling; it is the so-called unicorn of Tibet, and of MM. Huc and
Gabet's narrative,-a name which the profile no doubt suggested.
27
402
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
scene with more sublime associations than this calm sheet of water,
17,000 feet above the sea, with the shadows of mountains 22,000
to 24,000 feet high, sleeping on its bosom.
There was much short grass about the lake, on which large
antelopes, "Chiru" (Antilope Hodgsoni), and deer, "Goa"
(Procapra picticaudata, Hodgson), were feeding. There were also
many slate-coloured hairs with white rumps (Lepus oiostolus), with
marmots and tail-less rats. The abundance of animal life was
wonderful, compared with the want of it on the south side of the
Donkia pass, not five miles distant in a straight line! it is partly
due to the profusion of carbonate of soda, of which all ruminants
are fond, and partly to the dryness of the climate, which is favour-
able to all burrowing quadrupeds. A flock of common English
teal were swimming in the lake, the temperature of which was 55°.
I had come about fifteen miles from the pass, and arrived at
† P.M., remaining half an hour. I could not form an idea as to
whether Campbell had followed or not, and began to speculate
on the probability of passing the night in the open air, by the
warm side of my steed. Though the sun shone brightly, the
wind was bitterly cold, and I arrived at the stone dykes of
Yeumtso at 3 P.M., quite exhausted with fatigue and headache.
I there found, to my great relief, the Tchebu Lama and Lachen
Phipun they were in some alarm at my absence, for they thought
I was not aware of the extreme severity of the temperature on
the north side of the snows, or of the risk of losing my way;
they told me that after a long discourse with the Dingpun (or
commander) of the Tibetan Sepoys, the latter had allowed all the
party to pass; that the Sepoys had brought on the coolies, who
were close behind, but that they themselves had seen nothing of
Campbell; of whom the Lama then went in search.
The sun set behind Chomiomo at 5 P.M., and the wind at
once dropped; so local are these violent atmospheric currents,
which are caused by the heating of the upper extremities of these
lofty valleys, and consequent rarefaction of the air. Intense ter-
restrial radiation immediately follows the withdrawal of the sun's
rays, and the temperature sinks rapidly.
Soon after sunset the Lama returned, bringing Campbell; who,
having mistaken some glacier-fed lakes at the back of Kin-
chinjhow for those of Cholamoo, was looking for me. He too
I found the horns of this animal on the south side of the Donkia pass, but
I never saw a live one except in Tibet. The Procapra is described by Mr.
Hodgson, "Bengal As. Soc. Jour., 1846, p. 338," and is introduced into the
cut at p. 387.
TIBET FRONTIER AND SOLDIERS.
403
had speculated on having to pass the night under a rock, with
one plaid for himself and servant; in which case I am sure they
would both have been frozen to death, having no pony to lie
down beside. He told me that after I had quitted Kongra Lama,
leaving him with the Tchebu Lama and Phipun, the Dingpun
and twenty men came up, and very civilly but formally forbade
their crossing the frontier; but that upon explaining his motives,
and representing that it would save him ten days' journey, the
Dingpun had relented, and promised to conduct the whole party
to the Donkia pass.
We pitched our little tent in the corner of the cattle-pen, and
our coolies soon afterwards came up; mine were in capital
health, though suffering from headaches, but Campbell's were in
a distressing state of illness and fatigue, with swollen faces and
rapid pulses, and some were insensible from symptoms like
pressure on the brain; these were chiefly Ghorkas (Nepalese).
The Tibetan Dingpun and his guard arrived last of all: he was a
droll little object, short, fat, deeply marked with small-pox;
swarthy, and greasy; he was robed in a green woollen mantle,
and was perched on the back of a yak, which also carried his
bedding, and cooking utensils, the latter rattling about its flanks,
horns, neck, and every point of support: two other yaks bore
the tents of the party. His followers were tall savage looking
fellows, with broad swarthy faces, and their hair in short pig-tails.
They wore the long-sleeved cloak, short trousers, and boots, all of
thick woollen, and felt caps on their heads. Each was armed
with a long matchlock slung over his back, with a moveable rest
having two prongs like a fork, and a hinge, so as to fold up
along the barrel, when the prongs project behind the shoulders.
like antelope horns, giving the uncouth warrior a droll ap-
pearance. A dozen cartridges, each in an iron case, were slung
round the waist, and they also wore the long knife, flint, steel, and
iron tobacco-pipe, pouch, and purse, suspended to a leathern
girdle.
The night was fine, but intensely cold, and the vault of heaven
was very dark, and blazing with stars; the air was electrical, and
flash lightning illumined the sky; this was the reflection of a storm
I have never experienced bleeding at the nose, ears, lips, or eyelids, either
in my person or that of my companions, on these occasions; nor did I ever
meet with a recent traveller who has. Dr. Thomson has made the same
remark, and when in Switzerland together we were assured by Auguste Balmat,
François Coutet, and other experienced Mont Blanc guides, that they never
witnessed these symptoms nor the blackness of the sky, so frequently insisted
upon by alpine travellers.
404
HİMALAYAN JOURNALS:
that was not felt at Darjeeling, but which raged on the plains of
India, beyond the Terai, fully 120 miles, and perhaps 150, south
of our position. No thunder was heard. The thermometer fell
to 5º, and that in the reflector to 3° 5; at sunrise it rose to 10°,
and soon after 8 A.M. to 33°; till this hour the humidity was
great, and a thin mist hung over the frozen surface of the rocky
ground; when this dispersed, the air became very dry, and the
black-bulb thermometer in the sun rose 60° above the temperature
in the shade. The light of the sun, though sometimes inter-
cepted by vapours aloft, was very brilliant.¹
This being the migrating season, swallows flitted through the
air; finches, larches, and sparrows were hopping over the sterile
soil, seeking food, though it was difficult to say what. The geese ª
which had roosted by the river, cackled; the wild ducks quacked
and plumed themselves; ouzels and waders screamed or chirped;
and all rejoiced as they prepared themselves for the last flight of
the year, to the valleys of the southern Himalaya, to the Teesta,
and other rivers of the Terai and plains of India.
The Dingpun paid his respects to us in the morning, wearing,
besides his green cloak, a white cap with a green glass button,
denoting his rank; he informed us that he had written to his
superior officer at Kambajong, explaining his motives for con-
ducting us across the frontier, and he drew from his breast a long
letter, written on Daphne 3 paper, whose ends were tied with
floss silk, with a large red seal; this he pompously delivered, with
whispered orders, to an attendant, and sent him off. He admired
↑ My black glass photometer shut out the sun's disc at 10.509 inches, from
the mean of four sets of observations taken between 7 and 10 A. M.
* An enormous quantity of water-fowl breed in Tibet, including many Indian
species that migrate no further north. The natives collect their eggs for the
markets at Jigatzi, Giantchi, and Lhassa, along the banks of the Yaru river,
Ramchoo, and Yarbru and Dochen lakes. Among other birds the Sara,
or great crane of India (see "Turner's Tibet," p. 212), repairs to these
enormous elevations to breed. The fact of birds characteristic of the tropics
dwelling for months in such climates is a very instructive one, and should be
borne in mind in our speculations upon the climate supposed to be indicated
by the imbedded bones of birds.
3 Most of the paper used in Tibet is, as I have elsewhere noticed, made
from the bark of various species of Daphnce, and especially of Edgeworthia
Gardneri, and is imported from Nepal and Bhotan; but the Tibetans, as
MM. Huc and Gabet correctly state, manufacture a paper from the root of a
small shrub this I have seen, and it is of a much thicker texture and more
durable than Daphne paper. Dr. Thomson informs me that a species of
Astragalus is used in western Tibet for this purpose, the whole shrub, which
is dwarf, being reduced to pulp.
:
YEUMTSO IN TIBET.
405
our clothes extremely,' and then my percussion gun, the first he had
seen; but above all he admired rum and water, which he drank
with intense rélish, leaving a mere sip for his comrades at the
bottom of his little wooden cup, which they emptied, and after-
wards licked clean, and replaced in his breast for him. We made
a large basin full of very weak grog for his party, who were all
friendly and polite; and having made us the unexpected offer of
allowing us to rest ourselves for the day at Yeumtso, he left us,
and practised his men at firing at a mark, but they were very
indifferent shots.
I ascended with Campbell to the lake he had visited on the
previous day, about 600 or 800 feet above Yeumtso, and 17,500
feet above the sea: it is a mile and a half long, and occupies a
large depression between two rounded spurs, being fed by glaciers
from Kinchinjhow. The rocks of these spurs were all of red
quartz and slates, cut into broad terraces, covered with a thick
glacial talus of gneiss and granite in angular pebbles, and
evidently spread over the surface when the glacier, now occu-
pying the upper end of the lake, extended over the valley.
The ice on the cliffs and summit of Kinchinjhow was much
greener and clearer than that on the south face (opposite Palung);
and rows of immense icicles hung from the cliffs. A conferva
grew in the waters of the lake, and short hard tufts of sedge on
the banks, but no other plants were to be seen. Brahminee
geese, teal, and widgeon, were swimming in the waters, and a
beetle (Elaphrus) was coursing over the wet banks; finches and
other small birds were numerous, eating the sedge-seeds, and
picking up the insects. No view was obtained to the north,
owing to the height of the mountains on the north flank of the
Lachen.
At noon the temperature rose to 52° 5, and the black-bulb to
104° 5; whilst the north-west dusty wind was so dry, that the
dew-point fell to 24° 2.
All Tibetans admire and value English broad-cloth beyond any of our
products. Woollen articles are very familiar to them, and warm clothing is
one of the first requisites of life,
+
:
406
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Ascent of Bhomtso-View of snowy mountains-Chumulari-Arun river-
Kiang-lah mountains-Jigatzi-Lhassa-Dingcham province of Tibet
-Misapplication of term "Plain of Tibet "-Sheep, flocks of Crops
-Probable elevation of Jigatzi-Varu-Tsampu river-Tame elephants-
Wild horses--Dryness of air-Sunset beams-Rocks of Kinchinjhow-
Cholamoo lakes-Limestone-Dip and strike of rocks-Effects of great
elevation on party-Ascent of Donkia--Moving piles of débris-Cross
Donkia pass-Second visit to Momay Samdong-Hot springs-Descent
to Yeumtong-Lachoong-Retardation of vegetation again noticed-
Jerked meat-Fish-Lose a thermometer-Lepcha lad sleeps in hot
spring Keadom - Bucklandia-Arrive at Choongtam-Mendicant-
Meepo-Lachen-Lachoong river-Wild grape-Vie from Singtam of
Kinchinjunga-Virulent nettle.
In the afternoon we crossed the valley, and ascended Bhomtso,
fording the river, the temperature was 48°. Some stupendous
boulders of gneiss from Kinchinjhow are deposited in a broad
sandy track on the north bank, by ancient glaciers, which once
crossed this valley from Kinchinjhow.
The ascent was alternately over steep rocky slopes, and broad
shelf-like flats; many more plants grew here than I had expected,
in inconspicuous scattered tufts. The rocks were nearly vertical
strata of quartz, hornstone, and conglomerate, striking north-
west, and dipping south-west 80°. The broad top of the hill
was also of quartz, but covered with angular pebbles of the
rocks transported from Kinchinjhow. Some clay-stone frag-
ments were stained red with oxide of iron, and covered with
Parmelia miniata; this, with Borrera, another lichen, which
forms stringy masses blown along by the wind, were the only
plants, and they are among the most alpine in the world.
²
• Besides those before mentioned, there was Fescue-grass (Festuca ovina of
Scotland), a strong-scented silky. wormwood (Artemisia), and round tufts of
Oxytropis chiliophylla, a kind of Astragalus that inhabits eastern and western
Tibet; this alone was green: it formed great circles on the ground, the centre
decaying, and the annual shoots growing outwards, and thus constantly
enlarging the circle. A woolly Leontopodium, Androsace, and some other
plants assumed nearly the same mode of growth. The rest of the vegetation
consisted of a Sedum, Nardostachys Jatamansi, Meconopsis horridula, a slender
Androsace, Gnaphalium, Slipa, Salvia, Draba, Pedicularis, Polentilla or
Sibbaldia, Gentiana and Erigeron alpinus of Scotland. All these grow nearly
up to 18,000 fect.
2 This minute lichen, mentioned at p. 381, is the most Arctic, Antarctic,
and Alpine in the world; often occurring so abundantly as to colour the rocks.
of an orange red. This was the case at Bhomtso, and is so also in Cockburn
Island in the Antarctic occan, which it covers so profusely that the rocks look
as if brightly painted, See "Ross's Voyage," vol. ii. p. 339.
I

BHOTAN HIMALAYA (DISTANT 120 MILES), LOOKING ACROSS THE ASSAM VALLEY AND BURRAMPOOTER RIVER.
BHOMTSO, VIEWS FROM.
407
Bhomtso is 18,590 feet above the sea by barometer, and
18,305 by boiling-point: it presented an infinitely more extensive
prospect than I had ventured to anticipate, commanding all the
most important Sikkim, North Bhotan, and Tibetan mountains,
including Kinchinjunga thirty-seven miles to the south-west,
and Chumulari thirty-nine miles south-east. Due south, across
the sandy valley of the Lachen, Kinchinjhow reared its long wall
of glaciers and rugged precipices, 22,000 feet high, and under its
cliffs lay the lake to which we had walked in the morning:
beyond Kongra Lama were the Thlonok mountains, where I had
spent the month of June, with Kinchinjunga in the distance.
Westward Chomiomo rose abruptly from the rounded hills we
were on, to 22,000 feet elevation, ten miles distant. To the east
of Kinchinjhow were the Cholamoo lakes, with the rugged mass
of Donkia stretching in cliffs of ice and snow continuously south-
wards to forked Donkia, which overhangs Momay Samdong.
A long sloping spur sweeps from the north of Donkia first
north, and then west to Bhomtso, rising to a height of more
than 20,000 feet without snow. Over this spur the celebrated
Chumulari peeps, bearing south-east, and from its isolated
* Some doubt still hangs over the identity of this mountain, chiefly owing
to Turner's having neglected to observe his geographical position. I saw a
much loftier mountain than this, bearing from Bhomtso north 87° east, and it
was called Chumulari by the Tibetan Sepoys; but it does not answer to
Turner's description of an isolated snowy peak, such as he approached within
three miles; and though in the latitude he assigned to it, is fully sixty miles
to the east of his route. A peak, similar to the one he describes, is seen
from Tonglo and Sinchul (see pp. 85 and 129); this is the one alluded to
above, and it is identified by both Tibetans and Lepchas at Darjeeling as the
true Chumulari, and was measured by Colonel Waugh, who placed it in
lat. 27° 49' north long. 89° 18′ east. The latter position, though fifteen
miles south of what Turner gives it, is probably correct; as Pemberton found
that Turner had put other places in Bhotan twenty miles too far north. More-
over, in saying that it is visible from Purnea in the plains of Bengal, Turner
refers to Kinchinjunga, whose elevation was then unknown. Dr. Campbell
("Bengal As. Soc. Jour.," 1848), describes Chumulari from oral information,
as an isolated mountain encircled by twenty-one goompas, and perambulated
by pilgrims in five days; the Lachoong Phipun, on the other hand, who was a
Lama, and well acquainted with the country, affirmed that Chumulari has
many tops, and cannot be perambulated; but that detached peaks near it may
be, and that it is to a temple near one of these that pilgrims resort. Again,
the natives use these names very vaguely, and as that of Kinchinjunga is often
applied equally to all or any part of the group of snows between the Lachen.
and Tambur rivers, so may the term Chumulari have been used vaguely to
Captain Turner or to me. I have been told that an isolated, snow-
venerated mountain rises about twenty miles south of the true Chumulari, and
is called "Sakya-khang" (Sakya's snowy mountain), which may be that seen
408
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
position and sharpness looking low and small; it appeared quite
near, though thirty-nine miles distant.
North-east of Chumulari, and far beyond it, are several
meridional ranges of very much loftier snowy mountains, which
terminated the view of the snowy Himalaya; the distance
embraced being fully 150 miles, and perhaps much more. Of
one of these eastern masses I afterwards took bearings and
angular heights from the Khasia mountains, in Bengal, upwards
of 200 miles south-east of its position.
Turning to the northward, a singular contrast in the view was
presented the broad sandy valley of the Arun lay a few miles.
off, and perhaps 1,500 feet below me; low brown and red ridges,
18,000 to 19,000 feet high, of stony sloping mountains with rocky
tops, divided its feeders, which appeared to be dry, and to occupy
flat sandy valleys. For thirty miles north no mountain was above
the level of the theodolite, and not a particle of snow was to be
seen: beyond that, rugged purple-flanked and snowy-topped
mountains girdled the horizon, appearing no nearer than they did
from the Donkia pass, and their angular heights and bearings
being almost the same as from that point of view. The nearer of
these are said to form the Kiang-lah chain, the furthest I was told
by different authorities are in the salt districts north of Jigatzi.
To the north-east was the lofty region traversed by Turner on
his route by the Ramchoo lakes to Teshoo Loombo; its eleva-
tion may be 17,000 feet above the sea. Beyond it a gorge led
from Darjeeling; but I incline to consider Campbell's and Waugh's mountain
as the one alluded to by Turner, and it is to it that I here refer as bearing
north 115° 30' east from Bhomtso.
These are probably the Ghassa mountains of Turner's narrative: bearings
which I took of one of the loftiest of them, from the Khasia mountains,
together with those from Bhomtso, would appear to place it in latitude 28° 10'
and longitude 90°, and 200 miles from the former station, and 90° east of the
latter. Its elevation from Bhomtso angles is 24,160 fect. I presume I also
saw Chumulari from the Khasia; the most western peak seen thence being in
the direction of that mountain. Captain R. Strachey has most kindly paid
close attention to these bearings and distances, and recalculated the distances:
and heights no confidence is, however, to be placed in the results of such
minute angles, taken from immense distances. Owing in part no doubt to
extraordinary refraction, the angles of the Ghassa mountain taken from the
Khasia give it an elevation of 26,500 feet! which is very much over the
truth; and make that of Chumulari still higher the distance from my position
in the Khasia being 210 miles from Chumulari! which is probably the utmost
limit at which the human eye has ever discerned a terrestrial object.
2 It is somewhat remarkable that Turner nowhere alludes to difficulty of
breathing, and in one place only to head-ache (p. 209) when at these great
elevations. This is in a great measure accounted for by his having been

CHOLAMOO LAKE AND LACHEN RIVER, FROM BOMTSO.
TIBETAN MOUNTAINS.
409
through rugged mountains, by which I was told the Pianom river
flows north-west to the Yaru; and at an immense distance to the
north-east were the Khamba mountains, a long blue range, which
it is said divides the Lhassan or "U" from the " Tsang" (or
Jigatzi) province of Tibet; it appeared fully 100 miles off, and
was probably much more; it bore from No. 57° E. to N. 70 E.,
and though so lofty as to be heavily snowed throughout, was
much below the horizon line of Bhomtso; it is crossed on the
route from Jigatzi, and from Sikkim to Lhassa,¹ and is considered
very lofty, from affecting the breathing. About twenty miles to
the north-east are some curious red conical mountains, said to be
on the west side of the Ramchoo lakes; they were unsnowed,
and bore N. 45° 30′ E. and N. 60° 30' E. A sparingly-snowed
group bore N. 26° 30' E., and another N. 79° E., the latter being
probably that mentioned by Turner as seen by him from near
Giantchi.
But the mountains which appeared both the highest and the
most distant on the northern landscape, were those I described
when at Donkia, as being north of Nepal and beyond the Arun
river, and the culminant peak of which bore N 55° W. Both
Dr. Campbell and I made repeated estimates of its height and
distance by the eye; comparing its size and snow-level with those
of the mountains near us and assuming 4,000 to 5,000 feet as
the minimum height of its snowy cap; this would give it an
elevation of 23,000 to 25,000 feet. An excellent telescope
brought out no features on its flanks not visible to the naked eye,
and by the most careful levellings with the theodolite, it was
depressed more than o° 7' below the horizon of Bhomtso, whence
the distance must be above 100 miles.
The transparency of the pale-blue atmosphere of these lofty
regions can hardly be described, nor the clearness and precision
with which the most distant objects are projected against the sky.
From having afterwards measured peaks 200 and 210 miles
distant from the Khasia mountains, I feel sure that I underrated
the estimates that I made at Bhomtso, and I have no hesitation
in saying, that the mean elevation of the sparingly-snowed
constantly mounted. I never suffered either in my breathing, head, or
stomach when riding, even when at 18,300 feet.
* Lhassa, which lies north-east, may be reached in ten days from this,
with relays of ponies; many mountains are crossed, where the breath is
affected, and few villages are passed after leaving Giantchi, the "Jhansi
jeung" of Turner's narrative. See Campbell's "Routes from Darjeeling to
Lhassa." ("Bengal As. Soc. Journal.")
? Were the snow-level in Dingcham as low as it is in Sikkim, the whole of
2
410
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
watershed between the Yaru and the Arun will be found to be
greater than that of the snowy Himalaya south of it, and to follow
the chain running from Donkia, north of the Arun, along the
Kiang-lah mountains, towards the Nepal frontier, at Tingri
Maidan. No part of that watershed perhaps rises so high as
24,000 feet, but its lowest elevation is probably nowhere under
18,000 feet.
This broad belt of lofty country, north of the snowy Himalaya,
is the Dingcham province of Tibet, and runs along the frontier
of Sikkim, Bhotan, and Nepal. It gives rise to all the Himalayan
rivers, and its mean elevation is probably 15,000 to 15,500 feet :
its general appearance, as seen from greater heights, is that of a
much less mountainous country than the snowy and wet Hima-
layan regions; this is because its mean elevation is so enormous,
that ranges of 20,000 to 22,000 feet appear low and insignificant
upon it. The absence of forest and other obstruction to the
view, the breadth and flatness of the valleys, and the undulating
character of the lower ranges that traverse its surface, give it a
comparatively level appearance, and suggest the term "maidan "
or "plains" to the Tibetan, when comparing his country with
the complicated ridges of the deep Sikkim valleys. Here one
may travel for many miles without rising or falling 3,000 feet, yet
never descending below 14,000 feet, partly because the flat
winding valleys are followed in preference to exhausting ascents,
and partly because the passes are seldom more than that elevation
above the valleys; whereas, in Sikkim, rises and descents of
6,000, and even 9,000 feet, are common in passing from valley
to valley, sometimes in one day's march.
The swarthy races of Dingcham have been elsewhere de-
scribed; they are an honest, hospitable, and very hardy people,
differing from the northern Tibetans chiefly in colour, and in
invariably wearing the pigtail, which M.M. Huc and Gabet assure
us is not usual in Lhassa. I They are a pastoral race, and Camp-
Tibet from Donkia almost to the Varu-Tsampu river would be everywhere
intersected by glaciers and other impassable barriers of snow and ice, for a
breadth of fifty miles, and the country would have no parallel for amount of
snow beyond the Polar circles. It is impossible to conjecture what would
have been the effects on the climate of northern India and central Asia under
these conditions. When, however, we reflect upon the evidences of glacial
phenomena that abound in all the Himalayan valleys at and above 9,000 feet
elevation, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that such a state of things once
existed, and at a comparatively very recent period.
I
¹ Amongst Lhassan customs alluded to by these travellers, is that of the
women smearing their faces with a black pigment, the object of which they
affirm to be that they may render themselves odious to the male sex, and thus
VEGETATION IN TIBET.
bell saw a flock of 400 hornless sheep, grazing on short sedges
(Carex) and fescue-grass, in the middle of October, at 18,000 feet
above the sea. An enormous ram attended the flock, whose
long hair hung down to the ground; its back was painted red.
There is neither tree nor shrub in this country; and a very
little wheat (which seldom ripens), barley, turnips, and radishes
are, I believe, the only crops, except occasionally peas. Other
legumes, cabbages, &c., are cultivated in the sheltered valleys of
the Yaru feeders, where great heat is reflected from the rocks;
and there also stunted trees grow, as willows, walnuts, poplars,
and perhaps ashes; all of which, however, are said to be planted
and scarce. Even at Teshoo Loombo and Jigatzi buckwheat is
a rare crop, and only a prostrate very hardy kind is grown. Clay
teapots and pipkins are the most valuable exports to Sikkim
from the latter city, after salt and soda. Jewels and woollen
cloaks are also exported, the latter especially from Giantchi.
which is famous for its woollen fabrics and mart of ponies.
I
411
Of the Yaru river at Jigatzi, which all affirm becomes the
Burrampooter in Assam, I have little information to add to
Turner's description: it is sixty miles north of Bhomtso, and I
avoid temptation. The custom is common enough, but the real object is to
preserve the skin, which the dry cold wind peels from the face. The pigment
is mutton-fat, blackened, according to Tchebu Lama, with catechu and other
ingredients; but I believe more frequently by the dirt of the face itself. I
fear I do not slander the Tibetan damsels in saying that personal cleanliness
and chastity are both lightly esteemed amongst them; and as the Lama
naïvely remarked, when questioned on the subject, "the Tibetan women are
not so different from women of other countries as to wish to conceal what
charms they possess.
I
Digarchi, Jigatzi, or Shigatzi jong (the fort of Shigatzi is the
capital of the "Tsang" province, and Teshoo Loombo is the neigh-
bouring city of temples and monasteries, the ecclesiastical capital of
Tibet, and the abode of the grand (Teshoo) Lama, or ever-living Boodh.
Whether we estimate this man by the number of his devotees, or the perfect
sincerity of their worship, he is without exception one of the most honoured
beings living in the world. I have assumed the elevation of Jigatzi to be
13-14,000 feet, using as data Turner's October mean temperature of Teshoo
Loombo, and the decrement for elevation of 400 feet to 1° Fahr. which my
own observations indicate as an approximation to the truth. Humboldt
("Asie Centraile," iii., p. 223) uses a much smaller multiplier, and infers the
elevation of Teshoo Loombo to be between 9,500 and 10,000 feet. Our data
are far too imperfect to warrant any satisfactory conclusions on this interesting
subject; but the accounts I have received of the vegetation of the Yaru valley
at Jigatzi seem to indicate an elevation of at least 13,000 feet for the bed of
that river. Of the elevation of Lhassa itself we have no idea if MM. Huc
and Gabet's statement of the rivers not being frozen there in March be correct,
the climate must be very different from what it is generally supposed to be.
·
412
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
I
·
assume its elevation to be 13-14,000 feet it takes an immense
bend to the northward after passing Jigatzi, and again turns south,
flowing to the west of Lhassa, and at some distance from that
capital. Lhassa, as all agree, is at a much lower elevation than
Jigatzi; and apricots (whose ripe stones Dr. Campbell procured
for me) and walnuts are said to ripen there, and the Dama or
Himalayan furze (Caragana), is said to grow there. The Bac-
trian camel also thrives and breeds at Lhassa, together with a
small variety of cow (not the yak), both signs of a much more
temperate climate than Jigatzi enjoys. It is, however, a remark-
able fact that there are two tame elephants near the latter city,
kept by the Teshoo Lama. They were taken to Jigatzi, through
Bhotan, by Phari; and I have been informed that they have
become clothed with long hair, owing to the cold of the climate;
but Tchebu Lama contradicted this, adding, that his countrymen
were so credulous, that they would believe blankets grew on the
elephants' backs, if the Lamas told them so..
No village or house is seen throughout the extensive area over
which the eye roams from Bhomtso, and the general character of
the desolate landscape was similar to that which I have described
as seen from Donkia Pass (p. 377). The wild ass 2 grazing with
The Yaru, which approaches the Nepal frontier west of Tingri, and
beyond the great mountain described at vol. i. p. 265, makes a sweep to the
northward, and turns south to Jigatzi, whence it makes another and greater
bend to the north, and again turning south flows west of Lhassa, receiving the
Kechoo river from that holy city. From Jigatzi it is said to be navigable
to near Lhassa by skin and plank built boats. Thence it flows south-east to
the Assam frontier, and while still in Tibet is said to enter a warm climate,
where tea, silk, cotton, and rice, are grown. Of its course after entering the
Assam Himalaya little is known, and in answer to my inquiries why it had not
been followed, I was always told that the country through which it flowed was
inhabited by tribes of savages, who live on snakes and vermin, and are fierce
and warlike. These are no doubt the Singpho, Bor and Bor-abor tribes who
inhabit the mountains of Upper Assam. A travelling mendicant was once
sent to follow up the Dihong to the Burrampooter, under the joint auspices of
Mr. Hodgson and Major Jenkins, the Commissioner of Assam, but the poor
fellow was speared on the frontier by these savages. The concurrent testi-
mony of the Assamese, that the Dihong is the Yaru, on its southern course
to become the Burrampooter, renders this point as conclusively settled as any,
resting on mere oral evidence, is likely to be.
2 This, the Equus Hemionus of Pallas, the untameable Kiang of Tibet,
abounds in Dingcham, and we saw several. It resembles the ass more than
the horse, from its size, heavy head, small limbs, thin tail, and the stripe over
the shoulder. The flesh is eaten and much liked. The Kiang-lah mountains
are so named from their being a great resort of this creature. It differs widely
from the wild ass of Persia, Sind, and Beloochistan, but is undoubtedly the
same as the Siberian animal,
Thi
?
TIBETAN ANIMALS. SUNSETS.
413
its foal on the sloping downs, the hare bounding over the stony
soil, the antelope scouring the sandy flats, and the fox stealing
along to his burrow, are all desert and Tartarian types of the
animal creation. The shrill whistle of the marmot alone breaks
the silence of the scene, recalling the snows of Lapland to the
mind; the kite and raven wheel through the air, 1,000 feet over-
head, with as strong and steady a pinion as if that atmosphere
possessed the same power of resistance that it does at the level of
the sea. Still higher in the heavens, black long V-shaped trains of
wild geese cleave the air, shooting over the glacier-crowned top
of Kinchinjhow, and winging their flight in one day, perhaps from
the Yaru to the Ganges, over 500 miles of space, and through
22,000 feet of elevation. One plant alone, the yellow lichen
(Borrera), is found at this height, and only as a visitor; for,
Tartar-like, it emigrates over these lofty slopes and ridges, blown
about by the violent winds. I found a small beetle on the very
top, probably blown up also, for it was a flower-feeder, and
seemed benumbed with cold.
I
Every night that we spent in Tibet, we enjoyed a magnificent
display of sunbeams converging to the east, and making a false
sunset. I detailed this phenomenon when seen from the Kymore
mountains, and I repeatedly saw it again in the Khasia, but never
in the Sikkim Himalaya, whence I assume that it is most frequent
in mountain plateaus. As the sun set, broad purple beams rose
from a dark, low leaden, bank on the eastern horizon, and
spreading up to the zenith, covered the intervening space they
lasted through the twilight, from fifteen to twenty minutes, fading
gradually into the blackness of night. I looked in vain for the
beautiful lancet beam of the zodiacal light; its position was
obscured by Chomiomo.
:
On the 18th of October we had another brilliant morning, after
a cold night, the temperature having fallen to 4°. I took the
altitude of Yeumtso by carefully boiling two thermometers, and
the result was 16,279 feet, the barometrical observations giving
16,808 feet. I removed a thermometer sunk three feet in the
gravelly soil, which showed a temperature of 43°, which is 12° 7
above the mean temperature of the two days we camped here.
Our fires were made of dry yak droppings, which soon burn
2
I observed a small red Acarus (mite) at this elevation, both on Donkia
and Kinchinjhow, which reminds me that I found a species of the same genus
at Cockburn Island (in latitude 64° south, longtitude 64° 49 west). This
genus hence inhabits a higher southern latitude than any other land animal
attains.
* It had risen to 43° 5 during the previous day.
414
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
out with a fierce flame, and much black smoke; they give a
disagreeable taste to whatever is cooked with them.
Having sent the coolies forward to Cholamoo lake, we re-
ascended Bhomtso to verify my observations. As on the pre-
vious occasion a violent dry north-west wind blew, peeling the
skin from our faces, loading the hair with grains of sand, and
rendering theodolite observations very uncertain; besides injuring
all my instruments, and exposing them to great risk of breakage.
The Tibetan Sepoys did not at all understand our ascending
Bhomtso a second time; they ran after Campbell, who was ahead
on a stout pony, girding up their long garments, bracing their
matchlocks tight over their shoulders, and gasping for breath at
every step, the long horns of their muskets bobbing up and down
as they toiled amongst the rocks. When I reached the top I
found Campbell seated behind a little stone wall which he had
raised to keep off the violent wind, and the uncouth warriors in
a circle round him, puzzled beyond measure at his admiration of
the view. My instruments perplexed them extremely, and in
crowding round me they broke my azimuth compass. They left
us to ourselves when the fire I made to boil the thermometers
went out, the wind being intensely cold. I had given my baro-
meter to one of Campbell's men to carry, who not coming up,
the latter kindly went to search for him, and found him on the
ground quite knocked up and stupified by the cold, and there, if
left alone, he would have lain till overtaken by death.
The barometer on the summit of Bhomtso stood at 15'548
inches; the temperature between 11°30 A.M. and 2'30 P.M.
fluctuated between 44° and 56°: this was very high for so great an
elevation, and no doubt due to the power of the sun on the sterile
soil, and consequent radiated heat. The tension of vapour was
'0763, and the dew-point was 5º 8, or 43° 5 below the tempera-
ture of the air. Such extraordinary dryness and consequent
evaporation, increased by the violent wind, sufficiently accounts
for the height of the snow line; in further evidence of which, I
may add that, a piece of ice or snow laid on the ground here,
does not melt, but disappears by evaporation.
2
The difference between the dry cold air of this elevation and
The elevation of Bhomtso, worked by Bessel's tables, and using corrected
observations of the Calcutta barometer for the lower station, is 18,590 feet.
The corresponding dew-point 4° 4 (49° 6 below that of the air at the time of
observation). By Oltmann's tables the elevation is 18,540 feet. The eleva-
tion by boiling water is 18,305.
2 The weight of vapour in a cubic foot of air was no more than 1835 of a
grain, and the saturation point 208.
CHOLAMOO LAKE. NUMMULITE LIMESTONE. 415
that of the heated plains of India is very great. During the
driest winds of the Terai, in spring, the temperature is 80° to
90º, the tension of vapour is 400 to 500, with a dew-point 22°
below the temperature, and upwards of six grains of vapour are
suspended in the cubic foot of air; a thick haze obscures the
heavens, and clouds of dust rise high in the air; here on the
other hand (probably owing to the rarity of the atmosphere and
the low tension of its vapours), the drought is accompanied by
perfect transparency, and the atmosphere is too attenuated to
support the dust raised by the wind.
We descended in the afternoon, and on our way up the Lachen
valley examined a narrow gully in a lofty red spur from Kinchin-
jhow, where black shales were in situ, striking north-east, and
dipping north-west 45° These shales were interposed between
beds of yellow quartz conglomerate, upon the latter of which
rested a talus of earthy rocks, angular fragments of which were
strewed about opposite this spur, but were not seen elsewhere.
It became dark before we reached the Cholamoo lake, where
we lost our way amongst glaciers, moraines, and marshes. We
expected to have seen the lights of the camp, but were disap-
pointed, and as it was freezing hard, we began to be anxious, and
shouted till the echoes of our voices against the opposite bank
were heard by Tchebu Lama, who met us in great alarm for our
safety. Our camp was pitched some way from the shore, on a
broad plain, 16,900 feet above the sea.¹ A cold wind descended
from Donkia; yet, though more elevated than Yeumtso, the
climate of Cholamoo, from being damper and misty, was milder.
The minimum thermometer fell to 14°.
Before starting for Donkia pass on the following morning, we
visited some black rocks which rose from the flat to the east of
the lake. They proved to be of fossiliferous limestone, the strata
of which were much disturbed: the strike appeared in one part
north-west, and the dip north-east 45°: a large fault passed east
by north through the cliff, and it was further cleft by joints
running northwards. The cliff was not 100 yards long, and was
about 70 thick; its surface was shivered by frost into cubical
masses, and glacial boulders of gneiss lay on the top. The lime-
This, which is about the level of the lake, gives the Lachen river a fall of
about 1,500 feet between its source and Kongra Lama, or sixty feet per mile
following its windings. From Kongra Lama to Tallum it is 140 feet per mile;
from Tallum to Singtam 160 feet; and from Singtam to the plains of India 50
feet per mile. The total fall from Cholamoo lake to its exit on the plains of
India is eighty-five feet per mile. Its length, following its windings, is 195
miles, upwards of double the direct distance.
416
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
stone rock was chiefly a blue pisolite conglomerate, with veins
and crystals of white carbonate of lime, seams of shale, and iron
pyrites. A part was compact and blue, very crystalline, and full
of encrinitic fossils, and probably nummulites, but all were too
much altered for determination.
This, from its mineral characters, appears to be the same lime-
stone formation which occurs throughout the Himalaya and
Western Tibet; but the fossils I collected are in too imperfect a
state to warrant any conclusions on this subject. Its occurrence
immediately to the northward of the snowy mountains, and in
such very small quantities, are very remarkable facts. The
neighbouring rocks of Donkia were gneiss with granite veins, also
striking north-west and dipping north-east 10°, as if they overlay
the limestone, but here as in all similar situations there was
great confusion of the strata, and variation in direction and strike.
And here I may once for all confess that though I believe the
general strike of the rocks on this frontier to be north-west, and
the dip north-east, I am unable to affirm it positively; for though -
I took every opportunity of studying the subject, and devoted
many hours to the careful measuring and recording of dips and
strikes, on both faces of Kinchinjhow, Donkia, Bhomtso, and
Kongra Lama, I am unable to reduce these to any intelligible
system.¹
2
The coolies of Dr. Campbell's party were completely knocked
up by the rarified air; they had taken a whole day to march here
from Yeumtso, scarcely six miles, and could eat no food at night.
A Lama of our party offered up prayers to Kinchinjhow for the
recovery of a stout Lepcha lad (called Nurko), who showed no
signs of animation, and had all the symptoms of serous apoplexy.
The Lama perched a saddle on a stone, and burning incense
before it, scattered rice to the winds, invoking Kinchin, Donkia,
and all the neighbouring peaks. A strong dose of calomel and
jalap, which we poured down the sick lad's throat, contributed
materially to the success of these incantations.
North-west is the prevalent strike in Kumaon, the north-west Himalaya
generally, and throughout Western Tibet, Kashmir, &c., according to Dr.
Thomson.
2 All diseases are attributed by the Tibetans to the four elements, who are
propitiated accordingly in cases of severe illness. The winds are invoked in
cases of affections of the breathing; fire in fevers and inflammations; water in
dropsy, and diseases whereby the fluids are affected; and the God of earth
when solid organs are diseased, as in liver-complaints, rheumatism, &c.
Propitiatory offerings are made to the deities of these elements, but never
Sacrifices.
¿
DONKIA PASS. DEBACLES OF ROCKS.
417
The Tibetan Sepoys were getting tired of our delays, which so
much favoured my operations; but though showing signs of
impatience and sulkiness, they behaved well to the last; taking
the sick man to the top of the pass on their yaks, and assisting
all the party: nothing, however, would induce them to cross into
Sikkim, which they considered as "Company's territory."
Before proceeding to the pass, I turned off to the east, and
reascended Donkia to upwards of 19,000 feet, vainly hoping to
get a more distant view, and other bearings of the Tibetan
mountains. The ascent was over enormous piles of loose rocks
split by the frost, and was extremely fatiguing. I reached a peak
overhanging a steep precipice, at whose base were small lakes
and glaciers, from which flowed several sources of the Lachen,
afterwards swelled by the great affluent from Cholamoo lake. A
few rocks striking north-east and dipping north-west, projected at
the very summit, with frozen snow amongst them, beyond which
the ice and precipices rendered it impossible to proceed: but
though exposed to the north, there was no perpetual snow in the
ordinary acceptation of the term, and an arctic European lichen
(Lecidea oreina) grew on the top, so faintly discolouring the rocks
as hardly to be detected without a magnifying-glass.
I descended obliquely, down a very steep slope of 35°, over
upwards of a thousand feet of débris, the blocks on which were
so loosely poised on one another, that it was necessary to pro-
ceed with the utmost circumspection, for I was alone, and a false
step would almost certainly have been followed by breaking a leg.
The alternate freezing and thawing of rain amongst these masses,
must produce a constant downward motion in the whole pile of
débris (which was upwards of 2,000 feet high), and may account
for the otherwise unexplained phenomenon of continuous shoots
of angular rocks reposing on very gentle slopes in other places.¹
The north ascent to the Donkia pass is by a path well selected
amongst immense angular masses of rock, and over vast piles of
débris the strike on this, the north face, was again north-east,
and dip north-west. I arrived at the top at 3 P.M., thoroughly
fatigued, and found my faithful Lepcha lads (Cheytoong and
May not the origin of the streams of quartz blocks that fill gently sloping
broad valleys several miles long, in the Falkland Islands, be thus explained?
(See "Darwin's Journal," in Murray's Home and Col. Lib.) The extraordinary
shifting in the position of my thermometer left among the rocks of the Donkia
pass (see p. 380), and the mobile state of the slopes I descended on this
occasion, first suggested this explanation to me. When in the Falkland
Islands I was wholly unable to offer any explanation of the phenomenon
there, to which my attention had been drawn by Mr. Darwin's narrative,
28
418
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Bassebo) nestling under a rock with my theodolite and baro-
meters, having been awaiting my arrival in the biting wind for
three hours. My pony stood there too, the picture of patience,
and laden with minerals. After repeating my observations, I
proceeded to Momay Samdong, where I arrived after dusk. I
left a small bottle of brandy and some biscuits with the lads, and
it was well I did so, for the pony knocked up before reaching
Momay, and rather than leave my bag of stones, they passed the
night by the warm flank of the beast, under a rock at 18,000 feet
elevation, without other food, fire, or shelter.
I found my companion encamped at Momay, on the spot I
had occupied in September; he had had the utmost difficulty in
getting his coolies on, as they threw down their light loads in
despair, and lying with their faces to the ground, had to be roused
from a lethargy that would soon have been followed by death.
We rested for a day at Momay, and on the 20th, attempted to
ascend to the Donkia glacier, but were driven back by a heavy
snow-storm. The scenery, on arriving here, presented a wide
difference to that we had left; snow lying at 16,500 feet, whereas
immediately to the north of the same mountain there was none at
19,000 feet. Before leaving Momay, I sealed two small glass.
flasks containing the air of this elevation, by closing with a spirit
lamp a very fine capillary tube, which formed the opening to
each; avoiding the possibility of heating the contents by the hand
or otherwise. The result of its analysis by Mr. Muller (who sent
me the prepared flasks), was that it contained 36.538 per cent in
volume of oxygen; whereas his repeated analysis of the air of
Calcutta gives 21 per cent. Such a result is too anomalous to be
considered satisfactory.
I again visited the Kinchinjhow glacier and hot springs; the
water had exactly the same temperature as in the previous
month, though the mean temperature of the air was 8° or 9°.
lower. The minimum thermometer fell to 22°, being ten lower
than it ever fell in September.
We descended to Yeumtong in a cold drizzle, arriving by
sunset; we remained through the following day, hoping to
explore the lower glacier on the opposite side of the valley :
which, however, the weather entirely prevented. I have before
mentioned (p. 392) that in descending in autumn from the drier
and more sunny rearward Sikkim valleys, the vegetation is found
to be most backward in the lowest and dampest regions. On
this occasion, I found asters, grasses, polygonums, and other
plants that were withered, brown, and seeding at Momay (14,000
0
VEGETATION AT DIFFERENT ELEVATIONS.
419
to 15,000 feet), at Yeumtong (12,000 feet) green and unripe ; and
2,000 feet lower still, at Lachoong, the contrast was even more
marked. Thus the short backward spring and summer of the
Arctic zone is overtaken by an early and forward seed-time and
winter so far as regards the effects of mean temperature, the
warmer station is in autumn more backward than the colder.
This is everywhere obvious in the prevalent plants of each, and is
especially recognisable in the rhododendrons; as the following
table shows:
-
=
16,000 to 17,000 feet, R. nivale flowers in July; fruits in September=2 months.
13,000,, 14,000 feet, R. anthopogon flowers in June; fruits in Oct. 4 months.
11,000,, 12,000 feet, R. campanulatum flowers in May; fruits in Nov 6 months.
8,000,, 9,000 feet, R. argenteum flowers in April; fruits in Dec. = 8 months.
And so it is with many species of Composite and Umbellifera, and
indeed of all natural orders, some of which I have on the same
day gathered in ripe fruit at 13,000 to 14,000 feet, and found still
in flower at 9,000 to 10,000 feet. The brighter skies and more
powerful and frequent solar radiation at the greater elevations
account for this apparent inversion of the order of nature.¹
I was disappointed at finding the rhododendron seeds still
immature at Yeumtong, for I was doubtful whether the same
kinds might be met with at the Chola pass, which I had yet to
visit; besides which, their tardy maturation threatened to delay
me for an indefinite period in the countrv. Viburnum and
The distribution of the seasons at different elevations in the Himalaya
gives rise to some anomalies that have puzzled naturalists. From the middle
of October to that of May, vegetation is torpid above 14,000 feet, and indeed
almost uniformly covered with snow. From November to the middle of April,
vegetation is also torpid above 10,000 feet, except that a few trees and bushes
do not ripen all their seeds till December. The three winter months
(December, January, and February) are all but dead above 6,000 feet, the
earliest appearance of spring at Darjeeling (7,000 feet) being at the sudden
accession of heat in March. From May till August the vegetation at each
elevation is (in ascending order) a month behind that below it; 4,000 feet
being about equal to a month of summer weather in one sense. I mean by
this, that the genera and natural orders (and sometimes the species) which
flower at 8,000 feet in May, are not so forward at 12,000 feet till June, nor at
16,000 feet till July. After August, however, the reverse holds good; then
the vegetation is as forward at 16,000 feet as at 8,000 feet. By the end of
September most of the natural orders and genera have ripened their fruit in
the upper zone, though they have flowered as late as July: whereas October
is the fruiting month at 12,000, and November below 10,000 feet. Dr.
Thomson does not consider that the more sunny climate of the loftier eleva-
tions sufficiently accounts for this, and adds the stimulus of cold, which must
act by checking the vegetative organs and hastening maturation.
420
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Lonicera, however, were ripe and abundant; the fruits of both
are considered poisonous in Europe, but here the black berries of
a species of the former (called "Nalum ") are eatable and agree-
able; as are those of a Gualtheria, which are pale blue, and
called "Kalumbo." Except these, and the cherry mentioned
above, there are no other autumnal fruits above 10,000 feet:
brambles, strange as it may appear, do not ascend beyond that
elevation in the Sikkim Himalaya, though so abundant below it,
both in species and individuals, and though so typical of northern
Europe.
At Lachoong we found all the yaks that had been grazing till
the end of September at the higher elevations, and the Phipun
presented our men with one of a gigantic size, and proportionally
old and tough. The Lepchas barbarously slaughtered it with
arrows, and feasted on the flesh and entrails, singed and fried the
skin, and made soup of the bones, leaving nothing but the horns
hoofs. Having a fine day, they prepared some as jerked meat,
cutting it into thin strips, which they dried on the rocks. This
(called "Schat-chew," dried meat) is a very common and
favourite food in Tibet, I found it palatable: but on the other
hand, the dried saddles of mutton, of which they boast so much,
taste so strongly of tallow, that I found it impossible to swallow a
morsel of them."
We stayed two days at Lachoong, two of my lads being again
laid up with fever; one of them had been similarly attacked at
the same place nearly two months before: the other lad had been
* Raw dried split fish are abundantly cured (without salt) in Tibet; they are
caught in the Yaru and great lakes of Ramchoo, Dobtah, and Yarbru, and are
chiefly carp, and allied fish, which attain a large size. It is one of the most
remarkable facts in the zoology of Asia, that no trout or salmon inhabits any
of the rivers that débouche into the Indian Ocean (the so-called Himalayan
trout is a species of carp). This widely distributed natural order of fish
(Salmonida) is, however, found in the Oxus, and in all the rivers of central
Asia that flow north and west, and the Salmo orientalis, M'Clelland
("Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist." iii., p. 283), was caught by Mr. Griffith
(Journals, p. 404) in the Bamean river (north of the Hindo Koosh) which
flows into the Oxus, and whose waters are separated by one narrow mountain
ridge from those of the feeders of the Indus. The central Himalayan rivers
often rise in Tibet from lakes full of fish, but have none (at least during the
rains) in that rapid part of their course from 10,000 to 14,000 feet elevation:
below that fish abound, but I believe invariably of different species from those
found at the sources of the same rivers. The nature of the tropical ocean into
which all the Himalayan rivers débouche, is no doubt the proximate cause of
the absence of Salmonida. Sir John Richardson (Fishes of China Seas, &c.,
"in Brit. Ass. Rep. &c."), says that no species of the order has been found in
the Chinese or eastern Asiatic seas,
"
LEPCHA LAD'S COURAGE.
repeatedly ill since June, and at all elevations. Both cases were
returns of a fever caught in the low unhealthy valleys some
months previously, and excited by exposure and hardship.
The vegetation at Lachoong was still beautiful, and the weather
mild, though snow had descended to 14,000 feet on Tunkra.
Composita were abundantly in flower, apples in young fruit,
bushes of Cotoneaster covered with scarlet berries, and the brush-
wood silvery with the feathery heads of Clematis.
I here found that I had lost a thermometer for high tempera-
tures, owing to a hole in the bag in which Cheytoong carried
those of my instruments which were in constant use. It had
been last used at the hot springs of the Kinchinjhow glacier; and
the poor lad was so concerned at his mishap, that he came to me
soon afterwards, with his blanket on his back, and a few handfuls
of rice in a bag, to make his salaam before setting out to search
for it. There was not now a single inhabitant between Lachoong
and that dreary spot, and strongly against my wish he started,
without a companion. Three days afterwards he overtook us at
Keadom, radiant with joy at having found the instrument: he
had gone up to the hot springs, and vainly sought around them
that evening; then rather than lose the chance of a day-light
search on his way back, he had spent the cold October night in
the hot water, without fire or shelter, at 16,000 feet above the sea.
Next morning his search was again fruitless; and he was return-
ing disconsolate, when he descried the brass case glistening
between two planks of the bridge crossing the river at Momay,
over which torrent the instrument was suspended. The Lepchas
have generally been considered timorous of evil spirits, and
especially averse to travelling at night, even in company.
However little this gallant lad may have been given to supersti-
tion, he was nevertheless a Lepcha, born in a warm region, and
had never faced the cold till he became my servant; and it
required a stout heart and an honest one, to spend a night in so
awful a solitude as that which reigns around the foot of the
Kinchinjhow glacier.¹
The villagers at Keadom, where we slept on the 26th, were
busy cutting the crops of millet, maize, and Amaranthus. A girl
who, on my way down the previous month, had observed my
421
The fondness of natives for hot springs wherever they occur is very natural,
and has been noticed by Humboldt, "Pers. Narr." iv. 195, who states that on
Christianity being introduced into Iceland, the natives refused to be baptised
in any but the water of the Geysers. I have mentioned at p. 371 the uses to
which the Yeumtong hot springs are put; and the custom of using artificial
hot baths is noticed at p. 214.
422
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
curiosity about a singular variety of the maize, had preserved the
heads on their ripening, and now brought them to me. The
peaches were all gathered, and though only half ripe, were better
than Darjeeling produce. A magnificent tree of Bucklandia, one
of the most beautiful evergreens in Sikkim, grew near this village;
it had a trunk twenty-one feet seven inches in girth, at five feet
from the ground, and was unbranched for forty feet.¹ Ferns
and the beautiful air-plant Cælogyne Wallichii grew on its
branches, with other orchids, while Clematis and Stauntonia
climbed the trunk. Such great names (Buckland, Staunton, and
Wallich) thus brought before the traveller's notice, never failed to
excite lively and pleasing emotions: it is the ignorant and un-
feeling alone who can ridicule the association of the names of
travellers and naturalists with those of animals and plants.
We arrived at Choongtam (for the fourth time) at noon, and
took up our quarters in a good house near the temple. The
autumn and winter flowering plants now prevailed here, such as
Labiata, which are generally late at this elevation; and grasses,
which, though rare in the damp forest regions, are so common on
these slopes that I here gathered twenty-six kinds. I spent a day
here in order to collect seeds of the superb rhododendrons 2
which I had discovered in May, growing on the hills behind.
The ascent was now difficult, from the length of the wiry grass,
which rendered the slopes so slippery that it was impossible to
ascend without holding on by the tussocks.
A ragged Tibetan mendicant (Phud) was amusing the people:
he put on a black mask with cowris shells for eyes, and danced
uncouth figures with a kind of heel and toe shuffle, in excellent
time, to rude Tibetan songs of his own: for this he received
ample alms, which a little boy collected in a wallet. These
vagrants live well upon charity; they bless, curse, and transact
This superb tree is a great desideratum in our gardens; I believe it would
thrive in the warm west of England. Its wood is brown, and not valuable as
timber, but the thick, bright, glossy, evergreen foliage is particularly hand-
some, and so is the form of the crown. It is also interesting in a physiological
point of view, from the woody fibre being studded with those curious micro-
scopic discs so characteristic of pines, and which when occurring on fossil
wood are considered conclusive as to the natural family to which such woods
belong. Geologists should bear in mind that not only does the whole natural
order to which Bucklandia belongs, possess this character, but also various
species of Magnoliacea found in India, Australia, Borneo, and South America.
2 These Rhododendrons are now all flourishing at Kew and elsewhere:
they are R. Dalhousiæ, arboreum, Maddeni, Edgeworthii, Aucklandii and
virgatum.

TIBETAN MENDICANT.
423
little affairs of all kinds up and down the valleys of Sikkim and
Tibet; this one dealt in red clay teapots, sheep and puppies.
We found Meepo at Choongtam: I had given him leave (when
here last) to go back to the Rajah, and to visit his wife; and he
had returned with instructions to conduct me to the Chola and
Yakla passes in Eastern Sikkim. These passes, like that of
TIBETAN PHUD.
W. WHYMETR
Tunkra (p. 366), lead over the Chola range to that part of Tibet
which is interposed between Sikkim and Bhotan. My road lay
past the Rajah's residence, which we considered very fortunate,
as apparently affording Campbell an opportunity of a conference
with his highness, for which both he and the Tchebu Lama were
most anxious.
424
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
On the way down the Lachen-Lachoong, we found the valley
still flooded (as described at p. 20 and 146), and the alders
standing with their trunks twelve feet under water; but the
shingle dam was now dry and hard: it would probably soften,
and be carried away by the first rains of the following year. I
left here the temperate flora of northern Sikkim, tropical forms
commencing to appear: of these the nettle tribe were most
numerous in the woods. A large grape, with beautiful clusters of
round purple berries, was very fair eating; it is not the common
vine of Europe, which nevertheless is probably an Himalayan
plant, the Vitis Indica.
At Chakoong the temperature of the river, which in May was
54°, was now 51° 5 at 3 P.M. We did not halt here, but pro-
ceeded to Namgah, a very long and fatiguing march. Thence a
short march took us to Singtam, which we reached on the 30th
of October. The road by which I had come up was for half the
distance obliterated in most parts by landslips, but they were
hard and dry, and the leeches were gone.
2
Bad weather, and Campbell's correspondence with the Durbar,
who prevented all communication with the Rajah, detained us
here two days, after which we crossed to the Teesta valley, and
continued along its east bank to Tucheam, 2,000 feet above the
river. We obtained a magnificent view of the east face of
Kinchinjunga, its tops bearing respectively N. 62° W., and N. 63°
W. the south slope of the snowed portion in profile was 34°,
and of the north 40°; but both appeared much steeper to the
eye, when unaided by an instrument.
The great shrubby nettle (Urtica crenulata) is common here:
this plant, called "Mealum-ma," attains fifteen feet in height; it
has broad glossy leaves, and though apparently without stings, is
held in so great dread,3 that I had difficulty in getting help to cut
The origin of the common grape being unknown, it becomes a curious
question to decide whether the Himalayan Vitis Indica is the wild state of
that plant an hypothesis strengthened by the fact of Bacchus, &c., having
come from the East.
•
I took a number of dips and strikes of the micaceous rocks: the strike of
these was as often north-east as north-west; it was ever varying, and the strata
were so disturbed, as materially to increase the number and vast dimensions of
the landslips.
3 The stinging hairs are microscopic, and confined to the young shoots, leaf
and flower-stalks. Leschenault de la Tour describes being stung by this nettle
on three fingers of his hand only at the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, and the
subsequent sneezing and running at the nose, followed by tetanic symptoms
and two days' suffering, nor did the effects disappear for nine days. It is a
remarkable fact that the plant stings violently only at this season. I frequently

VIRULENT STINGING NETTLE.
425
it down. I gathered many specimens without allowing any part
to touch my skin; still the scentless effluvium was so powerful,
that mucous matter poured from my eyes and nose all the rest of
the afternoon, in such abundance, that I had to hold my head
over a basin for an hour. The sting is very virulent, producing
inflammation; and to punish a child with "Mealum-ma" is the
severest Lepcha threat. Violent fevers and death have been said
to ensue from its sting; but this I very much doubt.
gathered it with impunity on subsequent occasions, and suspected some in-
accuracy in my observations; but in Silhet both Dr. Thomson and I ex-
perienced the same effects in autumn. Endlicher ("Lindley's Vegetable
Kingdom") attributes the causticity of nettle-juice to bicarbonate of ammonia,
which Dr. Thomson and I ascertained was certainly not present in this species.
22334
TIBETAN IMPLEMENTS.
TEA-POT, CUP, AND BRICK OF TEA; KNIFE, TOBACCO-PIPE (ACROSS CHOP-
STICKS), POUCH, AND FLINT-AND-STEEL.
426
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
CHAPTER XXV
Journey to the Rajah's residence at Tumloong-Ryott valley-Rajah's house
-Tupgain Lama-Lagong nunnery-Phadong Goompa-Phenzong ditto
-Lepcha Sepoys-Proceedings at Tumloong-Refused admittance to
Rajah-Women's dresses-Meepo's and Tchebu Lama's families-Chapel
-Leave for Chola pass-Ryott river-Rungpo, view from-Deputation
of Kajees, &c.-Conference-Laghep-Eatable fruit of Decaisnea-
Cathcartia Rhododendrons-Phieunggoong-Pines-Rutto river-Bar-
fonchen-Curling of rhododendron leaf-Woodcock-Chola pass-Small
lakes-Tibet guard and sepoys-Dingpun-Arrival of Sikkim sepoys-
Their conduct-Meet Singtam Soubah-Chumanako-We are seized by
the Soubah's party-Soubah's conduct-Dingpun Tinli-Treatment of
Dr. Campbell-Bound and guarded-Separated from Campbell-Marched
to Tumloong-Motives for such conduct-Arrive at Rungpo--At Phadong
-Presents from Rajah-Visits of Lama-Of Singtam Soubah-I am
cross-questioned by Amlah-Confined with Campbell-Seizure of my
Coolies-Threats of attacking Darjeeling.
WE started on the 3rd of November for Tumloong (or Sikkim
Durbar), Dr. Campbell sending Tchebu Lama forward with
letters to announce his approach. A steep ascent, through large
trees of Rhododendron arboreum, led over a sharp spur of mica-
schist (strike north-west and dip north-east), beyond which the
whole bay-like valley of the Ryott opened before us, presenting
one of the most lovely and fertile landscapes in Sikkim. It is
ten miles long, and three or four broad, flanked by lofty moun-
tains, and its head girt by the beautiful snowy range of Chola,
from which silvery rills descend through black pine-woods, divid-
ing innumerable converging cultivated spurs, and uniting about.
2,000 feet below us, in a profound gorge. Everywhere were
scattered houses, purple crops of buckwheat, green fields of young
wheat, yellow millet, broad green plantains, and orange groves.
We crossed spur after spur, often under or over precipices
about fifteen hundred feet above the river, proceeding eastwards.
to the village of Rangang, whence we caught sight of the Rajah's
house. It was an irregular low stone building of Tibetan archi-
tecture, with slanting walls and small windows high up under the
broad thatched roof, above which, in the middle, was a Chinese-
looking square copper-gilt canopy, with projecting eaves and
bells at the corners, surmounted by a ball and square spire. On
either gable of the roof was a round-topped cylinder of gilded
copper, something like a closed umbrella; this is a very frequent
and characteristic Boodhist ornament, and is represented in
Turner's plate of the mausoleum of Teshoo Lama ("Tibet "
plate xi.); indeed the Rajah's canopy at Tumloong is probably
•
TUMLOONG. SIKKIM RAJAH'S RESIDENCE. 427
a copy of the upper part of the building there represented, having
been built by architects from Teshoo Loombo. It was surrounded
by chaits, mendongs, poles with banners, and other religious
erections; and though beautifully situated on a flat terrace over-
looking the valley, we were much disappointed with its size and
appearance.
On the brow of the hill behind was the large red goompa of
the Tupgain Lama, the late heir-apparent to the temporal and
spiritual authority in Sikkim ; and near it a nunnery called Lagong,
the lady abbess of which is a daughter of the Rajah, who, with the
assistance of sisters, keeps an enormous Mani, or praying-cylinder,
revolving perpetually to the prayer of "Om Mani Padmi hom."
On this side was a similar spur, on which the gilded pinnacles
and copper canopy of the Phadong¹ goompa gleamed through
the trees. At a considerable distance across the head of the
valley was still a third goompa, that of Phenzong.
We were met by a large party of armed Lepchas, dressed in
blue and white striped kirtles, broad loose scarlet jackets, and
the little bamboo wattle hat lined with talc, and surmounted by
a peacock's feather; they escorted us to the village, and then
retired.
We encamped a few hundred feet below the Rajah's house, and
close by those of Meepo and the Tchebu Lama's family, who are
among the oldest and most respectable of Tibetan origin in
Sikkim. The population on this, the north side of the Ryott,
consists principally of Sikkim Bhoteeas and Tibetans, while the
opposite is peopled by Lepchas. Crowds came to see us, and
many brought presents, with which we were overwhelmed; but
we could not help remarking that our cordial greetings were
wholly from the older families attached to the Rajah, and from
the Lamas; none proceeded from the Dewan's relatives or friends,
nor therefore any in the name of the Rajah himself, or of the
Sikkim government.
Tchebu Lama vainly used every endeavour to procure for us
an audience with his highness; who was surrounded by his coun-
cillors, or Amlah, all of whom were adherents of the Dewan, who
was in Tibet. My man Meepo, and the Tchebu Lama, who were
ordered to continue in official attendance upon us, shrugged their
shoulders, but could suggest no remedy. On the following
morning Campbell was visited by many parties, amongst whom
were the Lama's family, and that of the late Dewan (Ilam Sing),
Phadong means Royal, and this temple answers to a chapel royal for the
Rajah.
腰
​
428
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
who implored us to send again to announce our presence, and not
to dismiss at once the moonshie and his office, who had accom-
panied us for the purpose of a conference with the Rajah. Their
wishes were complied with, and we waited till noon before pro-
ceeding.
A gay and animated scene was produced by the concourse of
women, dressed in their pretty striped and crossed cloaks, who
EXPEC
TCHEBU LAMA.
brought tokens of good-will. Amongst them Meepo's wife
appeared conspicuous from the large necklaces and amulets,
corals, and silver filagree work, with which her neck and shoulders.
It is usual in India for Government officers when about to transact busi-
ness, to travel with a staff (called office) of native interpreters, clerks, &c., of
whom the chief is commonly called moonshie.
The lumps of amber forming these (called "Poshea") were larger than the
fist: they are procured in East Tibet, probably from Birmah.
FL
LAMA'S HOUSE AND CHAPEL.
429
were loaded: she wore on her head a red tiara ("Patuk ") bedi-
zened with seed pearls and large turquoises, and a gold fillet of
filagree bosses united by a web of slender chains; her long tails
were elaborately plaited, and woven with beads, and her cloak
hooked in front by a chain of broad silver links studded with
turquoises. White silk scarfs, the emblem of peace and friend-
ship, were thrown over our hands by each party; and rice, eggs,
fowls, kids, goats, and Murwa beer, poured in apace, to the great
delight of our servants. ·
We returned two visits or ceremony, one to Meepo's house, a
poor cottage, to which we carried presents of chintz dresses for
his two little girls, who were busy teazing their hair with cylin-
drical combs, formed of a single slender joint of bamboo slit all
round half-way up into innumerable teeth. Our other visit was
paid to the Lama's family who inhabited a large house not far
from the Rajah's. The lower story was an area enclosed by stone
walls, into which the cattle, &c., were driven. An outside stone
stair led to the upper story, where we were received by the head
of the family, accompanied by a great concourse of Lamas. He
conducted us to a beautiful little oratory at one end of the build-
ing, fitted up like a square temple, and lighted with latticed
windows, covered with brilliants and tasteful paintings by Lhassan
artists. The beams of the ceiling were supported by octagonal
columns painted red, with broad capitals. Everywhere the lotus,
the mani, and the chirki (or wheel with three rays, emblematic of
the Boodhist Trinity), were introduced; "Om Mani Padmi hom”
in gilt letters adorned the projecting end of every beam; and
the Chinese "cloud messenger," or winged dragon, floated in
azure and gold along the capitals and beams, amongst scrolls and
groups of flowers. At one end was a sitting figure of Gorucknath
in Lama robes, surrounded by a glory, with mitre and beads; the
right hand holding the Dorje, and the forefinger raised in prayer.
Around was a good library of books. More presents were brought
here, and tea served.
A mythical animal with a dog's head and blood-red spot over the forehead
was not uncommon in this chapel, and is also seen in the Sikkim temples and
throughout Tibet. Ermann, in his Siberian travels, mentions it as occurring
in the Khampa Lama's temple at Maimao chin; he conjectures it to have been
the Cyclops of the Greeks, which according to the Homeric myth had a mark
on the forehead, instead of an eye. The glory surrounding the heads of Tibetan
deities is also alluded to by Ermann, who recognises in it the Nimbus of the
ancients, used to protect the heads of statues from the weather, and from being
soiled by birds; and adds that the glory of the ancient masters in painting was
no doubt introduced into the Byzantine school from the Boodhists.

430
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
The route to Chola pass, which crosses the range of that name
south of the Chola peak (17,320 feet) at the head of this valley, is
across the Ryott, and then eastwards along a lofty ridge. Camp-
bell started at noon, and I waited behind with Meepo, who wished.
me to see the Rajah's dwelling, to which we therefore ascended;
but, to my guide's chagrin, we were met and turned back by a
scribe, or clerk, of the Amlah. We were followed by a messenger,
apologising and begging me to return; but I had already descended
1,000 feet, and felt no inclination to reascend the hill, especially
as there did not appear to be anything worth seeing. Soon after
I had overtaken Campbell, he was accosted by an excessively dirty
fellow, who desired him to return for a conference with the
Amlah; this was of course declined, but, at the same time,
CLASP OF A WOMAN'S CLOAK.
Campbell expressed his readiness to receive the Amlah at our
halting place.
The Ryott flows in a very tropical gorge 2,000 feet above the
sea; from the proximity of the snowy mountains, its temperature
was only 64 3. Thence the ascent is very steep to Rungpo,
where we took up our quarters at a rest-house (alt. 6,008 feet).
This road is well kept, and hence onwards is traversed yearly by
the Rajah on his way to his summer residence of Choombi, two
marches beyond the Chola pass; whither he is taken to avoid the
Sikkim rains, which are peculiarly disagreeable to Tibetans.
Runpo commands a most beautiful view northwards, across the
valley, of the royal residence, temples, goompas, hamlets, and
cultivation, scattered over spurs that emerge from the forest,
LEAVE TUMLOONG FOR CHOLA PASS.
431
studded below with tree-ferns and plantains, and backed by black
pine-woods and snowy mountains. In the evening the Amlah
arrived to confer with Campbell; at first there was a proposal of
turning us out of the house, in which there was plenty of room
besides, but as we declined to move, except by his Highness's
order, they put up in houses close by.
3
On the following morning they met us as we were departing for
Chola pass, bringing large presents in the name of the Rajah, and
excuses on their and his part for having paid us no respect at
Tumloong, saying, that it was not the custom to receive strangers
till after they had rested a day, and that they were busy preparing
a suitable reception, &c. ; this was all false, and contrary to eti-
quette, but there was no use in telling them so. Campbell spoke
firmly and kindly to them, and pointed out their incivility and the
unfriendly tone of their whole conduct. They then desired
Campbell to wait and discuss business affairs with them; this was
out of the question, and he assured them that he was ever ready
to do so with the Rajah, that he was now (as he had informed his
Highness) on his way with me to the Chola and Yakla passes,
and that we had, for want of coolies, left some loads behind us,
which, if they were really friendly, they would forward. This
they did, and so we parted; they (contrary to expectation) making
no objection to Campbell's proceeding with me.
A long march up a very steep, narrow ridge took us by a good
road to Laghep, a stone resting-house (alt., 10,475 feet) on a very
narrow flat. I had abundance of occupation in gathering rhodo-
dendron-seeds, of which I procured twenty-four kinds on this
and the following day.
A very remarkable plant, which I had seen in flower in the
Lachen valley, called "Loodoo-ma" by the Bhoteeas, and "Nomor-
chi" by Lepchas, grew on the ridge at 7,000 feet; it bears a yellow
fruit like short cucumbers, full of a soft, sweet, milky pulp, and
large black seeds; it belongs to a new genus, allied to Stauntonia,
2
These occurred in the following order in ascending, commencing at 6,000
feet :-I. R. Dalhousiæ; 2. R. vaccinioides; 3. R. camelliaflorum; 4. R.
arboreum. Above 8,000 feet:-5. R. argenteum; 6. R. Falconeri; 7. R.
barbatum; 8. R. Campbelliæ; 9. R. Edgeworthii; 10. R. niveum; 11. R.
Thomsoni; 12. R. cinnabarinum; 13. R. glaucum. Above 10,500 feet :-
14. R. lanatum; 15. R. virgatum ; 16. R. campylocarpum; 17. R. ciliatum ;
18. R. Hodgsoni; 19. R. campanulatum. Above 12,000 feet:-20 R. lepi-
dotum; 21. R. fulgens; 22. R. Wightianum; 23. R. anthopogon; 24.˜R.
setosum.
2 This genus, for which Dr. Thomson and I, in our "Flora Indica," have
proposed the name Decaisnea (in honour of my friend Professor J. Decaisne,
the eminent French botanist), has several straight, stick-like, erect branches
432
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
of which two Himalayan kinds produce similar, but less agreeable
edible fruits "Kole-pot," Lepcha). At Laghep, iris was abundant,
and a small bushy berberry (B. concinna)(with oval eatable berries,
The north wall of the house (which was in a very exposed spot)
was quite bare, while the south was completely clothed with moss
and weeds.
The rocks above Laghep were gneiss: below it, mica-schist,
striking north-west, and dipping north-east, at a high angle. A
beautiful yellow poppy-like plant grew in clefts at 10,000 feet; it
has flowered in England, from seeds which I sent home, and bears
the name of Cathcartia.
We continued, on the following morning, in an easterly direc-
tion, up the same narrow steep ridge, to a lofty eminence called
Phieung-goong (alt. 12,422 feet), from being covered with the
Phieung, or small bamboo. Abies Webbiana begins here, and
continues onwards, but, as on Tonglo, Mainom, and the other
outer wetter Sikkim ranges, there is neither larch, Pinus excelsa,
Abes Smithiana, or A Brunoniana.
Hence we followed an oblique descent of 1,500 feet, to the bed
of the Rutto river, through thick woods of pines and Rhododendron
Hodgsoni, which latter, on our again ascending, was succeeded by
the various alpine kinds. We halted at Barfonchen (alt. 11,233
feet), a stone-hut in the silver-fir forest. Some yaks were grazing
in the vicinity, and from their herdsman we learnt that the Dewan
was at Choombi, on the road to Yakla; he had kept wholly out.
of the way during the summer, directing every unfriendly action
to be pursued towards myself and the government by the Amlah,
consisting of his brothers and relatives whom he left at Tum-
loong.
The night was brilliant and starlight: the minimum thermometer
fell to 27°, a strong north-east wind blew down the valley, and
from the root, which bear spreading pinnated leaves, two feet long, standing
out horizontally. The flowers are uni-sexual, green, and in racemes, and the
fruits, of which two or three grow together, are about four inches long, and
one in diameter. All the other plants of the natural order to which it belongs
are climbers.
I
* See "Botanical Magazine," for 1852. The name was given in honour of
the memory of my friend, the late J. F. Cathcart, Esq., of the Bengal Civil
Service. This gentleman was devoted to the pursuit of botany, and caused a
magnificent series of drawings of Darjeeling plants to be made by native artists
during his residence there. This collection is now deposited at Kew, through
the liberality of his family, and it is proposed to publish a selection from the
plates, as a tribute to his memory. Mr. Cathcart, after the expiration of his
Indian service, returned to Europe, and died at Lausanne on his way to
England.
"
CHOLA PASS.
433
there was a thick hoar-frost, with which the black yaks were drolly
powdered. The broad leaves of R. Hodgsoni were curled, from
the expansion of the frozen fluid in the layer of cells on the upper
surface of the leaf, which is exposed to the greatest cold of radia-
tion. The sun restores them a little, but as winter advances,
they become irrevocably curled, and droop at the ends of the
branches.
We left Barfonchen on the 7th November, and ascended the
river, near which we put up a woodcock. Emerging from the
woods at Chumanako (alt. 12,590 feet), where there is another
stone hut, the mountains become bleak, bare, and stony, and the
rocks are all moutonnéed by ancient glaciers. At 13,000 feet the
ground was covered with ice, and all the streams were frozen.
Crossing several rocky ledges, behind which were small lakes, a
gradual ascent led to the summit of the Chola pass, a broad low
depression, 14,925 feet above the sea, wholly bare of snow.
Campbell had preceded me, and I found him conversing with
some Tibetans, who told him that there was no road hence to
Yakla, and that we should not be permitted to go to Choombi.
As the Chinese guard was posted in the neighbourhood, he
accompanied one of the Tibetans to see the commandant, whilst
I remained taking observations. The temperature was 33°, with
a violent, biting, dry east wind. The rocks were gneiss, striking
north-east, and horizontal, or dipping north-west. The scanty
vegetation consisted chiefly of grass and Sibbaldia.
In about an hour Meepo and some of my people came up and
asked for Campbell, for whom the Tchebu Lama was waiting
below the Lama had femained at Rungpo, endeavouring to put
matters on a better footing with the Amlah. Wishing to see the
Tibet guard myself, I accompanied the two remaining Tibetans
down a steep valley with cliffs on either hand, for several hundred
feet, when I was overtaken by some Sikkim sepoys in red jackets,
who wanted to turn me back forcibly: I was at a loss to under-
stand their conduct, and appealed to the Tibetan sepoys, who
caused them to desist. About 1,000 feet down I found Campbell,
with a body of about ninety Tibetans, a few of whom were armed
with matchlocks, and the rest with bows and arrows. There were
commanded by a Dingpun, a short swarthy man, with a flat-
crowned cap with floss-silk hanging all round, and a green glass
button in front; he wore a loose scarlet jacket, broadly edged
with black velvet, and having great brass buttons of the Indian
naval uniform; his subaltern was similarly dressed, but his buttons
were those of the 44th Bengal Infantry. The commandant having
29
434
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
heard of our wish to go round by Choombi, told Campbell that
he had come purposely to inform him that there was no road that
way to Yakla; he was very polite, ordering his party to rise and
salute me when I arrived, and doing the same when we both left.
On our return we were accompanied by the Dingpun of the
Tibetans and a few of his people, and were soon met by more
Sikkim sepoys, who said they were sent from the Durbar, to bring
Campbell back to transact business; they behaved very rudely,
and when still half a mile from the Sikkim frontier, jostled him
and feigned to draw their knives, and one of them pointed a
spear-headed bow to his breast. Campbell defended himself with
a stick, and remonstrated with them on their rudeness; and I,
who had nothing but a barometer in my hand, called up the
Tibetans. The Dingpun came instantly, and driving the Sikkim
people forward, escorted us to the frontier, where he took an
inscribed board from the chait, and showing us the great ver-
milion seal of the Emperor of China (or more probably of the
Lhassan authorities) on one side, and two small brown ones of
the Sikkim Rajah on the other; and giving us to understand that
here his jurisdiction ceased, he again saluted and left us.
On descending, I was surprised to meet the Singtam Soubah,
whom I had not seen since leaving Tungu; he was seated on a
rock, and I remarked that he looked ashy pale and haggard, and
that he salaamed to me only, and not to Campbell; and that
Tchebu Lama, who was with him, seemed very uncomfortable.
The Soubah wanted Campbell to stop for a conference, which at
such a time, and in such a wind, was impossible, so he followed
us to Chumanako, where we proposed to pass the night.
A great party of Sikkim Bhoteeas had assembled here, all
strangers to me: I certainly thought the concourse unusually
large, and the previous conduct to Campbell, strange, rude, and quite
unintelligible, especially before the Tibetans. But the Bhoteeas
were always a queer, and often insolent people, whom I was
long ago tired of trying to understand, and they might have
wanted to show off before their neighbours; and such was the
confidence with which my long travels amongst them had inspired.
I
1
Captain Pemberton during his mission to Bhotan was repeatedly treated
with the utmost insolence by the officials in that country (see Griffith's Jour
nal). My Sirdar, Nimbo, himself a native of Bhotan, saw a good deal of the
embassy when there, and told me many particulars as to the treatment to
which it had been subjected, and the conséquent low estimation in which both
the ambassadors themselves and the Government whom they represented were
held in Bhotan.
SEIZURE OF DR. CAMPBELL.
435
me, that the possibility of danger or violence never entered my
head.
We went into the hut, and were resting ourselves on a log at
one end of it, when, the evening being very cold, the people
crowded in; on which Campbell went out, saying that we had
better leave the hut to them, and that he would see the tents
pitched. He had scarcely left, when I heard him calling loudly
to me, "Hooker! Hooker! the savages are murdering me!" I
rushed to the door, and caught sight of him striking out with his
fists, and struggling violently; being tall and powerful, he had
already prostrated a few, but a host of men bore him down, and
appeared to be trampling on him; at the same moment I was
myself seized by eight men, who forced me back into the hut, and
down on the log, where they held me in a sitting posture, pressing
me against the wall; here I spent a few moments of agony, as I
heard my friend's stifled cries grow fainter and fainter.
struggled but little, and that only at first, for at least five-and-
twenty men crowded round and laid their hands upon me,
rendering any effort to move useless; they were, however, neither
angry nor violent, and signed to me to keep quiet. I retained
my presence of mind, and felt comfort in remembering that I saw
no knives used by the party who fell on Campbell, and that if
their intentions had been murderous, an arrow would have been
the more sure and less troublesome weapon. It was evident that
the whole animus was directed against Campbell, and that though
at first alarmed on my own account, all the inferences which, with
the rapidity of lightning my mind involuntarily drew, were favour-
able.
I
After a few minutes, three persons came into the hut, and
seated themselves opposite to me. I only recognised two of
them; namely, the Singtam Soubah, pale, trembling like a leaf,
and with great drops of sweat trickling from his greasy brow; and
the Tchebu Lama, stolid, but evidently under restraint, and
frightened. The former ordered the men to leave hold of me,
and to stand guard on either side, and, in a violently agitated
manner, he endeavoured to explain that Campbell was a prisoner
by the orders of the Rajah, who was dissatisfied with his conduct
as a government officer during the past twelve years; and that he
was to be taken to the Durbar and confined till the supreme
government at Calcutta should confirm such articles as he should
be compelled to subscribe to; he also wanted to know from me
how Campbell would be likely to behave. I refused to answer
any questions till I should be informed why I was myself made
436
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
prisoner; on which he went away, leaving me still guarded. My
own Sirdar then explained that Campbell had been knocked
down, tied hand and foot, and taken to his tent, and that all his
coolies were also bound, our captors claiming them as Sikkimites,
and subjects of the Rajah.
Shortly afterwards the three returned, the Soubah looking more
spectral than ever, and still more violently agitated, and I thought
I perceived that whatever were his plans he had failed in them.
He asked me what view the Governor-General would take of this
proceeding? and receiving no answer, he went off with the
Tchebu Lama, and left me with the third individual. The latter
looked steadily at me for some time, and then asked if I did not
know him. I said I did not, when he gave his name as Dingpun
Tinli, and I recognised in him one of the men whom the Dewan
had sent to conduct us to the top of Mainom the previous year
(see p. 214). This opened my eyes a good deal, for he was
known to be a right-hand man of the Dewan's, and had within
a few months been convicted of kidnapping two Brahmin girls
from Nepal, and had vowed vengeance against Campbell for
the duty he performed in bringing him to punishment.
I was soon asked to go to my tent, which I found pitched close
by; they refused me permission to see my fellow-prisoner, or to
be near him, but allowed me to hang up my instruments, and
arrange my collections. My guards were frequently changed
during the night, Lepchas often taking a turn; they repeatedly
assured me that there was no complaint or ill-feeling against me,
that the better classes in Sikkim would be greatly ashamed of the
whole affair, that Tchebu Lama was equally a prisoner, and that
the grievances against Campbell were of a political nature, but
what they were they did not know.
I
The night was very cold (thermometer 26°), and two inches of
snow fell. I took as many of my party as I could into my tent,
they having no shelter fit for such an elevation (12,590 feet) at
this season. Through the connivance of some of the people, I
managed to correspond with Campbell, who afterwards gave me
the following account of the treatment he had received. He
stated that on leaving the hut he had been met by Meepo, who
told him the Soubah had ordered his being turned out. A crowd
This act, as I have mentioned at p. 239, was not only a violation of
the British treaty, but an outrage on the religion of Nepal. Jung Bahadoor
demanded instant restitution, which Campbell effected; thus incurring the
Dingpun's wrath, who lost, besides his prize, a good deal of money which the
escapade cost him.
DR. CAMPBELL TORTURED.
437
of sepoys then fell on him and brought him to the ground,
knocked him on the head, trampled on him, and pressed his
neck down to his chest as he lay, as if endeavouring to break it.
His feet were tied, and his arms pinioned behind, the wrist of
the right hand being bound to the left arm above the elbow; the
cords were then doubled, and he was violently shaken. The
Singtam Soubah directed all this, which was peformed chiefly by
the Dingpun Tinli and Jongpun Sangabadoo. After this the
Soubah came to me, as I have related; and returning, had
Campbell brought bound before him, and asked him, through
Tchebu Lama, if he would write from dictation. The Soubah
was violent, excited, and nervous; Tchebu Lama scared. Camp-
bell answered, that if they continued torturing him (which was
done by twisting the cords round his wrist with a bamboo-wrench),
he might say or do anything, but that his government would
not confirm any acts thus extorted. The Soubah became still
more violent, shook his bow in Campbell's face, and drawing
his hand significantly across his throat, repeated his questions,
adding others, inquiring why he had refused to receive the
Lassoo Kajee as Vakeel, &c. (see p. 289).
The Soubah's people, meanwhile, gradually slunk away, seeing
which he left Campbell, who was taken to his tent.
Early next morning Meepo was sent by the Soubah, to ask
whether I would go to Yakla pass, or return to Darjeeling, and to
say that the Rajah's orders had been very strict that I was not to
be molested, and that I might proceed to whatever passes I
wished to visit, whilst Campbell was to be taken back to the
Durbar, to transact business. I was obliged to call upon the
Soubah and Dingpun to explain their conduct of the previous
day, which they declared arose from no ill-feeling, but simply
from their fear of my interfering in Campbell's behalf; they could
not see what reason I had to complain, so long as I was neither
hurt nor bound. I tried in vain to explain to them that they
could not so play fast and loose with a British subject, and insisted
that if they really considered me free, they should place me with
Campbell, under whose protection I considered myself, he being
still the Governor-General's agent.
Much discussion followed this: Meepo urged me to go on to
Yakla, and leave these bad people; and the Soubah and Ding-
pun, who had exceeded their orders in laying hands on me, both
wished me away. My course was, however, clear as to the pro-
This was the other man sent with us to Mainom, by the Dewan, in the
previous December,
438
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
?
priety of keeping as close to Campbell as I was allowed, so they
reluctantly agreed to take me with him to the Durbar.
Tchebu Lama came to me soon afterwards, looking as stolid
as ever, but with a gulping in his throat; he alone was glad I was
going with them, and implored me to counsel Campbell not to
irritate the Amlah by a refusal to accede to their dictates, in
which case his life might be the forfeit. As to himself, the oppo-
site faction had now got the mastery, there was nothing for it but
to succumb, and his throat would surely be cut. I endeavoured
to comfort him with the assurance that they dared not hurt
Campbell, and that this conduct of a party of ruffians, influenced
by the Dewan and their own private pique, did not represent his
Rajah's feelings and wishes, as he himself knew; but the poor
fellow was utterly unnerved, and shaking hands warmly, with his
eyes full of tears, he took his leave.
We were summoned by the Dingpun to march at 10 A.M.: I
demanded an interview with Campbell first, which was refused;
but I felt myself pretty safe, and insisting upon it, he was brought
to me. He was sadly bruised about the head, arms, and wrists,
walked very lame, and had a black eye to boot, but he was look-
ing stout and confident.
I may here mention that seizing the representative of a neigh-
bouring power and confining him till he shall have become
amenable to terms, is a common practice along the Tibet, Sikkim,
and Bhotan frontiers. It had been resorted to in 1847, by the
Bhotanese, under the instructions of the Paro Pilo, who waylaid
the Sikkim Rajah when still in Tibet, on his return from Jigatzi,
and beleagured him for two months, endeavouring to bring him.
to their terms about some border dispute; on this occasion the
Rajah applied to the British government for assistance, which was
refused; and he was ultimately rescued by a Tibetan force.
-
In the present case the Dewan issued orders that Campbell was
to be confined at Tumloong till he himself should arrive there;
and the Rajah was kept in ignorance of the affair. The Sepoys
who met us on our approach to Tumloong on the 3rd of Novem-
ber, were, I suspect, originally sent for the purpose; and I think
that the Amlah also had followed us to Rungpo with the samė
object. Their own extreme timidity, and the general good-feeling
in the country towards Campbell prevented its execution before,
and, as a last resource, they selected the Singtam Soubah and
Dingpun Tinli for the office, as being personally hostile to him.
The Dewan meanwhile being in Tibet, and knowing that we were
about to visit the frontier, for which I had full permission and
TAKEN CAPTIVE TO TUMLOONG.
439
I
escort, sent up the Tibetan guard, hoping to embroil them in the
affair; in this he failed, and it drew upon him the anger of the
Lhassan authorities. The Soubah, in endeavouring to extort
the new treaty by force, and the Dingpun, who had his own
revenge to gratify, exceeded their instructions in using violence
towards Campbell, whom the Dewan ordered should be simply
taken and confined; they were consequently disgraced, long be-
fore we were released, and the failure of the stratagem thrown
upon their shoulders.
During the march down to Laghep, Campbell was treated by
the Dingpun's men with great rudeness. I kept as near as I was
allowed, quietly gathering rhododendron-seeds by the way. At
the camping-ground we were again separated, at which I remon-
strated with the Dingpun, also complaining of his people's insolent
behaviour towards their prisoner, which he promised should be
discontinued.
The next day we reached Rungpo, where we halted for further
instructions: our tents were placed apart, but we managed to
correspond by stealth. On the 10th of November we were
conducted to Tumloong. A pony was brought for me, but I
refused it, on seeing that Campbell was treated with great in-
dignity, and obliged to follow at the tail of the mule ridden by
the Dingpun, who thus marched him in triumph up to the village.
I was taken to a house at Phadong, and my fellow traveller
was confined in another at some distance to the eastward, a
stone's throw below the Rajah's; and thrust into a little cage-like
In the following summer (1850), when the Rajah, Dewan, and Soubah
repaired to Choombi, the Lhassan authorities sent a Commissioner to inquire
into the affair, understanding that the Dewan had attempted to embroil the
Tibetans in it. The commissioner asked the Rajah why he had committed
such an outrage on the representative of the British government, under whose
protection he was; thus losing his territory, and bringing English troops so
near the Tibet frontier. The Rajah answered that he never did anything of
the kind; that he was old and infirm, and unable to transact all his affairs;
that the mischief had arisen out of the acts and ignorance of others, and finally
begged the Commissioner to investigate the whole affair, and satisfy himself
about it. During the inquiry that followed, the Dewan threw all the blame
on the Tibetans, who, he said, were alone implicated: this assertion was easily
disproved, and on the conclusion of the inquiry the Commissioner railed vehe-
mently at the Dewan, saying:-"You tried to put this business on the people
of my country; it is an abominable lie. You did it yourselves, and no one
else. The Company is a great monarchy; you insulted it, and it has taken its
revenge. If you, or any other Tibetan, ever again cause a rupture with the
English, you shall be taken with ropes round your necks to Pekin, there to
undergo the just punishment of your offence under the sentence of the mighty
Emperor,
"}
440
HIMALAYAN JOUrnals.
room. I was soon visited by an old Lama, who assured me that
we were both perfectly safe, but that there were many grievances
against Campbell. The Soubah arrived shortly after, bringing me
compliments, nominally in the Rajah's name, and a substantial
present, consisting of a large cow, sheep, fowls, a brick of tea,
bags of rice, flour, butter, eggs, and a profusion of vegetables. I
refused to take them on the friendly terms on which they were
brought, and only accepted them as provisions during my deten-
tion. I remonstrated again about our separation, and warned the
Soubah of the inevitable consequence of this outrage upon the
representative of a friendly power, travelling under the authority
of his own government, unarmed and without escort: he was
greatly perplexed, and assured me that Campbell's detention was
only temporary, because he had not given satisfaction to the
Rajah, and as the latter could not get answers to his demands
from Calcutta in less than a month, it was determined to keep
him till then; but to send me to Darjeeling. He returned in the
evening to tell me that Campbell's men (with the exception only
of the Ghorkas ¹) had been seized, because they were runaway
slaves from Sikkim ; but that I need not alarm myself, for mine
should be untouched.
The hut being small, and intolerably dirty, I pitched my tent.
close by, and lived in it for seven days: I was not guarded, but
so closely watched, that I could not go out for the most trifling
purpose, except under surveillance. They were evidently afraid
of my escaping; I was however treated with civility, but forbidden
to communicate either with Campbell or with Darjeeling.
•
The Soubah frequently visited me, always protesting I was no
prisoner, that Campbell's seizure was a very trifling affair, and the
violence employed all a mistake. He always brought presents,
and tried to sound me about the government at Calcutta. On
the 12th he paid his last visit, looking wofully dejected, being out
of favour at court, and dismissed to his home: he referred me to
Meepo for all future communications to the Rajah, and bade me
a most cordial farewell, which I regretted being unable to return
with any show of kind feeling. Poor fellow! he had staked his
last, and lost it, when he undertook to seize the agent of the most
powerful government in the east, and to reduce him to the condi-
tion of a tool of the Dewan. Despite the many obstructions he
These people stood in far greater fear of the Nepalese than of the English,
and the reason is obvious: the former allowed no infraction of their rights
to pass unnoticed, whereas we had permitted every article of our treaty to bẹ
contravened.
INTERROGATED BY THE AMLAH.
441
had placed in my way, we had not fallen out since July; we had
been constant companions, and though at issue, never at enmity.
I had impeached him, and my grievances had been forwarded to
the Rajah with a demand for his punishment, but he never
seemed to owe me a grudge for that, knowing the Rajah's impo-
tence as compared with the power of the Dewan whom he served;
and, in common with all his party, presuming on the unwilling-
ness of the British government to punish.
On the 13th of November I was hurriedly summoned by
Meepo to the Phadong temple, where I was interrogated by the
Amlah, as the Rajah's councillors (in this instance the Dewan's
adherents) are called. I found four China mats placed on a
stone bench, on one of which I was requested to seat myself, the
others being occupied by the Dewan's elder brother, a younger
brother of the Gangtok Kajee (a man of some wealth), and an
old Lama: the conference took place in the open air and amongst
an immense crowd of Lamas, men, women, and childrem.
I took the initiative (as I made a point of doing on all such
occasions) and demanded proper interpreters, which were refused;
and the Amlah began a rambling interrogatory in Tibetan, through
my Lepcha Sirdar Pakshok, who spoke very little Tibetan or
Hindostanee, and my half-caste servant, who spoke as little
English. The Dewan's brother was very nervously counting his
beads, and never raised his eyes while I kept mine steadily upon
him.
He suggested most of the queries, every one of which took
several minutes, as he was constantly interrupted by the Kajee,
who was very fat and stupid: the Lama scarcely spoke, and the
bystanders never. My connection with the Indian government
was first enquired into; next they came to political matters, upon
which I declined entering; but I gathered that their object was
to oblige Campbell to accept the Lassoo Kajee as Vakeel, to alter
the slavery laws, to draw a new boundary line with Nepal, to
institute direct communication between themselves and the
Governor-General,' and to engage that there should be no trade
or communication between Sikkim and India, except through the
Dewan all of these subjects related to the terms of the original
:
They were prompted to demand this by an unfortunate oversight that
occurred at Calcutta some years before. Vakeels from the Sikkim Durbar
repaired to that capital, and though unaccredited by the Governor-General's
agent at Darjeeling, were (in the absence of the Governor-General) received
by the president of the council in open Durbar. The effect was of course to
reduce the Governor-General's agent at Darjeeling to a cipher,
I

442
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
treaty between the Rajah and the Indian government. They
told me they had sent these proposals to the government through
Darjeeling, but had received no acknowledgment from the latter
place, and they wanted to know the probable result at Calcutta.
As the only answer I could give might irritate them, I again
declined giving any. Lastly, they assured me that no blame was
imputed to myself, that on the contrary I had been travelling
under the Rajah's protection, who rejoiced in my success, that I
might have visited Yakla pass as I had intended doing, but that
milky
1970-20
HORNS OF THE SHOWA STAG (Cervus Wallichii), A NATIVE OF CHOOMBI
IN TIBET. Length of antler, 4 feet 6 in.
preferring to accompany my friend, they had allowed me to do
so, and that I might now either join him, or continue to live in
1 These letters, which concluded with a line stating that Campbell was
detained at Tumloong till favourable answers should be received, had arrived
at Darjeeling, but being written in Tibetan, and containing matters into which
no one but Campbell could enter, they were laid on one side till his return.
The interpreter did not read the last line, which stated that Dr. Campbell was
detained till answers were received, and the fact of our capture and im-
prisonment therefore remained unknown for several weeks,
CONFINEMENT AT TUMLOONG.
my tent
of course I joyfully accepted the former proposal.
After being refused permission to send a letter to Darjeeling,
except I would write in a character which they could read, I
asked if they had anything more to say, and being answered in
the negative, I was taken by Meepo to Campbell, heartily glad to
end a parley which had lasted for an hour and a half.
I found my friend in good health and spirits, strictly guarded
in a small thatched hut, of bamboo wattle and clay: the situation
was pretty, and commanded a view of the Ryott valley and the
snowy mountains; there were some picturesque chaits hard by,
and a blacksmith's forge. Our walks were confined to a few
steps in front of the hut, and included a puddle and a spring of
water. We had one black room with a small window, and a fire
in the middle on a stone; we slept in the narrow apartment
behind it, which was the cage in which Campbell had been at
first confined, and which exactly admitted us both, lying on the
floor. Two or three Sepoys occupied an adjoining room, and
had a peep-hole through the partition-wall.
My gratification at our being placed together was damped by
the seizure of all my faithful attendants except my own servant,
and one who was a Nepalese: the rest were bound, and placed
in the stocks and close confinement, charged with being Sikkim
people who had no authority to take service in Darjeeling. On
the contrary they were all registered as British subjects, and had
during my travels been recognised as such by the Rajah and all
his authorities. Three times the Soubah and others had
voluntarily assured me that my person and people were inviolate
nor was there any cause for this outrage but the fear of their
escaping with news to Darjeeling, and possibly a feeling of irrita-
tion amongst the authorities at the failure of their schemes.
Meanwhile we were not allowed to write, and we heard that the
bag of letters which we had sent before our capture had been
seized and burnt. Campbell greatly feared that they would
threaten Darjeeling with a night attack,' as we heard that the
;
443
Threats of sacking Darjeeling had on several previous occasions been
made by the Dewan, to the too great alarm of the inhabitants, who were
ignorant of the timid and pacific disposition of the Lepchas, and of the fact
that there are not fifty muskets in the country, nor twenty men able to use
them. On this occasion the threats were coupled with the report that we were
murdered, and that the Rajah had asked for 50,000 Tibetan soldiers, who were
being marched twenty-five days' journey over passes 15,000 feet high, and
deep in snow, and were coming to drive the English out of Sikkim! I need
hardly observe that the Tibetans (who have repeatedly refused to interfere on
this side the snows) had no hand in the matter, or that, supposing they could
collect that number of men in all Tibet, it would be impossible to feed them
444
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Lassoo Kajee was stationed at Namtchi with a party for that
purpose, and all communication cut off except through him.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Dr. Campbell is ordered to appear at Durbar-Lamas called to council-
Threats-Scarcity of food-Arrival of Dewan-Our jailer, Thoba-sing-
Temperature, &c., at Tumloong-Services of Goom pas-Lepcha girl-
Jew's-harp-Terror of servants-Ilam-sing's family-Interview with
Dewan Remonstrances - Dewan feigns sickness Lord Dalhousie's
letter to Rajah-Treatment of Indo-Chinese-Concourse of Lamas-
Visit of Tchebu Lama-Close confinement-Dr. Campbell's illness-
Conference with Amlah-Relaxation of confinement-Pemiongchi Lama's
intercession-Escape of Nimbo-Presents from Rajah, Ranee and people.
Protestations of friendship-Mr. Lushington sent to Darjeeling-Leave
Tumloong-Cordial farewell-Dewan's merchandise-Gangtok Kajee—
Dewan's pomp-Governor-General's letter-Dikkeeling-Suspicion of
poison-Dinner and pills-Tobacco-Bhotanese colony-Katong-ghat on
Teesta-Wild lemons-Sepoys' insolence-Dewan alarmed-View of
Darjeeling-Threats of a rescue-Fears of our escape-Tibet flutes-
Negociate our release-Arrival at Darjeeling-Dr. Thomson joins me—-
Movement of troops at Darjeeling-Seizure of Rajah's Terai property.
SINCE his confinement, Dr. Campbell had been desired to attend
the Durbar for the purpose of transacting business, but had
refused to go, except by compulsion, considering that in the
excited state of the authorities, amongst whom there was not one
person of responsibility or judgment, his presence would not
only be usless, but he might be exposed to further insult or
possibly violence.
On the 15th of November we were informed that the Dewan
was on his way from Tibet: of this we were glad, for knave as
he was, we had hitherto considered him to possess sense and
understanding. His agents were beginning to find out their
mistake, and summoned to council the principal Lamas and
Kajees of the country, who, to a man, repudiated the proceedings,
and refused to attend. Our captors were extremely anxious to
induce us to write letters to Darjeeling, and sent spies of all kinds
to offer us facilities for secret correspondence. The simplicity
and clumsiness with which these artifices were attempted would
for a week, there or in Sikkim. Such reports unfortunately spread a panic in
Darjeeling the guards were called in from all the outposts, and the ladies
huddled into one house, whilst the males stood on the defensive; to the great
amusement of the Amlah at Tumloong, whose insolence to us increased
proportionally.
ARRIVAL OF THE DEWAN.
445
have been ludicrous under other circumstances; while the threat
of murdering Campbell only alarmed us, inasmuch as it came
from people too stupid to be trusted. We made out that all
Sikkim people were excluded from Darjeeling, and the Amlah
consequently could not conceal their anxiety to know what had
befallen their letters to government.
Meanwhile we were but scantily fed, and our imprisoned coolies
got nothing at all. Our guards were supplied with a handful of
rice or meal as the day's allowance; they were consequently
grumbling,¹ and were daily reduced in number. The supplies of
rice from the Terai, beyond Darjeeling, were cut off by the in-
terruption of communication, and the authorities evidently could
not hold us long at this rate: we sent up complaints, but of
course received no answer.
The Dewan arrived in the afternoon in great state, carried in
an English chair given him by Campbell some years before,
habited in a blue silk cloak lined with lambskin, and wearing an
enormous straw hat with a red tassel, and black velvet butterflies
on the flapping brim. He was accompanied by a household of
women, who were laden with ornaments, and wore boots, and sat
astride on ponies; many Lamas were also with him, one of whom
wore a broad Chinese-like hat covered with polished copper foil.
Half a dozen Sepoys with matchlocks preceded him, and on
approaching Tumloong, bawled out his titles, dignities, &c., as
was formerly the custom in England.
At Darjeeling our seizure was still unknown: our letters were
brought to us, but we were not allowed to answer them. Now
that the Dewan had arrived, we hoped to come to a speedy
explanation with him, but he shammed sickness, and sent no
answer to our messages, if indeed he received them. Our guards
were reduced to one Sepoy with a knife, who was friendly; and a
dirty, cross-eyed fellow named Thoba-sing, who, with the excep-
tion of Tchebu Lama, was the only Bhoteea about the Durbar
who could speak Hindostanee, and who did it very imperfectly
1
The Rajah has no standing army; not even a body-guard, and these men
were summoned to Tumloong before our arrival: they had no arms and
received no pay, but were fed when called out on duty. There is no store for
grain, no bazaar or market, in any part of the country, each family growing
little enough for its own wants and no more; consequently Sikkim could not
stand on the defensive for a week. The Rajah receives his supply of grain in
annual contributions from the peasantry, who thus pay a rent in kind, which
varies from little to nothing, according to the year, &c. He had also property
of his own in the Terai, but the slender proceeds only enabled him to trade
with Tibet for tea, &c.

446
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
he was our attendant and spy, the most barefaced liar I ever met
with, even in the east; and as cringing and obsequious when
alone with us, as he was to his masters on other occasions, when
he never failed to show off his authority over us in an offensive
manner. Though he was the most disagreeable fellow we were
ever thrown in contact with, I do not think that he was therefore
selected, but solely from his possessing a few words of Hindo-
stanee, and his presumed capability of playing the spy.
Re
JWWHYMPER.
Br
RAJAH'S RESIDENCE, AND THE HUT ASSIGNED TO US. ARRIVAL OF THE
DEWAN.
The weather was generally drizzling or rainy, and we were
getting very tired of our captivity; but I beguiled the time by
carefully keeping my meteorological register, and by reducing
During the thirty days spent at Tumloong, the temperature was mild and
equable, with much cloud and drizzle, but little hard rain; and we experienced
violent thunder-storms, followed by transient sunshine. Unlike 1848, the
rains did not cease this year before the middle of December; nor had there
been one fine month since April. The mean temperature, computed from 150
observations, was 50° 2, and from the maximum and minimum thermometer

OCCUPATION UNDER CONFINEMENT.
447
many of my previous observations. Each morning we were
awakened at daybreak by the prolonged echoes of the conchs,
trumpets, and cymbals, beaten by the priests before the many
temples in the valley: wild and pleasing sounds, often followed
by their choral chants. After dark we sat over the fire, generally
in company with a little Lepcha girl, who was appointed to keep
us in fire-wood, and who sat watching our movements with
childish curiosity. Dolly, as we christened her, was a quick child
and a kind one, intolerably dirty, but very entertaining from her
powers of mimicry. She was fond of hearing me whistle airs,
and procured me a Tibetan Jews'-harp,' with which, and coarse
tobacco, which I smoked out of a Tibetan brass pipe, I wiled
away the dark evenings, whilst my cheerful companion amused
He
V
45
www
TIBET PIPE AND TINDER-POUCH WITH STEEL ATTACHED.
himself with an old harmonicon, to the enchantment of Dolly
and our guards and neighbours.
The messengers from Darjeeling were kept in utter ignorance
49° 6, which is a fair approximation to the theoretical temperature calculated
for the elevation and month, and allows a fall of 1° for 320 feet of ascent.
The temperature during the spring (from 50 observations) varied during the
day from 2° 4 to 5° 8 higher than that of the air, the greatest differences
occurring morning and evening. The barometric tide amounted to o'091
between 9'50 A. M., and 4 P.M., which is less than at the level of the plains of
India, and more than at any greater elevation than Tumloong. The air was
always damp, nearly saturated at night, and the mean amount of humidity for
ninety-eight observations taken during the day was only o'850, corresponding
to a dew-point of 49° 6, or 5° 2 below that of the air.
I
This instrument (which is common in Tibet) is identical with the European,
except that the tongue is produced behind the bow, in a strong steel spike, by
which the instrument is held firmer to the mouth.
448
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
I
of our confinement till their arrival at Tumloong, when they were
cross-questioned, and finally sent to us. They gradually became
too numerous, there being only one apartment for ourselves, and
such of our servants as were not imprisoned elsewhere. Some of
them were frightened out of their senses, and the state of abject
fear and trembling in which one Limboo arrived, and continued
for nearly a week, was quite distressing to every one except
Dolly, who mimicked him in a manner that was irresistibly
ludicrous. Whether he had been beaten or threatened we could
not make out, nor whether he had heard of some dark fate
impending over ourselves-a suspicion which would force itself
on our minds; especially as Thoba-sing had coolly suggested to
the Amlah the dispatching of Campbell, as the shortest way of
getting out of the scrape! We were also ignorant whether any
steps were being taken at Darjeeling for our release, which we
felt satisfied must follow any active measures against these
bullying cowards, though they themselves frequently warned us
that we should be thrown into the Teesta if any such were
pursued.
So long as our money lasted, we bought food, for the Durbar
had none to give; and latterly my ever charitable companion fed
our guards, including Dolly and Thoba-sing, in pity to their
pinched condition. Several families sent us small presents,
especially that of the late estimable Dewan, Ilam-sing, whose
widow and daughters lived close by, and never failed to express
in secret their sympathy and good feeling.
Tchebu Lama's and Meepo's families were equally forward in
their desire to serve us; but they were marked men, and could
only communicate by stealth.
Our coolies were released on the 18th, more than half starved,
but the Sirdars were still kept in chains or the stocks: some were
sent back to Darjeeling, and the British subjects billeted off
amongst the villagers, and variously employed by the Dewan: my
lad, Cheytoong, was set to collect the long leaves of a Tupistra,
called "Purphiok," which yield a sweet juice, and were chopped
up and mixed with tobacco for the Dewan's hookah.
It amounted to a complete prostration of bodily and mental powers: the
man trembled and started when spoken to, or at any noise, a cold sweat con-
stantly bedewed his forehead, and he continued in this state for eight days.
No kindness on Campbell's part could rouse him to give any intelligible
account of his fears or their cause. His companions said he had lost his
goroo, ie., his charm, which the priest gives him while yet a child, and which
he renews or gets re-sanctified as occasion requires. To us the circumstance
was extremely painful.
}
INTERVIEW WITH THE DEWAN
449
November 20th.-The Dewan, we heard this day, ignored all
the late proceedings, professing to be enraged with his brother
and the Amlah, and refusing to meddle in the matter. This was
no doubt a pretence: we had sent repeatedly for an explanation
with himself or the Rajah, from which he excused himself on
the plea of ill-health, till this day, when he apprised us that he
would meet Campbell, and a cotton tent was pitched for the
purpose.
We went about noon, and were received with great politeness
and shaking of hands by the Dewan, the young Gangtok Kajee,
and the old monk who had been present at my examination at
Phadong. Tchebu Lama's brother was also there, as a member
of the Amlah, lately taken into favour; while Tchebu himself
acted as interpreter, the Dewan speaking only Tibetan. They all
sat cross-legged on a bamboo bench on one side, and we on
chairs opposite them: walnuts and sweetmeats were brought us,
and a small present in the Rajah's name, consisting of rice, flour,
and butter.
The Dewan opened the conversation both in this and another
conference, which took place on the 22nd, by requesting Camp-
bell to state his reasons for having desired these interviews.
Neither he nor the Amlah seemed to have the smallest idea of
the nature and consequences of the acts they had committed, and
they therefore anxiously sought information as to the view that
would be taken of them by the British Government. They
could not see why Campbell should not transact business with
them in his present condition, and wanted him to be the medium
of communication between themselves and Calcutta. The latter
confined himself to pointing out his own views of the following
subjects-1. The seizing and imprisoning of the agent of a
friendly power, travelling unarmed and without escort, under the
formal protection of the Rajah, and with the authority of his own
government. 2. The aggravation of this act of the Amlah, by
our present detention under the Dewan's authority. 3. The
chance of collision, and the disastrous consequences of a war, for
which they had no preparation of any kind. 4. The impossibility
of the supreme government paying any attention to their letters
so long as we were illegally detained.
All this sank deep into the Dewan's heart: he answered, "You
have spoken truth, and I will submit it all to the Rajah;" but at
the same time he urged that there was nothing dishonourable in
the imprisonment, and that the original violence being all a
mistake, it should be overlooked by both parties. We parted on
.30
450
HIMALAYAN JOURNALŠ.
good terms, and heard shortly after the second conference that
our release was promised and arranged: when a communication i
from Darjeeling changed their plans, the Dewan conveniently fell
sick on the spot, and we were thrown back again.
In the meantime, however, we were allowed to write to our
friends, and to receive money and food, of which we stood in
great need. I transmitted a private account of the whole affair
to Lord Dalhousie, who was unfortunately at Bombay, but to
whose prompt and vigorous measures we were finally indebted
for our release. His lordship expedited a despatch to the Rajah,
such as the latter was accustomed to receive from Nepal, Bhotan,
or Lhassa, and such as alone commands attention from these
half-civilised Indo-Chinese, who measure power by the firmness
of the tone adopted towards them; and who, whether in Sikkim,
Birmah, Siam, Bhotan, or China, have too long been accustomed
to see every article of our treaties contravened, with no worse
consequences than a protest or a threat, which is never carried
into execution till some fatal step calls forth the dormant power
of the British Government.2
The end of the month arrived without bringing any prospect of
our release, whilst we were harassed by false reports of all kinds.
The Dewan went on the 25th to a hot bath, a few hundred feet
down the hill; he was led past our hut, his burly frame tottering
as if in great weakness, but a more transparent fraud could not
have been practised: he was, in fact, lying on his oars, pending
further negociations. The Amlah proposed that Campbell should
sign a bond, granting immunity from all past offences on their
part, whilst they were to withdraw the letter of grievances against
him. The Lamas cast horoscopes for the future, little presents
continually arrived for us, and the Ranee sent me some tobacco,
¹ I need scarcely say that every step was taken at Darjeeling for our release,
that the most anxious solicitude for our safety could suggest. But the first
communication to the Rajah, though it pointed out the heinous nature of his
offence, was, through a natural fear of exasperating our captors, couched in
very moderate language. The particulars of our seizure, and the reasons for
it, and for our further detention, were unknown at Darjeeling, or a very different
line of policy would have been pursued.
2 We forget that all our concessions to these people are interpreted into
weakness; that they who cannot live on an amicable equality with one another,
cannot be expected to do so with us; that all our talk of power and resources
are mere boasts to habitual bullies, so long as we do not exert ourselves in the
correction of premeditated insults. No Government can be more tolerant,
more sincerely desirous of peace, and more anxious to confine its sway within
its own limits than that of India, but it can only continue at peace by demand-
ing respect, and the punctilious enforcement of even the most trifling terms in
the treaties it makes with Indo Chinese.
FRIENDLY CONDUCT OF THE LAMAS.
451
and to Campbell brown sugar and Murwa beer. The black-
smiths, who had ostentatiously been making long knives at the
forge hard by, were dismissed; troops were said to be arriving at
Darjeeling, and a letter sternly demanding our release had been
received.
The Lamas of Pemiongchi, Changachelling, Tassiding, &c., and
the Dewan's enemies, and Tchebu Lama's friends, began to flock
from all quarters to Tumloong, demanding audience of the Rajah,
and our instant liberation. The Dewan's game was evidently up;
but the timidity of his opponents, his own craft, and the habitual
dilatoriness of all, contributed to cause endless delays. The
young Gangtok Kajee tried to curry favour with us, sending word
that he was urging our release, and adding that he had some
capital ponies for us to see on our way to Darjeeling! Many
similar trifles showed that these people had not a conception of
the nature of their position, or of that of an officer of the British
Government.
The Tchebu Lama visited us only once, and then under sur-
veillance; he renewed his professions of good faith, and we had
every reason to know that he had suffered severely for his ad-
herence to us, and consistent repudiation of the Amlah's conduct;
he was in great favour with his brother Lamas, but was not allowed
to see the Rajah, who was said to trust to him alone of all his
counsellors. He told us that peremptory orders had arrived from
Calcutta for our release, but that the Amlah had replied that they
would not acknowledge the despatch, from its not bearing the
Governor-General's great seal! The country-people refusing to
be saddled with the keep of our coolies, they were sent to Dar-
jeeling in small parties, charged to say that we were free, and
following them.
The weather continued rainy and bad, with occasionally a few
hours of sunshine, which, however, always rendered the ditch.
before our door offensive: we were still prevented leaving the
hut, but as a great annual festival was going on, we were less dis-
agreeably watched. Campbell was very unwell, and we had no
medicine; and as the Dewan, accustomed to such duplicity him-
self, naturally took this for a ruse, and refused to allow us to send
to Darjeeling for any, we were more than ever convinced that his
own sickness was simulated.
On the 2nd and 3rd December we had further conferences with
the Dewan, who said that we were to be taken to Darjeeling in
six days, with two Vakeels from the Rajah. The Pemiongchi
Lama, as the oldest and most venerated in Sikkim, attended, and
452
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS,
addressed Campbell in a speech of great feeling and truth.
Having heard, he said, of these unfortunate circumstances a few
days ago, he had come on feeble limbs, and though upwards of
seventy winters. old, as the representative of his holy brotherhood,
to tender advice to his Rajah, which he hoped would be followed.
Since Sikkim had been connected with the British rule, it had
experienced continued peace and protection; whereas before they
were in constant dread of their lives and properties, which, as
well as their most sacred temples, were violated by the Nepalese
and Bhotanese. He then dwelt upon Campbell's invariable
kindness and good feeling, and his exertions for the benefit of
their country, and for the cementing of friendship, and hoped he
would not let these untoward events induce an opposite course in
future; but that he would continue to exert his influence with the
Governor-General in their favour.
The Dewan listened attentively; he was anxious and perplexed,
and evidently losing his presence of mind: he talked to us of
Lhassa and its gaieties, dromedaries, Lamas, and everything
Tibetan; offered to sell us ponies cheap, and altogether behaved
in a most undignified manner; ever and anon calling attention to
his pretended sick leg, which he nursed on his knee. He gave
us the acceptable news that the government at Calcutta had sent
up an officer to carry on Campbell's duties, which had alarmed
him exceedingly. The Rajah, we were told, was very angry at our
seizure and detention; he had no fault to find with the Governor-
General's agent, and hoped he would be continued as such. In
fact, all the blame was thrown on the brothers of the Dewan, and
of the Gangtok Kajee, and more irresponsible stupid boors could
not have been found on whom to lay it, or who would have felt.
less inclined to commit such folly if it had not been put on them
by the Dewan. On leaving, white silk scarfs were thrown over
our shoulders, and we went away, still doubtful, after so many
disappointments, whether we should really be set at liberty at the
stated period.
Although there was so much talk about our leaving, our con-
finement continued as rigorous as ever. The Dewan curried
favour in every other way, sending us Tibetan wares for purchase,
with absurd prices attached, he being an arrant pedlar. All the
principal families waited on us, desiring peace and friendship.
The coolies who had not been dismissed were allowed to run
away, except my Bhotan Sirdar, Nimbo, against whom the Dewan
was inveterate: he, however, managed soon afterwards to break
I
The Sikkim people are always at issue with the Bhotanese. Nimbo was
REMOVAL FROM TUMTOONG.
453
a great chain with which his legs were shackled, and marching at
night, eluded a hot pursuit, and proceeded to the Teesta, swam
the river, and reached Darjeeling in eight days; arriving with a
large iron ring on each leg, and a link of several pounds weight
attached to one.
Parting presents arrived from the Rajah on the 7th, consisting
of ponies, cloths, silks, woollens, immense squares of butter, tea,
and the usual et ceteras, to the utter impoverishment of his stores:
these he offered to the two Sahibs, “in token of his amity with
the British government, his desire for peace, and deprecation of
angry discussions." The Ranee sent silk purses, fans, and such
Tibetan paraphernalia, with an equally amicable message, that
"she was most anxious to avert the consequences of whatever
complaints had gone forth against Dr. Campbell, who might
depend on her strenuous exertions to persuade the Rajah to do
whatever he wished!" These friendly messages were probably
evoked by the information that an English regiment, with three
guns, was on its way to Sikkim, and that 300 of the Bhaugulpore
Rangers had already arrived there. The government of Bengal
sending another agent¹ to Darjeeling, was also a contingency they
had not anticipated, having fully expected to get rid of any such
obstacle to direct communication with the Governor-General.
A present from the whole population followed that of the Ranee,
coupled with earnest entreaties that Campbell would resume his
position at Darjeeling; and on the following day forty coolies
mustered to arrange the baggage. Before we left, the Ranee sent
three rupees to buy a yard of chalé and some gloves, accompany-
ing them with a present of white silk, &c., for Mrs. Campbell, to
whom the commission was intrusted: a singular instance of the
insouciant simplicity of these odd people.
The 9th of December was a splendid and hot day, one of the
very few we had during our captivity. We left at noon, descending
the hill through an enormous crowd of people, who brought fare-
well presents, all wishing us well. We were still under escort as
prisoners of the Dewan, who was coolly marching a troop of forty
unloaded mules and ponies, and double that number of men's
loads of merchandise, purchased during the summer in Tibet, to
trade with at Darjeeling and the Titalya fair! His impudence or
a runaway slave of the latter country, who had been received into Sikkim, and
retained there until he took up his quarters at Darjeeling.
1 Mr. Lushington, the gentleman sent to conduct Sikkim affairs during Dr.
Campbell's detention: to whom I shall ever feel grateful for his activity in our
cause, and his unremitting attention to every little arrangement that could
alleviate the discomforts and anxieties of our position.
-
454
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
!
stupidity was thus quite inexplicable; treating us as prisoners,
ignoring every demand of the authorities at Darjeeling, of the
Supreme Council of Calcutta, and of the Governor-General him-
self; and at the same time acting as if he were to enter the British
territories on the most friendly and advantageous footing for him-
self and his property, and incurring so great an expense in all this
as to prove that he was in earnest in thinking so.
Tchebu Lama accompanied us, but we were not allowed to
converse with him. We halted at the bottom of the valley, where
the Dewan invited us to partake of tea; from this place he gave
us mules or ponies to ride, and we ascended to Yankoong, a
village 3,867 feet above the sea. On the following day we crossed
a high ridge from the Ryott valley to that of the Rungmi; where
we camped at Tikbotang (alt. 3,763 feet), and on the 11th at
Gangtok Sampoo, a few miles lower down the same valley.
We were now in the Soubahship of the Gangtok Kajee, a
member of the oldest and most wealthy family in Sikkim; he had
from the first repudiated the late acts of the Amlah, in which his
brother had taken part, and had always been hostile to the Dewan.
The latter conducted himself with disagreeable familiarity towards
us, and hauteur towards the people; he was preceded by immense
kettle-drums, carried on men's backs, and great hand-bells, which
were beaten and rung on approaching villages; on which occasions
he changed his dress of sky-blue for yellow silk robes worked with
Chinese dragons, to the indignation of Tchebu Lama, an amber
robe in polite Tibetan society being sacred to royalty and the
Lamas. We everywhere perceived unequivocal symptoms of the
dislike with which he was regarded. Cattle were driven away,
villages deserted, and no one came to pay respects, or bring
presents, except the Kajees, who were ordered to attend, and
his elder brother, for whom he had usurped an estate near
Gangtok.
On the 13th, he marched us a few miles, and then halted for a
day at Serriomsa (alt. 2,820 feet), at the bottom of a hot valley
full of irrigated rice-crops and plantain and orange-groves. Here
the Gangtok Kajee waited on us with a handsome present, and
informed us privately of his cordial hatred of the "upstart Dewan,"
and hopes for his overthrow; a demonstration of which we took
no notice.2 The Dewan's brother (one of the Amlah) also sent a
The Tibet mules are often as fine as the Spanish: I rode one which had
performed a journey from Choombi to Lhassa in fifteen days, with a man and
load.
Nothing would have been easier than for the Gangtok Kajee, or any other
• Pag
GOVERNOR-GENERAL DEMANDS OUR RELEASE. 455
large present, but was ashamed to appear. Another letter reached.
the Dewan here, directed to the Rajah; it was from Lord Dalhousie,
who was then at Bombay, and had been sent across the country by
special messengers: it demanded our instant release, or his Raj
would be forfeited; and declared that if a hair of our heads were
touched, his life should be the penalty.
The Rajah was also incessantly urging the Dewan to hasten us
onwards as free men to Darjeeling, but the latter took all remon-
strances with assumed coolness, exercised his ponies, played at
bow and arrow, intruded on us at mealtimes to be invited to
partake, and loitered on the road, changing garments and hats,
which he pestered us to buy. Nevertheless, he was evidently be-
coming daily more nervous and agitated.
From the Rungmi valley we crossed on the 14th southward to
that of Runniok, and descended to Dikkeeling, a large village, of
Dhurma Bhoteeas (Bhotanese), which is much the most populous,
industrious, and at the same time turbulent, in Sikkim. It is
4,950 feet above the sea, and occupies many broad cultivated
spurs facing the south. This district once belonged to Bhotan,
and was ceded to the Sikkim Rajah by the Paro Pilo,¹ in con-
sideration of some military services, rendered by the former in
driving off the Tibetans, who had usurped it for the authorities of
Lhassa. Since then the Sikkim and Bhotan people have re-
peatedly fallen out, and Dikkeeling has become a refuge for run-
away Bhotanese, and kidnapping is constantly practised on this
frontier.
The Dewan halted us here for three days, for no assigned cause.
On the 16th, letters arrived, including a most kind and en-
couraging one from Mr. Lushington, who had taken charge of
Campbell's office at Darjeeling. Immediately after arriving, the
messenger was seized with violent vomitings and gripings: we could
not help suspecting poison, especially as we were now amongst
adherents of the Dewan, and the Bhotanese are notorious for this
crime. Only one means suggested itself for proving this, and with
Campbell's permission I sent my compliments to the Dewan, with
a request for one of his hunting dogs to eat the vomit. It was
sent at once, and performed its duty without any ill effects. I
must confess to having felt a malicious pleasure in the opportunity
respectable man in Sikkim, to have overthrown the Dewan and his party; but
these people are intolerable apathetic, and prefer being tyrannised over to the
trouble of shaking off the yoke.
The temporal sovereign, in contra-distinction to the Dhurma Rajah, or
spiritual sovereign of Bhotan,
456
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
thus afforded of showing our jailor how little we trusted him;
feeling indignant at the idea that he should suppose he was
making any way in our good opinion by his familiarities, which
we were not in circumstances to resist.
The crafty fellow, however, outwitted me by inviting us to dine
with him the same day, and putting our stomachs and noses to a
severe test. Our dinner was served in Chinese fashion, but most
of the luxuries, such as bêche-de-mer, were very old and bad. We
ate, sometimes with chop-sticks, and at others with Tibetan
spoons, knives, and two-pronged forks. After the usual amount
of messes served in oil and salt water, sweets were brought, and a
strong spirit. Thoba-sing, our filthy, cross-eyed spy, was waiter,
and brought in every little dish with both hands, and raised it to
his greasy forehead, making a sort of half bow previous to deposit-
ing it before us. Sometimes he undertook to praise its contents,
always adding, that in Tibet none but very great men indeed par-
took of auch sumptuous fare. Thus he tried to please both us
and the Dewan, who conducted himself with pompous hospitality,
showing off what he considered his elegant manners and graces.
Our blood boiled within us at being so patronised by the squinting
ruffian, whose insolence and ill-will had sorely aggravated the dis-
comforts of our imprisonment.
Not content with giving us what he considered a magnificent
dinner (and it had cost him some trouble), the Dewan produced
a little bag from a double-locked escritoire, and took out three
dinner-pills, which he had received as a great favour from the Rim-
bochay Lama, and which were a sovereign remedy for indigestion
and all other ailments: he handed one to each of us, reserving
the third for himself. Campbell refused his; but there appeared
no help for me, after my groundless suspicion of poison, and so I
swallowed the pill with the best grace I could. But in truth it
was not poison I dreaded in its contents, so much as being com-
pounded of some very questionable materials, such as the Rim-
bochay Lama blesses and dispenses far and wide. To swallow
such is a sanctifying work, according to Boodhist superstition, and
I believe there is nothing in the world, save his ponies, to which
the Dewan attached a greater value.
To wind up the feast, we had pipes of excellent mild yellow
Chinese tobacco called "Tseang," made from Nicotiana rustica,
which is cultivated in East Tibet, and in West China, according
to MM. Huc and Gabet. It resembles in flavour the finest Syrian
tobacco, and is most agreeable when the smoke is passed through
the nose. The common tobacco of India (Nicotiana Ţabacum) is
CROSS THE TEESTA RIVER.
much imported into Tibet, where it is called "Tamma" (probably
a corruption of the Persian "Toombac "), and is said to fetch the
enormous price of 30s. per lb. at Lhassa, which is sixty times its
value in India. Rice at Lhassa, when cheap, sells at 2s. for 5 lbs. ;
it is, as I have elsewhere said, all bought up for rations for the
Chinese soldiery.
457
The Bhotanese are more industrious than the Lepchas, and
better husbandmen; besides having superior crops of all ordinary
grains, they grow cotton, hemp, and flax. The cotton is cleansed
here as elsewhere, with a simple gin. The Lepchas use no
spinning wheel, but a spindle and distaff; their loom, which is
Tibetan, is a very complicated one framed of bamboo; it is worked
by hand, without beam, treadle, or shuttle.
On the 18th we were marched, three miles only, to Singdong
(alt. 2,116 feet), and on the tollowing day five miles farther, to
Katong Ghat (alt. 750 feet), on the Teesta river, which we crossed
with rafts, and camped on the opposite bank, a few miles above
the junction of this river with the Great Rungeet. The water,
which is sea-green in colour, had a temperature of 53° 5 at 4 P.M.,
and 51° 7 the following morning; its current was very powerful.
The rocks, since leaving Tumloong, had been generally micaceous,
striking north-west and dipping north-east. The climate was hot,
and the vegetation on the banks tropical; on the hills around,
lemon-bushes ("Kucheala," Lepcha) were abundant, growing
apparently wild.
The Dewan was now getting into a very nervous and depressed
state; he was determined to keep up appearances before his
followers, but was himself almost servile to us: he caused his men
to make a parade of their arms, as if to intimidate us, and in
descending narrow gullies we had several times the disagreeable
surprise of finding some of his men at a sudden turn, with drawn
bows and arrows pointed towards us. Others gesticulated with
their long knives, and made fell swoops at soft plantain-stems; but
these artifices were all as shallow as they were contemptible, and a
smile at such demonstrations was generally answered with another
from the actors.
From Katong we ascended the steep east flank of Tendong or
Mount Ararat, through forests of Sal and long leaved pine, to
Namten (alt. 4,483 feet), where we again halted two days. The
Dingpu Tinli lived near, and waited on us with a present, which,
with all others that had been brought, Campbell received officially,
and transferred to the authorities at Darjeeling.
The Dewan was thoroughly alarmed at the news here brought
458
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
in, that the Rajah's present of yaks, ponies, &c., which had been
sent forward, had been refused at Darjeeling; and equally so at
the clamorous messages which reached him from all quarters
demanding our liberation; and at the desertion of some of his
followers, on hearing that large bodies of troops were assembling
at Darjeeling. Repudiated by his Rajah and countrymen, and
paralysed between his dignity and his ponies, which he now
perceived would not be welcomed at the station, and which
were daily losing flesh, looks, and value in these hot valleys, where
there is no grass pasture, he knew not what olive-branch to hold
out to our government, except ourselves, whom he therefore clung
to as hostages.
I
On the 22nd of December he marched us eight miles further,
to Cheadam, on a bold spur 4,653 feet high, overlooking the Great
Rungeet, and facing Darjeeling, from which it was only twenty
miles distant. The white bungalows of our friends gladdened
our eyes, while the new barracks erecting for the daily arriving
troops struck terror into the Dewan's heart. The six Sepoys who
had marched valiantly beside us for twenty days, carrying the
muskets given to the Rajah the year before by the Governor-
General, now lowered their arms, and vowed that if a red coat
crossed the Great Rungeet, they would throw down their guns
and run away. News arrived that the Bhotan inhabitants of Dar-
jeeling, headed by my bold Sirdar Nimbo, had arranged a night
attack for our release: an enterprise to which they were quite
equal, and in which they have had plenty of practice in their own
misgoverned country. Watch-fires gleamed amongst the bushes,
and we were thrust into a doubly-guarded house, and bows and
arrows were ostentatiously levelled so as to rake the doorway,
should we attempt to escape. Some of the ponies were sent back
to Dikkeeling, though the Dewan still clung to his merchandise.
and the feeble hope of traffic. The confusion increased daily,
but though Tchebu Lama looked brisk and confident, we were
extremely anxious; scouts were hourly arriving from the road to
the Great Rungeet, and if our troops had advanced, the Dewan
might have made away with us from pure fear.
In the forenoon he paid us a long visit, and brought some flutes,
of which he gave me two very common ones of apricot wood from
Lhassa, producing at the same time a beautiful one, which I
1
These Sepoys, besides the loose red jacket and striped Lepcha kirtle, wore
a very curious national black hat of felt, with broad flaps turned up all round:
this is represented in the right-hand figure. A somewhat similar hat is worn
by some classes of Nepal soldiery,

LEPCHA AND TIBETAN SOLDIERY.
459
believe he intended for Campbell, but his avarice got the better,
and he commuted his gift into the offer of a tune, and pitching it
in a high key, he went through a Tibetan air that almost deafened
us by his screech. He tried bravely to maintain his equanimity,
but as we preserved a frigid civility and only spoke when addressed,
the tears would start from his eyes in the pauses of conversation.
In the evening he came again; he was excessively agitated and
covered with perspiration, and thrust himself unceremoniously
LEPCHA SEPOYS. TIBETAN SEPOYS IN THE BACKGROUND.
(See p. 403.)
between us on the bench we occupied. As his familiarity in-
creased, he put his arm round my neck, and as he was armed with
a small dagger, I felt rather uneasy about his intentions, but he
ended by forcing on my acceptance a coin, value threepence, for
he was in fact beside himself with terror.
Next morning Campbell received a hint that this was a good
opportunity for a vigorous remonstrance. The Dewan came with
460
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Tchebu Lama, his own younger brother (who was his pony driver),
and the Lassoo Kajee. The latter had for two months placed
himself in an attitude of hostility opposite Darjeeling, with a
ragged company of followers, but he now sought peace and friend-
ship as much as the Dewan; the latter told us he was waiting for
a reply to a letter addressed to Mr. Lushington, after which he
would set us free. Campbell said: "As you appear to have
made up your mind, why not dismiss us at once?" He answered
that we should go the next day at all events. Here I came in,
and on hearing from Campbell what had passed, I added, that he
had better for his own sake let us go at once; that the next day
was our great and only annual Poojah (religious festival) of Christ-
mas, when we all met; whereas he and his countrym en had
dozens in the year. As for me, he knew I had no wife, nor
children, nor any relation, within thousands of miles, and it
mattered little where I was, he was only bringing ruin on himself
by his conduct to me as the Governor-General's friend; but as
regarded Campbell the case was different; his home was at Dar-
jeeling, which was swarming with English soldiers, all in a state of
exasperation, and if he did not let us depart before Christmas he
would find Darjeeling too hot to hold him, let him offer what
reparation he might for the injuries he had done us. I added:
"We are all ready to go-dismiss us." The Dewan again turned
to Campbell, who said, "I am quite ready; order us ponies at
once, and send our luggage after us." He then ordered the
ponies, and three men, including Meepo, to attend us; whereupon
we walked out, mounted, and made off with all speed.
看
​We arrived at the cane bridge over the Great Rungeet at 4 P.M.,
and to our chagrin found it in the possession of a posse of ragged
Bhoteeas, though there were thirty armed Sepoys of our own at
the guard-house above. At Meepo's order they cut the network
of fine canes by which they had rendered the bridge impassable,
and we crossed. The Sepoys at the guard-house turned out with
their clashing arms and bright accoutrements, and saluted to the
sound of bugles; scaring our three companions, who ran back as
fast as they could go. We rode up that night to Darjeeling, and
I arrived at 8 P.M. at Hodgson's house, where I was taken for a
ghost, and received with shouts of welcome by my kind friend and
his guest Dr. Thomson, who had been awaiting my arrival for
upwards of a month.
Thus terminated our Sikkim captivity, and my last Himalayan
exploring journey, which in a botanical and geographical point of
view had answered my purposes beyond my most sanguine expecta-
EVENTS SUBSEQUENT TO RELEASE.
451
tions, though my collections had been in a great measure destroyed
by so many untoward events. It had enabled me to survey the whole
country, and to execute a map of it, and Campbell had further
gained that knowledge of its resources which the British govern-
ment should all along have possessed, as the protector of the Rajah
and his territories.
It remains to say a few words of the events that succeeded our
release, in so far as they relate to my connection with them. The
Dewan moved from Cheadam to Namtchi, immediately opposite
Darjeeling, where he remained throughout the winter. The
supreme government of Bengal demanded of the Rajah that he
should deliver up the most notorious offenders, and come himself
to Darjeeling, on pain of an army marching to Tumloong to
enforce the demand: a step which would have been easy, as there
were neither troops, arms, ammunition, nor other means of resist-
ance, even had there been the inclination to stop us, which was
not the case. The Rajah would in all probability have delivered
himself up at Tumloong, throwing himself on our mercy, and the
army would have sought the culprits in vain, both the spirit and
the power to capture them being wanting on the part of the people
and their ruler.
The Rajah expressed his willingness, but pleaded his inability
to fulfill the demand, whereupon the threat was repeated, and
additional reinforcements were moved on to Darjeeling. The
general officer in command at Dinapore was ordered to Darjeeling
to conduct operations: his skill and bravery had been proved
during the progress of the Nepal war so long ago as 1815. From
the appearance of the country about Darjeeling, he was led to
consider Sikkim to be impracticable for a British army.
This was
partly owing to the forest-clad mountains, and partly to the fear of
Tibetan troops coming to the Rajah's aid, and the Nepalese ¹
taking the opportunity to attack us. With the latter we were in
profound peace, and we had a residence at their court; and I
have elsewhere shown the impossibility of a Tibetan invasion, even
if the Chinese or Lhassan authorities were inclined to interfere in
the affairs of Sikkim, which they long ago formally declined doing
I
I
Jung Bahadoor was at this time planning his visit to England, and to his
honour I must say, that on hearing of our imprisonment he offered to the
government at Calcutta to release us with a handful of men. This he would
no doubt have easily effected, but his offer was wisely declined, for the
Nepalese (as I have elsewhere stated) want Sikkim and Bhotan too, and we
had undertaken the protection of the former country, mainly to keep the
Nepalese out of it.
462
HIMALAYÀN JOURNALS.
#
in the case of aggressions of the Nepalese and Bhotanese, the
Sikkim Rajah being under British protection.¹
There were not wanting offers of leading a company of soldiers
to Tumloong, rather than that the threat should have been twice
made, and then withdrawn; but they were not accepted. A
large body of troops was however marched from Darjeeling, and
encamped on the north bank of the Great Rungeet for some weeks :
but after that period they were recalled, without any further demon-
stration: the Dewan remaining encamped the while on the Namtchi
hill, not three hours' march above them. The simple Lepchas daily
brought our soldiers milk, fowls, and eggs, and would have con-
tinued to do so had they proceeded to Tumloong, for I believe
both Rajah and people would have rejoiced at our occupation of
the country.
After the withdrawal of the troops, the threat was modified into a
seizure of the Terai lands, which the Rajah had originally received
as a free gift from the British, and which were the only lucrative
or fertile estates he possessed. This was effected by four police-
men taking possession of the treasury (which contained exactly
twelve shillings, I believe), and announcing to the villagers the
confiscation of the territory to the British government, in which
they gladly acquiesced. At the same time there was annexed to
The general officer considered that our troops would have been cut to
pieces if they entered the country; and the late General Sir Charles Napier has
since given evidence to the same effect. Having been officially asked at the
time whether I would guide a party into the country, and having drawn up
(at the request of the general officer) plans for the purpose, and having given
it as my opinion that it would not only have been feasible but easy to have
marched a force in peace and safety to Tumloong, I feel it incumbent on me
here to remark, that I think General Napier, who never was in Sikkim, and
wrote from many hundred miles' distance, must have misapprehended the state
of the case.
Whether an invasion of Sikkim was either advisable or called
for, was a matter in which I had no concern; nor do I offer an opinion as
to the impregnability of the country if it were defended by natives otherwise
a match for a British force, and having the advantage of position. I was not
consulted with reference to any difference of opinion between the civil and
military powers, such as seems to have called for the expression of Sir Charles
Napier's opinion on this matter, and which appears to be considerably overrated
in his evidence.
The general officer honoured me with his friendship at Darjeeling, and to
Mr. Lushington, I am, as I have elsewhere stated, under great obligation for his
personal consideration and kindness, and vigorous measures during my deten-
tion. On my release and return to Darjeeling, any interference on my part
would have been meddling with what was not my concern. I never saw, nor
wished to see, a public document connected with the affair, and have only
given as many of the leading features of the case as I can vouch for, and as
were accessible to any other bystander.
W
*
ANNEXATION OF SOUTHERN SIKKIM.
463
it the whole southern part of Sikkim, between the Great Rungeet
and the plains of India, and from Nepal on the west to the Bhotan
frontier and the Teesta river on the east; thus confining the Rajah
to his mountains, and cutting off all access to the plains, except
through the British territories. To the inhabitants (about 5,000
souls) this was a matter of congratulation, for it only involved the
payment of a small fixed tax in money to the treasury at Darjeeling,
instead of a fluctuating one in kind, with service to the Rajah,
besides exempting them from further annoyance by the Dewan.
At the present time the revenues of the tract thus acquired have
doubled, and will very soon be quadrupled: every expense of our
detention and of the moving of troops, &c., has been already
repaid by it, and for the future all will be clear profit; and I am
given to understand that this last year it has realized upwards of
30,000 rupees (£3,000).
Dr. Campbell resumed his duties immediately afterwards, and
the newly-acquired districts were placed under his jurisdiction.
The Rajah still begs hard for the renewal of old friendship, and
the restoration of his Terai land, or the annual grant of £300 a
year which he formerly received. He has forbidden the culprits.
his court, but can do no more. The Dewan, disgraced and
turned out of office, is reduced to poverty, and is deterred from
entering Tibet by the threat of being dragged to Lhassa with a
rope round his neck. Considering, however, his energy, a rare
quality in these countries, I should not be surprised at his yet
cutting a figure in Bhotan, if not in Sikkim itself: especially if,
at the Rajah's death, the British government should refuse to take
the country under its protection. The Singtam Soubah and the
other culprits live disgraced at their homes. Tchebu Lama has
received a handsome reward, and a grant of land at Darjeeling,
where he resides, and whence he sends me his salaams by every
opportunity.
464
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
A
CHAPTER XXVII.
Leave Darjeeling for Calcutta-Jung Bahadoor-Dr. Falconer-Improvements
in Botanic Gardens-Palmetum-Victoria-Amherstia-Orchids spread
by seed-Banyan-Cycas-Importation of American plants in ice-
Return to Darjeeling-Leave with Dr. Thomson for the Khasia mountains
-Mahanuddy river-Vegetation of banks-Maldah-Alligators-Ram-
pore-Bauleah-Climate of Ganges - Pubna Jummul river — Altered
course of Burrampooter and Megna-Dacca-Conch shells-Saws-Cotton
muslins-Fruit-Vegetation-Elevation-Rose of Bengal-Burrampooter
Delta of Soormah river-Jheels - Soil - Vegetation Navigation —
Mosquitos-Atmospheric pressure-Effects of geological changes-Im-
bedding of plants-Teelas or islets-Chattuc-Salubrious climate-Rains
-Canoes-Pundua-Mr. Harry Inglis-Terrya Ghat-Ascent to Churra
-Scenery and vegetation at foot of mountains-Cascades.
Vegetation
Wą
I WAS chiefly occupied during January and February of 1850, in
arranging and transmitting my collections to Calcutta, and com-
pleting my manuscripts, maps, and surveys. My friend Dr.
Thomson having joined me here, for the purpose of our spending
a year in travelling and botanising together, it became necessary
to decide on the best field for our pursuits. Bhotan offered the
most novelty, but it was inaccessible to Europeans; and we there-
fore turned our thoughts to Nepal, and failing that, to the Khasia
mountains.
The better to expedite our arrangements, I made a trip to
Calcutta in March, where I expected to meet both Lord Dal-
housie, on his return from the Straits of Malacca, and Jung
Bahadoor (the Nepalese minister), who was then en route as envoy
to England. I stayed at Government House, where every assistance
was afforded me towards obtaining the Nepal Rajah's permission
to proceed through the Himalaya from Darjeeling to Katmandu.
Jung Bahadoor received me with much courtesy, and expressed
his great desire to serve me; but begged me to wait until his
return from England, as he could not be answerable for my
personal safety when travelling during his absence; and he
referred to the permission he had formerly given mc (and such
was never before accorded to any European) in earnest of his
disposition, which was unaltered. We therefore determined
upon spending the season of 1850 in the Khasia mountains in
eastern Bengal, at the head of the great delta of the Ganges and
Burrampooter.
I devoted a few days to the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, where
I found my kind friend Dr. Falconer established, and very busy.
The destruction of most of the palms, and of all the noble
tropical features of the gardens, during Dr. Griffith's incumbency,

BOTANICAL GARDENS OF CALCUTTA.
465
had necessitated the replanting of the greater part of the grounds,
the obliteration of old walks, and the construction of new: it
was also necessary to fill up tanks whose waters, by injudicious
cuttings, were destroying some of the most valuable parts of the
land, to drain many acres, and to raise embankments to prevent
the encroachments of the Hoogly: the latter being a work
attended with great expense, now cripples the resources of the
garden library, and other valuable adjuncts; for the trees which
Ama
Dan
TON
USTAINE
WORTHY
DR. FALCONER'S RESIDENCE, CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDENS, FROM
SIR L. PEEL'S GROUNDS.
were planted for the purpose having been felled and sold, it
became necessary to buy timber at an exorbitant price.
The avenue of Cycas trees (Cycas circinalis), once the admira-
tion of all visitors, and which for beauty and singularity was
unmatched in any tropical garden, had been swept away by the
same unsparing hand which had destroyed the teak, mahogany,
clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon groves. In 1848, when I first
visited the establishment, nothing was to be seen of its former
31
466
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
beauty and grandeur, but a few noble trees or graceful palms
rearing their heads over a low ragged jungle, or spreading their
broad leaves or naked limbs over the forlorn hope of a botanical
garden, that consisted of open clay beds, disposed in concentric
circles, and baking into brick under the fervid heat of a Bengal
sun.
The rapidity of growth is so great in this climate, that within
eight months from the commencement of the improvements, a
great change had already taken place. The grounds bore a park-
like appearance; broad shady walks had replaced the narrow
winding paths that ran in distorted lines over the ground, and a
large Palmetum, or collection of tall and graceful palms of various
kinds, occupied several acres at one side of the garden; whilst
a still larger portion of ground was being appropriated to a
picturesque assemblage of certain closely allied families of plants,
whose association promised to form a novel and attractive object
of study to the botanist, painter, and landscape gardener. This,
which the learned Director called in scientific language a Thamno-
Endogenarium, consists of groups of all kinds of bamboos, tufted
growing palms, rattan canes (Calami), Dracana, plantains, screw-
pines (Pandani), and such genera of tropical monocotyledonous
plants. All are evergreens of most vivid hue, some of which,
having slender trailing stems, form magnificent masses; others
twine round one another, and present impenetrable hillocks of
green foliage; whilst still others shoot out broad long wavy leaves
from tufted roots; and a fourth class is supported by aerial
roots, diverging on all sides and from all heights on the stems,
every branch of which is crowned with an enormous plume of
grass-like leaves.¹
The great Amherstia tree had been nearly killed by injudicious.
treatment, and the baking of the soil above its roots. This defect
was remedied by sinking bamboo pipes four feet and a half in
the earth, and watering through them-a plan first recommended
by Major M'Farlane of Tavoy. Some fine Orchidea were in
flower in the gardens, but few of them fruit; and those Dendro-
biums which bear axillary viviparous buds never do. Some of
the orchids appear to be spread by birds amongst the trees; but
the different species of Vanda are increasing so fast, that there
* Since I left India, these improvements have been still further carried out,
and now (in the spring of 1853) I read of five splendid Victoria plants
flowering at once, with Euryale ferox, white, blue, and red water-lilies, and
white, yellow, and scarlet lotus, rendering the tanks gorgeous, sunk as their
waters are in frames of green grass, ornamented with clumps of Nipa fruticans
and Phanix paludosa.
*
BOTANICAL GARDENS. BANYAN TREE. 467
seems no doubt that this tribe of air-plants grows freely from
seed in a wild state, though we generally fail to rear them in
England.
The great Banyan tree (Ficus Indica) is still the pride and
ornament of the garden. Dr. Falconer has ascertained satis-
factorily that it is only seventy-five years old: annual rings, size,
&c., afford no evidence in such a case, but people were alive a
few years ago who remembered well its site being occupied in
1782 by a Kujoor (Date-palm), out of whose crown the Banyan
sprouted, and beneath which a Fakir sat. It is a remarkable
fact that the Banyan hardly ever vegetates on the ground; but its
figs are eaten by birds, and the seeds deposited in the crowns of
palms, where they grow, sending down roots that embrace and
eventually kill the palm, which decays away. This tree is now
eighty feet high, and throws an area 300 feet in diameter into
a dark, cool shade. The gigantic limbs spread out about ten
feet above the ground, and from neglect during Dr. Wallich's
absence, there were on Dr. Falconer's arrival no more than
eighty-nine descending roots or props; there are now several
hundreds, and the growth of this grand mass of vegetation is
proportionably stimulated and increased. The props are induced
to sprout by wet clay and moss tied to the branches, beneath
which a little pot of water is hung, and after they have made
some progress, they are inclosed in bamboo tubes, and so coaxed
down to the ground. They are mere slender whip-cords before
reaching the earth, where they root, remaining very lax for several
months; but gradually, as they grow and swell to the size of
cables, they tighten, and eventually become very tense. This is
a curious phenomenon, and so rapid, that it appears to be due to
the rooting part mechanically dragging down the aerial. The
branch meanwhile continues to grow outwards, and being supplied
by its new support, thickens beyond it, whence the props always
slant outwards from the ground towards the circumference of the
tree.
Cycas trees abound in the gardens, and, though generally having
only one, or rarely two crowns, they have sometimes sixteen, and
their stems are everywhere covered with leafy buds, which are
I Had this tree been growing in 1849 over the great palm-stove at Kew, only
thirty feet of each end of that vast structure would have been uncovered: its
increase was then proceeding so rapidly, that by this time it could probably cover
the whole. Larger banyans are common in Bengal; but few are so symmetrical
in shape and height. As the tree gets old, it breaks up into separate masses,
the original trunk decaying, and the props becoming separate trunks of the
different portions.
468
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
developed on any check being given to the growth of the plant,
as by the operation of transplantation, which will cause as many
as 300 buds to appear in the course of a few years, on a trunk
eight feet high.
During my stay at the gardens, Dr. Falconer received a box of
living plants packed in moss, and transported in a frozen state
by one of the ice ships from North America: they left in
November, and arriving in March, I was present at the opening
of the boxes, and saw 391 plants (the whole contents) taken out
in the most perfect state. They were chiefly fruit-trees, apples,
pears, peaches, currants, and gooseberries, with beautiful plants
of the Venus' fly-trap (Dionaea muscipula). More perfect success
never attended an experiment: the plants were in vigorous bud,
and the day after being released from their icy bonds, the leaves
sprouted and unfolded, and they were packed in Ward's cases for
immediate transport to the Himalaya mountains.
My visit to Calcutta enabled me to compare my instruments
with the standards at the Observatory, in which I was assisted by
my friend Capt. Thuillier, to whose kind offices on this and many
other occasions I am greatly indebted.
I returned to Darjeeling on the 17th of April, and Dr. Thomson
and I commenced our arrangements for proceeding to the Khasia
mountains. We started on the 1st of May, and I bade adieu to
Darjeeling with no light heart; for I was leaving the kindest and
most disinterested friends I had ever made in a foreign land, and
a country whose mountains, forests, productions, and people had
all become endeared to me by many ties and associations. The
prospects of Darjeeling itself are neither doubtful nor insignificant.
Whether or not Sikkim will fall again under the protection of
Britain, the station must prosper, and that very speedily. I had
seen both its native population and its European houses doubled
in two years; its salubrious climate, its scenery, and accessibility,
ensure it so rapid a further increase that it will become the most
populous hill-station in India. Strong prejudices against a damp
climate, and the complaints of loungers and idlers who only seek
pleasure, together with a groundless fear of the natives, have
hitherto retarded its progress; but its natural advantages will out-
weigh these and all other obstacles.
I am aware that my opinion of the ultimate success of Dar-
The ice from these ships is sold in the Calcutta market for a penny a
pound, to great profit; it has already proved an invaluable remedy in cases of
inflammation and fever, and has diminished mortality to a very appreciable.
extent.
DEPARTURE FOR KHASIA.
469
jeeling is not shared by the general public of India, and must be
pardoned for considering their views in this matter short-sighted.
With regard to the disagreeables of its climate, I can sufficiently
appreciate them, and shall be considered by the residents to have
over-estimated the amount and constancy of mist, rain, and
humidity, from the two seasons I spent there being exceptional
in these respects.
Whilst on the one hand I am willing to
admit the probability of this,' I may be allowed on the other to
say that I have never visited any spot under the sun, where I was not
told that the season was exceptional, and generally for the worse;
added to which there is no better and equally salubrious climate
east of Nepal, accessible from Calcutta.
All climates are comparative, and fixed residents naturally
praise their own. I have visited many latitudes, and can truly
say that I have found no two climates resembling each other,
and that all alike are complained of. That of Darjeeling is
above the average in point of comfort, and for perfect salubrity
rivals any; while in variety, interest, and grandeur, the scenery
is unequalled.
From Sikkim to the Khasia mountains our course was by boat
down the Mahanuddy to the upper Gangetic delta, whose many
branches we followed eastwards to the Megna; whence we
ascended the Soormah to the Silhet district. We arrived at
Kishengunj, on the Mahanuddy, on the 3rd of May, and were
delayed two days for our boat, which should have been waiting
here to take us to Berhampore on the Ganges: we were, however,
hospitably received by Mr. Perry's family.
The approach of the rains was indicated by violent easterly
storms of thunder, lightning, and rain; the thermometer ranging
from 70° to 85°. The country around Kishengunj is flat and very
barren; it is composed of a deep sandy soil, covered with a short
turf, now swarming with cockchafers. Water is found ten or
twelve feet below the surface, and may be supplied by underground
streams from the Himalaya, distant forty-five miles. The river,
which at this season is low, may be navigated up to Titalya during
the rains; its bed averages 60 yards in width, and is extremely
tortuous; the current is slight, and, though shallow, the water is
opaque. We slowly descended to Maldah, where we arrived on
the 11th the temperature both of the water and of the air
increased rapidly to upwards of 90°; the former was always a
* I am informed that hardly a shower of rain has fallen this season, between
November 1852, and April 1853; and a very little snow in February only.
470
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
few degrees cooler than the air by day, and warmer by night.
The atmosphere became drier as we receded from the mountains.
The boatmen always brought up by the shore at night; and
our progress was so slow, that we could keep up with the boat
when walking along the bank. So long as the soil and river-bed
continued sandy, few bushes or herbs were to be found, and it
was difficult to collect a hundred kinds of plants in a day:
gradually, however, clumps of trees appeared, with jujube bushes,
Trophis, Acacia, and Buddleia, a few fan palms, bamboos, and
Jack-trees. A shell (Anodon) was the only one seen in the river,
which harboured few water-plants or birds, and neither alligators
nor porpoises ascend so high.
On the 7th of May, about eighty miles in a straight line from
the foot of the Himalaya, we found the stratified sandy banks,
which had gradually risen to a height of thirteen feet, replaced
by the hard alluvial clay of the Gangetic valley, which underlies
the sand the stream contracted, and the features of its banks
were materially improved by a jungle of tamarisk, wormwood
(Artemisia), and white rose-bushes (Rosa involucrata), whilst
mango trees became common, with tamarinds, banyan, and figs.
Date and Caryota palms, and rattan canes, grew in the woods,
and parasitic Orchids on the trees, which were covered with a
climbing fern (Acrosticum scandens), so that we easily doubled our
flora of the river banks before arriving at Maldah.
This once populous town is, like Berhampore, now quite
decayed, since the decline of its silk and indigo trades: the staple
product, called "Maldy," a mixture of silk and cotton, very
durable, and which washes well, now forms its only trade, and is
exported through Sikkim to the north-west provinces and Tibet.
It is still famous for the size and excellence of its mangos, which
ripen late in May; but this year the crop had been destroyed by
the damp heats of spring, the usual north-west dry winds not
having prevailed.
The ruins of the once famous city of Gour, a few miles distant,
are now covered with jungle, and the buildings are fast disap-
pearing, owing to the bricks being carried away to be used
elsewhere.
Below Maldah the river gets broader, and willow becomes
common. We found specimens of a Planorbis in the mud of the
stream, and saw apparently a boring shell in the alluvium, but
could not land to examine it. Chalky masses of alligators'
droppings, like coprolites, are very common, buried in the banks,
which become twenty feet high at the junction with the Ganges,
HEAD OF THE GANGÉTIC DELTA.
471
where we arrived on the 14th. The waters of this great river were
nearly two degrees cooler than those of the Mahanuddy.
Rampore-Bauleah is a large station on the north bank of the
Ganges, whose stream is at this season fully a mile wide, with a
We
very slow current; its banks are thirty feet above the water.
were most kindly received by Mr. Bell, the collector of the district,
to whom we were greatly indebted for furthering us on our
voyage: boats being very difficult to procure, we were, however,
detained here from the 16th to the 19th. I was fortunate in
being able to compare my barometers with a first-rate standard
instrument, and in finding no appreciable alteration since leaving
Calcutta in the previous April. The elevation of the station is
130 feet above the sea, that of Kishengunj I made 131; so that
the Gangetic valley is nearly a dead level for fully a hundred miles
north, beyond which it rises; Titalya, 150 miles to the north,
being 360 feet, and Siligoree, at the margin of the Terai, rather
higher. The river again falls more considerably than the land ;
the Mahanuddy, at Kishengunj, being about twenty feet below
the level of the plains, or 110 above the sea; whereas the Ganges,
at Rampore, is probably not more than eighty feet, even when the
water is highest.
The climate of Rampore is marked by greater extremes than
that of Calcutta: during our stay the temperature rose above
106°, and fell to 78° at night: the mean was 21° higher than at
Calcutta, which is 126 miles further south. Being at the head of
the Gangetic delta, which points from the Sunderbunds obliquely
to the north-west, it is much damper than any locality further
west, as is evidenced by two kinds of Calamus palm abounding,
which do not ascend the Ganges beyond Monghyr. Advancing
eastwards, the dry north-west wind of the Gangetic valley, which
blows here in occasional gusts, is hardly felt; and easterly winds,
rising after the sun (or, in other words, following the heating of the
open dry country), blow down the great valley of the Burram-
pooter, or south-easterly ones come up from the Bay of Bengal.
The western head of the Gangetic delta is thus placed in what
are called "the variables" in naval phraseology; but only so far
as its superficial winds are concerned, for its great atmospheric
current always blows from the Bay of Bengal, and flows over all
northern India, to the lofty regions of Central Asia.
At Rampore I found the temperature of the ground, at three
feet depth, varied from 87° 8 to 89° 8, being considerably lower
than that of the air (94° 2), whilst that of a fine ripening shaddock,
into which I plunged a thermometer bulb, varied little from 81°,
472
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS,
whether the sun shone on it or not. From this place we made
very slow progress south-eastwards, with a gentle current, but
against constant easterly winds, and often violent gales and
thunder-storms, which obliged us to bring up under shelter of
banks and islands of sand. Sometimes we sailed along the broad
river, whose opposite shores were rarely both visible at once, and
at others tracked the boat through narrow creeks that unite the
many Himalayan streams, and form a network soon after leaving
their mountain valleys
A few miles beyond Pubna we passed from a narrow canal at
once into the main stream of the Burrampooter at Jaffergunj: our
maps had led us to expect that it flowed fully seventy miles to the
eastward in this latitude; and we were surprised to hear that
within the last twenty years the main body of that river had
shifted its course thus far to the westward. This alteration was
not effected by the gradual working westwards of the main stream,
but by the old eastern channel so rapidly silting up as to be now
unnavigable; while the Jummul, which receives the Teesta, and
which is laterally connected by branches with the Burrampooter,
became consequently wider and deeper, and eventually the
principal stream.
Nothing can be more dreary and uninteresting than the scenery
of this part of the delta. The water is clay-coloured and turbid,
always cooler than the air, which again was 4° or 5° below that of
Calcutta, with a damper atmosphere. The banks are of stratified
sand and mud, hardly raised above the mean level of the country,
and consequently unlike those bordering most annually flooded
rivers; for here the material is so unstable, that the current yearly
changes its course. A wiry grass sometimes feebly binds the
loose soil, on which there are neither houses nor cultivation.
Ascending the Jummul (now the main channel of the Burram-
pooter) for a few miles, we turned off into a narrower channel,
sixty miles long, which passes by Dacca, where we arrived on the
28th, and where we were again detained for boats, the demand
for which is rapidly increasing with the extended cultivation of
the Sunderbunds and Delta. We stayed with Mr. Atherton, and
botanised in the neighbourhood of the town, which was once very
extensive, and is still large, though not flourishing. The popu-
lation is mostly Mahometan; the site, though beautiful and varied,
is unhealthy for Europeans. Ruins of great Moorish brick
buildings still remain, and a Greek style of ornamenting the houses
prevails to a remarkable degree.
The manufacture of rings for the arms and ankles, from conch-
DACCA. MUSLINS. BENGAL WILD ROSE.
473
shells imported from the Malayan Archipelago, is still almost
confined to Dacca: the shells are sawn across for this purpose by
semicircular saws, the hands and toes being both actively employed
in the operation. The introduction of circular saws has been
attempted by some European gentlemen, but steadily resisted by
the natives, despite their obvious advantages. The Dacca muslin
manufacture, which once employed thousands of hands, is quite
at an end, so that it was with great difficulty that the specimens of
these fabrics sent to the Great Exhibition of 1851, were procured.
The kind of cotton (which is very short in the staple) employed,
is now hardly grown, and scarcely a loom exists which is fit for
the finest fabrics. The jewellers still excel in gold and silver
filagree.
I
Pine-apples, plantains, mangos, and oranges, abound in the
Dacca market, betokening a better climate for tropical fruits than
that of Western Bengal; and we also saw the fruit of Euryale
ferox, which is round, soft, pulpy, and the size of a small orange;
it contains from eight to fifteen round black seeds as large as
peas, which are full of flour, and are eaten roasted in India and
China, in which latter country the plant is said to have been in
cultivation for upwards of 3,000 years.
The native vegetation is very similar to that of the Hoogly,
except that the white rose is frequent here. The fact of a plant
of this genus being as common on the plains of Bengal as a dog-
rose is in England, and associated with cocoa-nuts, palms, mangos,
plantains, and banyans, has never yet attracted the attention of
botanists, though the species was described by Roxburgh. As a
geographical fact it is of great importance, for the rose is usually
considered a northern genus, and no kind but this inhabits a
damp hot tropical climate. Even in mountainous countries
situated near the equator, as in the Himalaya and Andes, wild
roses are very rare, and only found at great elevations, whilst they
are unknown in the southern hemisphere. It is curious that this
rose, which is also a native of Birma and the Indian Peninsula,
does not in this latitude grow west of the meridian of 87°; it is
confined to the upper Gangetic delta, and inhabits a climate in
which it would least of all be looked for.
An Indian water-lily with a small red flower, covered everywhere with
prickles, and so closely allied to Victoria regia as to be scarcely generically
distinguishable from it. It grows in the eastern Sunderbunds, and also in
Kashmir. The discoverer of Victoria called the latter "Euryale Amazonica.”
These interesting plants are growing side by side in the new Victoria house at
Kew. The Chinese species has been erroneously considered different from the
Indian one.
474
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
I made the elevation of Dacca by barometer only seventy-two
feet above the sea; and the banks of the Dallisary being high, the
level of its waters at this season is scarcely above that of the Bay
of Bengal. The mean temperature of the air was 86% during our
stay, or half a degree lower than Calcutta at the same period.
We pursued our voyage on the 30th of May, to the old bed of
the Burrampooter, an immense shallow sheet of water, of which
the eastern bank is for eighty miles occupied by the delta of the
Soormah. This river rises on the Munnipore frontier, and flows
through Cachar, Silhet, and the Jheels of east Bengal, receiving,
the waters of the Cachar, Jyntea, Khasia, and Garrow mountains
(which bound the Assam valley to the south), and of the Tipperah
hills, which stretch parallel to them, and divide the Soormah
valley from the Bay of Bengal. The immense area thus drained
by the Soormah is hardly raised above the level of the sea, and
covers about 10,000 square miles. The anastomosing rivers that
traverse it, flow very gently, and do not materially alter their
course; hence their banks gradually rise above the mean level of
the surrounding country, and on them the small villages are built,
surrounded by extensive rice-fields that need no artificial irriga-
tion. At this season the general surface of the Jheels is marshy;
but during the rains, which are excessive on the neighbouring
mountains, they resemble an inland sea, the water rising gradually
to within a few inches of the floor of the huts; as, however, it
subsides as slowly in autumn, it commits no devastation. The
communication is at all seasons by boats, in the management of
which the natives (chiefly Mahometans) are expert.
The want of trees and shrubs is the most remarkable feature of
the Jheels; in which respect they differ from the Sunderbunds,
though the other physical features of each are similar, the level
being exactly the same: for this difference there is no apparent
cause, beyond the influence of the tide and sea atmosphere.
Long grasses of tropical genera (Saccharum, Donax, Andropogon,
and Rottballia) ten feet high, form the bulk of the vegetation,
with occasional low bushes along the firmer banks of the natural
canals that everywhere intersect the country; amongst these the
rattan cane (Calamus), rose, a laurel, Stravadium, and fig, are the
most common; while beautiful convolvuli throw their flowering
shoots across the water.
-
The soil, which is sandy along the Burrampooter, is more
muddy and clayey in the centre of the Jheels, with immense
spongy accumulations of vegetable matter in the marshes, through
which we poked the boat-staves without finding bottom: they
THE JHEELS. BURRampooter river.
475
were for the most part formed of decomposed grass roots, with,
occasionally leaves, but no quantity of moss or woody plants.
Along the courses of the greater streams drift timber and various
organic fragments are no doubt imbedded, but as there is no
current over the greater part of the flooded surface, there can be
little or no accumulation, except perhaps of old canoes, or of such
vegetables as grow on the spot. The waters are dark-coloured,
but clear and lucid, even at their height.
We proceeded up the Burrampooter, crossing it obliquely; its
banks were on the average five miles apart, and formed of sand,
without clay, and very little silt or mud: the water was clear and
brown, like that of the Jheels, and very different from that of the
Jummul. We thence turned eastwards into the delta of the
Soormah, which we traversed in a north-easterly direction to the
stream itself. We often passed through very narrow channels,
where the grasses towered over the boats: the boatmen steered in
and out of them as they pleased, and we were utterly at a loss to
know how they guided themselves, as they had neither compass
nor map, and there were few villages or landmarks; and on
climbing the mast we saw multitudes of other masts and sails
peering over the grassy marshes, doing just the same as we did.
All that go up have the south-west wind in their favour, and this
helps them to their course, but beyond this they have no other
guide but that instinct which habit begets. Often we had to
retreat from channels that promised to prove short cuts, but
which turned out to be blind alleys. Sometimes we sailed up
broader streams of chesnut-brown water, accompanied by fleets of
boats repairing to the populous districts at the foot of the Khasia,
for rice, timber, lime, coal, bamboos, and long reeds for thatching,
all of which employ an inland navy throughout the year in their
transport to Calcutta.
Leeches and mosquitos were very troublesome, the latter
appearing in clouds at night; during the day they were rarer, but
the species was the same. A large cray-fish was common, but
there were few birds and no animals to be seen.
Fifty-four barometric observations, taken at the level of the
water on the voyage between Dacca and the Soormah, and com-
pared with Calcutta, showed a gradual rise of the mercury in
proceeding eastwards; for though the pressure at Calcutta was
055 of an inch higher than at Dacca, it was 034 lower than on
the Soormah: the mean difference between all these observations
and the cotemporaneous ones at Calcutta was + 003 in favour of
Calcutta, and the temperature half a degree lower; the dew-point
476
HIMALAYAN ALAYAN
JOURNALS.
1
and humidity were nearly the same at both places. This being
the driest season of the year, it is very probable that the mean
level of the water at this part of the delta is not higher than that
of the Bay of Bengal; but as we advanced northwards towards
the Khasia, and entered the Soormah itself, the atmospheric
pressure increased further, thus appearing to give the bed of that
stream a depression of thirty-five feet below the Bay of Bengal,
into which it flows! This was no doubt the result of unequal
atmospheric pressure at the two localities, caused by the distur-
bance of the column of atmosphere by the Khasia mountains; for
in December of the same year, thirty-eight observations on the
surface of the Soormah made its bed forty-six feet above the Bay
of Bengal, whilst from twenty-three observations on the Megna,
the pressure only differed + o'020 of an inch from that of the
barometer at Calcutta, which is eighteen feet above the sea-level.
These barometric levellings, though far from satisfactory as
compared with trigonometric, are extremely interesting in the
absence of the latter. In a scientific point of view nothing has
been done towards determining the levels of the land and waters
of the great Gangetic delta, since Rennell's time, yet no geodetical
operation promises more valuable results in geography and
physical geology than running three lines of level across its area;
from Chittagong to Calcutta, from Silhet to Rampore, and from
Calcutta to Silhet. The foot of the Sikkim Himalaya has, I
believe, been connected with Calcutta by the great trigono-
metrical survey, but I am given to understand that the results are
not published.
}
My own barometric levellings would make the bed of the
Mahanuddy and Ganges at the western extremity of the delta,
considerably higher than I should have expected, considering how
gentle the current is, and that the season was that of low water.
If my observations are correct, they probably indicate a diminished
pressure, which is not easily accounted for, the lower portion of
the atmospheric column at Rampore being considerably drier and
therefore heavier than at Calcutta. At the eastern extremity
again, towards Silhet, the atmosphere is much damper than at
Calcutta, and the barometer should therefore have stood lower,
indicating a higher level of the waters than is the case.
To the geologist the Jheels and Sunderbunds are a most
instructive region, as whatever may be the mean elevation of their
waters, a permanent depression of ten to fifteen feet would sub-
merge an immense tract, which the Ganges, Burrampooter, and
Soormah would soon cover with beds of silt and sand. There

GEOLOGICAL SPECULATIONS ON THE JHEELS 477
would be extremely few shells in the beds thus formed, the
southern and northern divisions of which would present two very
different floras and faunas, and would in all probability be referred
by future geologists to widely different epochs. To the north,
beds of peat would be formed by grasses, and in other parts,
temperate and tropical forms of plants and animals would be
preserved in such equally balanced proportions as to confound the
palæontologist; with the bones of the long-snouted alligator,
BIZ
VIEW IN THE JHEELS.
Gangetic porpoise, Indian cow, buffalo, rhinoceros, elephant, tiger,
deer, boar, and a host of other animals, he would meet with
acorns of several species of oak, pine-cones and magnolia fruits,
rose seeds, and Cycas nuts, with palm nuts, screw-pines, and other
tropical productions. On the other hand, the Sunderbunds
portion, though containing also the bones of the tiger, deer, and
buffalo, would have none of the Indian cow, rhinoceros, or
elephant; it would contain other species of porpoise, alligator,
478
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
and deer, and none of the above mentioned plants (Cycas, oak,
pine, magnolia and rose), which would be replaced by numerous
others, all distinct from those of the Jheels, and many of them
indicative of the influence of salt water, whose proximity (from the
rarity of sea-shells) might not otherwise be suspected.
On the 1st of June we entered the Soormah, a full and muddy
stream flowing west, a quarter of a mile broad, with banks of
mud and clay twelve or fifteen feet high, separating it from
marshes, and covered with betel-nut and cocoa-nut palms, figs,
and banyans. Many small villages were scattered along the
banks, each with a swarm of boats, and rude kilns for burning the
lime brought from the Khasia mountains, which is done with grass
and bushes. We ascended to Chattuc, against a gentle current,
arriving on the 9th.
From this place the Khasia mountains are seen as a long table-
topped range running east and west, about 4,000 to 5,000 feet
high, with steep faces towards the Jheels, out of which they
appear to rise abruptly. Though twelve miles distant, large
waterfalls are very clearly seen precipitating themselves over the
cliffs into a bright green mass of foliage that seems to creep half
way up their flanks. The nearly horizontal arrangement of the
strata is as conspicuous here, as in the sandstone of the Kymore
hills in the Soane valley, which these mountains a good deal re-
semble; but they are much higher, and the climate is widely
different. Large valleys enter the hills, and are divided by hog-
backed spurs, and it is far within these valleys that the waterfalls
and precipices occur; but the nearer and further cliffs being
thrown by perspective into one range, they seem to rise out of the
Jheels so abruptly as to remind one of some precipitous island in
the ocean
Chattuc is mainly indebted for its existence to the late Mr.
Inglis, who resided there for upwards of sixty years, and opened
a most important trade between the Khasia and Calcutta in
oranges, potatoes, coal, lime, and timber. We were kindly received
by his son, whose bungalow occupies a knoll, of which there are
several, which attracted our attention as being the only elevations
fifty feet high which we had ascended since leaving the foot of the
Sikkim Himalaya. They rise as islets (commonly called Teela,
Beng.) out of the Jheels, within twelve to twenty miles of the
Khasia; they are chiefly formed of stratified gravel and sand, and
are always occupied by villages and trees. They seldom exceed
sixty feet in height, and increase in number and size as the hills are
approached; they are probably the remains of a deposit that was
SILHET AND CACHAR.
479
once spread uniformly along the foot of the mountains, and they
in all respects resemble those I have described as rising abruptly
from the plains near Titalya (see p. 269).
The climate of Chattuc is excessively damp and hot throughout
the year, but though sunk amid interminable swamps, the place is
perfectly healthy! Such indeed is the character of the climate.
throughout the Jheels, where fevers and agues are rare; and
though no situations can appear more malarious to the common
observer than Silhet and Cachar, they are in fact eminently
salubrious. These facts admit of no explanation in the present
state of our knowledge of endemic diseases. Much may be attri-
buted to the great amount and purity of the water, the equability
of the climate, the absence of forests and of sudden changes from
wet to dry; but such facts afford no satisfactory explanation. The
water, as I have above said, is of a rich chesnut-brown in the
narrow creeks of the Jheels, and is golden yellow by transmitted
light, owing no doubt, as in bog water and that of dunghills, to a
vegetable extractive and probably the presence of carburetted
hydrogen. Humboldt mentions this dark-coloured water as
prevailing in some of the swamps of the Cassiquares, at the
junction of the Orinoco and Amazon, and gives much curious
information on its accompanying features of animal and vegetable
life.
The rains generally commence in May: they were unusually
late this year, though the almost daily gales and thunder-storms
we experienced, foretold their speedy arrival. From May till
October they are unremitting, and the country is under water, the
Soormah rising about fifty feet. North-easterly winds prevail, but
they are local currents reflected from the Khasia, against which
the southerly perennial trade-wind impinges. Westerly winds are
very rare, but the dry north-west blasts of India have been known
to traverse the delta and reach this meridian, in one or two short
hot dry puffs during March and April. Hoarfrost is unknown.¹
China roses and tropical plants (Bignonia, Asclepiadea, and
Convolvuli) rendered Mr. Inglis' bungalow gay, but little else will
grow in the gardens. Pine-apples are the best fruit, and oranges
from the foot of the Khasia: plantains ripen imperfectly, and the
mango is always acid, attacked by grubs, and having a flavour of
turpentine. The violent hailstorms of the vernal equinox cut
both spring and cold season flowers and vegetables, and the rains
destroy all summer products. The soil is a wet clay, in which
It however forms further south, at the very mouth of the Megna, and is
the effect of intense radiation when the thermometer in the shade falls to 45º.
÷
480
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
some European vegetables thrive well if planted in October or
November. We were shown marrowfat peas that had been grown
for thirty years without degenerating in size, but their flavour was
poor.
Small long canoes, paddled rapidly by two men, were procured
here, whereby to ascend the narrow rivers that lead up to the foot
of the mountains: they each carry one passenger, who lies along
the bottom, protected by a bamboo platted arch roof. We
started at night, and early the next morning arrived at Pundua,¹
where there is a dilapidated bungalow: the inhabitants are em-
ployed in the debarkation of lime, coal, and potatoes. Large fleets
of boats crowded the narrow creeks, some of the vessels being of
several tons burden.
Elephants were kindly sent here for us by Mr. H. Inglis, to take
us to the foot of the mountains, about three miles distant, and
relays of mules and ponies to ascend to Churra, where we were
received with the greatest hospitality by that gentleman, who en-
tertained us till the end of June, and procured us servants and
collectors. To his kind offices we were also indebted throughout
our travels in the Khasia, for much information, and for facilities
and necessaries of all kinds; things in which the traveller is more
dependent on his fellow countrymen in India, than in any other
part of the world.
We spent two days at Pundua, waiting for our great boats
(which drew several feet of water), and collecting in the vicinity.
The old bungalow, without windows and with the roof falling in,
was a most miserable shelter; and whichever way we turned from
the door, a river or a swamp lay before us. Birds, mosquitos,
leeches, large wasps, rats, and sandflies swarmed. A more pesti-
lential-looking hole cannot be conceived; and yet people traverse
this district, and sleep here at all seasons of the year with impunity.
We did so ourselves in the month of June, when the Sikkim and
all other Terais are deadly: we returned in September, traversing
the Jheels and nullahs at the very foot of the hills during a short
break of fine weather in the middle of the rains; and we again
slept here in November, 2 always exposed in the heat of the day
I
* Pundua, though an insignificant village, surrounded by swamps, has en-
joyed an undue share of popularity as a botanical region. Before the geo-
graphical features of the country north of Silhet were known, the plants
brought from those hills by native collectors were sent to the Calcutta garden
(and thence to Europe) as from Pundua. Hence Silhet mountains and Pundua
mountains, both very erroneous terms, are constantly met with in botanical
works, and generally refer to plants growing in the Khasia mountains.
2 At the north foot of the Khasia, in the heavily timbered dry Terai stretch-
PUNDUA. NUMMULITE LIMESTONE.
481
to wet and fatigue, and never having even a soupçon of fever,
ague, or rheumatism. This immunity does not, however, extend
to the very foot of the hills, as it is considered imprudent to
sleep at this season in the bungalow of Terrya, only three miles
off.
The elevation of Pundua bungalow is about forty feet above
the sea, and that of the waters surrounding it, from ten to thirty,
according to the season. In June the mean of the barometer
readings at the bungalow was absolutely identical with that of the
Calcutta barometer. In September it was o'016 inch lower, and
in November o'066 lower. The mean annual temperature
throughout the Jheels is less than 2° below that of Calcutta.
I
Terrya bungalow lies at the very foot of the first rise of the
mountains; on the way we crossed many small streams upon the
elephants, and one large one by canoes: the water in all was
cool and sparkling, running rapidly over boulders and pebbles.
Their banks of sandy clay were beautifully fringed with a willow-
like laurel, Ehretia bushes, bamboos, palms, Bauhinia, Bombax,
and Erythrina, over which Calamus palm (rattan) and various
flowering plants climbed. The rock at Terrya is a nummulitic
limestone, worn into extensive caverns. This formation is said to
extend along the southern flank of the Khasia, Garrow, and
Jyntea mountains, and to be associated with sandstone and coal:
it is extensively quarried in many places, several thousand tons
being annually shipped for Calcutta and Dacca. It is succeeded
by a horizontally stratified sandstone, which continued up to
4,000 feet, where it is overlain by coal-beds, and then by limestone
again.
The sub-tropical scenery of the lower and outer Sikkim Hima-
laya, though on a much more gigantic scale, is not comparable in
beauty and luxuriance with the really tropical vegetation induced
by the hot, damp, and insular climate of these perennially humid
mountains. On the Himalaya forests of gigantic trees, many of
them deciduous, appear from a distance as masses of dark gray
foliage, clothing mountains 10,000 feet high: here the individual
trees are smaller, more varied in kind, of a brilliant green, and
ing for sixty miles to the Burrampooter, it is almost inevitable death for a
European to sleep, at any time between the end of April and of November.
Many have crossed that track, but not one without taking fever: Mr. H. Inglis
was the only survivor of a party of five, and he was ill from the effects for up-
wards of two years, after having been brought to death's door by the first
attack, which came on within three weeks of his arrival at Churra, and by
several relapses.
Temperature in September 77° to 80°; and in November 75.7°.
32
482
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
contrast with gray limestone and red sandstone rocks and silvery
cataracts. Palms are more numerous here; the cultivated Areca
(betel-nut) especially, raising its graceful stem and feathery crown,
"like an arrow shot down from heaven," in luxuriance and beauty
above the verdant slopes. This difference is at once expressed to
the Indian botanist by defining the Khasia flora as of Malayan
character; by which is meant the prevalence of brilliant glossy-
leaved evergreen tribes of trees (as Euphorbiacea and Urticea),
especially figs, which abound in the hot gulleys, where the pro-
perty of their roots, which inosculate and form natural grafts, is
taken advantage of in bridging streams, and in constructing what
are called living bridges, of the most picturesque forms. Combre-
taceæ, oaks, oranges, Garcinia (gamboge), Diospyros, figs, Jacks,
plantains, and Pandanus, are more frequent here, together with
pinnated leaved Leguminosa, Meliacea, vines and peppers, and
above all palms, both climbing ones with pinnated shining leaves
(as Calamus and Plectocomia), and erect ones with similar leaves
(as cultivated cocoa-nut, Areca and Arenga), and the broader-
leaved wild betel-nut, and beautiful Caryota or wine-palm, whose
immense decompound leaves are twelve feet long. Laurels and
wild nutmegs, with Henslowia, Itea, &c., were frequent in the
forest, with the usual prevalence of parasites, mistleto, epiphytical
Orchidea, Eschynanthus, ferns, mosses, and Lycopodia; and on
the ground were Rubiacea, Scitamineæ, ferns, Acanthacea, beauti-
ful balsams, and herbaceous and shrubby nettles. Bamboos 2 of
many kinds are very abundant, and these hills further differ re-
There are upwards of twenty kinds of Palm in this district, including
Chamarops, three species of Areca, two of Wallichia, Arenga, Caryota, three
of Phanix, Plectocomia, Licuala, and many species of Calamus. Besides
these there are several kinds of Pandanus, and the Cycas pectinata.
2 The natives enumerate about fourteen different kinds of bamboo, of which
we found five in flower, belonging to three very distinct genera. Uspár,
Uspét, Uspít, Uskén, Uskóng, Uktáng, Ustó, Silee, Namlang, Tirra, and
Battooba are some of the names of Bamboos vouched for by Mr. Inglis as
correctly spelt. Of other Khasia names of plants, Wild Plantains are called
Kairem, and the cultivated Kakesh; the latter are considered so nourishing that
they are given to new-born infants. Senteo is a flower in Khas, So a fruit,
Ading a tree, and Te a leaf. Pandanus is Kashelan. Plectocomia, Usmole.
Licuala, Kuslow. Caryota, Kalaikatang. Wallichia, Kalai-nili. Areca,
Waisola. Various Calami are Rhimét, Uriphin, Ureek hilla, Tindrio, &c.
This list will serve as a specimen: I might increase it materially, but as I have
elsewhere observed, the value attached to the supposed definite application of
native names to natural objects is greatly over-rated, and too much reliance on
them has introduced a prodigious amount of confusion into scientific works and
philological inquiries.
}

WE
"LIVING BRIDGE," FORMED OF THE AERIAL ROOTS OF THE INDIA-RUBBER AND OTHER KINDS OF FIGS.

ASCENT OF THE KHASIA HILLS.
483
markably from those of Sikkim in the great number of species of
grasses.
The ascent was at first gradual, along the sides of a sand-
stone spur. At 2,000 feet the slope suddenly became steep and
rocky; at 3,000 feet tree vegetation disappeared, and we opened a
magnificent prospect of the upper scarped flank of the valley of
Moosmai, which we were ascending, with four or five beautiful
cascades rolling over the table top of the hills, broken into silvery
foam as they leapt from ledge to ledge of the horizontally stratified
precipice, and throwing a veil of silver gauze over the gulf of
emerald green vegetation, 2,000 feet below. The views of the
many cataracts of the first class that are thus precipitated over the
bare table-land on which Churra stands, into the valleys on either
side, surpass anything of the kind that I have elsewhere seen,
though in many respects vividly recalling the scenery around Rio
de Janeiro: nor do I know any spot in the world more calculated
to fascinate the naturalist who, while appreciating the elements of
which a landscape is composed, is also keenly alive to the beauty
and grandeur of tropical scenery.
At the point where this view opens, a bleak stony region com-
mences, bearing numberless plants of a temperate flora and of
European genera, at a comparatively low elevation; features
which continue to the top of the flat on which the station is built,
4,000 feet above the sea.
BODE
DEWAN'S EAR-RING.
484
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Churra, English station of-Khasia people-Garrow people-IIouses-Habits
-Dress-Arms-Dialects-Marriages-Food-Funerals-Superstitions-
Flat of Churra-Scenery-Lime and coal-Mamloo-Cliffs-Cascades-
Chamarops palm-Jasper-rocks-Flora of Churra-Orchids-Rhododen-
drons-Pine-Climate-Extraordinary rain-fall-Its effects-Gardens of
Lieuts. Raban and Cave-Leave Churra to cross the mountain range-
Coal, shale, and under-clay-Kala-panee river Lailangkot-Luculia
Pinceana-Conglomerate-Surureem wood-Boga-panee river- View of
Himalaya—Green-stone-Age of Pine-cones-Molong plants-Coix— .
Chillong mountain-Extensive view-Road to Syong-Broad valeys-
Geology-Plants-Myrung-Granite blocks-Kollong rock-Pine-woods
-Features of country-Orchids-Iron forges.
A p
CHURRA POONJI is said to be so called from the number of
streams in the neighbourhood, and poonji, "a village" (Khas.):
it was selected for a European station, partly from the elevation
and consequent healthiness of the spot, and partly from its being
on the high road from Silhet to Gowahatty, on the Burrampooter,
the captal of Assam, which is otherwise only accessible by ascend-
ing that river, against both its current and the perennial east wind.
A rapid postal communication is hereby secured: but the ex-
treme unhealthiness of the northern foot of the mountains
effectually precludes all other intercouse for nine months in the
year.
On the first opening up of the country, the Europeans were
brought into sanguinary collision with the Khasias, who fought
bravely with bows and arrows, displaying a most blood-thirsty and
cruel disposition. This is indeed natural to them; and murders
continued very frequent as preludes to the most trifling robberies,
until the extreme penalty of our law was put in force. Even now,
some of the tributary Rajahs are far from quiet under our rule,
and various parts of the country are not safe to travel in. The
Garrows, who occupy the western extremity of this range, at the
bend of the Burrampooter, are still in a savage state. Human
sacrifices and polyandry are said to be frequent amongst them,
and their orgies are detestable. Happily we are hardly ever
brought into collision with them, except by their occasional depre-
dations on the Assam and Khasia frontier: their country.is very
unhealthy, and is said to contain abundance of coal, iron, and
lime.
We seldom employed fewer than twelve or fourteen of the
natives as collectors, and when travelling, from thirty to forty as
coolies, &c. They are averse to rising early, and are intolerably
filthy in their persons, though not so in their cottages, which are
KHASIA People.
485
very poor, with broad grass roofs reaching nearly to the ground,
and usually encircled by bamboo fences; the latter custom is not
common in savage communities, and perhaps indicates a dread of
treachery. The beams are of hewn wood (they do not use saws),
often neatly carved, and the doors turn on good wooden pivots.
They have no windows, and the fire is made on the floor: the
utensils, &c. are placed on hanging shelves and in baskets.
The Khasia people are of the Indo-Chinese race; they are
short, very stout, and muscular, with enormous calves and knees,
rather narrow eyes and little beard, broad, high cheekbones, flat
noses, and open nostrils. I believe that a few are tattooed. The
hair is gathered into a top-knot, and sometimes shaved off the
forehead and temples. A loose cotton shirt, often striped blue
and red, without sleeves and bordered with long thread fringes, is
their principal garment; it is gathered into a girdle of silver chains
by people of rank. A cotton robe
A cotton robe is sometimes added, with a
large cotton turban or small skull-cap. The women wear a long
cloth tied in a knot across the breast. During festivals both men
and women load themselves with silk robes, fans, peacock's
feathers, and gold and silver ornaments of great value, procured
from Assam, many of which are said to be extremely curious, but
I regret to say that I never saw any of them. On these occasions
spirits are drunk, and dancing kept up all night: the dance is
described as a slow ungraceful motion, the women being tightly
swathed in cloths.
All their materials are brought from Assam; the only articles
in constant use, of their own manufacture, being a rude sword or
knife with a wooden handle and a long, narrow, straight blade of
iron, and the baskets with head-straps, like those used by the
Lepchas, but much neater; also a netted bag of pine-apple fibre
(said to come from Silhet) which holds a clasp-knife, comb, flint,
steel, and betel-nut box. They are much addicted to chewing
pawn (betel-nut, pepper leaves, and lime) all day long, and their
red saliva looks like blood on the paths. Besides the sword I
have described, they carry bows and arrows, and rarely a lance,
and a bamboo wicker-work shield.
We found the Khasias to be sulky intractable fellows, contrast-
ing unpleasantly with the Lepchas; wanting in quickness, frank-
ness, and desire to please, and obtrusively independent in manner;
nevertheless we had a head man who was very much the reverse
of this, and whom we had never any cause to blame. Their
language is, I believe, Indo-Chinese and monosyllabic: it is dis-
agreeably nasal and guttural, and there are several dialects and
486
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
accents in contiguous villages. All inflections are made by pre-
fixing syllables, and when using the Hindoo language, the future
is invariably substituted for the past tense. They count up to a
hundred, and estimate distances by the number of mouthfuls of
pawn they eat on the road.
Education has been attempted by missionaries with partial
success, and the natives are said to have shown themselves apt
scholars. Marriage is a very loose tie amongst them, and hardly
any ceremony attends it. We were informed that the husband
does not take his wife home, but enters her father's household,
and is entertained there. Divorce and an exchange of wives is
common, and attended with no disgrace: thus the son often
forgets his father's name and person before he grows up, but
becomes strongly attached to his mother. The sister's son in-
herits both property and rank,. and the proprietors' or Rajahs'
offspring are consequently often reared in poverty and neglect.
The usual toy of the children is the bow and arrow, with which
they are seldom expert; they are said also to spin pegtops like
the English, climb a greased pole, and run round with a beam
turning horizontally on an upright, to which it is attached by a
pivot.
The Khasias eat fowls, and all meat, especially pork, potatos
and vegetables, dried and half putrid fish in abundance, but
they have an aversion to milk, which is very remarkable, as a
great proportion of their country is admirably adapted for pastur-
age. In this respect, however, they assimilate to the Chinese,
and many Indo-Chinese nations who are indifferent to milk, as
are the Sikkim people. The Bengalees, Hindoos, and Tibetans,
on the other hand, consume immense quantities of milk. They
have no sheep, and few goats or cattle, the latter of which are
kept for slaughter; they have, however, plenty of pigs and fowls.
Eggs are most abundant, but used for omens only, and it is a
common, but disgusting occurrence, to see large groups employed
for hours in breaking them upon stones, shouting and quarrelling,
surrounded by the mixture of yellow yolks and their red pawn
saliva.
The funeral ceremonies are the only ones of any importance,
and are often conducted with barbaric pomp and expense; and
rude stones of gigantic proportions are erected as monuments,
singly or in rows, circles, or supporting one another, like those of
Stonehenge, which they rival in dimensions and appearance. The
body is burned, though seldom during the rains, from the difficulty
of obtaining a fire; it is therefore preserved in honey (which is

CHURRA STATION AND THE JHEELS, FROM THE KHASIA MOUNTAINS.
KHASIAN SUPERSTITIONS.
487
abundant and good) till the dry season: a practice I have read
of as prevailing among some tribes in the Malay peninsula.
Spirits are drunk on these occasions; but the hill Khasia is not
addicted to drunkenness, though some of the natives of the low
valleys are very much so. These ascend the rocky faces of the
mountains by ladders, to the Churra markets, and return loaded
at night, apparently all but too drunk to stand; yet they never
miss their footing in places which are most dangerous to persons
unaccustomed to such situations.
I
The Khasias are superstitious, but have no religion; like the
Lepchas, they believe in a supreme being, and in deities of the
grove, cave, and stream. Altercations are often decided by
holding the disputants' heads under water, when the longest
winded carries his point. Fining is a common punishment, and
death for grave offences. The changes of the moon are accounted
for by the theory that this orb, who is a man, monthly falls in
love with his wife's mother, who throws ashes in his face. The
sun is female; and Mr. Yule (who is my authority) says that
the Pleiades are called "the Hen-man." (as in Italy
"the
chickens "); also that they have names for the twelve months;
they do not divide their time by weeks, but hold a market every
four days. These people are industrious, and good cultivators of
rice, millet, and legumes of many kinds. Potatoes were intro-
duced amongst them about twenty years ago by Mr. Inglis, and
they have increased so rapidly that the Calcutta market is now
supplied by their produce. They keep bees in rude hives of logs
of wood.
The flat table-land on which Churra Poonji is placed, is three
miles long and two broad, dipping abruptly in front and on both
sides, and rising behind towards the main range, of which it is a
spur. The surface of this area is everywhere intersected by
shallow, rocky water-courses, which are the natural drains for the
deluge that annually visits it. The western part is undulated and
hilly, the southern rises in rocky ridges of limestone and coal,
and the eastern is very flat and stony, broken only by low isolated
conical mounds.
The scenery varies extremely at different parts of the surface.
Towards the flat portion, where the English reside, the aspect is
as bleak and inhospitable as can be imagined: a thin stratum of
marshy or sandy soil covers a tabular mass of cold red sandstone;
I am indebted to Mr. Inglis for most of this information relating to the
Khasias, which I have since found, with much more that is curious and inter-
esting, in a paper by Lieut. Yule in Bengal Asiat. Soc. Journal.
488
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
and there is not a tree, and scarcely a shrub to be seen, except
occasional clumps of Pandanus. The low white bungalows are
few in number, and very scattered, some of them being a mile
asunder, enclosed with stone walls and shrubs; and a small white
church, disused on account of the damp, stands lonely in the
centre of all.
The views from the margins of this plateau are magnificent:
4,000 feet below are bay-like valleys, carpeted as with green
velvet, from which rise tall palms, tree-ferns with spreading
crowns, and rattans shooting their pointed heads, surrounded
with feathery foliage, as with ostrich plumes, far above the great
trees. Beyond are the Jheels, looking like a broad shallow sea
with the tide half out, bounded in the blue distance by the low
hills of Tipperah. To the right and left are scarped red rocks
and roaring waterfalls, shooting far over the cliffs, and then
arching their necks as they expand in feathery foam, over which
rainbows float, forming and dissolving as the wind sways the
curtains of spray from side to side.
To the south of Churra the lime and coal measures rise abruptly
in flat-topped craggy hills, covered with brushwood and small trees.
Similar hills are seen far westward across the intervening valleys
in the Garrow country, rising in a series of steep isolated ranges,
300 to 400 feet above the general level of the country, and
always skirting the south face of the mountains. Considerable
caverns penetrate the limestone, the broken surface of which
rock presents many picturesque and beautiful spots, like the
same rocks in England.
Westward the plateau becomes very hilly, bare, and grassy, with
the streams broad and full, but superficial and rocky, precipitating
themselves in low cascades over tabular masses of sand-stone.
At Mamloo their beds are deeper, and full of brushwood, and a
splendid valley and amphitheatre of red cliffs and cascades,
rivalling those of Moosmai (p. 483), bursts suddenly into view.
Mamloo is a large village, on the top of a spur, to the westward :
•
is buried in a small forest, particularly rich in plants, and is
defended by a stone wall behind: the only road is tunnelled
through the sandstone rock, under the wall; and the spur on
either side dips precipitously, so that the place is almost im
pregnable if properly defended. A sanguinary conflict took place
here between the British and the Khasias, which terminated in
the latter being driven over the precipices, beneath which many
of them were shot. The fan-palm, Chamarops Khasiana
("Pakha," Khas.), grows on the cliffs near Mamloo; it may

KHASIA HILLS. MAMLOO.
439
be seen on looking over the edge of the plateau, its long curved
trunk rising out of the naked rocks, but its site is generally
inaccessible; while near it grows the Saxifragis ciliaris of our
English gardens, a common plant in the north-west Himalaya,
but extremely scarce in Sikkim and the Khasia mountains.
The descent of the Mamloo spur is by steps, alternating with
pebbly flats, for 1,500 feet, to a saddle which connects the Churra
hills with those of Lisouplang to the westward. The rise is along
MAMLOO CASCADES.
a very steep narrow ridge to a broad long grassy hill, 3,500 feet
high, whence an extremely steep descent leads to the valley of
This species is very closely allied to, if not identical with C. Martiana of
Nepal, which ascends to 8,000 feet in the western Himalaya, where it is
annually covered with snow: it is not found in Sikkim, but an allied species
occurs in Affghanistan, called P. Ritcheana: the dwarf palm of southern
Europe is a fourth species.
490
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
the Boga-panee, and the great mart of Chela, which is at the
embouchure of that river. The transverse valley thus formed by
the Mamloo spur, is full of orange groves, whose brilliant green
is particularly conspicuous from above. At the saddle below
Mamloo are some jasper rocks, which are the sandstone altered
by basalt. Fossil shells are recorded to have been found by
Dr. M'Lelland on some of the flats, which he considers to be
raised beaches: but we sought in vain for any evidence of this
theory beyond the pebbles, whose rounding we attributed to the
action of superficial streams.
I
It is extremely difficult to give within the limits of this narrative
any idea of the Khasia flora, which is, in extent and number of
fine plants, the richest in India, and probably in all Asia. We
collected upwards of 2,000 flowering plants within ten miles of
the station of Churra, besides 150 ferns, and a profusion of mosses,
lichens, and fungi. This extraordinary exuberance of species is
not so much attributable to the elevation, for the whole Sikkim
Himalaya (three times more elevated) does not contain 500 more
flowering plants, and far fewer ferns, &c.; but to the variety of
exposures; namely, 1. the Jheels, 2. the tropical jungles, both in
deep, hot, and wet valleys, and on drier slopes; 3. the rocks; 4.
the bleak table-lands and stony soils; 5. the moor-like uplands,
naked and exposed, where many species and genera appear at
5,000 to 6,000 feet, which are not found on the outer ranges of
Sikkim under 10,000.2 In fact, strange as it may appear, owing
to this last cause, the temperate flora descends fully 4,000 feet
lower in the latitude of Khasia (25° N.) than in that of Sikkim
(27° N.), though the former is two degrees nearer the equator.
The Pandanus alone forms a conspicuous feature in the imme-
diate vicinity of Churra; while the small woods about Mamloo,
Moosmai, and the coal-pits, are composed of Symplocos, laurels,
brambles, and jasmines, mixed with small oaks and Photinia, and
many tropical genera of trees and shrubs.
Orchidea are, perhaps, the largest natural order in the Khasia,
where fully 250 kinds grow, chiefly on trees and rocks, but many
are terrestrial, inhabiting damp woods and grassy slopes. I doubt
whether in any other part of the globe the species of orchids out-
number those of any other natural order, or form so large a pro-
portion of the flora. Balsams are next in relative abundance
I See a paper on the geology of the Khasia mountains by Dr. M‘Lelland in
the "Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal."
2 As Thalictrum, Anemone, primrose, cowslip, Tofieldia, Vew, Pine, Saxi-
frage, Delphinium Pedicularis,
KHASIA HİLLS. VEGETATION. CLIMATE. 491
(about twenty-five), both tropical and temperate kinds, of great
beauty and variety in colour, form, and size of blossom. Palms
amount to fourteen, of which the Chamarops and Arenga are the
only genera not found in Sikkim. Of bamboos there are also
fifteen, and of other grasses 150, which is an immense proportion,
considering that the Indian flora (including those of Ceylon,
Kashmir, and all the Himalaya) hardly contains 400. Scitamineæ
also are abundant, and extremely beautiful; we collected thirty-
seven kinds.
No rhododendron grows at Churra, but several species occur a
little further north: there is but one pine (P. Khasiana) besides
the yew, (and two Podocarpi), and that is only found in the drier
interior regions. Singular to say, it is a species not seen in the
Himalaya or elsewhere, but very nearly allied to Pinus longifolia,¹
though more closely resembling the Scotch fir than that tree does.
The natural orders whose rarity is most noticeable, are Cruci-
feræ, represented by only three kinds, and Caryophyllea. Of
Ranunculacea, there are six or seven species of Clematis, two of
Anemone, one Delphinium, three of Thalictrum, and two Ranun-
culi. Compositæ and Leguminosæ are far more numerous than in
Sikkim.
The climate of Khasia is remarkable for the excessive rain-fall.
Attention was first drawn to this by Mr. Yule, who stated, that in
the month of August, 1841, 264 inches fell, or twenty-two feet;
and that during five successive days, thirty inches fell in every
twenty-four hours! Dr. Thomson and I also recorded thirty
inches in one day and night, and during the seven months of our
stay, upwards of 500 inches fell, so that the total annual fall
perhaps greatly exceeded 600 inches, or fifty feet, which has been
registered in succeeding years! From April, 1849, to April,
1850, 502 inches (forty-two feet) fell. This unparalleled amount is
attributable to the abruptness of the mountains which face the
Bay of Bengal, from which they are separated by 200 miles of
Jheels and Sunderbunds.
Cone-bearing pines with long leaves, like the common Scotch fir, are found
in Asia, and as far south as the Equator (in Borneo), and also inhabit Arracan,
the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and South China. It is a very remarkable fact
that no Gymnospermous tree inhabits the Peninsula of India; not even the
genus Podocarpus, which includes most of the tropical Gymnosperms, and is
technically coniferous, and has glandular woody fibre; though like the yew it
bears berries. Two species of this genus are found in the Khasia, and one
advances as far west as Nepal. The absence of oaks and of the above genera
(Podocarpus and Pinus) is one of the most characteristic differences between
the botany of the east and west shores of the Bay of Bengal,
492
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
This fall is very local: at Silhet, not thirty miles further south,
it is under 100 inches; at Gowahatty, north of the Khasia in
Assam, it is about 80: and even on the hills, twenty miles inland
from Churra itself, the fall is reduced to 200. At the Churra
station, the distribution of the rain is very local; my gauges,
though registering the same amount when placed beside a good
one in the station; when removed half a mile, received a widely
different quantity, though the different gauges gave nearly the
same mean amount at the end of each whole month.
The direct effect of this deluge is to raise the little streams
about Churra fourteen feet in as many hours, and to inundate the
whole flat; from which, however, the natural drainage is so com-
plete, as to render a tract, which in such a climate and latitude
should be clothed with exuberant forest, so sterile, that no tree
finds support, and there is no soil for cultivation of any kind
whatsoever, not even of rice. Owing, however, to the hardness
of the horizontally stratified sandstone, the streams have not cut
deep channels, nor have the cataracts worked far back into the
cliffs. The limestone alone seems to suffer, and the turbid streams
from it prove how rapidly it is becoming denuded. The great
mounds of angular gravel on the Churra flat are perhaps the re-
mains of an extensive deposit, fifty feet thick, elsewhere washed
away by these rains; and I have remarked traces of the same
over many slopes of the hills around.
The mean temperature of Churra (elev. 4,000 feet) is about
66°, or 16° below that of Calcutta ; which, allowing for 2° of
northing, gives 1° of temperature to every 290 to 300 feet of
ascent. In summer the thermometer often rises to 88° and 90°;
and in the winter, owing to the intense radiation, hoar-frost is
frequent. Such a climate is no less inimical to the cultivation of
plants, than is the wretched soil: of this we saw marked instances
in the gardens of two of the resident officers, Lieutenants Raban
and Cave, to whom we were indebted for the greatest kind-
ness and hospitality. These gentlemen are indefatigable horti-
culturists, and took a zealous interest in our pursuits, accompanying
us in our excursions, enriching our collections in many ways, and
keeping an eye to them and to our plant-driers during our absence
from the station. In their gardens the soil had to be brought.
from a considerable distance, and dressed copiously with vegetable
matter. Bamboo clumps were planted for shelter within walls, and
native shrubs, rhododendrons, &c., introduced. Many Orchidea
throve well on the branches of the stunted trees which they had
planted, and some superb kinds of Hedychium in the ground;
GARDENS AT CHURRA.
493
but a very few English garden plants throve in the flower-beds.
Even in pots and frames, geraniums, &c., would rot, from the
rarity of sunshine, which is as prejudicial as the damp and ex-
posure. Still many wild shrubs of great interest and beauty
flourished, and some European ones succeeded with skill and
management; as geraniums, Salvia, Petunia, nasturtium, chrysan-
themum, Kennedya rubicunda, Maurandya, and Fuschia. The
daisy seed sent from England as double, came up very poor and
single. Dahlias do not thrive, nor double balsams. Now they
have erected small but airy green-houses, and sunlight is the only
desideratum.
in Juding the
At the end of June, we started on foot for the northern or
Assam face of the hills. The road runs between the extensive and
populous native village, or poonji, on the left, and a deep valley
on the right, and commands a beautiful view of more waterfalls.
Beyond this it ascends steeply, and the sandstone on the road
itself is curiously divided into parallelograms, like hollow bricks,'
enclosing irregularly shaped nodules, while in other places it looks
as if it had been run or fused: spherical concretions of sand,
coloured concentrically by infiltration, are common in it, which
have been regarded as seeds, shells, &c. ; it also contained
spheres of iron pyrites. The general appearance of much of this
rock is as if it had been bored by Teredines (ship worms), but I
never detected any trace of fossils. It is often beautifully ripple-
marked, and in some places much honeycombed, and full of
shales and narrow seams of coal, resting on a white under-clay full
of root-fibres, like those of Stigmaria.
At about 5,000 feet the country is very open and bare, the
ridges being so uniform and flat-topped, that the broad valleys.
they divide are hidden till their precipitous edges are reached ;
and the eye wanders far east and west over a desolate level grassy
country, unbroken, save by the curious flat-topped hills I have
described as belonging to the limestone formation, which lie to
the south west. These features continue for eight miles, when a
sudden descent of 600 to 700 feet leads into the valley of the
Kala-panee (Black water) river, where there is a low dark and
damp bungalow, which proved a very great accommodation for
us.2
•
* I have seen similar bricks in the sandstones of the coal-districts of Yorkshire ;
they are very puzzling, and are probably due to some very obscure crystalline
action analogous to jointing and cleavage.
2
It may be of use to the future botanist in this country to mention a small
wood on the right of this road, near the village of Surureem, as an excellent
494
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Lailang-kot is another village full of iron forges, from a height
near which a splendid view is obtained over the Churra flat. A
few old and very stunted shrubs of laurel and Symplocos grow on
its bleak surface, and these are often sunk from one to three feet
in a well in the horizontally stratified sandstone. I could only
account for this by supposing it to arise from the drip from the
trees, and if so, it is a wonderful instance of the wearing effects
of water, and of the great age which small bushes sometimes
attain.
The vegetation is more alpine at Kala-panee (elevation, 5,000
feet); Benthamia, Kadsura, Stauntonia, Illicium, Actinidia,
Helwingia, Corylopsis, and berberry-all Japan and Chinese, and
most of them Darjeeling genera-appear here, with the English
yew, two rhododendrons, and Bucklandia. There are no large
trees, but a bright green jungle of small ones and bushes, many
of which are very rare and curious. Luculia Pinceana makes a
gorgeous show here in October.
The sandstone to the east of Kala-panee is capped by some
beds, forty feet thick, of conglomerate worn into cliffs; these are
the remains of a very extensive horizontally stratified formation,
now all but entirely denuded. In the valley itself, the sandstone
alternates with alum shales, which rest on a bed of quartz con-
glomerate, and the latter on black greenstone. In the bed of
the river, whose waters are beautifully clear, are hornstone rocks,
dipping north-east, and striking north-west. Beyond the Kala-
panee the road ascends about 600 feet, and is well quarried in
hard greenstone; and passing through a narrow gap of con-
glomerate rock,' enters a shallow, wild, and beautiful valley,
through which it runs for several miles. The hills on either side
are of greenstone capped by tabular sandstone, immense masses
of which have been precipitated on the floor of the valley, pro-
ducing a singularly wild and picturesque scene. In the gloom of
the evening it is not difficult for a fertile imagination to fancy
castles and cities cresting the heights above.²
botanical station: the trees are chiefly Rhododendron arboreum, figs, oaks,
laurels, magnolias, and chesnuts, on whose limbs are a profusion of Orchidea,
and amongst which a Rattan palm occurs.
1 Formed of rolled masses of greenstone and sandstone, united by a white
and yellow cement.
2
Hydrangea grows here, with ivy, Mussænda, Pyrus, willow, Viburnum,
Parnassia, Anemone, Leycesteria formosa, Neillia, Rubus, Astilbe, rose,
Panax, apple, Bucklandia, Daphne, pepper, Scindapsus, Pieris, holly, Lilium
giganteum ("Kalang tatti," Khas.), Camellia, Elæocarpus, Buddleia, &c.
Large bees' nests hang from the rocks.
+
KHASIA HILLS. BOGA-PANEE RIVER.
495
There is some cultivation here of potatos, and of Rhyncosia
vestita, a beautiful purple-flowered leguminous plant, with small
tuberous roots. Beyond this, a high ridge is gained above the
valley of the Boga-panee, the largest river in the Khasia; from
this the Bhotan Himalaya may be seen in clear weather, at the
astonishing distance of from 160 to 200 miles! The vegetation
here suddenly assumes a different aspect, from the quantity of
stunted fir-trees clothing the north side of the valley, which rises
very steeply 1,000 feet above the river: quite unaccountably, how-
ever, not one grows on the south face. A new oak also appears
abundantly; it has leaves like the English, whose gnarled habit it
also assumes.
The descent is very steep, and carried down a slope of green,
stone; the road then follows a clear affluent of the Boga-panee,
and afterwards winds along the margin of that river, which is a
rapid turbulent stream, very muddy, and hence contrasting re-
markably with the Kala-panee. It derives its mud from the
decomposition of granite, which is washed by the natives for iron,
and in which rock it rises to the eastward. Thick beds of slate
crop out by the roadside (strike north-east and dip north-west),
and are continued along the bed of the river, passing into con-
glomerates, chert, purple slates, and crystalline sandstones, with
pebbles, and angular masses of schist. Many of these rocks are
much crumpled, others quite flat, and they are overlaid by soft,
variegated gneiss, which is continued alternately with the slates to
the top of the hills on the opposite side.
Small trees of hornbeam grow near the river with Rhus, Xan-
thoxylon, Vaccinium, Gualtheria, and Spiræa, while many beauti-
ful ferns, mosses, and orchids cover the rocks. An elegant iron
suspension-bridge is thrown across the stream, from a rock matted
with tufts of little parasitic Orchidea. Crossing it, we came on
many pine-trees; these had five-years' old cones on them, as well
as those of all succeeding years; they bear male flowers in
autumn, which impregnate the cones formed the previous year.
This greenstone decomposes into a thick bed of red clay; it is much inter-
sected by fissures or cleavage planes at all angles, whose surfaces are covered
with a shining polished superficial layer; like the fissures in the cleavage
planes of the gneiss granite of Kinchinjhow, whose adjacent surfaces are coated
with a glassy waved layer of hornblende. This polishing of the surfaces is
generally attributed to their having been in contact and rubbed together, an
explanation which is wholly unsatisfactory to me; no such motion could take
place in cleavage planes which often intersect, and were it to occur, it would
not produce two polished surfaces of an interposed layer of a softer mineral. It
is more probably due to metamorphic action.
496
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
•
Thus, the cones formed in the spring of 1850 are fertilised in the
following autumn, and do not ripen their seeds till the second
following autumn, that of 1852.
A very steep ascent leads to the bungalow of Moflong, on a
broad, bleak hill-top, near the axis of the range (alt. 6,062 feet).
Here there is a village, and some cultivation, surrounded by
hedges of Erythrina, Pieris, Viburnum, Pyrus, Colquhounia, and
Corylopsis, amongst which grew an autumn-flowering larkspur,
with most fœtid flowers. The rocks are much contorted slates
and gneiss (strike north-east and dip south-east). In a deep
gulley to the northward, greenstone appears, with black basalt and
jasper, the latter apparently altered gneiss: beyond this the rocks
strike the opposite way, but are much disturbed.
I
We passed the end of June here, and experienced the same
violent weather, thunder, lightning, gales, and rain, which pre-
vailed during every midsummer I spent in India.
A great deal
of Coix (Job's tears) is cultivated about Moflong it is of a dull
greenish purple, and though planted in drills, and carefully hoed
and weeded, is a very ragged crop.
The shell of the cultivated
sort is soft, and the kernel is sweet; whereas the wild Coix is so ·
hard that it cannot be broken by the teeth. Each plant branches
two or three times from the base, and from seven to nine plants
grow in each square yard of soil: the produce is small, not above
thirty or forty fold.
From a hill behind Moflong bungalow, on which are some
stone altars, a most superb view is obtained of the Bhotan
Himalaya to the northward, their snowy peaks stretching in a
broken series from north 17° east to north 35° west; all are below
the horizon of the spectator, though from 17,000 to 20,000 feet
above his level. The finest view in the Khasia mountains, and
perhaps a more extensive one than has ever before been described,
is that from Shillong hill, the culminant point of the range, about
six miles north-east from Moflong bungalow. This hill, 6,660
feet above the sea, rises from an undulating grassy country,
covered with scattered trees and occasional clumps of wood; the
whole scenery about being park-like, and as little like that of
India at so low an elevation as it is possible to be.
• There is a wood a mile to the west of the bungalow, worth visiting by the
botanist besides yew, oak, Sabia and Camellia, it contains Olea, Euonymus,
and Sphærocarya,, a small tree that bears a green pear-shaped sweet fruit, with
a large stone it is pleasant, but leaves a disagreeable taste in the mouth. On
the grassy flats an Astragalus occurs, and Roscoea purpurea Tofieldia, and
various other fine plants are common.
1
KHASIA HILLS. SHILLONG.
4.97
I visited Shillong in October with Lieutenant Cave; starting
from Churra, and reaching the bungalow, two miles from its top,
the same night, with two relays of ponies, which he had kindly
provided. We were unfortunate in not obtaining a brilliant view
of the snowy mountains, their tops being partially clouded; but
the coup d'œil was superb. Northward, beyond the rolling Khasia
hills, lay the whole Assam valley, seventy miles broad, with the
Burrampooter winding through it, fifty miles distant, reduced to
a thread. Beyond this, banks of hazy vapour obscured all but
the dark range of the Lower Himalaya, crested by peaks of frosted
silver, at the immense distance of from 100 to 220 miles from
Shillong. All are below the horizon of the observer; yet so false
is perspective, that they seem high in the air. The mountains
occupy sixty degrees of the horizon, and stretch over upwards of
250 miles, comprising the greatest extent of snow visible from
any point with which I am acquainted.
Westward from Shillong the most distant Garrow hills visible
are about forty miles off; and eastward those of Cachar, which
are loftier, are about seventy miles. To the south the view is
limited by the Tipperah hills, which, where nearest, are 100 miles
distant; while to the south-west lies the sea-like Gangetic delta,
whose horizon, lifted by refraction, must be fully 120.
The ex-
tent of this view is therefore upwards of 340 miles in one direc-
tion, and the visible horizon of the observer encircles an area of
fully thirty thousand square miles, which is greater than that of
Ireland !
I
Scarlet-flowered rhododendron bushes cover the north side of
Shillong, whilst the south is grassy and quite bare; and except
some good Orchidea on the trees, there is little to reward the
botanist. The rocks appeared to be sandstone at the summit,
but micaceous gneiss all around.
Continuing northward from Moflong, the road, after five miles,
dips into a very broad and shallow flat-floored valley, fully a mile
across, which resembles a lake-bed: it is bounded by low hills,
and is called "Lanten-tannia," and is bare of aught but long
grass and herbs ; amongst these are the large groundsel (Senecio),
Dipsacus, Ophelia, and Campanula. On its south flank the
micaceous slates strike north-east, and dip north-west, and on the
top repose beds, a foot in thickness, of angular waterworn gravel,
indicating an ancient water-level, 400 feet above the floor of the
These skirt a wood of prickly bamboo, in which occur fig, laurel, Aralia,
Bahmeria, Smilax, Toddalia, wild cinnamon, and three kinds of oak.
+
33
498
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Other smaller lake-beds, in the lateral valleys, are equally
A beautiful blue-flowered Clitoria creeps over the path, with
the ground-raspberry of Darjeeling. From the top a sudden
descent of 400 feet leads to another broad flat valley, called
"Syong" (elevation, 5,725 feet), in which is a good bungalow,
surrounded by hedges of Prinsepia utilis, a common north-west
Himalayan plant, only found at 8,000 feet in Sikkim. The valley
is grassy, but otherwise bare. Beyond this the road passes over
low rocky hills, wooded on their north or sheltered flanks only,
dividing flat-floored valleys: a red sandy gneiss is the prevalent
rock, but boulders of syenite are scattered about. Extensive
moors (elevation, 6,000 feet) succeed, covered with stunted pines,
brake, and tufts of harsh grasses.*
Near the Dengship-oong (river), which flows in a narrow valley,
is a low dome of gneiss altered by syenite. The prevalent dip is
uniformly south-east, and the strike north-east; and detached
boulders of syenite become more frequent, resting on a red
gneiss, full of black garnets, till the descent to the valley of
Myrung, one of the most beautiful spots in the Khasia, and a
favourite resort, having an excellent bungalow which commands
a superb view of the Himalaya: it is 5,650 feet above the sea, and
is placed on the north flank of a very shallow marshy valley,
two miles broad, and full of rice cultivation, as are the flat heads
of all the little valleys that lead into it. There is a guard here
of light infantry, and a little garden, boasting a gardener and some
tea-plants, so that we had vegetables during our four visits to the
place, on two of which occasions we stayed some days.
valley.
evident.
From Kala-panee to Myrung, a distance of thirty-two miles, the
road does not vary 500 feet above or below the mean level of
5,700 feet, and the physical features are the same throughout, of
broad flat-floored, steep-sided valleys, divided by bleak, grassy,
tolerably level-topped hills. Beyond Myrung the Khasia moun-
tains slope to the southward in rolling loosely-wooded hills, but
the spurs do not dip suddenly till beyond Nunklow, eight miles
further north.
On the south side of the Myrung valley is Nungbree wood, a
dense jungle, occupying, like all the other woods, the steep north
These are principally Andropogon and Brachypodium, amongst which grow
yellow Corydalis, Thalictrum, Anemone, Parnassia, Prunella, strawberry,
Eupatorium, Hypericum, willow, a Polygonum like Bistorta, Osmunda regalis
and another species, Lycopodium alpinum, a Senecio like Jacobæa, thistles,
Gnaphalium, Gentians, Iris, Paris, Sanguisorba and Agrimonia.
1
KHASIA HILLS. KOLLONG ROCK.
499
exposure of the hill; many good plants grow in it, including some
gigantic Balanophora, Pyrola, and Monotropa. The bungalow
stands on soft, contorted, decomposing gneiss, which is still the
prevalent rock, striking north-east. On the hills to the east of it,
enormous hard blocks lie fully exposed, and are piled on one
another, as if so disposed by glacial action; and it is difficult to
account for them by denudation, though their surface scales, and
similar blocks are scattered around Myrung exactly similar to the
syenite blocks of Nunklow, and the granite ones of Nonkreem, to
be described hereafter, and which are undoubtedly due to the
process of weathering. A great mass of flesh-coloured crystalline
granite rises in the centre of the valley, to the east of the road: it
is fissured in various directions, and the surface scales concen-
trically; it is obscurely stratified in some parts, and appears to be
half granite and half gneiss in mineralogical character.
We twice visited a very remarkable hill, called Kollong, which
rises as a dome of granite 5,400 feet high, ten or twelve miles
south-west of Myrung, and conspicuous from all directions.
The path to it turns off from that to Nunklow, and strikes
westerly along the shallow valley of Monai, in which is a village,
and much rice and other cultivation. Near this there is a large
square stockade, formed of tall bamboos placed close together,
very like a New Zealand
a New Zealand "Pa;" indeed, the whole country
hereabouts much recalls the grassy clay hills, marshy valleys, and
bushy ridges of the Bay of Islands.
The hills on either side are sometimes dotted with pine-woods,
sometimes conical and bare, with small clumps of pines on the
summit only; while in other places are broad tracts containing
nothing but young trees, resembling plantations, but which, I am
assured, are not planted; on the other hand, however, Mr. Yule
states, that the natives do plant fir-trees, especially near the iron
forges, which give employment to all the people of Monai.
All the streams rise in flat marshy depressions amongst the
hills with which the whole country is covered; and both these
features, together with the flat clay marshes into which the rivers.
expand, are very suggestive of tidal action. Rock is hardly any-
where seen, except in the immediate vicinity of Kollong, where
are many scattered boulders of fine-grained gneiss, of which are
made the broad stone slabs, placed as seats, and the other erections
of this singular people. We repeatedly remarked cones of earth,
clay, and pebbles, about twelve feet high, upon the hills, which
appeared to be artificial, but of which the natives could give no.
explanation. Wild apple and birch are common trees, but there

500
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
is little jungle, except in the hollows, and on the north slopes of
the higher hills. Coarse long grass, with bushes of Labiate and
Composite plants, are the prevalent features.
Kollong rock is a steep dome of red granite, accessible from
the north and east, but almost perpendicular to the southward,
where the slope is 80° for 600 feet. The elevation is 400 feet
above the mean level of the surrounding ridges, and 700 feet
above the bottom of the valleys. The south or steepest side is
encumbered with enormous detached blocks, while the north is
Vapour
維
​p
KOLLONG ROCK.
***
****
clothed with a dense forest, containing red tree-rhododendrons
and oaks; on its skirts grew a white bushy rhododendron, which
we found nowhere else. The hard granite of the top was covered
with matted mosses, lichens, Lycopodiums, and ferns, amongst
which were many curious and beautiful air-plants.2
This granite is highly crystalline, and does not scale or flake, nor is its
surface polished.
2 Eria, Calogyne (Wallichii, maculata, and elata), Cymbidium, Dendrobium,
Sunipia, some of them flowering profusely; and though freely exposed to the
sun and wind, dews and frosts, rain and droughts, they were all fresh, bright,
green, and strong, under very different treatment from that to which they are
exposed in the damp, unhealthy, steamy orchid-houses of our English gardens.
KOLLONG ROCK. VIEWS OF THE HIMALAYA. 501
The view from the top is very extensive to the northward, but
not elsewhere: it commands the Assam valley and the Himalaya,
and the billowy range of undulating grassy Khasia mountains.
Few houses were visible, but the curling smoke from the valleys
betrayed their lurking-places, whilst the tinkling sound of the
hammers from the distant forges on all sides was singularly
musical and pleasing; they fell on the ear like "bells upon the
wind," each ring being exquisitely melodious, and chiming
harmoniously with the others. The solitude and beauty of the
scenery, and the emotions excited by the music of chimes, tended
to tranquillise our minds, wearied by the fatigues of travel, and
the excitement of pursuits that required unremitting attention;
and we rested for some time, our imaginations wandering to far-
distant scenes, brought vividly to our minds by these familiar
sounds.
-
CHAPTER XXX.
View of Himalaya from the Khasia-Great masses of snow-Chumulari-
Donkia-Grasses-Nunklow-Assam valley and Burrampooter-Tropical
forest-Bor-panee-Rhododendrons- Wild elephants-Blocks of Syenite
Return to Churra-Coal-August temperature-Leave for Chela-Jasper
hill-Birds-Arundina-Habits of leaf-insects-Curious village-Houses
-Canoes — Boga-panee river-Jheels - Chattuc Churra Leave for
Jyntea hills-Trading parties-Dried fish-Cherries-Cinnamon-Fraud
-Pea-violet- Nonkreem-Sandstone- Pines- Granite boulders-Iron
washing-Forges-Tanks-Siberian Nymphæa- Barren country-Pom-
rang-Podostemon-Patchouli plant-Mooshye-Enormous stone slabs-
Pitcher-plant-Joowye cultivation and vegetation-Hydropeltis- Sulky
hostess Nurtiung-Hamamelis chinensis-Bor-panee river-Sacred grove
and gigantic stone structures-Altars-Pyramids, &c.-Origin of names-
Vanda cærulea-Collections-November vegetation-Geology of Khasia
Sandstone-Coal-Lime - Gneiss-Greenstone-Tidal action-Strike
of rocks-Comparison with Rajmahal hills and the Himalaya.
S
M
THE Snowy Himalaya was not visible during our first stay at
Myrung, from the 5th to the 10th of July; but on three subse-
quent occasions, viz., 27th and 28th of July, 13th to 17th
October, and 22nd to 25th October, we saw these magnificent
mountains, and repeatedly took angular heights and bearings of the
A wild onion was most abundant all over the top of the hill, with Hymeno-
pogon, Vaccinium, Ophiopogon, Anisadenia, Commelyna, Didymocarpus,
Remusatia, Hedychium, grass and small bamboos, and a good many other
plants. Many of the lichens were of European kinds; but the mosses (except
Bryum argenteum) and ferns were different. A small Staphylinus, which
swarmed under the sods, was the only insect I remarked.
502
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
principal peaks. The range, as seen from the Khasia, does not form
a continuous line of snowy mountains, but the loftiest eminences are
conspicuously grouped into masses, whose position is probably be-
tween the great rivers which rise far beyond them and flow through
Bhotan. This arrangement indicates that relation of the rivers to
the masses of snow, which I have dwelt upon in the Appendix ; and
further tends to prove that the snowy mountains, seen from the
southward, are not on the axis of a mountain chain, and do not
even indicate its position; but that they are lofty meridional spurs
which, projecting southward, catch the moist vapours, become
more deeply snowed, and protect the dry loftier regions behind.
I
I
The most conspicuous group of snows seen from the Khasia
bears N.N.E. from Myrung, and consists of three beautiful
mountains with wide-spreading snowy shoulders. These are
distant (reckoning from west to east) respectively 164, 170, and
172 miles from Myrung, and subtend angles of + 0° 4' 0",—0° 1′
30", and -0° 2' 28". From Nunklow (940 feet lower than
Myrung) they appear higher, the western peak rising 14' 35"
above the horizon; whilst from Moflong (32 miles further south,
and elevation 6,062 feet) the same is sunk 2' below the horizon.
My computations make this western mountain upwards of 24,000
feet high; but according to Col. Wilcox's angles, taken from the
Assam valley, it is only 21,600, the others being respectively
20,720, and 21,475. Captain. Thuillier (the Deputy Surveyor
General) agrees with me in considering that Colonel Wilcox's
altitudes are probably much under-estimated, as those of other
Himalayan peaks to the westward were by the old surveyors. It
is further evident that these mountains have (as far as can be
estimated by angles) fully 68,000 feet of snow on them, which
would not be the case were the loftiest only 21,600 feet high.
These angles were taken both at sunrise and sunset, and with an excellent
theodolite, and were repeated after two considerable intervals. The telescopes
were reversed after each observation, and every precaution used to insure
accuracy; nevertheless the mean of one set of observations of angular height
often varied 1' from that of another set. This is probably much due to atmo-
spheric refraction, whose effect and amount it is impossible to estimate accurately
in such cases. Here the objects are not only viewed through 160 miles of
atmosphere, but through belts from between 6,000 to 20,000 feet of vertical
height, varying in humidity and transparency at different parts of the interval.
If we divide this column of atmosphere into sections parallel to those of lati-
tude, we have first a belt fifteen miles broad, hanging over the Khasia, 2,000
to 4,000 feet above the sea; beyond it, a second belt, twenty miles broad,
hangs over the Assam valley, which is hardly 300 feet above the level of the
sea; and thirdly, the northern part of the column, which reposes on 60 to 100
miles of the Bhotan lower Himalaya: each of these belts has probably a
different refractive power.
THE HIMALAYA FROM THE KHASIA HILLS. 503
·
It is singular, that to the eastward of this group, no snowy
mountains are seen, and the lower Himalaya also dip suddenly.
This depression is no doubt partly due to perspective; but as
there is no such sudden disappearance of the chain to the west-
ward, where peaks are seen 35° to the west of the north, it is far
more probable that the valley of the Soobansiri river, which rises
in Tibet far behind these peaks, is broad and open; as is that of
the Dihong, still farther east, and which I have every reason to
believe is the Tibetan Yaru or Burrampooter.
Supposing then the eastern group to indicate the mountain
mass separating the Soobansiri from the Monass river, no other
mountains conspicuous for altitude or dimension rise between
N.N.E. and north, where there is another immense group. This,
though within 120 miles of Myrung, is below its horizon, and
scarcely above that of Nunklow (which is still nearer to it), and
cannot therefore attain any great elevation.
Far to the westward again, is a very lofty peaked mountain
bearing N.N.W., which subtends an angle of -3'30" from Myrung,
and + 6′ o″ from Nunklow. The angles of this seem to indicate
its being either Chumulari, or that great peak which I saw due
east from Bhomtso top, and which I then estimated at ninety
miles off and 23,500 feet high. From the Khasia angles, its
latitude and longitude are 28° 6' and 89° 30', its elevation 27,000
feet, and its distance from Myrung 200 miles. I need hardly add
that neither the position nor the elevation computed from such
data is worthy of confidence.
Further still, to the extreme west, is an immense low hog-
backed mass of snow, with a small peak on it; this bears north-
west, both from Myrung and Nunklow, subtending an angle of
—-25′ from the former, and —17′ from the latter station. It is in all
probability Chumulari, 210 miles distant from Nunklow. Donkia,
if seen, would be distant 230 miles from the same spot in the
Khasia, and Kinchinjunga 260; possibly they are visible (by
refraction) from Shillong, though even further from it.
The distance from Myrung to Nunklow is ten miles, along an
excellent road. The descent is at first sudden, beyond which the
country is undulating, interspersed with jungle (of low trees,
chiefly oaks) and marshes, with much rice cultivation. Grasses
are exceedingly numerous; we gathered fifty kinds, besides twenty
Cyperaceae: four were cultivated, namely sugar-cane, rice, Coix,
and maize. Most of the others were not so well suited to
pasturage as those of higher localities. Dwarf Phoenix palm
occurs by the roadside at 5,000 feet elevation.
504
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Gneiss (with garnets) highly inclined, was the prevalent rock
(striking north-east), and scattered boulders of syenite became
very frequent. In one place the latter rock is seen bursting
through the gneiss, which is slaty and very crystalline at the
junction.
Nunklow is placed at the northern extremity of a broad spur
that overhangs the valley of the Burrampooter river, thirty miles
distant. The descent from it is very rapid, and beyond it none
of the many spurs thrown out by the Khasia attain more than
1,000 feet elevation; hence, though the range does not present
so abrupt a face to the Burrampooter as it does to the Jheels,
Nunklow is considered as on the brink of its north slope. The
elevation of the bungalow is 4,688 feet, and the climate being
hot, it swarms with mosquitos, fleas, and rats. It commands a
superb view to the north, of the Himalayan snows, of the Bur-
rampooter, and intervening malarious Terai forest; and to the
south, of the undulating Khasia, with Kollong rock bearing
south-west. All the hills between this and Myrung look from
Nunklow better wooded than they do from Myrung, in con-
sequence of the slopes exposed to the south being bare of forest.
A thousand feet below the bungalow, a tropical forest begins,
of figs, birch, horse-chesnut, oak, nutmeg, Cedrela, Engelhardtia,
Artrocarpeæ, and Elæocarpus, in the gullies, and tall pines on the
dry slopes, which are continued down to the very bottom of the
valley in which flows the Bor-panee, a broad and rapid river that
descends from Shillong, and winds round the base of the Nunk-
low spur. Many of the pines are eighty feet high, and three or
four in diameter, but none form gigantic trees. The quantity of
balsams in the wet ravines is very great, and tree-ferns of several
kinds are common.
..
The Bor-panee is about forty yards wide, and is spanned by
an elegant iron suspension-bridge, that is clamped to the gneiss
rock (strike north-east, dip north-west) on either bank; beneath
is a series of cascades, none high, but all of great beauty from the
broken masses of rocks and picturesque scenery on either side.
We frequently botanised up and down the river with great success:
many curious plants grow on its stony and rocky banks, and
amongst them Rhododendron formosum at the low elevation of
2,000 feet. A most splendid fern, Dipteris Wallichii, is abun-
dant, with the dwarf Phoenix palm and Cycas pectinata.
Wild animals are very abundant here, though extremely rare on
the higher part of the Khasia range; tigers, however, and bears
ascend to Nunklow. We saw troops of wild dogs ("Kuleam,"
WILD ELEPHANTS. BLOCKS OF SYENITË.
505
Khas.), deer, and immense quantities of the droppings of the wild.
elephant; an animal considered in Assam dangerous to meet,
whereas in other parts of India it is not dreaded till provoked.
There is, however, no quadruped that varies more in its native
state than this: the Ceylon kind differs from the Indian in the
larger size and short tusks, and an experienced judge at Calcutta
will tell at once whether the newly caught elephant is from Assam,
Silhet, Cuttack, Nepal, or Chittagong. Some of the differences,
in size, roundness of shoulders and back, quantity of hair, length
of limb, and shape of head, are very marked; and their disposi-
tions are equally various.
The lowest rocks seen are at a considerable distance down the
Bor-panee; they are friable sandstones that strike uniformly with
the gneiss. From the bridge upwards the rocks are all gneiss,
alternating with chert and quartz. The Nunklow spur is covered
with enormous rounded blocks of syenite, reposing on clay or on
one another. These do not descend the hill, and are the remains
of an extensive formation which we could only find in situ at one
spot on the road to Myrung (see p. 503), but which must have
been of immense thickness. One block within ten yards of the
bungalow door was fifteen feet long, six high, and eight broad; it
appeared half buried, and was rapidly decomposing from the
action of the rain. Close by, to the westward, in walking amongst
the masses we were reminded of a moraine of most gigantic sized
blocks; one which I measured was forty feet long and eleven
above the ground; its edges were rounded, and its surface flaked
off in pieces a foot broad and a quarter of an inch thick. Trees
and brushwood often conceal the spaces between these fragments,
and afford dens for bears and leopards, into which man cannot
follow them.
I
Sitting in the cool evenings on one of these great blocks, and
watching the Himalayan glaciers glowing with the rays of sunset,
appearing to change in form and dimensions with the falling
shadows, it was impossible to refrain from speculating on the
possibility of these great boulders heaped on the Himalayan-ward
face of the Khasia range, having been transported hither by ice
at some former period; especially as the Mont Blanc granite, in
crossing the Lake of Geneva to the Jura, must have performed a
hardly less wonderful ice journey: but this hypothesis is clearly
¹ The tendency of many volcanic rocks to decompose in spheres is very well
known it is conspicuous in the black basalts north of Edinburgh, but I do not
know any instance equal to this of Nunklow, for the extent of decomposition
and dimensions of the resulting spheres.
506
HIMALAYAN JOURNĀLS.
untenable; and unparalleled in our experience as the results
appear, if attributed to denudation and weathering alone, we are
yet compelled to refer them to these causes. The further we
travel, and the longer we study, the more positive becomes the
conviction that the part played by these great agents in sculpturing
the surface of our planet, is as yet but half recognised.
I
We returned on the 7th of August to Churra, where we em-
ployed ourselves during the rest of the month in collecting and
studying the plants of the neighbourhood. We hired a large and
good bungalow, in which three immense coal fires were kept up
for drying plants and papers, and fifteen men were always em-
ployed, some in changing, and some in collecting, from morning
till night. The coal was procured within a mile of our door, and
cost about six shillings a month; it was of the finest quality, and
gave great heat and few ashes. Torrents of rain descended
almost daily, twelve inches in as many hours being frequently
registered; and we remarked that it was impossible to judge of
the quantity by estimation, an apparent deluge sometimes proving
much less in amount than much lighter but steadier falls; hence
the greatest fall is probably that in which the drops are moderately
large, very close together, and which pass through a saturated
atmosphere. The temperature of the rain here and elsewhere in
India was always a degree or two below that of the air.
Though the temperature in August rose to 75°, we never felt a
fire oppressive, owing to the constant damp, and absence of sun.
The latter, when it broke through the clouds, shone powerfully,
raising the thermometer 20° and 30° in as many minutes. On
such occasions, hot blasts of damp wind ascend the valleys, and
impinge suddenly against different houses on the flat, giving rise
to extraordinary differences between the mean daily temperatures
of places not half a mile apart.
On the 4th of September we started for the village of Chela,
which lies west from Churra, at the embouchure of the Boga-panee
on the Jheels. The path runs by Mamloo, and down the spur to
the Jasper hill (see p. 489): the vegetation all along is very
tropical, and pepper, ginger, maize, and Betel palm, are cultivated
around small cottages, which are only distinguishable in the forest
by their yellow thatch of dry Calamus (Rattan) leaves. From
This coal is excellent for many purposes. We found it generally used by
the Assam steamers, and were informed on board that in which we traversed
the Sunderbunds, some months afterwards, that her furnaces consumed 729 lbs.
per hour; whereas the consumption of English coal was 800 lbs., of Burdwan
coal 840 lbs., and of Assam 900 lbs.
KHASIA HILLS. ANIMAL LIFE.
507
Jasper hill a very steep ridge leads to another, Lisouplang, which
is hardly so high as Mamloo; the rocks are the same sandstone,
with fragments of coal, and remains of the limestone formation
capping it.
Hot gusts of wind blow up the valleys, alternating with clouds.
and mists, and it is curious to watch the effects of the latter in
stilling the voices of insects (Cicadas) and birds. Common crows
and vultures haunt the villages, but these, and all other large
birds, are very rare in the Khasia. A very few hawks are occa-
sionally seen, also sparrows and kingfishers, and I once heard a
cuckoo; pheasants are sometimes shot, but we never saw any.
Kites become numerous after the rains, and are regarded as a
sign of their cessation. More remarkable than the rarity of birds
is the absence of all animals except domestic rats, as a more suit-
able country for hares and rabbits could not be found. Reptiles,
and especially Colubridæ, are very common in the Khasia moun-
tains, and I procured sixteen species and many specimens. The
natives repeatedly assured us that these were all harmless, and
Dr. Gray, who has kindly examined all my snakes, informs me of
the remarkable fact (alluded to in a note to p. 306), that whereas
none of these are poisonous, five of the eleven species which I
found in Sikkim are so. One of the Khasia blind-worms (a new.
species) belongs to a truly American genus (Ophisaurus), a fact as
important as is that of the Sikkim skink and Agama being also
American forms.
Arundina, a beautiful purple grassy-leaved orchid, was abun,
dantly in flower on the hill-top, and the great white swallow-tailed
moth (Saturnia Atlas) was extremely common, with tropical
butterflies and other insects. The curious leaf-insect (Mantis)
was very abundant on the orange trees, on the leaves of which
the natives believe it to feed; nor indeed could we persuade some
of our friends that its thin sharp jaws are unsuited for masticating
leaves, and that these and its prehensile feet indicate its predacious
nature: added to which, its singular resemblance to a leaf is no
less a provision against its being discovered by its enemies, than
an aid in deceiving its prey.
We descended rapidly for many miles through beautiful rocky
woods, with villages nestling amongst groves of banana and
trellised climbers; and from the brow of a hill looked down upon
a slope covered with vegetation and huts, which formed the mart
of Chela, and below which the Boga-panee flowed in a deep gorge.
The view was a very striking one: owing to the steepness of the
valley below our feet, the roofs alone of the cottages were visible,

508
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
from which ascended the sounds and smells of a dense native
population, and to which there appeared to be no way of descend-
ing. The opposite side rose precipitously in lofty table-topped
mountains, and the river was studded with canoes.
The descent was fully 800 feet, on a slope averaging 25° to 35°.
The cottages were placed close together, each within a little.
bamboo enclosure, eight to ten yards deep; and no two were on
the same level. Each was built against a perpendicular wall
which supported a cutting in the bank behind; and a similar wall
memmen
BUDUTODES
#
CHELA VILLAGE.
descended in front of it, forming the back of the compartment in
which the cottage next below it was erected. The houses were
often raised on platforms, and some had balconies in front, which
overhung the cottage below. All were mere hovels of wattle or
mud, with very high-pitched roofs: stone tanks resembling fonts,
urns, coffins, and sarcophagi, were placed near the better houses,
and blocks of stone were scattered everywhere
We descended from hovel to hovel, alternately along the
gravelled flat of each enclosure, and perpendicularly down steps
VILLAGE OF CHELA.
509
cut in the sandstone or let into the walls. I counted 800 houses
from the river, and there must be many more: the inhabitants are
Bengalees and Khasias, and perhaps amount to 3,000 or 4,000;
but this is a very vague estimate.
We lodged in a curious house, consisting of one apartment,
twenty feet long, and five high, raised thirty feet upon bamboos:
the walls were of platted bamboo matting, fastened to strong
wooden beams, and one side opened on a balcony that overhung
the river. The entrance was an oval aperture reached by a
ladder, and closed by folding-doors that turned on wooden pivots.
The roof was supported by tressels of great thickness, and like the
rest of the woodwork, was morticed, no nails being used throughout
the building. The floor was of split bamboos laid side by side.
We ascended the Boga-panee in canoes, each formed of a
hollowed trunk fifty feet long and four broad; we could not,
however, proceed far, on account of the rapids. The rocks in its
bed are limestone, but a great bluff cliff of sandy conglomerate
(strike east-south-east and dip south-south-west 70°), several hun-
dred feet high, rises on the east bank close above the village,
above which occurs amygdaloidal basalt. The pebbles in the
river (which was seventy yards broad, and turbid) were of slate,
basalt, sandstone, and syenite: on the opposite bank were sand-
stones overlain by limestone, both dipping to the southward.
Beautiful palms, especially Caryota urens (by far the hand-
somest in India), and groves of betel-nut bordered the river, with
oranges, lemons, and citrons; intermixed with feathery bamboos,
horizontally-branched acacias, oaks, with pale red young leaves,
and deep green foliaged figs. Prickly rattans and Plectocomia
climbed amongst these, their enormous plumes of foliage upborne
by the matted branches of the trees, and their arrowy tops shoot-
ing high above the forest.
After staying three days at Chela, we descended the stream in
canoes, shooting over pebbly rapids, and amongst rocks of lime-
stone, water-worn into fantastic shapes, till we at last found our-
selves gliding gently along the still canals of the Jheels. Many
of these rapids are so far artificial, that they are enclosed by
gravel banks, six feet high, which, by confining the waters, give
them depth; but, Chela being hardly above the level of the sea,
their fall is very trifling. We proceeded across the Jheels ¹ to
Chattuc, and then north again to Pundua, and so to Churra.
I
The common water-plants of the Jheels are Vallisneria serrata, Damaso-
nium, 2 Myriophylla, 2 Villarsia, Trapa, blue, white, purple and scarlet
water-lilies, Hydrilla, Urticularia, Limnophila, Azolla, Salvinia, Ceratopteris,
and floating grasses.
510
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
I
Having pretty well exhausted the botany of Churra, Dr.
Thompson and I started on the 13th of September for the
eastern part of the Khasia and Jyntea mountains. On the Kala-
panee road, which we followed, we passed crowds of market
people, laden with dried fish in a half-putrid state, which scented
the air for many yards: they were chiefly carp, caught and dried
at the foot of the hills. Large parties were bringing down baskets
of bird-cherries, cinnamon-bark, iron, pine-planks, fire-wood, and
potatoes. Of these, the bird-cherries (like damsons) are made
into an excellent preserve by the English residents, who also make
capital cherry-brandy of them: the trade in cinnamon is of recent
introduction, and is much encouraged by the Inglis family, to
whose exertions these people are so greatly indebted; the cin-
namon is the peeled bark of a small species of Cinnamomum
allied to that of Ceylon, and though inferior in flavour and muci-
laginous (like cassia), finds a ready market in Calcutta. It has
been used to adulterate the Ceylon cinnamon; and an extensive
fraud was attempted by some Europeans at Calcutta, who sent
boxes of this, with a top layer of genuine, to England. The
smell of the cinnamon loads was as fragrant as that of the fish
was offensive.
The road from Kala-panee bungalow strikes off north-easterly,
and rounds the head of the deep valley to the east of Churra ;
it then crosses the head-waters of the Kala-panee river, still a
clear stream, the bed of which is comparatively superficial: the
rocks consist of a little basalt and much sandstone, striking east
by north, and dipping north by west. The Boga-panee is next
reached, flowing in a shallow valley, about 200 feet below the
general level of the hills, which are grassy and treeless. The
river 2 is thirty yards across, shallow and turbid; its bed is
granite, and beyond it scattered stunted pines are met
with a tree which seems to avoid the sandstone. In the
evening we arrived at Nonkreem, a large village in a broad
marshy valley, where we procured accommodation with some
difficulty, the people being by no means civil, and the Rajah,
Sing Manuk, holding himself independent of the British
Government.
Atmospheric denudation and weathering have produced re-
1 The Pea-violet (Crotalaria occulta) was very common by the road-side,
and smelt deliciously of violets: the English name suggests the appearance of
the flower, for which and for its fragrance it is well worth cultivation.
2 The fall of this river, between this elevation (which may be considered
'that of its source) and Chela, is about 5,500 feet.

NONKREEM. IRON SMELTING.
511
markable effects on the lower part of the Nonkreem valley,
which is blocked up by a pine-crested bill, 200 feet high,
entirely formed of round blocks of granite, heaped up so as to
resemble an old moraine; but like the Nunklow boulders, these
are not arranged as if by glacial action. The granite is micaceous,
and usually very soft, decomposing into a coarse reddish sand, that
colours the Boga-panee. To procure the iron-sand, which is
mom
bul
Stay w
WW.WHAMPER.
NONKREEM VILLAGE.
disseminated through it, the natives conduct water over the beds
of granite sand, and as the lighter particles are washed away, the
remainder is removed to troughs, where the separation of the ore
is completed. The smelting is very rudely carried on in charcoal
fires, blown by enormous double-action bellows, worked by two
persons, who stand on the machine, raising the flaps with their
hands, and expanding them with their feet, as shown in the cut
at p. 512. There is neither furnace nor flux used in the reduction.

512
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
The fire is kindled on one side of an upright stone (like the head-
stone of a grave), with a small arched hole close to the ground:
near this hole the bellows are suspended; and a bamboo tube
from each of its compartments, meets in a larger one, by which
the draught is directed under the hole in the stone to the fire.
aut
BELLOWS.
The ore is run into lumps as large as two fists, with a rugged
surface: these lumps are afterwards cleft nearly in two, to show
their purity.
The scenery about Nonkreem village is extremely picturesque,
and we procured many good plants on the rocks, which were
POMRANG. MOOSHYE.
covered with the purple-flowered Orchid, Calogyne Wallichii.
The country is everywhere intersected with trenches for iron-
washing, and some large marshes were dammed up for the same
purpose in these we found some beautiful balsams, Hypericum
and Parnassia; also a diminutive water-lily, the flower of which
is no larger than a half-crown; it proves to be the Nymphæa
pygmæa of China and Siberia-a remarkable fact in the geo-
graphical distribution of plants.
From Nonkreem we proceeded easterly to Pomrang, leaving
Shillong hill on the north, and again crossing the Boga-panee,
beyond which the sandstone appeared (strike north-east and dip
north-west 60°); the soil was poor in the extreme; not an
inhabitant or tree was to be seen throughout the grassy land-
scape, and hardly a bush, save an occasional rhododendron,
dwarf oak, or Pieris, barely a few inches high.
513
At Pomrang we took up our quarters in an excellent empty
bungalow, built by Mr. Stainforth (Judge of Silhet), who kindly
allowed us the use of it. Its elevation was 5,143 feet, and it
occupied the eastern extremity of a lofty spur that overhangs the
deep fir-clad valley of the Oongkot, dividing Khasia from Jyntea.
The climate of Pomrang is so much cooler and less rainy than at
Churra, that this place is more eligible for a station; but the soil
is quite impracticable, there is an occasional scarcity of water,
the pasture is wholly unsuited for cattle or sheep, and the
distance from the plains is too great.
A beautiful view extends eastwards to the low Jyntea hills,
backed by the blue mountains of Cachar, over the deep valley in
front; to the northward, a few peaks of the Himalaya are seen,
and westward is Shillong. We stayed here till the 23rd September,
and then proceeded south-eastward to Mooshye. The path
descends into the valley of Oongkot, passing the village of
Pomrang, and then through woods of pine, Gordonia, and oak,
the latter closely resembling the English, and infested with galls.
The slopes are extensively cultivated with black awnless unirrigated
rice, and poor crops of Coix, protected from the birds by scare-
crows of lines stretched across the fields, bearing tassels and
tufts of fern, shaken by boys. This fern proved to be a very
curious and interesting genus, which is only known to occur else-
where at Hong-Kong in China and has been called Bowringia,
after the eminent Dr. Bowring.
We crossed the river twice, proceeding south-west to Mooshye,
I
* Podostemon grew on the stones at the bottom: it is a remarkable water-
plant, resembling a liver-wort in its mode of growth. Several species occur
34
514
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
a village placed on an isolated, flat-topped, and very steep-sided
hill, 4,863 feet above the sea, and perhaps 3,500 above the
Oongkot, which winds round its base. A very steep path led up
slate rocks to the top (which was of sandstone), where there is a
stockaded guard-house, once occupied by British troops, of which
we took possession. A Labiate plant (Mesona Wallichiana) grew
on the ascent, whose bruised leaves smelt as strongly of patchouli,
as do those of the plant producing that perfume, to which it is
closely allied. The Pogostemon Patchouli has been said to occur
in these parts of India, but we never met with it, and doubt the
accuracy of the statement. It is a native of the Malay penin-
sula, whence the leaves are imported into Bengal, and so to
Europe.
The summit commands a fine view northward of some
Himalayan peaks, and southwards of the broad valley of the
Oongkot, which is level, and bounded by steep and precipitous
hills, with flat tops. On the 25th we left Mooshye for Amwee
in Jyntea, which lies to the south-east. We descended by steps
cut in the sandstone, and fording the Oongkot, climbed the hills
on its east side, along the grassy tops of which we continued, at
an elevation of 4,000 feet. Marshy flats intersect the hills, to
which wild elephants sometimes ascend, doing much damage to
the rice crops. We crossed a stream by a bridge formed of one
gigantic block of sandstone, 20 feet long, close to the village,
which is a wretched one, and is considered unhealthy: it stands
on the high road from Jynteapore (at the foot of the hills to the
southward) to Assam: the only road that crosses the mountains
east of that from Churra to Nunklow.
Though so much lower, this country, from the barrenness of the
soil, is more thinly inhabited than the Khasia. The pitcher-
plant (Nepenthes) grows on stony and grassy hills about Ämwee,
and crawls along the ground; its pitchers seldom contain insects
in the wild state, nor can we suggest any special function for the
wonderful organ it possesses.
About eight miles south of the village is a stream, crossed by
at different elevations in the Khasia, and appear only in autumn, when they
often carpet the bottom of the streams with green. In spring and summer no
traces of them are seen; and it is difficult to conceive what becomes of the
seeds in the interval, and how these, which are well known, and have no
apparent provision for the purpose, attach themselves to the smooth rocks at
the bottom of the torrents. All the kinds are said to flower and ripen their seeds
under water; the stamens and pistil being protected by the closed flower from
the wet. This genus does not inhabit the Sikkim rivers, probably owing to
the great changes of temperature to which these are subject.

JYNTEA HILLS.
515
a bridge, half of which is formed of slabs of stone (of which
one is twenty-one feet long, seven broad, and two feet three and
a half inches thick), supported on piers, and the rest is a well
turned arch, such as I have not seen elsewhere among the hill
tribes of India. It is fast crumbling away, and is covered with
tropical plants, and a beautiful white-flowered orchis grew in
the mossy crevices of its stones.
From Amwee our route lay north-east across the Jyntea hills
to Joowye, the hill-capital of the district. The path gradually
ascended, dipping into valleys scooped out in the horizontal
sandstone down to the basalt; and boulders of the same rock
www
OLD BRIDGE AT AMWEE.
were scattered about. Fields of rice occupy the bottoms of
these valleys, in which were placed gigantic images of men,
dressed in rags, and armed with bows and arrows, to scare away
the wild elephants! Slate rocks succeed the sandstone (strike
north-east, dip north-west), and with them pines and birch
appear, clothing the deep flanks of the Mintadoong valley, which
we crossed.
The situation of Joowye is extremely beautiful: it occupies
the broken wooded slope of a large open flat valley, dotted with
Diplomeris; Apostasia also grew in this gulley, with a small Arundina,
some beautiful species of Sonerila, and Argostemma. The neighbourhood
was very rich in plants.
N
516
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
pines; and consists of an immense number of low thatched
cottages, scattered amongst groves of barnboo, and fields of
plantain, tobacco, yams, sugar-cane, maize, and rice, surrounded
by hedges of bamboo, Colquhounia, and Erythrina. Narrow
steep lanes lead amongst these, shaded with oak, birch, Podo-
carpus, Camellia, and Araliacea; the larger trees being covered
with orchids, climbing palms, Pothos, Scindapsus, pepper, and
Gnetum; while masses of beautiful red and violet balsams grew
under every hedge and rock. The latter was of sandstone, over-
lying highly inclined schists, and afforded magnificent blocks for
the natives to rear on end, or make seats of. Some erect stones
on a hill at the entrance are immensely large, and surround a
clump of fine fig and banyan trees.¹
We procured a good house after many delays, for the people
were far from obliging; it was a clean, very long cottage, with
low thatched eaves almost touching the ground, and was sur-
rounded by a high bamboo paling that enclosed out-houses built
on a well-swept floor of beaten earth. Within, the woodwork was
carved in curious patterns, and was particularly well fitted. The
old lady to whom it belonged got tired of us before two days were
over, and first tried to smoke us out by a large fire of green wood
at that end of the cottage which she retained; and afterwards by
inviting guests to a supper, with whom she kept up a racket all
night. Her son, a tall, sulky fellow, came to receive the usual
gratuity on our departure, which we made large to show we bore
no ill-will: he, however, behaved so scornfully, pretending to
despise it, that I had no choice but to pocket it again; a pro-
ceeding which was received with shouts of laughter, at his ex-
pense, from a large crowd of bystanders.
On the 30th of September we proceeded north-east from Joowye
to Nurtiung, crossing the watershed of the Jyntea range, which is
granitic, and scarcely raised above the mean level of the hills; it
is about 4,500 feet elevation. To the north the descent is at first
rather abrupt for 500 feet, to a considerable stream, beyond which
is the village of Nurtiung. The country gradually declines hence
to the north-east, in grassy hills, which to the east become higher
and higher and more wooded: to the west the Khasia are seen,
and several Himalayan peaks to the north.
¹ In some tanks we found Hydropeltis, an American and Australian plant
allied to Nymphæa. Mr. Griffith first detected it here, and afterwards in
Bhotan, these being the only known habitats for it in the Old World.
grows with Typha, Acorus Calamus (sweet flag), Vallisneria, Potamogeton,
Sparganium, and other European water-plants.
It
JYNTEA HILLS. GIGANTIC MONOLITHS.
517
The ascent to the village from the river is by steps cut in a
narrow cleft of the schist rocks, to a flat, elevated 4,178 feet above
the sea: we here procured a cottage, and found the people re-
markably civil. The general appearance is the same as at Joowye,
but there are here extensive and very unhealthy marshes, whose
evil effects we experienced, in having the misfortune to lose one
of our servants by fever. Except pines, there are few large trees;
but the quantity of species of perennial woody plants contributing
to form the jungle is quite extraordinary: I enumerated 140, of
which 60 were trees or large shrubs above twenty feet high. One
of these was the Hamamelis chinensis, a plant hitherto only known
as a native of China. This, the Bowringia, and the little Nym-
phæa, are three out of many remarkable instances of our approach
to the eastern Asiatic flora.
From Nurtiung we walked to the Bor-panee river, sixteen or
twenty miles to the north-east (not the river of that name below
Nunklow), returning the same night; a most fatiguing journey in
so hot and damp a climate. The path lay for the greatest part
of the way over grassy hills of mica-schist, with boulders of
granite, and afterwards of syenite, like those of Nunklow. The
descent to the river is through noble woods of spreading oaks,¹
chestnuts, magnolias, and tall pines: the vegetation is very tropical,
and with the exception of there being no sal, it resembles that of
the dry hills of the Sikkim Terai. The Bor-panee is forty yards
broad, and turbid; its bed, which is of basalt, 2,454 feet above
the sea: it is crossed by a raft pulled to and fro by canes.
Nurtiung contains a most remarkable collection of those sepul-
chral and other monuments, which form so curious a feature in
the scenery of these mountains and in the habits of their savage
population. They are all placed in a fine grove of trees, occupy-
ing a hollow; where several acres are covered with gigantic,
generally circular, slabs of stone, from ten to twenty-five feet
broad, supported five feet above the ground upon other blocks.
For the most part they are buried in brushwood of nettles and
shrubs, but in one place there is an open area of fifty yards
encircled by them, each with a gigantic headstone behind it. Of
the latter the tallest was nearly thirty feet high, six broad, and two
feet eight inches in thickness, and must have been sunk at least
five feet, and perhaps much more, in the ground. The flat slabs
were generally of slate or hornstone; but many of them, and all
We collected upwards of fifteen kinds of oak and chestnut in these and the
Khasia mountains; many are magnificent trees, with excellent wood, while
others are inferior as timber.

518
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
the larger ones, were of syenitic granite, split by heat and cold.
water with great art. They are erected by dint of sheer brute
strength, the lever being the only aid. Large blocks of syenite
were scattered amongst these wonderful erections.
Splendid trees of Bombax, fig and banyan, overshadowed them:
the largest banyan had a trunk five feet in diameter, clear of the
buttresses, and numerous small trees of Celtis grew out of it, and
an immense flowering tuft of Vanda cærulea (the rarest and most
beautiful of Indian orchids) flourished on one of its limbs. A
STONES AT NURTIUNG.
small plantain with austere woolly scarlet fruit, bearing ripe
seeds, was planted in this sacred grove, where trees of the most
tropical genera grew mixed with the pine, birch, Myrica, and
Viburnum.
The Nurtiung Stonehenge is no doubt in part religious, as the
grove suggests, and also designed for cremation, the bodies being
burnt on the altars. In the Khasia these upright stones are
generally raised simply as memorials of great events, or of men
JYNTEA HILLS. VANDA CERULËÀ.
519
whose ashes are not necessarily, though frequently, buried or
deposited in hollow stone sarcophagi near them, and sometimes
in an urn placed inside a sarcophagus, or under horizontal slabs.
>>
The usual arrangement is a row of five, seven, or more erect
oblong blocks with round heads (the highest being placed in the
middle), on which are often wooden discs and cones: more rarely
pyramids are built. Broad slabs for seats are also common by
the wayside. Mr. Yule, who first drew attention to these monu-
ments, mentions one thirty-two feet by fifteen, and two in thick-
ness; and states that the sarcoph agi (which, however, are rare)
formed of four slabs, resemble a drawing in Bell's Circassia, and,
descriptions in Irby and Mangles' Travels in Syria. He adds
that many villages derive their names from these stones, "mau"
signifying "stone: thus "Mausmai" is "the stone of oath,"
because, as his native in formant said, "there was war between
Churra and Mausmai, and when they made peace, they swore to
it, and placed a stone as a witness;" forcibly recalling the stone
Jacob set up for a pillar, and other passages in the Old Testa-
ment. "Mamloo" is "the stone of salt," eating salt from a
sword's point being the Khasia form of oath: "Mauflong" is
"the grassy stone," &c. Returning from this grove, we crossed
a stream by a single squared block, twenty-eight feet long, five
broad, and two thick, of gray syenitic granite with large crystals
of felspar.
We left Nurtiung on the 4th of October, and walked to Pom-
rang, a very long and fatiguing day's work. The route descends
north-west of the village, and turns due east along bare grassy hills
of mica-schist and slate (strike east and west, and dip north).
Near the village of Lernai oak woods are passed, in which Vanda
cærulea grows in profusion, waving its panicles of azure flowers in
the wind. As this beautiful orchid is at present attracting great
attention, from its high price, beauty, and difficulty of culture, I
shall point out how totally at variance with its native habits is
the cultivation thought necessary for it in England. The dry
2
Notes on the Khasia mountains and people; by Lieutenant H. Yule,
Bengal Engineers. Analogous combinations occur in the south of England
and in Brittany, &c., where similar structures are found. Thus maen, man,
or men is the so-called Druidical name for a stone, whence Pen-maen-mawr,
for "the hill of the big stone," Maen-hayr, for the standing stones of Brittany,
and Dol-men, "the table-stone," for a cromlech.
• We collected seven men's loads of this suberb plant for the Royal Gardens
at Kew; but owing to unavoidable accidents and difficulties, few specimens
reached England alive. A gentleman who sent his gardener with us to be
shown the locality, was more successful: he sent one man's load to England
520
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
grassy hills which it inhabits are elevated 3,000 to 4,000 feet: the
trees are small, gnarled, and very sparingly leafy, so that the Vanda
which grows on their limbs is fully exposed to sun, rain, and wind.
There is no moss or lichen on the branches with the Vanda, whose
roots sprawl over the dry rough bark. The atmosphere is on the
whole humid, and extremely so during the rains; but there is no
damp heat, or stagnation of the air, and at the flowering season
the temperature ranges between 60° and 80°, there is much-sun-
shine, and both air and bark are dry during the day in July and
August, during the rains, the temperature is a little higher than
above, but in winter it falls much lower, and hoar-frost forms on
the ground. Now this winter's cold, summer's heat, and autumn's
drought, and above all, this constant free exposure to fresh air
and the winds of heaven, are what of all things we avoid exposing
our orchids to in England. It is under these conditions, how-
ever, that all the finer Indian Orchidea grow, of which we found
Dendrobium Farmeri, Dalhousianum, Devonianum, &c., with
Vanda cærulea; whilst the most beautiful species of Caelogyne,
Cymbidium, Bolbophyllum, and Cypripedium, inhabit cool climates
at elevations above 4,000 feet in Khasia, and as high as 6,000 to
7,000 in Sikkim.
✓
On the following day we turned out our Vanda to dress the
specimens for travelling, and preserve the flowers for botanical
purposes. Of the latter we had 360 panicles, each composed of
from six to twenty-one broad pale-blue tesselated flowers, three
and a half to four inches across: and they formed three piles on
the floor of the verandah, each a yard high :--what would we not
have given to have been able to transport a single panicle to a
Chiswick fête !
On the 10th of October we sent twenty-four strong mountaineers
to Churra, laden with the collections of the previous month;
whilst we returned to Nonkreem, and crossing the shoulder of
Shillong, passed through the village of Moleem in a north-west
direction to the Syong bungalow. From this we again crossed
the range to Nunklow and the Bor-panee, and returned by
Moflong and the Kala-panee to Churra during the latter part of
the month.
In November the vegetation above 4,000 feet turns wintry and
i
on commission, and though it arrived in a very poor state, it sold for 300/., the
individual plants fetching prices varying from 3 to 10. Had all arrived alive,
they would have cleared 1,000l. An active collector, with the facilities I
possessed, might easily clear from 2,000l. to 3,000l., in one season, by the sale
of Khasia orchids.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE KHASIA HILLS. 521
brown, the weather becomes chilly, and though the cold is never
great, hoar-frost forms at Churra, and water freezes at Moflong.
We prepared to leave as these signs of winter advanced: we had
collected upwards of 2,500 species, and for the last few weeks all our
diligence, and that of our collectors, had failed to be rewarded
by a single novelty. We however procured many species in fruit,
and made a collection of upwards of 300 kinds of woods, many of
very curious structure. As, however, we projected a trip to
Cachar before quitting the neighbourhood, we retained our col-
lectors, giving orders for them to meet us at Chattuc, on our way
down the Soormah in December, with our collections, which
amounted to 200 men's loads, and for the conveyance of which
to Calcutta, Mr. Inglis procured us boats.
Before dismissing the subject of the Khasia mountains, it will
be well to give a slight sketch of their prominent geographical
features, in connection with their geology. The general geological
characters of the chain may be summed up in a few words. The
nucleus or axis is of highly inclined stratified metamorphic rocks,
through which the granite has been protruded, and the basalt and
syenite afterwards injected. After extensive denudations of these,
the sandstone, coal, and limestone were successively deposited.
These are altered and displaced along the southern edge of the
range, by black amygdaloidal trap, and have in their turn been
extensively denuded; and it is this last operation that has
sculptured the range, and given the mountains their present
aspect; for the same gneisses, slates, and basalts in other coun-
tries, present rugged peaks, domes, or cones, and there is nothing
in their composition or arrangement here that explains the tabular
or rounded outline they assume, or the uniform level of the spurs
into which they rise, or the curious steep sides and flat floors of
the valleys which drain them.
All these peculiarities of outline are the result of denudation,
of the specific action of which agent we are very ignorant. The
remarkable difference between the steep cliffs on the south face
of the range, and the rounded outline of the hills on the northern
slopes, may be explained on the supposition that when the Khasia
was partially submerged, the Assam valley was a broad bay or
gulf; and that while the Churra cliffs were exposed to the full
sweep of the ocean, the Nunklow shore was washed by a more
tranquil sea.
The broad flat marshy heads of all the streams in the central
and northern parts of the chain, and the rounded hills that
separate them, indicate the levelling action of a tidal sea, acting
$
522
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS,
on a low flat shore; whilst the steep flat-floored valleys of the
southern watershed may be attributed to the scouring action of
higher tides on a boisterous rocky coast. These views are con-
firmed by an examination of the east shores of the Bay of Bengal,
and particularly by a comparison of the features of the country
about Silhet, now nearly 200 miles distant from the sea, with
those of the Chittagong coast, with which they are identical.
The geological features of the Khasia are in many respects so
similar to those of the Vindhya, Kymore, Behar, and Rajmahal
mountains, that they have been considered by some observers as
an eastern prolongation of that great chain, from which they are
geographically separated by the delta of the Ganges and Bur-
rampooter. The general contour of the mountains, and of their
sandstone cliffs, is the same, and the association of this rock with
coal and lime is a marked point of similarity; there is, however,
this difference between them, that the coal-shales of Khasia and
limestone of Behar are non-fossiliferous, while the lime of Khasia
and the coal-shales of Behar contain fossils.
The prevalent north-east strike of the gneiss is the same in both,
differing from the Himalaya, where the stratified rocks generally
strike north-west. The nummulites of the limestone are the
only means we have of forming an approximate estimate of the
age of the Khasia coal, which is the most interesting feature in
the geology of the range: these fossils have been examined by
MM. Archiac and Jules Haines, who have pronounced the
species collected by Dr. Thomson and myself to be the same as
those found in the nummulite rocks of north-west India, Scinde,
and Arabia.
2
¹ Since our return to England, we have been much struck with the similarity
in contour of the Essex and Suffolk coasts, and with the fact that the tidal
coast sculpturing of this surface is preserved in the very centre of High Suffolk,
twenty to thirty miles distant from the sea, in rounded outlines and broad flat
marshy valleys.
2 (
Description des Animaux Fossiles des Indes Orientales," p. 178. These
species are Nummulites scabra, Lamarck, N. obtusa, Sowerby, N. Lucasana,
Deshayes, and N. Beaumonti, d'Arch. and Haines.
BOAT VOYAGE TO SILHËT.
CHAPTER XXXI.
523
Boat voyage to Silhet-River-Palms-Teclas-Botany-Fish weirs-Forests
of Cachar-Sandal-wood, &c.-Porpoises-Alligators-Silchar-Tigers-
Rice-crops-Cookies-Munniporees- Hockey-Varnish-Dance-Nagas
-Excursion to Munnipore frontier - Elephant bogged Bamboos
Cardiopteris-Climate, &c., of Cachar-Mosquitos-Fall of banks-Silhet
Chattuc
-Oaks - Stylidium - Tree-ferns
Megna -Meteorology-
Palms-Noacolly-Salt-smuggling-Delta of Ganges and Megna-West-
ward progress of Megna-Peat-Tide-Waves-Earthquakes-Dangerous
navigation-Moonlight scenes-Mud island-Chittagong-Mug tribes-
Views - Trees Churs- Flagstaff hill - Coffee-- Pepper-Tea, &c.
Excursions from Chittagong-Dipterocarpi or Gurjun oil trees-Earthquake
-Birds-Papaw-Bleeding of stems-Poppy and Sun fields-Seetakoond
-Bungalow and hill-Perpetual flame- Falconeria-Cycas -Climate-
Leave for Calcutta-Hattiâh island-Plants-Sunderbunds-Steamer-
Tides-Nipa fruticans-Fishing-Otters-Crocodiles-Phanix paludosa
-Departure from India.
J
WE left Churra on the 17th of November, and taking boats at
Pundua, crossed the Jheels to the Soormah, which we ascended
to Silhet. Thence we continued our voyage 120 miles up the
river in canoes, to Silchar, the capital of the district of Cachar :
the boats were such as I described at Chattuc, and though it was
impossible to sit upright in them, they were paddled with great
swiftness. The river at Silhet is 200 yards broad; it is muddy,
and flows with a gentle current of two to three miles an hour,
between banks six to twelve feet high. As we glided up its
stream, villages became rarer, and eminences more frequent in
the Jheels. The people are a tall, bold, athletic Mahometan
race, who live much on the water, and cultivate rice, sesamum,
and radishes, with betel-pepper in thatched enclosures as in Sik-
kim: maize and sugar are rarer, bamboos abound, and four palms
(Borassus, Areca, cocoa-nut, and Caryota) are planted, but there
are no date-palms.
The Teelas (or hillocks) are the haunts of wild boars, tigers,
and elephants, but not of the rhinoceros ; they are 80 to 200 feet
high, of horizontally stratified gravel and sand, slates, and clay
conglomerates, with a slag-like honey-combed sandstone; they
are covered with oaks, figs, Heretiera, and bamboos, and besides
a multitude of common Bengal plants, there are some which,
though generally considered mountain or country genera, here
descend to the level of the sea; such are Kadsura, Rubus,
Camellia and Sabia; Aerides and Saccolabia are the common
orchids, and rattan-canes and Pandani render the jungles impene-
trable.
524
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
A very long sedge (Scleria) grows by the water, and is used for
thatching: boatloads of it are collected for the Calcutta market,
for which also were destined many immense rafts of bamboo, 100
feet long. The people fish much, using square and triangular
drop-nets stretched upon bamboos, and rude basket-work weirs,
that retain the fish as the river falls. Near the villages we saw
fragments of pottery three feet below the surface of the ground,
showing that the bank, which is higher than the surrounding
country, increases from the annual overflow.
About seventy miles up the river, the mountains on the north,
which are east of Jyntea, rise 4,000 feet high in forest-clad ranges
like those of Sikkim. Swamps extend from the river to the ir base,
and penetrate their valleys, which are extremely malarious: these
forests are frequented by timber-cutters, who fell jarool (Lager-
stræmia Reginæ), a magnificent tree with red wood, which,
though soft, is durable under water, and therefore in universal use
for boat-building. The toon is also cut, with red sandal-wood
(Adenanthera pavonina); also Nageesa, Mesua ferrea, which is
highly valued for its weight, strength and durability: Aquilaria
agallocha, the eagle-wood, a tree yielding uggur oil, is also much
sought for its fragrant wood, which is carried to Silhet and
Azmerigunj, where it is broken up and distilled. Neither teak,
sissoo, sal, nor other Dipterocarpi, are found in these forests.
I
Porpoises, and both the long and the short-nosed alligator,
ascend the Soormah for 120 miles, being found beyond Silchar,
which place we reached on the 22nd, and most hospitably
received by Colonel Lister, the political agent commanding the
Silhet Light Infantry, who was inspecting the Cookie levy, a
corps of hill-natives which had lately been enrolled.
The station is a small one, and stands about forty feet above
the river, which however rises half that height in the rains. Long
low spurs of tertiary rocks stretch from the Tipperah hills for
many miles north, through the swampy Jheels to the river; and
there are also hills on the opposite or north side, but detached
from the Cookie hills, as the lofty blue range twelve miles north
* There is much dispute amongst oriental scholars about the word Nageesa ;
the Bombay philologists refer it to a species of Garcinia, whilst the pundits on
the Calcutta side of India consider it to be Mesua ferrea. Throughout our
travels in India, we were struck with the undue reliance placed on native
names of plants, and information of all kinds; and the pertinacity with which
each linguist adhered to his own crochet as to the application of terms to
natural objects, and their pronunciation. It is a very prevalent, but erroneous,
impression, that savage and half-civilised people have an accurate knowledge
of objects of natural history, and a uniform nomenclature for them.
•
CACHAR. MUNNIPORE.
525
of the Soormah is called. All these mountains swarm with tigers,
wild buffalos, and boars, which also infest the long grass of the
Jheels.
The elevation of the house we occupied at Silchar was 116 feet
above the sea. The bank it stood on was of clay, with soft rocks
of conglomerate, which often assume the appearance of a brown
sandy slag.
During the first Birmese war, Colonel Lister was sent with a
force up to this remote corner of Bengal, when the country was
an uninhabited jungle, so full of tigers that not a day passed
without one or more of his grass- or wood-cutters being carried
off. Now, thousands of acres are cultivated with rice, and during
our stay we did not see a tiger. The quantity of land brought
into cultivation in this part of Bengal, and indeed throughout the
Gangetic delta, has probably been doubled during the last twenty
years, and speaks volumes for the state of the peasant under the
Indian Company's sway, as compared with his former condition.
The Silchar rice is of admirable quality, and much is imported to
Silhet, the Jheels not producing grain enough for the consumption
of the people. Though Silchar grows enough for ten times its
population, there was actually a famine six weeks before our
arrival, the demand from Silhet being so great.
The villages of Cachar are peopled by Mahometans, Munni-
porees, Nagas, and Cookies; the Cacharies themselves being a
poor and peaceful jungle tribe, confined to the mountains north
of the Soormah. The Munniporees are emigrants from the
kingdom of that name, which lies beyond the British possessions,
and borders on Assam and Birmah. Low ranges of forest-clad
mountains at the head of the Soormah, separate it from Silchar,
with which it is coterminous; the two chief towns being seven
marches apart. To the south-east of Silchar are interminable
jungles, peopled by the Cookies, a wild Indo-Chinese tribe, who
live in a state of constant warfare, and possess the whole hill-
country from this, southward to beyond Chittagong. Two years
ago they invaded and ravaged Cachar, carrying many of the
•
I
The Munnipore valley has never been explored by any naturalist, its
mountains are said to be pine-clad, and to rise 8,000 feet above the level of
the sea.
The Rajah is much harassed by the Burmese, and is a dependant of
the British, who are in the very frequent dilemma of supporting on the throne
a sovereign opposed by a strong faction of his countrymen, and who has very
dubious claims to his position. During our stay at Silchar, the supposed
rightful Rajah was prevailing over the usurper; a battle had been fought on
the hills on the frontier, and two bodies floated past our bungalow, pierced
with arrows.
526
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
inhabitants into slavery, and so frightening the people, that land
previously worth six rupees a biggah, is now reduced to one and
a half. Colonel Lister was sent with a strong party to rescue the
captives, and marched for many days through their country with-
out disturbing man or beast; penetrating deep forests of gigantic
trees and tall bamboos, never seeing the sun above, or aught to
the right and left, save an occasional clearance and a deserted
village. The incursion, however, had its effects, and the better
inclined near the frontier have since come forward, and been
enrolled as the Cookie levy.
:
The Munnipore emigrants are industrious settlers for a time,
but never remain long in one place their religion is Hindoo,
and they keep up a considerable trade with their own country,
whence they import a large breed of buffalos, ponies, silks, and
cotton cloths dyed with arnotto (Bixa), and universally used for
turbans. They use bamboo blowing-tubes and arrows for shooting
birds, make excellent shields of rhinoceros hide (imported from
Assam), and play at hockey on horseback like the Western
Tibetans. A fine black varnish from the fruit of Holigarna longi-
folia, is imported from Munnipore, as is another made from
Sesuvium Anacardium (marking-nut), and a remarkable black
pigment resembling that from Melanorhaa usitatissima, which is
white when fresh, and requires to be kept under water.¹
One fine moonlight night we went to see a Munnipore dance.
A large circular area was thatched with plaintain leaves, growing
on their trunks, which were stuck in the ground; and round the
enclosure was a border neatly cut from the white leaf-sheaths of
the same tree. A double enclosure of bamboo, similarly orna-
mented, left an inner circle for the performers, and an outer for
the spectators: the whole was lighted with oil lamps and Chinese
paper lanterns.
The musicians sat on one side, with cymbals,
tomtoms, and flutes, and sang choruses.
The performances began by a copper-coloured Cupid entering
and calling the virgins with a flute; these appeared from a green-
room, to the number of thirty or forty, of all ages and sizes.
Each had her hair dressed in a topknot, and her head covered
with a veil; a scarlet petticoat loaded with tinsel concealed her
naked feet, and over this was a short red kirtle, and an enormous
•
• This turns of a beautiful black colour when applied to a surface, owing,
according to Sir D. Brewster, to the fresh varnish consisting of a congeries of
minute organised particles, which disperse the rays of light in all directions;
the organic structure is destroyed when the varnish dries, and the rays of light
are consequently transmitted.
MUNNIPORE AND NAGA DANCES.
527
white shawl was swathed round the body from the armpits to the
waist. A broad belt passed over the right shoulder and under
the left arm, to which hung gold and silver chains, corals, &c.,
with tinsel and small mirrors sewed on everywhere: the arms and
hands were bare, and decorated with bangles and rings.
Many of the women were extremely tall, great stature being
common amongst the Munniporees. They commenced with a
prostration to Cupid, around whom they danced very slowly,
with the arms stretched out, and the hands in motion; at each
step the free foot was swung backwards and forwards. Cupid
then chose a partner, and standing in the middle went through
the same motions, a compliment the women acknowledged by
curtseying and whirling round, making a sort of cheese with their
petticoats, which, however, were too heavy to inflate properly.
The Nagas are another people found on this frontier, chiefly on
the hills to the north: they are a wild, copper-coloured, uncouth
jungle tribe who have proved troublesome on the Assam frontier.
Their features are more Tartar than those of the Munniporees,
especially amongst the old men. They bury their dead under the
threshold of their cottages. The men are all but naked, and
stick plumes of hornbills' feathers in their hair, which is bound
with strips of bamboo: tufts of small feathers are passed through
their ears, and worn as shoulder lappets. A short blue cotton
cloth, with a fringe of tinsel and tufts of goat's hair dyed red, is
passed over the loins in front only: they also wear brass armlets,
and necklaces of cowries, coral, amber, ivory, and boar's teeth.
The women draw a fringed blue cloth tightly across the breast,
and wear a checked or striped petticoat. They are less orna-
mented than the men, and are pleasing looking; their hair is
straight, and cut short over the eyebrows.
The Naga dances are very different from those of the Mun-
niporees; being quick, and performed in excellent time to
harmonious music. The figures are regular, like quadrilles and
country-dances: the men hold their knives erect during the per-
formance, the women extend their arms only when turning partners,
and then their hands are not given, but the palms are held opposite.
The step is a sort of polka and balancez, very graceful and lively.
A bar of music is always played first, and at the end the spectators
applaud with two short shouts. Their ear for music, and the
nature of their dance, are as Tibetan as their countenances, and
different from those of the Indo-Chinese tribes of the frontier.
We had the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant Raban at Silchar,
and of making several excursions in the neighbourhood with him;
528
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
for which Colonel Lister here, as at Churra, afforded us every
facility of elephants and men. Had we had time, it was our
intention to have visited Munnipore, but we were anxious to
proceed to Chittagong. I however made a three days' excursion
to the frontier, about thirty miles distant, proceeding along the
north bank of the Soormah. On the way my elephant got
bogged in crossing a deep muddy stream: this is sometimes an
alarming position, as should the animal become terrified, he will
seize his rider, or pad, or any other object (except his driver), to
place under his knees to prevent his sinking. In this instance
the driver in great alarm ordered me off, and I had to flounder
out through the black mud. The elephant remained fast all
night, and was released next morning by men with ropes.
The country continued a grassy level, with marshes and rice
cultivation, to the first range of hills, beyond which the river is
unnavigable; there also a forest commences, of oaks, figs, and
the common trees of east Bengal. The road hence was a good
one, cut by Sepoys across the dividing ranges, the first of which
is not 500 feet high. On the ascent bamboos abound, of the
kind called Tuldah or Dulloah, which has long very thin-walled
joints; it attains no great size, but is remarkably gregarious. On
the east side of the range, the road runs through soft shales and
beds of clay, and conglomerates, descending to a broad valley
covered with gigantic scattered timber-trees of jarool, acacia,
Diospyros, Urticea, and Bauhinia, rearing their enormous trunks
above the bamboo jungle: immense rattan-canes wound through
the forest, and in the gullies were groves of two kinds of tree-fern,
two of Areca, Wallichia palm, screw-pine, and Dracana. Wild
rice grew abundantly in the marshes, with tall grasses; and Car-
diopteris covered the trees for upwards of sixty feet, like hops,
with a mass of pale-green foliage, and dry white glistening seed-
vessels. This forest differed from those of the Silhet and Khasia
mountains, especially in the abundance of bamboo jungle, which
is, I believe, the prevalent feature of the low hills in Birmah, Ava,
and Munnipore; also in the gigantic size of the rattans, larger
palms, and different forest trees, and in the scanty undergrowth of
herbs and bushes. I only saw, however, the skirts of the forest
the mountains further east, which I am told rise several thousand
feet in limestone cliffs, are doubtless richer in herbaceous plants.
I
;
The climate of Cachar partakes of that of the Jheels in its
damp equable character: during our stay the weather was fine,
A remarkable plant of unknown affinity; see Brown and Bennett, "Flora
Java" it is found in the Assam valley and Chittagong.
CACHAR MOSQUITOS. LANDSLIPS.
529
but dense fogs formed in the morning: the mean maximum was
80°, minimum 51° 4.¹
The annual rain-fall in 1850 was 111'60 inches, according to
a register kindly given me by Captain Verner. There are few
mosquitos, which is one of the most curious facts in the geo-
graphical distribution of these capricious blood-suckers; for the
locality is surrounded by swamps, and they swarm at Silhet, and
on the river lower down. Both on the passage up and down, we
were tormented in our canoes by them for eighty or ninety miles
above Silhet, but from thence onwards to Cachar we were free.
On the 30th of November, we were preparing for our return to
Silhet, and our canoes were loading, when we were surprised by
a loud rushing noise, and saw a high wave coming down the
river, swamping every boat that remained on its banks, whilst
most of those that pushed out into the stream, escaped with a
violent rocking. It was caused by a slip of the bank three
quarters of a mile up the stream, of no great size, but which
propagated a high wave. This appeared to move on at about the
rate of a mile in three or four minutes, giving plenty of time for
our boatmen to push out from the land on hearing the shouts
of those first overtaken by the calamity; but they were too
timid, and consequently one of our canoes, full of papers, instru-
ments, and clothes, was swamped. Happily our dried collections
were not embarked, and the hot sun repaired much of the
damage.
We left in the evening of the 2nd of December, and proceeded
to Silhet, where we were kindly received by Mr. Stainforth, the
district judge. Silhet, the capital of the district of the same name,
is a large Mahometan town, occupying a slightly raised part of the
Jheels, where many of the Teelas seem joined together by beds of
gravel and sand. In the rains it is surrounded by water, and all
communication with other parts is by boats: in winter, Jynteapore
and Pundua may be reached by land, crossing creeks innumerable
on the way. Mr. Stainforth's house, like those of most of the
other Europeans, occupies the top of one of the Teelas, 150 feet
high, and is surrounded by fine spreading oaks, Garcinia, and
2
The temperature does not rise above 90° in summer, nor sink below 45°
or 50° in January: forty-seven comparative observations with Calcutta showed
the mean temperature to be 1° 8 lower at Silchar, and the air damper, the
saturation-point being, at Calcutta, o'3791, at Silchar 0·4379.
2
It is not generally known that oaks are often very tropical plants; not
only abounding at low elevations in the mountains, but descending in abundance
to the level of the sea. Though unknown in Ceylon, the Peninsula of India,
tropical Africa, or South America, they abound in the hot valleys of the Eastern
*
35
530
1
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
Diospyros trees. The rock of which the hill is composed, is a
slag-like ochreous sandstone, covered in most places with a shrub-
bery of rose-flowered Melastoma, and some peculiar plants.
I
Broad flat valleys divide the hills, and are beautifully clothed
with a bright green jungle of small palms, and many kinds of
ferns. In sandy places, blue-flowered Burmannia, Hypoxis, and
other pretty tropical annuals, expand their blossoms, with an
inconspicuous Stylidium, a plant belonging to a small natural
family, whose limits are so confined to New Holland, that this is
almost the only kind that does not grow in that continent.
Where the ground is swampy, dwarf Pandanus abounds, with the
gigantic nettle, Urtica crenulata ("Mealum-ma" of Sikkim, see
P. 424).
The most interesting botanical ramble about Silhet is to the
tree-fern groves on the path to Jynteapore, following the bottoms
of shallow valleys between the Teelas, and along clear streams, up
whose beds we waded for some miles, under an arching canopy of
tropical shrubs, trees, and climbers, tall grasses, screw-pines, and
Aroidea. In the narrower parts of the valleys the tree-ferns are
numerous on the slopes, rearing their slender brown trunks forty
feet high, with feathery crowns of foliage, through which the
sun-beams trembled on the broad shining foliage of the tropical
herbage below.
Silhet, though hot and damp, is remarkably healthy, and does
not differ materially in temperature from Silchar, though it is
more equable and humid. It derives some interest from having
been first brought into notice by the enterprise of one of the
Lindsays of Balcarres, at a time when the pioneers of commerce
in India encountered great hardships and much personal danger.
Mr. Lindsay, a writer in the service of the East India Company,
established a factory at Silhet, and commenced the lime trade
2
Himalaya, East Bengal, Malay Peninsula, and Indian islands; where perhaps
more species grow than in any other part of the world. Such facts as this
disturb our preconceived notions of the geographical distribution of the most
familiar tribes of plants, and throw great doubt on the conclusions which fossil
plants are supposed to indicate.
▪ Gelonium, Adelia, Moacurra, Linostoma, Justicia, Trophis, Connarus,
Ixora, Congea, Dalhousiea, Grewia, Myrsine, Büttneria; and on the shady
exposures a Calamus, Briedelia, and various ferns.
...12
During our stay of five days the mean maximum temperature was 74°;
minimum 64° 8: that of thirty-two observations compared with Calcutta show
that Silhet is only 1°.7 cooler, though Mr. Stainforth's house is upwards of 2º
further north, and 150 feet more elevated. A thermometer sunk two feet
seven inches, stood at 73° 5. The relative saturation-points were, Calcutta
633, Silhet 821.
SILHET. MEGNÀ RIVER.
531
I
with Calcutta, reaping an enormous fortune himself, and laying
the foundation of that prosperity amongst the people which has
been much advanced by the exertions of the Inglis family, and
has steadily progressed under the protecting rule of the Indian
government.
From Silhet we took large boats to navigate the Burrampooter
and Megna, to their embouchure in the Bay of Bengal at Noacolly,
a distance of 250 miles, whence we were to proceed across the
head of the bay to Chittagong, about 100 miles further. We left
on the 7th of December, and arrived at Chattuc on the 9th,
where we met our Khasia collectors with large loads of plants;
and paid them off. The river was now low, and presented a busy
scene, from the numerous trading boats being confined to its
fewer and deeper channels. Long grasses and sedges (Arundo,
Saccharum and Scleria), were cut, and stacked along the water's
edge, in huge brown piles, for export and thatching.
On the 13th December, we entered the broad stream of the
Megna. Rice is cultivated along the mud flats left by the annual
floods, and the banks are lower and less defined than in the
Soormah, and support no long grasses or bushes. Enormous
islets of living water-grasses (Oplismenus stagninus) and other
plants, floated past, and birds became more numerous, especially
martins and egrets. The sun was hot, but the weather otherwise
cool and pleasant: the mean temperature was nearly that of
Calcutta, 69°7, but the atmosphere was more humid.²
On the 14th we passed the Dacca river; below which the
Megna is several miles wide, and there is an appearance of tide,
from masses of purple Salvinia (a floating plant, allied to ferns),
being thrown up on the beach like sea-weed. Still lower down,
the vegetation of the Sunderbunds commences; there is a narrow
beach, and behind it a mud bank several feet high, supporting a
luxuriant green jungle of palms (Borassus and Phenix), immense
fig-trees, covered with Calami, and tall betel-palms, clothed with
For an account of the early settlement of Silhet, see "Lives of the
Lindsays," by Lord Lindsay.
2 The river-water was greenish, and a little cooler (73° 8) than that of the
Soormah (74°3), which was brown and muddy. The barometer on the
Soormah stood 0028 inch higher than that of Calcutta (on the mean of thirty-
eight observations), whereas on the Megna the pressure was o‘010 higher. As
Calcutta is eighteen feet above the level of the Bay of Bengal, this shows that
the Megna (which has no perceptible current) is at the level of the sea, and
that either the Soormah is upwards of thirty feet above that level, or that the
atmospheric pressure there, and at this season, is less than at Calcutta, which,
as I have hinted at p. 476, is probably the case.
532
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
3
the most elegant drapery of Acrostichum scandens, a climbing fern
with pendulous fronds.
Towards the embouchure, the banks rise ten feet high, the
river expands into a muddy sea, and a long swell rolls in, to thẹ
disquiet of our fresh-water boatmen. Low islands of sand and
mud stretch along the horizon: which, together with the ships,
distorted by extraordinary refraction, flicker as if seen through
smoke. Mud is the all-prevalent feature; and though the water
is not salt, we do not observe in these broad deltas that amount
of animal life (birds, fish, alligators, and porpoises) that teems in
the narrow creeks of the western Sunderbunds.
We landed in a canal-like creek at Tuktacolly,' on the 17th,
and walked to Noacolly, over a flat of hard mud or dried silt,
covered with turf of Cynodon Dactylon. We were hospitably
received by Dr. Baker, a gentleman who has resided here for
twenty-three years; and who communicated to us much interesting
information respecting the features of the Gangetic delta.
Noacolly is a station for collecting the revenue and preventing
the manufacture of salt, which, with opium, are the only mono-
polies now in the hands of the East India Company. The salt
itself is imported from Arracan, Ceylon, and even Europe, and is
stored in great wooden buildings here and elsewhere. The ground
being impregnated with salt, the illicit manufacture by evaporation
is not easily checked; but whereas the average number of cases
brought to justice used to be twenty and thirty in a week, they
are now reduced to two or three. It is remarkable, that though
the soil yields such an abundance of this mineral, the water of the
Megna at Noacolly is only brackish, and it is therefore to repeated
inundations and surface evaporation that the salt is due. Fresh
water is found at a very few feet depth everywhere, but it is not
good.
When it is considered how comparatively narrow the sea-board
of the delta is, the amount of difference in the physical features
of the several parts, will appear most extraordinary. I have
stated that the difference between the northern and southern
halves of the delta is so great, that, were all depressed and their
contents fossilised, the geologist who examined each by itself,
would hardly recognise the two parts as belonging to one epoch ;
and the difference between the east and west halves of the lower
delta is equally remarkable.
The total breadth of the delta is 260 miles, from Chittagong to
the mouth of the Hoogly, divided longitudinally by the Megna:
I "Colly" signifies a muddy creek, such as intersect the delta.
VEGETATION, &c., OF THE GANGES DELTA. 533
all to the west of that river presents a luxuriant vegetation, while
to the east is a bare muddy expanse, with no trees or shrubs but
what are planted. On the west coast the tides rise twelve or
thirteen feet, on the east, from forty to eighty. On the west,
the water is salt enough for mangroves to grow for fifty miles
up the Hoogly; on the east, the sea coast is too fresh for that
plant for ten miles south of Chittagong.
On the west, fifty
inches is the Cuttack fall of rain; on the east, 90 to 120 at
Noacolly and Chittagong, and 200 at Arracan. The east coast is
annually visited by earthquakes, which are rare on the west; and
lastly, the majority of the great trees and shrubs carried down
from the Cuttack and Orissa forests, and deposited on the west
coast of the delta, are not only different in species, but in natural
order, from those that the Fenny and Chittagong rivers bring
down from the Eastern jungles.¹
We were glad to find at Noacolly that our observations on the
progression westwards of the Burrampooter (see p. 472) were
confirmed by the fact that the Megna also is gradually moving in
that direction, leaving much dry land on the Noacolly side, and
islands opposite that coast; whilst it encroaches on the Sunder-
bunds, and is cutting away the islands in that direction. This
advance of the fresh waters amongst the Sunderbunds is destruc-
tive to the vegetation of the latter, which requires salt; and if
the Megna continues its slow course westwards, the obliteration of
thousands of square miles of a very peculiar flora, and the ex-
tinction of many species of plants and animals that exist nowhere
else, may ensue. In ordinary cases these plants, &c., would take
up their abode on the east coast, as they were driven from the
west; but such might not be the case in this delta; for the
sweeping tides of the east coast prevent any such vegetation
establishing itself there, and the mud which the eastern rivers
carry down, becomes a caking dry soil, unsuited to the germina
tion of seeds.
On our arrival at Calcutta in the following February, Dr.
Falconer showed us specimens of very modern peat, dug out of
the banks of the Hoogly a few feet below the surface of the soil,
in which were seeds of the Euryale ferox: 2 this plant is not now
The Cuttack forests are composed of teak, Sal, Sissoo, ebony, Pentaptera,
Buchanania, and other trees of a dry soil, and that require a dry season alter-
nating with a wet one. These are unknown in the Chittagong forests, which
have Jarool (Lagerstræmia) Mesua, Dipterocarpi, nutmegs, oaks of several
kinds, and many other trees not known in the Cuttack forests, and all typical
of a perennially humid atmosphere.
This peat Dr. Falconer also found to contain bones of birds and fish, seeds
534
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
known to be found nearer than Dacca (sixty miles north-east, see
p. 473), and indicates a very different state of the surface at
Calcutta at the date of its deposition than that which exists now,
and also shows that the estuary was then much fresher.
The main land of Noacolly is gradually extending seawards,
and has advanced four miles within twenty-three years: this seems
sufficiently accounted for by the recession of the Megna. The
elevation of the surface of the land is caused by the overwhelming
tides and south-west hurricanes in May and October: these ex-
tend thirty miles north and south of Chittagong, and carry the
waters of the Megna and Fenny back over the land, in a series of
tremendous waves, that cover islands of many hundred acres, and
roll three miles on to the main land. On these occasions, the
average earthly deposit of silt, separated by micaceous sand, is an
eight of an inch for every tide; but in October, 1848, these tides
covered Sundeep island, deposited six inches on its level surface,
and filled ditches several feet deep. These deposits become
baked by a tropical sun, and resist to a considerable degree denu-
dation by rain. Whether any further rise is caused by elevation
from below is doubtful; there is no direct evidence of it, though
slight earthquakes annually occur; and even when they have not
been felt, the water of tanks has been seen to oscillate for three-
quarters of an hour without intermission, from no discernible
cause.I
Noacolly is considered a healthy spot, which is not the case with
the Sunderbund stations west of the Megna. The climate is
uniformly hot, but the thermometer never rises above 90,° nor
sinks below 45°; at this temperature hoar-frost will form on straw,
and ice on water placed in porous pans, indicating a powerful
radiation.2
of Cucumis Madraspatana and other Cucurbitaceous plants, leaves of Saccha-
rum Sara and Ficus cordifolia. Specks of some glistening substance were
scattered through the mass, apparently incipient carbonisation of the peat.
The natives are familiar with this phenomenon, of which Dr. Baker re-
members two instances, one in the cold season of 1834-5, the other in that of
1830-1. The earthquakes do not affect any particular month, nor are they
accompanied by any meteorological phenomena.
2 The winds are north-west and north in the cold season (from November to
March), drawing round to west in the afternoons. North-west winds and
heavy hailstorms are frequent from March to May, when violent gales set in
from the southward. The rains commence in June, with easterly and southerly
winds, and the temperature from 82° to 84°; May and October are the hottest
months. The rains cease in the end of October (on the 8th of November in
1849, and 12th of November in 1850, the latest epoch ever remembered):
there is no land or sea breeze along any part of the coast. During our stay
BOATING IN THE DELTA OF THE MEGNA.
535
We left Noacolly on the 19th for Chittagong; the state of the
tide obliging us to go on board in the night. The distance is only
100 miles, but the passage is considered dangerous at this time
(during the spring-tides) and we were therefore provided with a
large vessel and an experienced crew. The great object in this
navigation is to keep afloat and to make progress towards the top
of the tide and during its flood, and to ground during the ebb in
creeks where the bore (tidal wave) is not violent; for where the
channels are broad and open, the height and force of this wave
rolls the largest coasting craft over and swamps them.
Our boatmen pushed out at 3 in the morning, and brought up
at 5, in a narrow muddy creek on the island of Sidhee. The
waters retired along channels scooped several fathoms deep in
black mud, leaving our vessel aground six or seven feet below the
top of the bank, and soon afterwards there was no water to be
seen; as far as the eye could reach, all was a glistening oozy mud,
except the bleak level surfaces of the islands, on which neither
shrub nor tree grew. Soon after 2 P.M. a white line was seen on
the low black horizon, which was the tide-wave, advancing at the
rate of five miles an hour, with a hollow roar; it bore back the
mud that was gradually slipping along the gentle slope, and we
were afloat an hour after: at night we grounded again, opposite
the mouth of the Fenny.
By moonlight the scene was oppressively solemn : on all sides
the gurgling waters kept up a peculiar sound that filled the air
with sullen murmurs; the moonbeams slept upon the slimy sur-
face of the mud, and made the dismal landscape more ghastly
still. Silence followed the ebb, broken occasionally by the wild
whistle of a bird like the curlew, of which a few wheeled through
the air till the harsh roar of the bore was heard, to which the
sailors seemed to waken by instinct. The waters then closed in
on every side, and the far end of the reflected moonbeam was
broken into flashing light, that approached and soon danced
beside the boat.
We much regretted not being able to abtain any more accurate
data than I have given, as to the height of the tide at the mouth
of the Fenny; but where the ebb sometimes retires twenty miles
from high-water mark, it is obviously impossible to plant any tide-
gauge.
On the 21st we were ashore at daylight on the Chittagong
coast far north of the station, and were greeted by the sight of
we found the mean temperature for twelve observations to be precisely that of
Calcutta, but the humidity was more, and the pressure o‘040 lower.
536
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
hills on the horizon: we were lying fully twenty feet below high-
water mark, and the tide was out for several miles to the west-
ward. The bank was covered with flocks of white geese feeding
on short grass, upon what appeared to be detached islets on the
surface of the mud. These islets, which are often an acre in ex-
tent, are composed of stratified mud; they have perpendicular
sides several feet high, and convex surfaces, owing to the tide
washing away the earth from under their sides; and they were
further slipping seawards, along the gently sloping mud-beach,
Few or no shells or seaweed were to be seen, nor is it possible to
imagine a more lifeless sea than these muddy coasts present.
We were three days and nights on this short voyage, without
losing sight of mud or land. I observed the barometer whenever
the boat was on shore, and found the mean of six readings (all
reduced to the same level) to be identical with that at Calcutta.
These being all taken at elevations lower than that of the Calcutta
observatory, show either a diminished atmospheric pressure, or
that the mean level of high-water is not the same on the east and
west coasts of the Ray of Bengal: this is quite possible, consi-
dering the widely different direction of the tides and currents on
each, and that the waters may be banked up, as it were, in the
narrow channels of the western Sunderbunds. The temperature
of the air was the same as at Calcutta, but the atmosphere was
damper. The water was always a degree warmer than the air.
We arrived at Chittagong on the 23rd of December, and
became the guests of Mr. Sconce, Judge of the district, and of
Mr. Lautour; to both of whom we were greatly indebted for their
hospitality and generous assistance in every way.
Chittagong is a large town of Mahometans and Mugs, a Birmese
tribe who inhabit many parts of the Malay peninsula, and the
coast northward of it. The town stands on the north shore of an
extensive delta, formed by rivers from the lofty mountains sepa-
rating this district from Birma. These mountains are fine objects
on the horizon, rising 4,000 to 8,000 feet; they are forest-clad,
and inhabited by turbulent races, who are coterminous with the
Cookies of the Cachar and Tipperah forests; if indeed they be
not the same people. The mountains abound with the splendid
timber-trees of the Cachar forests, but like these are said to want
teak, Sal, and Sissoo; they have, besides many others, magnifi-
cent Gurjun trees (Dipterocarpi), the monarchs of the forests of
these coasts.
The natives of Chittagong are excellent shipbuilders and active
traders, and export much rice and timber to Madras and Calcutta.
CHITTAGONG.
537
The town is large and beautifully situated, interspersed with trees
and tanks; the hills resemble those of Silhet, and are covered
with a similar vegetation: on these the European houses are
built. The climate is very healthy, which is not remarkable,
considering how closely it approximates in character to that of
Silhet, and other places in Eastern Bengal, but very extraordinary,
if it be compared with Arracan, only 200 miles further south,
which is extremely unhealthy. The prominent difference between
the physical features of Chittagong and Arracan, is the presence
of mangrove swamps at the latter place, for which the water is
too fresh at the former.
The hills about the station are more than 150 or 200 feet high,
and are formed of stratified gravel, sand, and clay, that often
becomes nodular, and is interstratified with slag-like iron clay.
Fossil wood is found; and some of the old buildings about
Chittagong contain nummulitic limestone, probably imported
from Silhet or the peninsula of India, with which countries there
is no such trade now. The views are beautiful, of the blue
mountains forty to fifty miles distant, and the many-armed river,
covered with sails, winding amongst groves of cocoa-nuts, Areca
palm, and yellow rice fields. Good European houses surmount
all the eminences, surrounded by trees of Acacia and Casalpinia.
In the hollows are native huts amidst vegetation of every hue,
glossy green Garcinia and figs, broad plantains, feathery Cassia
and Acacias, dark Mesua, red-purple Teminalia, leafless scarlet-
flowered Bombax, and grey Casuarina. Seaward the tide leaves
immense flats, call churs, which stretch for many miles on either
side the offing.
We accompanied Mr. Sconce to a bungalow which he has
built at the telegraph station at the south head of the harbour :
its situation, on a hill 100 feet above the sea, is exposed, and at
this season the sea-breeze was invigorating, and even cold, as it
blew through the matting of the bungalow. To the south, un-
dulating dunes stretch along the coast, covered with low bushes,
of which a red-flowered Melastoma is the most prevalent,3 and is
This, which is almost exclusively an Australian genus, is not indigenous at
Chittagong to it belongs an extra-Australian species common in the Malay
islands, and found wild as far north as Arracan.
D
2 The mean temperature of the two days (29th and 30th) we spent at this
bungalow was 66° 5, that of Calcutta being 6706; the air was damp, and the
barometer O'144 lower at the flagstaff hill, but it fell and rose with the
Calcutta instrument.
3 Melastoma, jasmine, Calamus, Egle Marmelos, Adelia, Memecylon, Ixora
$
¿
538
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
#
{
considered a species of Rhododendron by many of the residents!
The flats along the beach are several miles broad, intersected
with tidal creeks, and covered with short grass, while below high-
water mark all is mud, coated with green Conferva. There are
no leafy seaweeds or mangroves, nor any seaside shrub but Dili-
varia ilicifolia. Animal life is extremely rare; and a Cardium-
like shell and small crab are found sparingly.
Coffee has been cultivated at Chittagong with great success;
it is said to have been introduced by Sir W. Jones, and Mr.
Sconce has a small plantation, from which his table is well sup-
plied. Both Assam and Chinese teas flourish, but Chinamen
are wanted to cure the leaves. Black pepper succeeds admirably,
as do cinnamon, arrowroot, and ginger.
Early in January we accompanied Mr. Lautour on an excursion
to the north, following a valley separated from the coast by a
range of wooded hills, 1,000 feet high. For several marches the
bottom of this valley was broad, flat, and full of villages. At
Sidhee, about twenty-five miles from Chittagong, it contracts,
and spurs from the hills on either flank project into the middle :
they are 200 to 300 feet high, formed of red clay, and covered
with brushwood. At Kajee-ke-hath, the most northern point
we reached, we were quite amongst these hills, in an extremely
picturesque country, intersected by long winding flat valleys, that
join one another; some are full of copse-wood, while others
present the most beautiful park-like scenery, and a third-class ex-
pand into grassy marshes or lake-beds, with wooded islets rising
out of them. The hill-sides are clothed with low jungle, above
which tower magnificent Gurjun trees (wood-oil). The whole
contour of this country is that of a low bay, whose coast is raised
above the sea, and over which a high tide once swept for ages.
The elevation of Hazari-ke-hath is not 100 feet above the level
of the sea.
It is about ten miles west of the mouth of the
Fenny, from which it is separated by hills 1,000 feet high; its
river falls into that at Chittagong, thirty miles south. Large
myrtaceous trees (Eugenia) are common, and show a tendency to
the Malayan flora, which is further demonstrated by the abun-
dance of Gurjun (Dipterocarpus turbinatus). This is the most
superb tree we met with in the Indian Forests: we saw several
species, but this is the only common one here; it is conspicuous
for its gigantic size, and for the straightness and graceful form of
its tall unbranched pale grey trunk, and small symmetrical
Linostoma, Congea, climbing Casalpinia, and many other plants; and along
heir bases large trees of Amoora, Gaurea, figs, Mesua, and Micromelon,

WOOD OIL TREES.
539
crown.
Many individuals were upwards of 200 feet high, and
fifteen in girth. Its leaves are broad, glossy, and beautiful; the
flowers (then falling) are not conspicuous; the wood is hard,
close-grained, and durable, and a fragrant oil exudes from the
trunk, which is extremely valuable as pitch and varnish, &c.,
Littl
GURJUN TREE.
besides being a good medicine. The natives procure it by
cutting transverse holes in the trunk, pointing downwards, and
lighting fires in them, which causes the oil to flow.¹
The other trees of these dry forests are many oaks, Henslowia, Gordonia,
Engelhardtia, Duabanga, Adelai, Byttneria, Bradleia, and large trees of
Pongamia, whose seeds yield a useful oil,
540
HIMALAYAN *
HIMALA
JOURNALS.
On the 8th of January we experienced a sharp earthquake,
preceded by a dull thumping sound; it lasted about twenty
seconds, and seemed to come up from the southward; the water
of a tank by which we were seated was smartly agitated. The
same shock was felt at Mymensing and at Dacca, 110 miles north-
west of this.*
We crossed the dividing ridge of the littoral range on the 9th,
and descended to Seetakoond bungalow, on the high road from
Chittagong to Comilla. The forests at the foot of the range were
very extensive, and swarmed with large red ants that proved very
irritating they build immense pendulous nests of dead and
living leaves at the end of the branches of trees, and mat them
with a white web. Tigers, leopards, wild dogs, and boars, are
numerous; as are snipes, pheasants, peacocks, and jungle-fowl,
the latter waking the morn with their shrill crows; and in strange
association with them, the common English woodcock is occasion-
ally found.
2
The trees are of little value, except the Gurjun, and
"Kistooma," a species of Bradleia, which was stacked extensively,
being used for building purposes. The papaw is abundantly
cultivated, and its great gourd-like fruit is eaten (called "Papita
or "Chinaman"); the flavour is that of a bad lemon, and a
white juice exudes from the rind. The Hodgsonia heteroclita
(Trichosanthes of Roxburgh), a magnificent Cucurbitaceous
climber, grows in these forests; it is the same species as the
Sikkim one (see p. 292). The long stem bleeds copiously when
cut, and like almost all woody climbers, is full of large vessels;
the juice does not, however, exude from these great tubes, which
hold air, but from the close woody fibres. A climbing
Apocyneous plant grows in these forests, the milk of which flows
in a continuous stream, resembling caoutchouc (it is probably
the Urceola elastica, which yields India-rubber).
I
>>
The subject of plants bleeding is involved in obscurity, and the
systematic examination of the motions in the juices of tropical
climbers by resident observers, offers a fertile field to the
naturalist. I have often remarked that if a climbing stem, in
Earthquakes are extremely common, and sometimes violent, at
Chittagong, and doubtless belong to the volcanic forces of the Malayan penin-
sula.
2 The Papaw tree is said to have the curious property of rendering tough
meat tender, when hung under its leaves, or touched with the juice; this.
hastening the process of decay. With this fact, well-known in the West
Indies, I never found a person in the East acquainted,
·
SEETAKOOND:
541
which the circulation is vigorous, be cut across, it bleeds freely
from both ends, and most copiously from the lower, if it be
turned downwards; but that if a truncheon be severed, there may
be no flow from either of its extremities. This is the case with
all the Indian watery-juiced climbers, at whatever season they
may be cut. When, however, the circulation in the plant is feeble,
neither end of a simple cut will bleed much, but if a truncheon
be taken from it, both the extremities will.
The ascent of the hills, which are densely wooded, was along
spurs, and over knolls of clay; the rocks were sandy and slaty
(dip north-east 60°). The road was good, but always through
bamboo jungle, and it wound amongst the low spurs, so that there
was no defined crest or top of the pass, which is about 800 feet
high. There were no tall palms, tree-ferns, or plantains, nơ
Hymenophylla or Lycopodia, and altogether the forest was smaller
and poorer in plants than we had expected. The only palms
(except a few rattans) were two kinds of Wallichia.
From the summit we obtained a very extensive and singular
view. At our feet was a broad, low, grassy, alluvial plain, inter-
sected by creeks, bounding a black expanse of mud which (the
tide being out) appeared to stretch almost continuously to Sun.
deep Island, thirty miles distant; while beyond, the blue hills of
Tipperah rose on the north-west horizon. The rocks yielded a
dry poor soil, on which grew dwarf Phoenix and cycas-palm (Cycas
circinalis or pectinata).
Descending, we rode several miles along an excellent road, that
runs to Tipperah, and stopped at the bungalow of Seetakoond,
twenty-five miles north of Chittagong. The west flank of the
range which we had crossed is much steeper than the east, often
precipitous, and presents the appearance of a sea-worn cliff
towards the Bay of Bengal. Near Seetakoond (which is on the
plain) a hill on the range, bearing the same name, rises 1,136 feet
high, and being damper and more luxuriantly wooded, we were
anxious to explore it, and therefore spent some days at the
bungalow. Fields of poppy and sun (Crotalaria juncea) formed
most beautiful crops; the latter grows from four to six feet high,
and bears masses of laburnum-like flowers, while the poppy fields
resembled a carpet of dark-green velvet, sprinkled with white
stars; or, as I have elsewhere remarked, a green lake studded
with water-lilies.
The road to the top of Seetakoond leads along a most beautiful
valley, and then winds up a cliff that is in many places almost
precipitous, the ascent being partly by steps cut in the rock, of
§42
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
which there are 560. The mountain is very sacred, and there is
a large Brahmin temple on its flank; and near the base a per-
petual flame bursts out of the rock. This we were anxious to
examine, and were extremely disappointed to find it a small
vertical hole in a slaty rock, with a lateral one below for a draught,
and that it is daily supplied by pious pilgrims and Brahinins with
such enormous quantities of ghee (liquid butter), that it is to all
intents and purposes an artificial lamp; no trace of natural phe-
nomena being discoverable.
On the dry but wooded west face of the mountain, grows
Falconeria, a curious Euphorbiaceous tree, with an acrid milky
juice that affects the eyes when the wood is cut. Beautiful Cycas
palms are also common, with Terminalia, Bignonia, Sterculia,
dwarf Phoenix palm, and Gurjun trees. The east slope of the
mountain is damper, and much more densely wooded; we there
found two wild species of nutmeg trees, whose wood is full of a
brown acrid dil, seven palms, tree-ferns, and many other kinds of
ferns; several kinds of oak, Dracana, and figs. The top is 1,136
feet above the sea, and commands an extensive view to all points
of the compass; but the forests, in which the ashy bark of the
Gurjun trees is conspicuous, and the beautiful valley on the west,
are the only attractive features.
The weather on the east side of the range differs at this season
remarkably from that on the west, where the vicinity of the sea
keeps the atmosphere more humid and warm, and at the same
time prevents the formation of the dense fogs that hang over the
valleys to the eastward every morning at sunrise. We found
the mean temperature at the bungalow, from January 9th till the
13th, to be 70° 2,
at
We embarked again at Chittagong on the 16th of January,
IO P.M., for Calcutta, in a very large vessel, rowed by twelve men:
we made wretchedly slow progress, for the reasons mentioned
above (p. 535), being for four days within sight of Chittagong !
On the 20th we only reached Sidhee, and thence made a stretch
to Hattiah, an island which may be said to be moving bodily to
the westward, the Megna annually cutting many acres from the
east side, and the tide-wave depositing mud on the west. The
surface is flat, and raised four feet above mean high-water level;
the tide rises about 14 feet up the bank, and then retires for
miles; the total rise and fall is, however, much less here than in
the Fenny, higher up the gulf. The turf is composed of Cynodon
and a Fimbristylis; and the earth being impregnated with - salt,
supports different kinds of Chenopodium. Two kinds of tamarisk,
THE SUNDERBUNDS.
543
and a thorny Cassia and Exacaria, are the only shrubs on the.
eastern islands; on the central ones
on the central ones a few dwarf mangroves
appear, with the holly-leaved Dilivaria, dwarf screw-pine (Pan-
danus), a shrub of Composite, and a curious fern, a variety of
Acrostichum aureum. Towards the northern end of Hattiah, Tali-
pot, cocoa-nut and date-palms appear.
On the 22nd we entered the Sunderbunds, rowing amongst
narrow channels, where the tide rises but a few feet. The banks
were covered with a luxuriant vegetation, chiefly of small trees,
above which rose stately palms. On the 25th, we were overtaken
by a steamer from Assam, a novel sight to us, and a very strange
one in these creeks, which in some places seemed hardly broad
enough for it to pass through. We jumped on board in haste,
leaving our boat and luggage to follow us. She had left Dacca
two days before, and this being the dry season, the route to
Calcutta, which is but sixty miles in a straight line, involved a
détour of three hundred.
·
From the masts of the steamer we obtained an excellent coup-
d'ail of the Sunderbunds; its swamps clothed with verdure, and
intersected by innumerable inosculating channels, with banks a
foot or so high. The amount of tide, which never exceeds ten
feet, diminishes in proceeding westwards into the heart of these
swamps, and the epoch, direction, and duration of the ebb and
flow vary so much in every canal, that at times, after stemming a
powerful current, we found ourselves, without materially changing
our course, suddenly swept along with a favouring stream. This
is owing to the complex ramifications of the creeks, the flow of
whose waters is materially influenced by the most trifling accidents
of direction.
Receding from the Megna, the water became salter, and Nipa
fruticans (see p. 1) appeared, throwing up pale yellow-green tufts of
feathery leaves, from a short thick creeping stem, and bearing at the
base of the leaves its great head of nuts, of which millions were float-
ing on the waters, and vegetating in the mud. Marks of tigers are
very frequent, and the footprints of deer, wild boars, and enor-
mous crocodiles: these reptiles were extremely common, and
glided down the mud banks on the approach of the steamer,
leaving between the footmarks a deep groove in the mud made
by their tail. The Phenix paludosa, a dwarf slender-stemmed
date-palm, from six to eight feet high, is the all-prevalent feature,
covering the whole landscape with a carpet of feathery fronds of
the liveliest green. The species is eminently gregarious, more so
than any other Indian palm, and presents so dense a mass of
$44
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.
foliage, that when seen from above, the stems are wholly
hidden.¹
The water is very turbid, and only ten to twenty feet deep,
which, we were assured by the captain, was not increased during
the rains it is loaded with vegetable matter, but the banks are
always muddy, and we never saw any peat. Dense fogs prevented
our progress in the morning, and we always anchored at dusk.
We did not see a village or house in the heart of the Sunderbunds
(though such do occur), but we saw canoes, with fishermen, who
use the tame otter in fishing; and the banks were covered with
piles' of firewood, stacked for the Calcutta market. As we
approached the Hoogly, the water became very salt and clear;
the Nipa fruits were still most abundant, floating out to sea, but
no more of the plant itself was seen. As the channels became
broader, sand-flats appeared, with old salt factories, and clumps.
of planted Casuarina.
On the 28th of January we passed Saugor island, and entered
the Hoogly, steamed past Diamond Harbour, and landed at
the Botanic Garden Ghat, when we received a hearty welcome
from Dr. Falconer. Ten days later we bade farewell to India,
reaching England on the 25th of March, 1851
¹ Sonneratia, Heritiera littoralis, and Careya, form small gnarled trees on
the banks, with deep shining green-leaved species of Carallia, Rhizophora, and
other Mangroves. Occasionally the gigantic reed-mace (Typha elephantina)
is seen, and tufts of tall reeds (Arundo).
APPENDIX.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SIKKIM HIMALAYA, EAST NEPAL,
AND ADJACENT PROVINCES OF TIBET.
SIKKIM is included in a section of the Himalaya, about sixty miles
broad from east to west, where it is bounded respectively by the
mountain states of Bhotan and Nepal. Its southern limits are easily
defined, for the mountains rise abruptly from the plains of Bengal,
as spurs of 6,000 to 10,000 feet high, densely clothed with forest
to their summits. The northern and north-eastern frontier of
Sikkim is beyond the region of much rain, and is not a natural, but
a political line, drawn between that country and Tibet. Sikkim
lies nearly due north of Calcutta, and only four hundred miles
from the Bay of Bengal; its latitude being 26° 40' to 28° N., and
longitude 88° to 89° E.
The main features of Sikkim are Kinchinjunga, the loftiest
hitherto measured mountain, which lies to its north-west, and rises
28,178 feet above the level of the sea; and the Teesta river, which
flows throughout the length of the country, and has a course of
upwards of ninety miles in a straight line. Almost all the sources
of the Teesta are included in Sikkim; and except some compara-
tively insignificant streams draining the outermost ranges, there
are no rivers in this country but itself and its feeders, which
occupy the largest of the Himalayan valleys between the Tambur
in East Nepal, and the Machoo in Western Bhotan.
An immense spur, sixty miles long, stretches south from Kinchin
to the plains of India; it is called Singalelah, and separates Sikkim
from East Nepal; the waters from its west flank flow into the
Tambur, and those from the east into the Great Rungeet, a feeder
of the Teesta. Between these two latter rivers is a second spur
from Kinchinjunga, terminating in Tendong.
The eastern boundary of Sikkim, separating it from Bhotan, is
36
546
APPENDIX.
formed for the greater part by the Chola range, which stretches
south from the immense mountain of Donkia, 23,176 feet high,
situated fifty miles E.N.E. of Kinchinjunga where the frontier
approaches the plains of India, the boundary line follows the
course of the Teesta, and of the Rinkpo, one of its feeders,
flowing from the Chola range. This range is much more lofty
than that of Singalelah, and the drainage from its eastern flank is
into the Machoo river, the upper part of whose course is in
Tibet, and the lower in Bhotan.
The Donkia mountain, though 4,000 feet lower than Kinchin,
is the culminant point of a much more extensive and elevated
mountain mass. It throws off an immense spur from its north-
west face, which runs west, and then south-west, to Kinchin,
forming the watershed of all the remote sources of the Teesta.
This spur has a mean elevation of 18,000 to 19,000 feet, and
several of its peaks (of which Chomiomo is one) rise much
higher. The northern boundary of Sikkim is not drawn along
this, but runs due west from Donkia, following a shorter, but
stupendous spur, called Kinchinjhow; whence it crosses the
Teesta to Chomiomo, and is continued onwards to Kinchin-
junga.
Though the great spur connecting Donkia with Kinchin is in
Tibet, and bounds the waters that flow directly south into the
Teesta, it is far from the true Himalayan axis, for the rivers
that rise on its northern slope do not run into the valley of
the Tsampu, or Tibetan Burrampooter, but into the Arun of
Nepal, which rises to the north of Donkia, and flows south-
west for many miles in Tibet, before entering Nepal and flowing
south to the Ganges.
Sikkim, thus circumscribed, consists of a mass of mountainous
spurs, forest-clad up to 12,000 feet; there are no flat valleys or
plains in the whole country, no lakes or precipices of any con-
sequence below that elevation, and few or no bare slopes, though
the latter are uniformly steep. The aspect of Sikkim can only
be understood by a reference to its climate and vegetation, and I
shall therefore take these together, and endeavour, by connecting
these phenomena, to give an intelligible view of the main features
of the whole country.¹
The greater part of the country between Sikkim and the sea is
a dead level, occupied by the delta of the Ganges and Bur-
ܪ܂
This I did with reference especially to the cultivation of Rhododendrons,
In a paper which the Horticultural Society of London did me the honour of
printing. Quarterly Journ. of Hort. Soc., vol. vii. p. 82.
ܕ
+
APPENDIX.
547
rampooter, above which the slope is so gradual to the base of the
mountains, that the surface of the plain from which the Himalayas
immediately rise is only 300 feet above the sea. The most
obvious effect of this position is, that the prevailing southerly
wind reaches the first range of hills, loaded with vapour. The
same current, when deflected easterly to Bhotan, or westerly to
Nepal and the north-west Himalaya, is intercepted and drained
of much moisture, by the Khasia and Garrow mountains (south of
Assam and by the Burrampooter) in the former case, and by the
Rajmahal hills (south of the Ganges) in the latter. Sikkim is
hence the dampest region of the whole Himalaya.
Viewed from a distance on the plains of India, Sikkim presents
the appearance—common to all mountainous countries of con-
secutive parallel ridges, running east and west: these are all
wooded, and backed by a beautiful range of snowy peaks, with
occasional breaks in the foremost ranges, through which the
rivers debouch. Any view of the Himalaya, especially at a
sufficient distance for the remote snowy peaks to be seen over-
topping the outer ridges, is, however, rare, from the constant
deposition of vapours over the forest-clad ranges during the
greater part of the year, and the haziness of the dry atmosphere
of the plains in the winter months. At the end of the rains, when
the south-east monsoon has ceased to blow with constancy, views
are obtained, sometimes from a distance of nearly two hundred
miles. From the plains, the highest peaks subtend so small an
angle, that they appear like white specks very low on the
horizon, tipping the black lower and outer wooden ranges,
which always rise out of a belt of haze, and from the density,
probably, of the lower strata of atmosphere, are never seen to
rest on the visible horizon. The remarkable lowness on the
horizon of the whole stupendous mass is always a disappointing
feature to the new comer, who expects to see dazzling peaks
towering in the air. Approaching nearer, the snowy mountains
sink behind the wooded ones, long before the latter have assumed
gigantic proportions; and when they do so, they appear a sombre,
lurid grey-green mass of vegetation, with no brightness or variation
of colour. There is no break in this forest caused by rock,
precipices, or cultivation; some spurs project nearer, and some
valleys appear to retire further into the heart of the foremost
great chain that shuts out all the country beyond.
From Darjeeling the appearance of parallel ridges is found to
be deceptive, and due to the inosculating spurs of long tortuous
ranges that run north and south throughout the whole length of
548
APPENDIX.
Sikkim, dividing deep wooded valleys, which form the beds of
large rivers. The snowy peaks here look like a long east and
west range of mountains, at an average distance of thirty or forty
iniles. Advancing into the country, this appearance proves
equally deceptive, and the snowy range is resolved into isolated
peaks, situated on the meridional ridges: their snow-clad spurs,
projecting east and west, cross one another, and being uniformly
white, appear to connect the peaks into one grand unbroken
range. The rivers, instead of having their origin in the snowy.
mountains, rise far beyond them; many of their sources are
upwards of one hundred miles in a straight line from the plains,
in a very curious country, loftier by far in mean elevation than
the meridional ridges which run south from it, yet comparatively
bare of snow: This rearward part of the mountain region is
Tibet, where all the Sikkim, Nepal, and Bhotan rivers rise as
small streams, increasing in size as they receive the drainage from
the snowed parts of the ridges that bound them in their courses.
Their banks, between 8,000 and 14,000 feet, are generally clothed
with rhododendrons, sometimes to the almost total exclusion of
other wooded vegetation, especially near the snowy mountain—a
cool temperature and great humidity being the most favourable
conditions for the luxuriant growth of this genus.
The source of this humidity is the southerly or sea wind which
blows steadily from May to October in Sikkim, and prevails
throughout the rest of the year, if not as the monsoon properly
so called, as a current from the moist atmosphere above the
Gangetic delta. This rushes north to the rarefied regions of
Sikkim, up the great valleys, and does not appear materially dis-
turbed by the north-west wind, which blows during the afternoon
of the winter months over the plains, and along the flanks of the
outer range, and is a dry surface current, due to the diurnal heating
of the soil. When it is considered that this wind, after passing
lofty mountains on the outer range, has to traverse eighty or one
hundred miles of alps before it has watered all the forest region,
it will be evident that its moisture must be expended before it
reaches Tibet.
Let the figures in the accompanying woodcut, the one on the
true scale, the other with the heights exaggerated, represent two
of these long meridional ridges, from the watershed to the plains.
of India, following in this instance the course of the Teesta river,
from its source at 19,000 feet to where it debouches from the
Himalaya at 300. The lower rugged outline represents one
meridional ridge, with all its most prominent peaks (whether
NORTH.
Section of the Sikkim Himalaya along the course of the Teesta River, from its source in Tibet to the Plains
of India (about 120 miles).-True Scale.
SOUTH.
The same on a Scale in which the Heights are three times greater than on the True Scale.
KiDeniDjunga
Valley of
Arun River
Chomiomo,
V 81 82
Y000 &
Perpetual Snow,
shaded.
P
TELITA RIVLA
D
Tonglo, 10 000 1
AU
TLESTA
2


A+VER
TECSTA
Kiang-lah Mountains. Watershed,
N. to Yaru, 22,000 ft.
Head-streams of Arun River,
which flows to Nepal.
Ditto, ditto.
Bhomtso Mountain; 18,500 ft.
Cholamoo Lake, source of Teesta;
17,500 ft.
Kinchinjhow; 21,000 ſt,

Bed of Teesta; 11,500 ft,
Tukcham; 18,000 ft.
Bed of Teesta; 4,500 ft.
Mountain; 12,000 ft.
Mainom; 11,000 ft.
Tendong; 8,500 ft.
Bed of Teesta; 800 ft.
Darjeeling; 7,000 ft.
Sinchul; 8,600 ft.
Plains of India; 390 ft,
550
APPENDIX.
exactly or not on the line of section); the upper represents the
parallel ridge of Singalelah (D.E.P.), of greater mean elevation,
further west, introduced to show the maximum elevation of the
Sikkim mountains, Kinchinjunga (28,178 feet), being represented
on it. A deep valley is interposed between these two ridges, with
a feeder of the Teesta in it (the Great Rungeet), which runs south
from Kinchin, and turning west enters the Teesta at R. The
position of the bed of the Teesta river is indicated by a dotted
line from its source at T to the plains at S; of Darjeeling, on the
north flank of the outer range, by d; of the first point where
perpetual snow is met with, by P; and of the first indications of
a Tibetan climate by C.
A warm current of air, loaded with vapour, will deposit the
bulk of its moisture on the ridge of Sinchul, which rises above
Darjeeling (d), and is 8,500 feet high. Passing on, little will be
precipitated on e, whose elevation is the same as that of Sinchul ;
but much at ƒ (11,000 feet), where the current, being further
cooled, has less capacity for holding vapour, and is further
exhausted. When it ascends to P (15,000 feet) it is sufficiently
cooled to deposit snow in the winter and spring months, more of
which falling than can be melted during the summer, it becomes
perennial. At the top of Kinchin very little falls, and it is
doubtful if the southerly current ever reaches that prodigiously
elevated isolated summit. The amount of surface above 20,000
feet is, however, too limited and broken into isolated peaks to
drain the already nearly exhausted current, whose condensed
vapours roll along in fog beyond the parallel of Kinchin, are dis-
sipated during the day over the arid mountains of Tibet, and
deposited at night on the cooled surface of the earth.
Other phenomena of no less importance than the distribution
of vapour, and more or less depending on it, are the duration and
amount of solar and terrestrial radiation. Towards D the sun is
rarely seen during the rainy season, as well from the constant
presence of nimbi aloft, as from fog on the surface of the ground.
An absence of both light and heat is the result south of the
parallel of Kinchin; and at C low fogs prevail at the same
season, but do not intercept either the same amount of light or
heat; whilst at T there is much sunshine and bright light.
During the night, again, there is no terrestrial radiation between
S and P; the rain either continues to pour-in some months
with increased violence—or the saturated atmosphere is con-
densed into a thick white mist, which hangs over the redundant.
yegetation, A bright starlight night is almost unknown in the
APPENDIX.
551
summer months at 6,000 to 10,000 feet, but is frequent in
December and January, and at intervals between October and
May, when, however, vegetation is little affected by the cold of
nocturnal radiation. In the regions north of Kinchin, starlight
nights are more frequent, and the cold produced by radiation, at
14,000 feet, is often severe towards the end of the rains in
September. Still the amount of clear weather during the night.
is small; the fog clears off for an hour or two at sunset as the
wind falls, but the returning cold north current again chills the
air soon afterwards, and rolling masses of vapour are hence flying
overhead, or sweeping the surface of the earth, throughout the
summer nights. In the Tibetan regions, on the other hand,
bright nights and even sharp frosts prevail throughout the
warmest months.
A
Referring again to the cut, it must be borne in mind that
neither of the two meridional ridges runs in a straight line, but
that they wind or zigzag as all mountain ranges do; that spurs
from each ridge are given off from either flank alternately, and
that the origin of a spur on one side answers to the source of
a river (ie., the head of a valley) on the other. These rivers are
feeders of the main stream, the Teesta, and run at more or less
of an angle to the latter. The spurs from the east flank of one
ridge cross, at their ends, those from the west flank of another;
and thus transverse valleys are formed, presenting many modi-
fications of climate with regard to exposure, temperature, and
humidity.
The routes from the plains of India to the watershed in Tibet
always cross these lateral spurs. The main ridge is too winding
and rugged, and too lofty for habitation throughout the greater
part of its length, while the river-channel is always very winding,
unhealthy for the greater part of the year below 4,000 feet, and
often narrow, gorge-like, and rocky. The villages are always
placed above the unhealthy regions, on the lateral spurs, which
the traveller repeatedly crosses throughout every day's march;
for these spurs give off lesser ones, and these again others of a
third degree, whence the country is cut up into as many spurs,
ridges, and ranges, as there are rills, streams, and rivers amongst
the mountains.
Though the direction of the main atmospheric current is to the
north, it is in reality seldom felt to be so, except the observer be
on the very exposed mountain tops, or watch the motions of the
upper strata of atmosphere. Lower currents of air rush up both
the main and lateral valleys, throughout the day; and from the
552
APPENDIX.
▸
sinuosities in the beds of the rivers, and the generally transverse
directions of their feeders, the current often becomes an east or
west one. In the branch valleys draining to the north the wind
still ascends; it is, in short, an ascending warm, moist current,
whatever course be pursued by the valleys it follows.
The sides of each valley are hence equally supplied with
moisture, though local circumstances render the soil on one or
the other flank more or less humid and favourable to a luxuriant
vegetation: such differences are a drier soil on the north side,
with a too free exposure to the sun at low elevations, where its
rays, however transient, rapidly dry the ground, and where the
rains, though very heavy, are of shorter duration, and where,
owing to the capacity of the heated air for retaining moisture,
day fogs are comparatively rare. In the northern parts of Sikkim,
again, some of the lateral valleys are so placed that the moist
wind strikes the side facing the south, and keeps it very humid,
whilst the returning cold current from the neighbouring Tibetan
mountains impinges against the side facing the north, which is
hence more bare of vegetation. An infinite number of local
peculiarities will suggest themselves to any one conversant with
physical geography, as causing unequal local distribution of light,
heat, and moisture in the different valleys of so irregular a
country; namely, the amount of slope, and its power of retaining
moisture and soil; the composition and hardness of the rocks;
their dip and strike; the protection of some valleys by lofty
snowed ridges; and the free southern exposures of others at
great elevations.
·
The position and elevation of the perpetual snow vary with
是
​I
It appears to me, as I have asserted in the pages of my Journal, that the
limit of perpetual snow is laid down too low in all mountain regions, and that
accumulations in hollows, and the descent of glacial ice, mask the phenomenon
more effectually than is generally allowed. In this work I define the limit, as
is customary, in general terms only, as being that where the accumula-
tions are very great, and whence they are continuous upwards, on gentle slopes.
All perpetual snow, however, becomes ice, and, as such, obeys the laws of
glacial motion, moving as a viscous fluid; whence it follows that the lower
edge of a snow-bed placed on a slope is, in one sense, the termination of a
glacier, and indicates a position below that where all the snow that falls melts.
I am well aware that it is impossible to define the limit required with any
approach to accuracy. Steep and broken surfaces, with favourable exposures
to the sun or moist winds, are bare much above places were snow lies through
out the year; but the occurrence of a gentle slope, free of snow, and covered
with plants, cannot but indicate a point below that of perpetual snow. Such
is the case with the "Jardin " on the Mer de Glace, whose elevation is 9,500
feet, whereas that of perpetual snow is considered by Professor J. Forbes, our
best authority, to be 8,500 feet. Though limited in area, girdled by glaciers,
APPENDIX.
553
those of the individual ranges, and their exposure to the south
wind. The expression that the perpetual snow lies lower and
deeper on the southern slopes of the Himalayan mountains than
on the northern, conveys a false impression. It is better to say
that the snow lies deeper and lower on the southern faces of the
individual mountains and spurs that form the snowy Himalaya.
The axis itself of the chain is generally far north of the position
of the spurs that catch all the snow, and has comparatively
very little snow on it, most of what there is lying upon north
exposures.
A reference to the woodcut will show that the same circum-
stances which affect the distribution of moisture and vegetation,
determine the position, amount, and duration of the snow. The
principal fall will occur, as before shown, where the meridional
range first attains a sufficiently great elevation, and the air becomes
consequently cooled below 32°; this is at a little above 14,000
feet, sporadic falls occurring even in summer at that elevation :
these, however, melt immediately, and the copious winter falls
also are dissipated before June. As the depth of rain-fall di-
minishes in advancing north to the higher parts of the meridional
ranges, so does that of the snow-fall. The permanence of the
snow, again, depends on-1. The depth of the accumulation;
2. The mean temperature of the spot; 3. The melting power of
the sun's rays; 4. The prevalence and strength of evaporating
winds. Now at 14,000 feet, though the accumulation is immense,
the amount melted by the sun's rays is trifling, and there are no
evaporating winds; but the mean temperature is so high, and the
corroding powers of the rain (which falls abundantly throughout
summer) and of the warm and humid ascending currents are so
great, that the snow is not perennial. At 15,500 feet, again, it
presenting a very gentle slope to the east, and screened by surrounding
mountains from a considerable portion of the sun's rays, the Jardin is clear,
for fully three months of the year, of all but sporadic falls of snow, that never
lie long; and so are similar spots placed higher on the neighbouring slopes;
which facts are quite at variance with the supposition that the perpetual snow-
line is below that point in the Mont Blanc Alps. On the Monte Rosa Alps,
again, Dr. Thomson and I gathered plants in flower, above 12,000 feet, on the
steep face of the Weiss-thor Pass, and at 10,938 feet on the top of St..
Théodule; but in the former case the rocks are too steep for any snow to lie,
they are exposed to the south-east, and overhang a gorge 8,000 feet deep, up
which no doubt warm currents ascend; while at St. Théodule the plants
were growing on a slope which, thougn gentle, is black and stony, and exposed
to warm ascending currents, as on the Weiss-thor; and I do not consider
either of these as evidences of the limit of perpetual snow being higher than
their position.
554
APPENDIX.
becomes perennial, and its permanence at this low elevation (at P)
is much favoured by the accumulation and detention of fogs over
the rank vegetation which prevails from S nearly to P; and by the
lofty mountains beyond it, which shield it from the returning dry
currents from the north. In proceeding north all the circum-
stances that tend to the dispersion of the snow increase, whilst
the fall diminishes. At P the deposition is enormous and the
snow-line low-16,000 feet; whilst at T little falls, and the limit
of perpetual snow is 19,000 and 20,000 feet. Hence the anomaly,
that the snow-line ascends in advancing north to the coldest
Himalayan regions. The position of the greatest peaks and of
the greatest mass of perpetual snow being generally assumed as
indicating a ridge and watershed, travellers, arguing from single
mountains alone, on the meridional ridges, have at one time sup-
ported and at another denied the assertion, that the snow lies
longer and deeper on the north than on the south slope of the
Himalayan ridge.
The great accumulation of snow at 15,000 feet, in the parallel
of P, exercises a decided influence on the vegetation. The alpine
rhododendrons hardly reach 14,000 feet in the broad valleys and
round-headed spurs of the mountains of the Tunkra and Chola
passes; whilst the same species ascend to 16,000, and one to
17,000 feet, at T. Beyond the latter point, again, the great
aridity of the climate prevents their growth, and in Tibet there
are generally none even as low as 12,000 and 14,000 feet.
Glaciers, again, descend to 15,000 feet in the tortuous gorges
which immediately debouch from the snows of Kinchinjunga,
but no plants grow on the débris they carry down, nor is there
any sward of grass or herbage at their base, the atmosphere im-
mediately around being chilled by enormous accumulations of
snow, and the summer sun rarely warming the soil. At T, again,
the glaciers do not descend below 16,000 feet, but a greensward
of vegetation creeps up to their bases, dwarf rhododendrons cover
the moraines, and herbs grow on the patches of earth carried down
by the latter, which are thawed by the more frequent sunshine,
and by the radiation of heat from the unsnowed flanks of the
valleys down which these ice-streams pour.
Looking eastward or westward on the map of India, we perceive
that the phenomenon of perpetual snow is regulated by the same
laws. From the longitude of Upper Assam in 95° E to that of
Kashmir in 75° E, the lowest limit of perpetual snow is 15,000 to
16,000 feet, and a shrubby vegetation affects the most humid
localities near it, at 12,000 to 14,000 feet. Receding from the
APPENDIX.
555
plains of India and penetrating the mountains, the climate be-
comes drier, the snow-line rises, and vegetation diminishes,
whether the elevation of the land increases or decreases; plants
reaching 17,000 and 18,000 feet, and the snow-line, 20,000 feet.
To mention extreme cases; the snow-level of Sikkim in 27° 30 is
at 16,000 feet, whereas in latitude 35° 30 Dr. Thomson found the
snow-line 20,000 feet on the mountains near the Karakoram Pass,
and vegetation up to 18,500 feet-features I found to be common
also to Sikkim in latitude 28°.
The Himalaya, north of Nepal, and thence eastward to the
bend of the Yaru-Tsampu (or Tibetan Burrampooter) has for its
geographical limits the plains of India to the south, and the bed
of the Yaru to the north. All between these limits is a mountain
mass, to which Tibet (though so often erroneously called a plain)
forms no exception. The waters from the north side of this chain
flow into the Tsampu, and those from the south side into the
Burrampooter of Assam, and the Ganges. The line, however
tortuous, dividing the heads of these waters, is the watershed, and
the only guide we have to the axis of the Himalaya. This has
never been crossed by Europeans, except by Captain Turner's
embassy in 1798, and Captain Bogle's in 1779, both of which
reached the Yaru river. In the account published by Captain
Turner, the summit of the watershed is not rigorously defined,
and the boundary of Tibet and Bhotan is sometimes erroneously
taken for it; the boundary being at that point a southern spur of
Chumulari.2 Eastwards from the sources of the Tsampu, the
watershed of the Himalaya seems to follow a very winding course,
and to be everywhere to the north of the snowy peaks seen from
the plains of India. It is by a line through these snowy peaks
that the axis of the Himalaya is represented in all our maps;
because they seem from the plains to be situated on an east and
The only true account of the general features of eastern Tibet is to be
found in MM. Huc and Gabet's travels. Their description agrees with Dr.
Thomson's account of western Tibet, and with my experience of the parts to
the North of Sikkim, and the information I everywhere obtained. The so-
called plains are the flat floors of the valleys, and the terraces on the margins
of the rivers, which all flow between stupendous mountains. The term
"maidan," so often applied to Tibet by the natives, implies, not a plain like
that of India, but simply an open, dry, treeless country, in contrast to the
densely wooded wet regions of the snowy Himalaya, south of Tibet.
2 Between Donkia and Chumulari lies Choombí, a portion of Tibet (including
the upper part of the course of the Machoo river) bounded on the east by Bhotan,
and on the west by Sikkim (see p. 366). Turner, when crossing the Simonang
Pass, descended westwards into the valley of the Machoo, and was still on the
Indian watershed,
I
556
APPENDIX.
west ridge, instead of being placed on subsidiary meridional
ridges, as explained above. It is also across or along the sub-
sidiary ridges that the boundary line between the Tibetan
provinces and those of Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhotan, is usually
drawn; because the enormous accumulations of snow form a
more efficient natural barrier than the greater height of the less
snowed central part of the chain beyond them.
Though, however, our maps draw the axis through the snowy
peaks, they also make the rivers to rise beyond the latter, on the
northern slopes as it were, and to flow southwards through gaps
in the axis. Such a feature is only reconcilable with the hypothesis
of the chain being double, as the Cordillera of Peru and Chili is
said to be, geographically, and which in a geological sense it no
doubt is but to the Cordillera the Himalaya offers no parallel.
The results of Dr. Thomson's study of the north-west Himalaya
and Tibet, and my own of the north-east extreme of Sikkim and
Tibet, first gave me an insight into the true structure of this chain.
Donkia mountain is the culminant point of an immensely elevated
mass of mountains, of greater mean height than a similarly exten-
sive area around Kinchinjunga. It comprises Chumulari, and
many other mountains much above 20,000 feet, though none
equal Kinchinjunga, Junnoo, and Kubra. The great lakes of
Ramchoo and Cholamoo are placed on it, and the rivers rising on
it flow in various directions; Painomchoo north-west into the
Yaru; the Arun west to Nepal; the Teesta south-west through
Sikkim; the Machoo south, and the Pachoo south-east, through
Bhotan. All these rivers have their sources far beyond the great
snowed mountains, the Arun most conspicuously of all, flowing
completely at the back or north of Kinchinjunga. Those that
flow southwards, break through no chain, nor do they meet any
contraction as they pass the snowy parts of the mountains which
bound the valleys in which they flow, but are bound by uniform
ranges of lofty mountains, which become more snowy as they
approach the plains of India. The valleys, however, gradually
contract as they descend, being less open in Sikkim and Nepal
than in Tibet, though there bounded by rugged mountains, which
from being so bare of snow and of vegetation, do not give the
same impression of height as the isolated sharper peaks which rise
out of a dense forest, and on which the snow limit is 4,000 or
5,000 feet lower.
•
The fact of the bottom of the river valleys being flatter towards
the watershed, is connected with that of their fall being less rapid
at that part of their course; this is the consequence of the great.
APPENDIX.
If
extent in breadth of the most elevated position of the chain.
we select the Teesta as an example, and measure its fall at three
points of its course, we shall find the results very different. From
its principal source at Lake Cholamoo, it descends from 17,000
to 15,000 feet, with a fall of 60 feet to the mile; frorn 15,000 to
12,000 feet, the fall is 140 feet to the mile; in the third part of
its course it descends from 12,000 to 5,000 feet, with a fall of 160
feet to the mile; and in the lower part the descent is from 5,000
feet to the plains of India at 300 feet, giving a fall of 50 feet to
the mile. There is, however, no marked limit to these divisions;
its valley gradually contracts, and its course gradually becomes
more rapid. It is worthy of notice that the fall is at its maximum
through that part of the valley of which the flanks are the most
loaded with snow; where the old moraines are very conspicuous,
and where the present accumulations from landslips, &c., are the
most extensive.1
557
With reference to Kinchinjunga these facts are of importance,
as showing that mere elevation is in physical geography of
secondary importance. That lofty mountain rises from a spur
of the great range of Donkia, and is quite removed from the
watershed or axis of the Himalaya, the rivers which drain its
northern and southern flanks alike flowing to the Ganges. Were
the Himalaya to be depressed 18,000 feet, Kubra, Junnoo, Pun-
dim, &c., would form a small cluster of rocky islands 1,000 to
7,000 feet high, grouped near Kinchinjunga, itself a cape of
10,000 feet high, which would be connected by a low, narrow
neck, with an extensive and mountainous tract of land to its
north-east; the latter being represented by Donkia. To the
north of Kinchin a deep bay or inlet would occupy the present
valley of the Arun, and would be bounded on the north by the
axis of the Himalaya, which forms a continuous tract of land be-
yond it. Since writing the above, I have seen Professor J.
Forbes's beautiful work on the glaciers of Norway: it fully
justifies a comparison of the Himalaya to Norway, which has
long been a familiar subject of theoretical enquiry with Dr.
Thomson and myself. The deep narrow valleys of Sikkim ad-
mirably represent the Norwegian fiords; the lofty, rugged, snowy
mountains, those more or less submerged islands of the Norwegian
* It is not my intention to discuss here the geological bearings of this
curious question; but I may state that as the humidity of the climate of the
middie region of the river-course tends to increase the fall in a given space,
so I believe the dryness of the climate of the loftier country has the opposite
effect, by preserving those accumulations which have raised the floors of the
valleys and rendered them level.
558
APPENDIX.
coast; the broad rearward watershed, or axis of the chain, with its
lakes, is the same in both, and the Yaru-tsampu occupies the
relative position of the Baltic.
Along the whole chain of the Himalaya east of Kumaon there
are, I have no doubt, a succession of such lofty masses as Donkia,
giving off stupendous spurs such as that on which the Kinchin
forms so conspicuous a feature. In support of this view we find
every river rising far beyond the snowy peaks, which are separated
by continuously unsnowed ranges placed between the great white
masses that these spurs present to the observer from the south.t
From the Khasia mountains (south-east of Sikkim) many of these
groups or spurs were seen by Dr. Thomson and myself, at various
distances (80 to 210 miles); and these groups were between the
courses of the great rivers the Soobansiri, Monass, and Pachoo,
all east of Sikkim. Other masses seen from the Gangetic valley
probably thus mark the relative positions of the Arun, Cosi, Gun-
duk, and Gogra rivers.
Another mass like that of Chumulari and Donkia, is that
around the Mansarowar lakes, so ably surveyed by the brothers
Captains R. and H. Strachey, which is evidently the centre of the
Himalaya. From it the Gogra, Sutlej, Indus, and Yaru rivers
all flow to the Indian side of Asia; and from it spring four chains,
two of which are better known than the others. These are:-1.
The eastern Himalaya, whose axis runs north of Nepal, Sikkim,
and Bhotan, to the bend of the Yaru, the valley of which it divides
from the plains of India. 2. The north-west Himalaya, which
separates the valley of the Indus from the plains of India. Be-
hind these, and probably parallel to them, lie two other chains.
3. The Kouenlun or Karakoram chain, dividing the Indus from
the Yarkand river. 4. The chain north of the Yaru, of which
nothing is known. All the waters from the two first of these
chains flow into the Indian Ocean, as do those from the south
faces of the third and fourth; those from the north side of the
Kouenlun, and of the chain north of the Yaru, flow into the great
valley of Lake Lhop, which may once have been continuous with
the Amoor river.2
For this view of the physical geography of the western Hima-
At p. 129 I have particularly called attention to the fact, that west
of Kinchinjunga there is no continuation of a snowy Himalaya, as it is com-
monly called. So between Donkia and Chumulari there is no perpetual snow,
and the valley of the Machoo is very broad, open, and comparatively flat.
2 The Chinese assert that Lake Lhop once drained into the Hoang-ho; the
statement is curious, and capable of confirmation when central Asia shall have
been explored.
APPENDIX.
559
laya and central Asia, I am indebted to Dr. Thomson. It is
more consonant with nature, and with what we know of the
geography of the country and of the nature of mountain chains,
than that of the illustrious Humboldt, who divides central Asia
by four parallel chains, united by two meridional ones; one at
each extremity of the mountain district. It follows in con-
tinuation and conclusion of our view that the mountain mass of
Pamir or Bolor, between the sources of the Oxus and those of
the Yarkand river, may be regarded as a centre from which spring
the three greatest mountain systems of Asia. These are :—1. A
great chain, which runs in a north-easterly direction as far as
Behring's Straits, separating all the rivers of Siberia from those
which flow into the Pacific Ocean. 2. The Hindoo Koosh, con-
tinued through Persia and Armenia into Taurus. And, 3. The
Muztagh or Karakorum, which probably extends due east into
China, south of the Hoang-ho, but which is broken up north of
Mansarowar into the chains which have been already enumerated.
A.
Abies Brunoniana, 144, 190, 192, 239,
305, 311, 313, 365; Smithiana, 305,
311, 318; Webbiana, 133, 191, 216,
239, 312, 365
Abrus Precatorius (note), 12
Acacia Arabica, 41, 55; Catechu, 22,
35, 277, 278; Serissa, 135
Acarus, 413
INDEX
Aconitum, Himalayan, 365; palmatum,
116; Napellus, 117; variegatum
(note), 364
Acorns, abundance of, 263
Acorus Calamus, 200
Actinolites, 393
Adamia cyanea, 76
Adenanthera pavonina, 524
Egle Marmelos, 18, 341 (note), 12
Agates, 23, 63
Ailurus ochraceus, 365
Akshobya, image of, 227
Alligator, 35, 37; droppings of in river
banks, 470
Alluvium, Gangetic, 61, 266 ·
Alsophila gigantea, 74, 98; (note), 297,
spinulosa (note), 297
Amber used in Sikkim, 428
Ameletia Indica, 271
American plants in Himalaya, 314
Amherstia, 466
Amlah, Sikkim, 427; examination by,
44I
Amulet, Tibetan, 122 ·
Amwee, 514
Andromeda, 303, 314; fastigiata, 240
Andropogon acicularis, 271 ; muricatus,
29
Animals at Tungu, 353
Antelope, 382
Antilope Hodgsoni, 402
Ants' hills, white, 15
Aponogeton, 42
Apoplexy, symptoms of at great eleva-
tions, 416
Apple, crab, 311; wild, 143, 394
Aquilaria Agallocha, 5z4
Aralia used for fodder, 252; pith yield-
ing rice-paper, 252
Ararat, Mount, 290
Areca gracilis, 294; (note), 98
Arenaria rupifraga, 351
Argemone Mexicana, 21
Arisama, 34
Aristolochia saccata, 292
37
Arrat, name of Lepchas, 87
Arrow-root, 64
Artemisia, headache produced by, 302;
Indica (note), 302
Arums, food prepared from, 322; poi-
soning by, 338
Arun river, 156, 376, 391; sources of,
· 408
Asarum, 321
Assam valley, view of, 497
Ass, wild, 412. (See Equus Hemionus
and Kiang.)
Astragalus, used for making paper, 404;
Tibetan (note), 406
Atmosphere, dry, 44; transparency of
379, 409
Atmospheric vapours, strata of, 131,
218
Attar of roses, 54
Aucuba, 86, 314
Aurora Borealis, 26
B.
Baghoda, 18
Baikant-pore, 277
562
INDEX.
AK
Bails, or Thuggee stations, 46
Baisarbatti terrace, 282
Baker, Dr., 532
Balanites, 18
Balanophora, 301, 320; cups made
from, 90; knots caused by, 91
Balasun river, 75, 283
Bamboo, dwarf, 86; eatable grain of,
220; flowering of, 107, 109; kinds
of in Khasia, 482; kinds and uses
of in Sikkim, 107, 109; planted,
272
Bambusa stricta, 22
==
Bananas, wild, 15, 98; scarlet-fruited,
518
Ban, or Lepcha knife, 88
Banyan tree, 13; of Calcutta gardens,
467
Barnes, Mr., 65; Mr. Charles, 78
Barometer, accident to, 388; observa-
tions on Jheels, 475
Baroon on Soane river, 25
Bassia butyracea, 104; latifolia, 12
Bath, hot, at Bhomsong, 214; at Mo-
may, 383; at Yeumtong, 371
Beadle, Lieut., 19
Beaumontia, 283
Bee, alpine, 336; boring, 263; leaf-
cutting, 33
Beejaghur, 38
Bees'-nests, 140, 299
Begonia, alpiné, 365
Behar, hills of, 23
Belcuppee, 19
Bellows, Himalayan, 345; of Khasia,
512; of leaves, 36
Benares, 48; observatory at, 51
Berberis Asiatica (note), 17; concinna,
432; insignis, 255
Betel-pepper, 69, 523
Bhaugulpore, 62; gardens at, 63
Bhel fruit, 34-
Bhomsong, 208, 293; temperature of
soil at, 506
Bhomtso, 376, 406, 414; elevation,
temperature, &c., at, 414
Bhotan, called Dhurma country (note),
93 (note), 258
Bhotanese (note), 93, 457
Bhotan Himalaya, 106, 407, 502
Bhoteeas, 143, 149
Bhote (note), 93
Bignonia Indica, II
Bijooas, or Lepcha priests, 92
Bikh poison, 117, 365
Bind hills, 43
Birds at Momay, 382; of Khasia, 507
of Terai, 281
Black-rock of Colonel Waugh (note),
300
Blocks, granite, 499, 511; split, 140;
syenite, 505
Boat on Ganges, 47
Boga-panee, 495, 509
Bombax, 18
Boodhist banners, 99; monuments,
101; temple, 53; worship, 121,ɲ229;
worship introduced into Sikkim, 86
Borassus, 27
Bore, or tidal-wave, 535
Bor-panee, 504, 517
Borrera, 406, 415
Borr (Pandanus), 211, 294
Boswellia thurifera, 20, 28
Botrichium Virginicum, 205
Boulders in river-beds, 202; of gneiss
on Jongri, 247; on Mon Lepcha, 240
Bowringia, 513
Bread, Tibetan, 209
Breccia, modern formation of, 139
Bridge at Amwee, 515; living, 482; of
canes, 103, 303
Buceros, 130
Buchanania, 19
Bucklandia, 422
Buckwheat, cultivated at Jigatzi, 41;
wild, 310
Bufo scabra, 356
Bugs, flying, 56
Burdwan, 5; coal-fields, 6
Burkutta river, 20
Burrampooter, altered course of, 472;
old bed of, 474; Tibetan, see Yaru-
tsampu; view of from Khasia, 504
Butea frondosa, 7, 35, 269, 276
Butter, churning, 342, 349; ornaments
made of, 348
Butterflies, painted lady, 311; at
various elevations, 306, 333, 357,
382; tropical, 104
C.
Cachar, 523; rainfall at, 529
Casalpinia paniculata, 18
Cajana, 9
Calami, species of in Himalaya, 98
Calamus, 294
Calcutta, journey to, 464
Callitriche verna? (note), 356
Calotropis, 21, 59; C. arborea, 49;
temperature of, 26
Caltha palustris (note), 342; scapósa
(note), 342
Camels, 41; at Lhassa, 412
Campbell, Dr., joins me in Terai, 265;
meet at Bhomsong, 208; at Choong-
tam, 393; seizure of, 435; sent as
Superintendent of Darjeeling, 79;
treatment of as prisoner, 436
Cane bridge at Choongtam, 303; at
Lachoong, 359; over Great Rungeet,
103
{
Canoes of Teesta, 276, 279; of Tam-
bur, 135; swamped, 529
Capparis accuminata, 27
Cardamine hirsuta, 160
Cardiopteris, 528
Carex Moorcroftii, 400
Carissa carandas, 10, 22
Carroway, 334
Carthamus, 55
Caryota urens, 98
Cascades of Khasia, 483; of Mamloo,
488
Cassia fistula, 276
Casuarina (note), 537
Catechu, collecting, 35
INDEX.
Cathcartia, 432
Catsuperri, 254; lake, 255; temples,
256
Cave, Lieut., garden at Churra, 492
Cedrela Toona, 99, 134, 301
Cedrus Libani (note), 179
Central India, hills of, 23
Cervus Wallichii, antlers of, 442
Chachoo river, 347
Chahnchee, 35
Chait, description of, 229; (note), 109
Chakoong, 300, 424
Chamarops Khasiana, 488
Chameleon, 143
Changachelling, 259
Chango-khang, 347, 383, 389
Chattuc, 478, 509, 531
Chaulmoogra (See Took), 104
Cheadam, 458
Cheer-pine, 127
Chela, 507
563
Chepangs, 298
Cherry, alpine wild, 392
Cheytoong, Lepcha boy, 417, 421
Chillong hill, 497
Chinese plants in Khasia, 513; in
Sikkim, 86, 314
Chingtam, 137
Chirring (red rose), 332
Chiru. See Tchiru, 402
Chittagong, 536; leave, 542
Chokli-bi (Smilacina), 320
Chola, 83; summit of pass, 432; view
of from Donkia, 378
Cholamoo lake, 376, 401, 415
Chomachoo river, 156, 377
Chomiomo, 344, 355, 407
Choombi, 366
Choongtam, 302, 357, 392, 422; insects
at, 392; vegetation of, 305
Choonjerma pass, 185
Chumulari, 85, 129, 366; discussion
on, 401; view of from Khasia, 503
Chunar, 48
Chung (Limboos), 94
Churra-poonji, 484; rainfall at, 491;
table-land of, 487; temperature of,
492
Cicada, 72, 104, 507; upper limit of,
356
Cicer arietinum, 55
Cinnamomum, 112
Cinnamon of Khasia, 510
Cirrhopetalum (note), 295
Clay of Sikkim, 107
Clematis nutans (note), 17
Clerodendron, 272
Climbers, bleeding of, 540; of Sikkim,
114
Coal, of Burdwan, 5; Churra, 488,
493, 506; Terai, 284
Cochlospermum, 36
Cocks, Sikkim, 221
Calogyne, 75; Wallichii, 115, 513
Coffee, cultivation of, at Chittagong,
538; at Bhaugulpore, 64
Coix, cultivation of, 496
Coles, 37, 63
Colgong, 65
Colvile, Sir J., 4
Comb of Lepchas, 429; of Mechis
287
Conch shells, in Boodhist temples, 121,
219; cut at Dacca, 472
564
INDEX.
•
Conduits of bamboo, 99.
Conferva of hot springs, 20
Conglomerate, 301, 406, 415, 416
Conifera, Himalayan, 179
Conocarpus latifolius (note), 12
Cooch-Behar, 271¨
Cooches, 271
Cookies, 524
Corbett, Dr.,
Cornelians, 23
Cornwallis, Lord, mausoleum of, 53
Corpses, disposal of in Sikkim and
Tibet, 201
Cosi river, 66
Cowage plant, 9
Cows, Sikkim, 221, 395
Crab, fresh-water, 293
Cranes, 276; (note), 404
Crawfurdia, 392
Crows, red-legged, 313
Crucifera, rarity of in Himalaya, 76
Cryptogramma crispa, 183, 335, 339
Crystals in gneiss, 387
Cupressus funebris, 222, 223, 236
Cups, Tibetan, 90
Currants, wild, 394
Currents, ascending, 263
Curruckpore hills, 60
Cuttack forests, 533
Cycas pectinata, 104, 269, 98, 504;
trees in Calcutta Garden, 467
Cyclops, figure resembling (note), 429
Cynodon Dactylon, 271
Cypress, funereal, 222, 223, 236
Cypripedium, 335, 520
D.
Dacca, 472
Dacoits, 44
Dalbergia Sissoo, 70
Dallisary river, 474
Damooda valley, 5
Dandelion, 334
Daphne, paper from, 404.
See Paper.
Darjeeling, 77; ceded to British, 79;
climate, 81, 82; elevation of, 78;
leave, 468; origin of, 78; prospects
of, 469; threat of sacking, 443; trade
at, 80
Date-palm, 24, 55; dwarf, 504
Datura seed, poisoning by, 45
Davis, Mr. C. E., 29
Decaisnea, new edible fruit, 431·
Deer, barking, 281
Delphinium glaciale, 189, 355
Demons, exorcisement of, 369
Dendrobium densiflorum, 301; Far-
meri, &c., 520; nobile, 301; Pie-
rardi, 71
Dentaria (a pot-herb), 320
Denudation of Himalaya, 217; of
Khasia, 521
Deodar (note), 179
Dewan, Sikkim, 79, 356; arrival at
Tumloong, 445; conferences with,
449, 452; dinner with, 456; dis-
grace of, 463; hostility to British,
79; house of, 213
Dhal, 9
Dhamersala, 154
Dhob grass, 271
Dhurma country, name for Bhotan,
(note), 257; people (note), 93; rajah,
93; seal of, 262
Digarchi, 377. See Jigatzi.
Dijong (name of Sikkim), 87
Dilivaria ilicifolia, 538
Dillenia, 276, 278
Dinapore, 56
Dingcham, 348, 410
Dingpun, at Chola, 433, 434; Tibetan,
403; Tinli, 436
Diospyros embryopteris, 276; fruit, 332
Dipterocarpi, 536; D. turbinatus, 538
Diseases attributed in Tibet to elements,.

416
Djigatzi, 377. See Jigatzi.
Dog, loss of, 359; Tibetan, 142; wild,
31
Do-mani stone, 205
Donkia, 83, 378; ascent of, 417;
forked, 373; pass, 376, 417; tem-
perature of, 380; tops of, 386
Doobdi temples, 236
Dookpa, Boodhist sect (note), 257
Doomree, 18
Dorje, 121
Duabanga grandiflora, 282
Dunkotah (East Nepal), 133
Dunwah pass, 21
Dust-storm, 35, 56
Dye, yellow, 315
Eagle-wood, 524
E.
Earthquake, Chittagong, 540; Noa-
colly, 534; Titalya, 265
Edgeworthia Garneri, 143, 234, 295,
INDEX.
404
Efflorescence of nitrate of lime, 30; of
: soda, 10
Eggs of water-fowl in Tibet, 404
Ek-powa Ghat, 40
Elæagnus, 143
Eleocharis palustris (note), 356
Elephants, at Teshoo Loombo, 412;
bogged, 528; discomforts of riding,
282; geologising with, 7; path of,
73; purchase of, 268; wild, 505
Eleusine coracana, 91
Enkianthus, 364
Ephedra, 347, 399
Ephemera at 17,000 feet, 389
Epipactis, 334
Equinoctial gales, 391
Equus Hemionus, 412
Eranoboas (note), 25, 62
Erigeron alpinus (note), 406
Ervum lens, 9
Erythrina, 300
Euphorbia ligulata, 33; pentagona, 57;
neriifolia, 33, 57; tereticaulis, 33
European plants in Himalaya, 314
Euryale ferox, 473; seeds of, in peat,
533
F.
Fair, 41; at Titalya, 80
Falconer, Dr., house of, 465
Falconeria, 542
Falkland Islands, quartz blocks of,
(note) 417
Fan-Palm, 488
}
Fear, distressing symptoms of, 448
Felle, Mr., 37
Felspar, concretions of, 286
Fenny river, mouth of, 535
Ferns, eatable, 205; European, 335
Feronia elephantum, 18, 34, (note) 12
Festuca ovina, (note) 376, 406
Fever, recurrence of at elevations, 420
Ficus elastica, 71; infectoria, 19
Figs, 108
Fire, grasses destroyed by, 271; in
forests, 100
Fire-wood, Sikkim, 396
Fish, dried, 510; Tibet, (note) 420
Fishing basket of Mechis, 284
૩
Flame, perpetual, 542
Flood, tradition of, 86, 290
Florican, 37, 269
Forests of Sikkim, 114
565
Fossil plants of coal, 6; of Khasia, 522;
of Terai, 284
Frogs, Sikkim, 114
Fruits of Sikkim, 110, 420
Funaria hygrometrica, 301
Fungi, European, 339
G.
Ganges, fall of, 48; scenery of, 54
Gangetic delta, 532; head of, 471
Gangtok Kajee, 454
Gardeners, native, 63
Gardens, Bhaugulpore, 63; Burdwan,
5; Calcutta Botanic, 3, 466; Lieu-
tenants Raban and Cave's, 492; Sir
Lawrence Peel's, 2
Garnets, amorphous, (note) 375; sand
of, 55, 261
Garrows, 484
Gaultheria, 303, 420
Gelookpa, Boodhist sect, (note) 257
Geology of Choongtam, 308; Khasia
mountains, 521; outer Himalaya,
286; Paras-nath, 23
Geranium, 301
Ghassa mountains, (note) 408
Ghazeepore, 53
Giantchi, 409, (note) 382
Glaciers of Chango-khang, 370; Don-
kia, 385; Himalaya, 328; Kam-
bachen, 182; Kinchinjhow, 384,
418; Lachen Valley, 343; Yangma
Valley, 172
Glory, ornament resembling, 349;
round deities' heads, 429
Gnaphalium luteo-album, 55
Gnarem Mountain, 300
Gneiss, characters of, (note) 379; clea-
vage of, 352; flexures of, 286
Gnow (wild sheep), 382
Goa (antelope), 402
Goats, poisoned by Rhododendrons,
396; shawl-wool, 350
Godowns, opium, 57
Goitre, 92
Goliath beetles, 357
Goomchen (tail-less rat), 400
Goong ridge, 126
566
INDEX.
Gordenia Wallichii, 71, 127
Gorh, 295; Lama of, 296
Goruck-nath, figure of, 429, (note) 228
Gossamer spiders, 56
Goughia, 311
Gram, 9
Grand trunk-road, 7
Granite, blocks of, 511; cleavage planes
of, (note) 242; of Kinchinjhow, (note)
495, (note) 379; phenomena of, 216
Grant, Dr., 62; Mr. J. W., report on
Darjeeling, 79
Grapes, cultivation of, 64; wild in
Sikkim, 424
Grasses, absence of on outer Himalaya,
76; gigantic, 271
Gravel terraces and beds in Terai, 266,
268, 269, 282
•
Great Rungeet river, cross, 201; ex-
cursion to, 97
Greenstone of Khasia, 495
Griffith, Dr., 2; (note) 315, 464
Grislea tomentosa, (note) 12
Grouse, Himalayan, 368
Grove, sacred in Khasia, 518
Guatteria longifolia, 56
Gubroo, 242
Guitar, Tibetan, 214
Gum arabic, 41; of Cochlospermum,
36; of Olibanum, 20
Gunpowder, manufacture of, 7
Guobah of Wallanchoon, 150, 160
Gurjun trees, 536, 538
Gyrophora, 381
H-.
Hailstorm, 285
Halo, seen from Donkia, 380
Hamamelis chinensis, 517
Hamilton, Mr. C., 44
Hardwickia binata, 34, 36
Hares, Terai, 281; Tibetan, 402
Harrum-mo (wild tribe), 298
Hattiah island, removal of land from,
542
Haze on plains, 263, 264
Hee hill, 261
Helicteres Asoca, (note) 12
Helwingia, 86
Herbert, Major, report on Darjeeling,
79
Hierochloe, 369
Himalaya, distant view of, 66; vege-
tation and scenery of outer, 73;
view of from Khasia, 495, 496, 501
Hippophae, 317
Hodgsonia, 278, 292; heteroclita, 540
Hodgson, Mr., 83; join in Terai, 265;
view from house, 83
Holigarna, varnish from, 526
Hollyhock, 363
Honey poisoned by Rhododendron
flowers, 140; preservation of bodies
in, 486; seekers, 299
Hooli festival, 50, 274
Hopkins, Mr., on elevation of moun-
tains, 230
Hornbills, 130
Hornets, 306
Horse-chestnut, Indian, 278
Horse, wild, 412
Hot-springs, boy passes night in, 421;
of Momay, 383, 418; Seetakoond,
60; Soorujkoond, 19; Yeumtong,
371
House,
Lama's, 223; Tibetan, at
Yangma, 167; Wallanchoon, 146
Houttynia, 292
Hydnocarpus, 292
Hydropeltis, (note) 516
I.
Ice, accumulation of 320, action of,
247 (note), 374; transport of plants
in, 468
Imperata cylindrica, 271
India-rubber tree, 71, 297
Indo-Chinese races, 96
Infusoria at 17,000 feet, 375
Inglis, Mr. H., 478
Insects at 4,000 feet, 300; Choongtam
(5,000 feet), 306; Darjeeling (note),
357; Lamteng (8,000 feet), 313;
Momay (15,300 feet), 382; Tallum
(12,000 feet), 335; Tungu (13,000
feet), 353; Zemu river(12,000 feet),
329; Zemu Samdong (9,000 feet),
333
Iron forges, chime of hammers, 501;
sand, 511; smelting of, in Khasia,
511; stone, 283
Irvine, Dr., 56
Islumbo pass, 196
Ivy, 311
j.
Jains, 13, 62
Japanese plants in Sikkim, 86, 314
Jarool (Lagerstræmia), 524
Jasper rocks, 104
Jatamansi, 150
Jeelpigoree, 270; rajah of, 272
Jerked meat, 148,"420
Jews' harp, Tibetan, 238, 447
Jhansi-jeung, see Giantchi, 409
Jheels, 474, 509; brown waters of,
479
Jigatzi (note), 377, 411; temperature
of, 411
Job's tears, cultivation of, 496
Jongri, 245
Joowye, 515
Jos, image of, at Yangma, 164
Jummul river, 472
Juncus bufonius, 55, 160
Jung Bahadoor, 461, 464
Juniper, black, sketch of, 325
Juniperus recurva, 307, 318
Junnoo mountain, 33, 181, 185
Jyntea hills, 513
K.
Kadsura, 292
Kajee, 127
Kala-panee, 493
Kambachen, or Nango pass, 175; top
of, 178; village, 181
Kambajong, 377
Kanglachem pass, 166
İNDEX.
Kanglanamo pass, 190, 239, 245
Katior-pot (Hodgsonia), 292
Katong-ghat, 457
Kasing Mendong (note), 200, 233
Keadom, 360
Kenroop-bi (Dentaria), 320
Khabili valley, 194
Khamba mountains, 409
Khasia, climate of, 491; geology of,
521; leave, 522; people of, 485
Khawa river, 135
Khutrow (Abies Smithiana), 305
Kiang, 412
Kiang-lah mountains, 376, 408
Kidnapping, 239
Kinchinjhow, 316, 344, 347, 388;
567
Choongtam, 297, 424; from Donkia
pass, 378; from Darjeeling, 83;
from Sebolah, 398; from Thlonok,
322
glacier of, 384, 418
Kinchinjunga, 238; circuit of,
view of from Bhomtso, 407; from
242;
Kishengunj, 68, 469
Kollong rock, 500
Kongra Lama, 399; pass, 344
Kosturah (musk-deer), 189
Kubra, 83, 190
Kulhait river, 197, 260; valley, 197
Kumpa Lepchas, 93; Rong, 94
Kunker, 8, 21, 34, 61, 65
Kursiong, 74, 75, 285
Kurziuk, 199
Kuskus, 29
Kymore hill, geology of, 23; sandstone
of, 28
Lac, 7
Lacheepia, 368
L.
Lachen-Lachoong river, 297, 424
Lachen Phipun, 303, 317, 395; conduct
of 330; tent of, 343
Lachen river, 309; length of, and in-
clination of bed, 415
Lachoong Phipun, 363; valley, head-
streams of, 373; village, 361, revisited,
420
Lagerstromia grandiflora, 282; Reginæ,
524
Laghep, 431
Lagomys badius, 400
Lagopus Tibetanus, 353
Lailang-kot, 494
Lake-beds in Yangma valley, 161, 163,
165, 170
Lakes caused by moraines, 373
Lamas, arrival of at Tumloong, 451;
dance of, 158; music of, 219, 447 ;
Pemiongchi, 451; of Sikkim, 203;
of Simonbong, 121; worship of, 255,
416
Lainteng, 312, 356, 394.
Landslips, 299, 302, 357, 370
Larch, Himalayan, 179; sketch of,
325
Larix Griffithii, 179, 318
Lassoo Kajee, 289
Laurels, 112
Lautour, Mr., 536
Leaf-insect, 507
Lebanon, Cedar of, 180
568
INDEX.
Lecidea geographica, 153, 247, 381;
oreina, 417
Leebong, 98
Leeches, 73, 115, 300; upper limit of,
326
Leguminosa, absence of in Himalaya,
76
Lelyp, 143
Lemna minor, 215
Lemon-bushes, wild, 457
Lepchas, 86; diseases of, 91; dress
and ornaments of, 89, 430; food of,
90; musick of; 91; peaceable cha-
racter of, 88, 93
Lepus hispidus, 281; oiostolus, 402
Leucas, a weed in fields, 270
Leuculia gratissima, 135, 193; Pin-
ceana, 494
Leycesteria, 144
Lhassa (note), 409; notices of, 210,
307, 412.
Lichens, Arctic, 247, 381, 406, 417
Licuala peltata (note), 98
Lignite, 283
Liklo mountain, 322
Lilium giganteum (note), 311
Little Rungeet, cross, 109, 122; guard-
house at, 261; source of, 126
Limboos, 94; language of, 95
Lime, deposit of, 287, 356; nitrate of,
30
Limestone, at Rotas, 29; nummulite,
481, 537; of Churra, 488; spheres
of, 37; Tibetan, 416
Lime-tuff, impression of leaves on, 31
Limosella aquatica, 160
Linaria ramosissima, 30
Lingcham, 197, 221; Kajee of, 197, 199,
260
Lingo cane-bridge, 279
Linum trigynum (note), 12
Lister, Colonel, 525
Lizard, 26; ticks on, 26
Lohar-ghur, 283
Luminous wood, 396
Lushington, Mr., sent to Darjeeling,
453
Lycopodium clavatum, 301
Lyellia crispa, 301
Lymnaa Hookeri, 400
M.
Machoo valley, 367
Maddaobund, 13
Magnolia, Campbellii, 85, 115; excelsa,
85; distribution of (note),(115
Magras, aborigines of Sikkim, 95
Mahaldaram, 75.
Mahanuddy river, 68, 264, 470
Mahaser, a kind of carp, 280
Mahowa, 12, 43
Maidan (term as applied to Tibet), 410
Mainom mountain, camp on, 216;
summit of, 218
Maitrya, the coming Boodh, 249
Maize, hermaphrodite, 107; roasted,
343
Malayan plants in Himalaya, 314
Maldah, 470
Mamloo, village and waterfalls of, 488
Mango, blossoming, 41
Mani, or praying-cylinder, 93, 119, 146;
turned by water, 144
Mantis of Khasia, 507
Marlea, 312
Marmot, 353; head and feet of, 363
Martins' nest, spiders in, 32
May-fly at 17,000 feet, 389
M'Lelland, Dr., 2
Mealum-ma (nettle), 425, 530
Mechi fisherman, 285; river, 269; tribe,
70, 96
Meconopsis, 328, 339; Nepalensis, 345,
324
Meepo, 138; house of, 429; joined by,
296; wife of, 428
Megna, altered course of, 533; naviga-
tion of, 531
Melastoma, 301.
Mendicant, Tibetan, 422
Mendong, 146, 233; Kaysing (note),
200
Menziesia, 368
Mesua ferrea, 524.
Midsummer, weather at, 329
Mirzapore, 43
Moflong, 496
Momay Samdong, arrival at, 372;
climate of, 391; second visit to, 418]
Monastic establishment of Sikkim, 258
Monghyr, 60
Monkeys, 195, 313
Mon Lepcha, 240
Monotropa, 301.
Monuments of Khasia, 222
Moormis, 95
INDEX.
Mooshye, 515
Moosmai, 483
Moraines, ancient, at Lachoong, 362;
at Tallum, 334; at Yangma, 161;
extensive, 372; indicating changes of
climate, 268
Morung of Nepal, 266, 269
Mountains, deceptive appearance of,
378
Moxa of puff-ball, 297.
Mudar (Calotropis), 59
Muddunpore, 25
Mugs at Chittagong, 536
Mulberry, wild, 104
Mules, Tibetan (note), 454
Mungeesa Peak, 37
Munnipore dance, 526; frontier, 528;
(note), 525
Murraya exotica, 31
Murwa beer, 91, 122, 199, 204; grain,
91
Mushroom, eatable, 320
Musk-deer, 189, 313
Muslin, Dacca, 473
Mutton, dried saddles of, 420
Myong valley (East Nepal), 126
Myrung, 498
Mywa Guola, 136; sunk thermometer
at, 138
N.
Nagas, 527
Nagcesa (Mesua ferrea), 524
Namten, 457
Nango mountain, 161; or Kambachen
pass, 175
Nanki mountain, 128
Napleton, Major, 63
Nardostachys Jatamansi, 150; (note),
406
Nauclea cordifolia, 18; parvifolia, 19
Neongong temple, 219
Nepal, East, journey to, 124
Nepalese Himalaya, 85
Nepenthes, 514
Nettles, 108; gigantic, 127, 424
Nightingales, 233
Nimbus of the ancients (note), 429
Ningma, Boodhist sect (note), 257
Nipa fruticans, 1, 543
Nishung, or Moormis, 95
Noacolly, 533; extension of land at,
534
Nonkreem, 512
Nummulites of Khasia limestone, 522
569
Nunklow, 504
Nunnery at Tumloong,
Nursing, 84, 243
Nurtiung, 517
Nut, Himalayan, 369
Nutmegs, wild, 542
Nymphæa pymæa, 513
O.
Oaks, 74; distribution of in India (note),
529; Sikkim, 107; upper limit of
of, 369
Observatory at Benares, 51
Oil of Bassia butyracea, 104; of B.
latifolia, 12; Kuskus, 29; mustard,
linseed, and rape, 9; uggur, 524;
wood, 538
Olax scandens, 22
Olibanum, Indian, 20
Olivine (note), 375
Omerkuntuk, 23
Onglau (mushroom), 320
Opium, East Indian, cultivation and
manufacture of, 57; quality of, 58
Opuntia, 143
Orchidea, growth of in Khasia, 520; of
Khasia, 490
Orobanche, Himalayan, 183; Indica, 13
Ortolan, 68
Otters, 137
Ovis Ammon, 170, 382; skulls of, 173
Oxalis sensitiva, 70
Oxytropis Chiliophylla (note), 406.
P.
Pacheem, 75; vegetation of, 76
Painom river, 409
Palibothra, 63
Palms, distribution of in Sikkim, 98;
fan, 27; of Khasia, 482
Palung plains, 348, 397; view of from
Sebolah, 390
Pandanus, 211, 294
Papaw, 540
Paper, manufactory at Dunkotah, 133;
of Astragalus, 404; of Daphne and
Edgeworthia, 143, 234, 404; of Tibet,
402.
Papilio Machaon, 333; (note), 336
570
INDEX.
Paras-nath, 9, 23; geology of, 23;
summit of, 15
Paris, 301
Parochetus communis, 314
Patchouli plant, 514
Patna, 59
Pawn, 69
Peaches, Sikkim, 109, cultivation of,
422
Peacock, wild, 22
Peat at Calcutta, 553
Pea-violet, 510
Peel, Sir L., garden of, 2
Peepsa, 109
Pelicans, mode of feeding, 55
Pemberton, Capt., treatment of his
embassy in Bhotan (note), 434
Pemiongchi temple, 231
Pemmi river (East Nepal), 134
Pepper, Betel, 69
Perry, Mr., 68
Peuka-thlo, 345
Phadong Goompa, 427; confinement
at, 439
Phari, 367
Pheasant (Kalidge), 178; horned, 315
Phedangbos (Limboo priests), 95
Phenzong Goompa, 427
Phieungoong, 432
Phipun, Lachen, 303, 395; of La-
choong, 363
Phanix acaulis, 100; (note), 98, 282;
dwarf, 16, 269; paludosa, I, 543;
sylvestris, 60
Phosphorescent
Photinia, 303
Phud (Tibet mendicant), 423
Phyllanthus emblica, 195; (note), 12
Picrorhiza, 190
wood, 396
Pigeons, 313
Pines, gigantic, 365; Himalayan, 179,
318; rarity of in Sikkim, 432, 117
Pinguicula, 319
Pinus excelsa, 319, 363; Khasiana, 491,
498, 503; longifolia, 100, 127, 195,
196, 290, 318
Piptanthus Nepalensis, 291
Pitcher-plant, 514
Plantago leaves, used to dress wounds,
341
Plantain, scarlet-fruited, 510; wild, 98
Plants, English, on Soane river, 31;
English, on Ganges, 55; temperature
of, 26; of English genera in Terai
(note), 281
Plectocomia, 98
Plumbago, 287, 319
Poa annua, 76, 153; laxa, 376
Poa (fibre of Behmeria), 108
Podocarpus neriifolia (note), 179
Podostemon (note), 513
Poisoners, 45.
Poisoning of goats by rhododendrons,
396; of Bhoteeas by arum-roots, 341
Polygonum cymosum, 310
Polypodium proliferum, 34
Pomrang, 513
Pony, Tibetan, 80; (note), 341, 381
Poppy, cultivation of, 22, 541
Porcupine, 143
Potamogeton natans, 215
Potatos, culture of in East Nepal, 181;
Khasia, 487; Sikkim, 109
Pothos, 301
Praong (bamboo), 109, 220
Primula petiolaris, 215; Sikkimensis,
342
Prinsepia (note), 360, 498
Procapra picticaudala, 402
Prunella, 383; vulgaris, 334
Prunus, used for fodder, 252
Pteris aquilina, 301; (note), 324
Pullop-bi (Polygonum), 310
Pulse accelerated at great elevations,
381, 390
Pundim mountain, 241; cliff of, 242
Pundua, 480
Punkabaree, 70, 263, 284
Purnea, 67
Pyrola, 317.
Q.
Quartz-beds, folded, 286; blocks in
Falkland Islands (note), 417
Quercus semecarpifolia, 130
Quoits, 238
R.
Raban, Lieut., 527; garden of at
Churra, 492
Radiation, powerful in valleys, 144
Rageu (deer), 358
Rain-fall at Churra, 491; at Noacolly,
533; diminution of at Rotas, 30;
Silchar, 529
INDEX.
Rajah, Sikkim, audience of, 212; po-
verty of, 212; (note), 445; presents
from, 332; punishment of, 463; resi-
dence of 427, 446
Raj-ghat, 31
Rajmahal hills, 66
Raklang pass, 205
Ramchoo lake (of Turner), 391, 408
Rampore Bauleah, 471
Rance of Sikkim, presents from, 453
Rangamally, 277
Ranunculus aquatalis, 400; hyperboreus
(note), 367; sceleratus, 31, 55
Ratong river, 244
Rat, tail-less, 400
Red snow, absence of in Himalaya, 372
Release from confinement, 460
Reptiles of Khasia, 507; of Sikkim,
305
Rhododendrons, 116, 117; alpine, 152,
328; anthopogon, 152, 245; arboreum,
85, 140, 192, 193, 301; argenteum,
85, 251, 291; Aucklandii, 305; bar-
batum, 116, 192; campylocarpum,
183; Dalhousiæ, 85, 112, 305; dis-
tribution of at Chola (note), 481;
Edgeworthii, 305; Falconeri, 190,
192, 215; flowering of at different ele-
vations, 419; formosum, 504; Hodg
soni, 175, 192; leaves curled by cold,
433; nivale, 351, 399; of Churra, 491;
poisoning of goats by, 396; setosum,
153, 245; superb at Choongtam, 422
Rhubarb, gigantic, 328; used as to-
bacco, 397
Rice-paper plant (note), 252
Rice, Sikkim, 107; upper limit of cul-
tivation, 363
Ripple-mark on sandstone, 31, 43
Rivers, diurnal rise and fall of, 336; of
West Bengal, 24; temperature of,
329; velocity of, 358
Rocks, absence of scratched in Sikkim,
374; falling, 327; moutonnéed, 385;
moved by frosts, &c., 417; retention
of heat by, 154; strike of in Tibet,
416
Rong (name of Lepchas), 87
Rosa involucrata, 470; macrophylla,
317; sericea, 116
Rose Gangetic (Rosa involucrata), 473;
gardens, 53; large-flowered, 317
Rotas-ghur, 29; palace, 30
and
Rotllera tinctoria, 222
Rummai, 277
Rungpo, 430
Ryott valley, 426
571
S.
Saddle, Tibetan, 207
Sakkya, invocation of, 159; Sing, 227;
Thoba, 232
Sakkyazong, 129, 334
Sal, 15
Salix tetrasperma, 282; Babylonica,
311
Salmonida, distribution of in Asia
(note), 420
Salt, country in Tibet, 376; monopoly
of by Indian Government, 532
Salvinia, 531
Sandal-wood, red, 524
Sandstone of Kala-panee, 494; of
Khasia, 482; of Kymore hills, 28;
of Terai, 267, 283; slabs of, 40
Sara (crane) breeding in Tibet (note),
404
Sar-nath, 53
Saptura range, 23
Satyrium Nepalense (note), 360
Saussurea, bladder-headed, 365; gos-
sypina, 156
Saxifraga, arctic, 345; ciliaris, 489;
(note), 359
Scirpus triquetra (note), 356
Scitamineæ, 301
Sconce, Mr., 536
Scorpions, 36
Scratched rocks, absence of in Sikkim,
374
Seal of Bhotan Rajah, 262
Seasons of vegetation in Sikkim, 419
Sebolah pass, 388
Seetakoond bungalow and hill, 540;
hot springs of, 62; pepetual flame at,
542
Sepoys, Lepcha and Tibetan, 402
Shahgunj, 40
Shales, carbonaceous in Terai, 284
Sheep, breeding of, 395; feeding on
rhododendron leaves, 183; grazed at
16,000 feet, 350; at 18,000 feet, 411;
Tibetan, 190; wild, 169, 382
Sheergotty, 22
Shell-lac, 7
*
572
}
INDEX.
Shells, 293; alpine, 400
Shepherd's purse, 153
Shigatzi (see Jigatzi)
Shooting, prejudice against, 315
Showa (stag), antlers of, 442
Shrubs, northern limits of, 372
Siberian plants in Himalaya, 314, 334,
335, 340
Sidingbah, 193, 195
Sikkim, climate of, III; Rajah, 79,
209; vegetation, 117; Dewan, 209
Silchar, 524
Silhet, 523, 529; leave, 531
Siligoree, 264, 282
Silok-foke, Lama of, 290
Simonbong temple, 119
Simulium, 109
Sinchul, ascent of, 84, 85; plants of,
85
Singdong, 457
Singtam Soubah, 298; at Chola, 434;
dismissal of, 340; illness of, 338;
joined by, 332
Singtam village, 297
Sissoo, 278
Sitong, 398
Skimmia, 86; laureola, 116
Sleeman, Major, reports on Thuggee,
45
Slopes, inclination of in Sikkim, 231
Smilacina (a pot-herb), 320
Snake-king, image of, 259, (note) 232
Snakes, 305, 507
Snow, perpetual, 370, 379, 417, phe-
nomena of (note), 176; shades, 250;
storms, 249
Snowy Himalaya, views of from Tonglo,
128; very deceptive appearance of,
84
Soane, 25; cross, 32, 33; elevation of
bed, 32; mouth of, 56; pebbles, 23,
63; plants in bed of, 31
Soda, sesqui-carbonate of, 10; efflo-
resced, 400
Soil, temperature of, 25, 32, 109, 118,
130, 152, 173; at Bhomsong, 214
Songboom, 253
Soormah river, 478; basin of, 474
Soorujkoond, hot-springs of, 19
Sound, produced by boulders in rivers,
321; transmission of, 177
Sparganium ramosum (note), 356
Sphærostema, 311
Sphynx atropos, 33
Spiders in martins' nests, 32
Spondias mangifera, 56
Squirrels, 32
Stainforth, Mr., house at Pomrang, 513;
at Silhet, 529
Sterculia fætida, 28
Stick lac, 7
Sticks, warming (note), 399
Stipa, 383
Stauntonia, 76
Strawberry of the plains, 278; alpine,
365
Struthiopteris, 335
Strychnos potatorum,
Stylidium, 530
Styloceras ratna, 281
Sulkun, 37
Sultangunj, rocks of, 62
Sundeep island, deposit of silt on, 534
Sunderbunds, 543; compared with
Jheels, 476; vegetation of, 533
Sunipia (note), 295
Sunnook, 223
Sunrise, false, 43
Sunset, false, 43; in Tibet, 413
Suspension bridge, iron, 139
Syenite, blocks of, 502
Symplocos, dye from, 315
Syong, 498
T.
Taktoong river, 310
Talauma Hogdsoni, 112
Taldangah, 8
Tallum Samdong, 334, 356
Tamarind tree, 12
Tamarisk, 276
Tambur river, 135; elevation and slope
of bed, 139
Tanks, plants in, 42; movements of
water in, 534,
Taptiatok (E. Nepal), 143
Tassichooding temples, 180
Tassiding, 202, 221; temples, 224;
foundation, 229
Tchebu Lama, 212, 291, 428; house
and chapel of, 429
Tchiru (antelope), 401
Tchuka (rhubarb), 328
Tea, buttered, 343; made of Photinia,
&c., 208, 303; Tibetan, 343
Teal, English, 402
毒
​INDEX.
Tea-plants, 4; cultivation of in Sikkim,
98; cut by hail at Darjeeling, 288;
at Myrung, 498; Chittagong, 538
Teelas, 478, 523
Teesta river, at Bhomsong, 208; exit
from mountains, 279; in plains, 276;
junction with Great Rungeet, 106;
signification of, 280; temperature of,
280, 330.
Teeta (febrifuge), 190
Temples of Catsuperri, 256; Changa-
chelling, 259; Choongtam, 306;
Doobdi, 256; Neongong, 219; Pe-
miongchi, 231; Phadong, 427;
Simonbong, 119; Tassichooding,
180; Tassiding, 224; Wallanchoon,
158; Yangma, 163; various, 220;
mode of building, 219; worship in,
219, 256, 416
Tendong, 86, 290; summit of, 292
Terai, 69, 72; definition of, 265; ex-
cursion to, 262; meteorology of, 270;
of Khasia, 480; seizure of, 462;
vegetation of, 70
Terraces, at Baisarbatti, 282; junction
of Zemu and Thlonok, 324; Momay,
373; Yalloong, 189; Yangma, 163,
169
Terya, 481
Teshoo Loombo (note), 41
Tetrao-perdrix nivicola, 368
Thalictrum, 301; alpinum, 369; gly-
phocarpum (note), 17
Thermometer, black bulb, II; boiling-
point, 368, 397; lost, 421; minimum
left on Donkia pass, 380; sunk, 138
Thigh-bone, trumpet of, 121, 220
Thlaspi arvense, 335
Thlonok river, 327
Thomson, Dr., joined by, 460
Thugs, river, 47; suppression of, 44
Tibet, animals of, 353, 402, 413; enter,
399; inhospitality of climate, 210;
snow-line, elevation of in, 379, 414
Tibetans, 184; blackening faces of
women, 349; camp of, 348; charm-
box, 188; child's coral, 349; churns,
342; cups, 147; diet, 147; Dingpun,
403; dogs, 142; drunk, 160; guitar,
214; head-dresses, 349; hospitality,
354; household, 147; houses, 365;
pipe, 147; salute, 141; sepoys, 403,
433, 459; tea, 147; tents, 342, 343
573
Ticks, 115, 195, 300
Tidal-wave, 535
Tide in Bay of Bengal, 533; in Sunder-
bunds, 543
Tiger hunt, 38
Tikbotang, 454
Tingri, 410
Titalya, 69, 265
Toad, Javanese, 356
Tobacco, Chinese, 456; made from
rhubarb, 397
Toddy-palm, 24, 27, 60
Tofe Choney, II
Tomo-chamo mountain, 375

Tong (arum-roots prepared for food),
321; collection and preparation, 333
Tonglo, 109; camp on, 128; elevation
of, 119; excursion to, 106; summit
of, 116; temperature of. 118; vege-
tation of, 116
Took (Hydnocarpus), 292. (See Chaul-
moogra.)
Toon (Cedrela), 134, 219
Tourmalines, 156, 308, 322
Toys, children's in Sikkim, 237
Travelling equipment, 125
Tree-fern, 74, 297; in Silhet, 530
Trees, burnt, 104; limits of in Sikkim,
115
Trichomanes, 251
Tripe de roche, 381
Tsang, province of Tibet, 409
Tukcham mountain, 311
Tuk-vor, 261
Tumloong, 426; confinement at, 443;
dismissal from, 453; meteorology of,
446
Tungu, 339, 394, 395; meteorology of,
346
Tunkola, 83
Tunkra mountain, 361; pass, 366;
plants of, 167
Tuquoroma, 154
Turner, Captain, route to Jigatzi (note),
337
Turnips, alpine cultivation of, 350
U.
Uggur oil (Aquilaria), 524
Unicorn of MM. Huc and Gabet, 401
Urceola elastica, 540
Urtica crenulata, 424, 530; hetero-
phylla, 127
574
INDEX.
Urticeæ, 108
Usnea, 144
V.
Vaccinie, rarity of in Upper IIimalaya
(note), 392
Vaccinium, 303; serpens, 112
Vakeel sent to Darjeeling, 289
Valeriana Fatamansi, 150
Vanda cærulea, 518, 519; Roxburghia,
20
Chittagong,
Varnish, black of Munnipore, 526
Vateria robusta, 15
Vegetation, of Chittagong, 537; of
Himalaya, 314; of Jheels, 474; of
Khasia, 490; of Terai, 70, 392; pro-
gress of at different elevations, 419;
tropical at the base of Kinchinjunga,
239; zones of at Darjeeling, 97;
zones of in Sikkim, 244
Veronica Anagallis, 55
Vespa magnifica, 306
Villarsia cristata, 42; Indica, 42
Vindhya hills, 23
Vitex Agnus-castus, 263
Vitis Indica, 424
W.
Wallanchoon, 158; climate of, 152;
houses at, 146; pass, 155; plants
on pass, 156; village, 145
Wallichia palm, 301
Wallich, Dr., 2
Walloong, 145, 151
Walnuts, Sikkim, 235, 237
Ward, Lieut., 44
Water-plants, 42
Well, old, 29
Wightia, grasping roots of, 113
↓
Willow, 311; of Terai, 282; weeping,
256
Winds, hot, 11; of Tibet, 402, 405
Woodcock of Chittagong, 540; at Bar-
fonchen, 433; at Neongong, 215
Wood-oil (Dipterocarpus); 538
Woodsia, 381
Worm of Sikkim, 306
Y.
Yak, 147; breeding, 395; flock of,
396; wild, 149
Yalloong ridge, 193; valley, 187
Yamroop, 194
Yangma, cultivation at, 166; geology
of, 174; Guoala, 159; houses at,
167; temperature at, 173; temples,
164; village, 166
Vangyading, 194
Yankoong village, 454
Yankutang, 192
Yaru-tsampu river, 210, 376; (note),
}
4II
Yelpote (Bassia), 104
Yeumtong, 370; second visit to, 418
Yeumtso, 402; elevation of, 413; lake,
405; temperature of soil at, 413
Yew, 116, 133, 192, 196, 318; distri-
bution of, 305; in Khasia, 491
Yoksun, 235; lake, 252
Z.
Zemindars of Bengal, 273
Zemu river, camp on, 327; Samdong,
320, 394
Zannichellia, 32; palustris, 400
Zobo, 148
Zodiacal light, 148
WARD, LOCK, BOwden and có.; London, new york, and melbourne,

29
28
Part of Que Snowy range
27
26
25
22
8
M Dawale
27600
Ky
19
R.Ganges
R. Gag
m Or
ww
Mirre
Fort Chunar
BULLE
morze
Shahey
Burde
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Sulkun
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Kanchen
Bindi 71
Markada
Dewe
कृष्ण
Cornckpore
Berjaglan
LubreMP
Chasepore
009
BA
Papura 581
Kosderdo
Soance
Map of part of
BENGAL
Thilothes
Tira
THE HIMALAYA & TIBET
to illustrate
DJ.D.Hooker's Routes
Drawn by Augustus Petermann.
Scale of Geographical Miles
ใช้
EO 80
0 LO 60 TO 60 90
The figures express the haght in English feet.
83
200
200
84
AP
anges
Soame
A
Dinapore
Nourunga
"Sheergotty
Khan branchi
Moczulferp
Kubra
mah
Dunmah Pa
SR
13
Pati
322
Chorparkin
பயன்
PS
Belamp
Thou
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Behar
U
Parbunga
Carrackpore Range
B
Douma to 90
P
86
تنتظر
og
Monglor
ckpor
Pusdim
Yarn
Bhagalpor
Rocks of Sultanginy
Magdaobins
ma
Parasnath
30
onee
Pachete
sampu
pal Range Rajakale
grasso
Thirupa
NOW
Taldangah
Titaly
uda
D
Kishengung
T
Moorthedabad
Maydal
Burdwan
비
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Kichungw
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Jigatz
wwwwwww
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of Gour
160
14.000 ft
ainpore Baulcah
1310
Thank
Diamond II
T
GAYING BARYA
Baikanpor
anganally
Jelpigoree
CALCUTTA
Giant
Pabna
Rumato
VASA
Belar ←
Julfarguay
Lang
Tallinm
A
Phidong o
R.Gan
Kinchil
Goalp
Burdam
Yambro
yrumiso
Garrow Hil
Dacon
Dallisary
Burt
B
ป
Funklow 464
Kollane semes
Kh
an
seen from Dorjiling.
tha
9L
Comilla
Pooter
Nogrally
Donkiah
S
Tippe
Gowahatty
Chattuo
LH
lofting
Myreng
4630
Chillong HM
9660
oote
Lora po
Hills
Jyni 25
Chittag
28
92
26
Chramalari 23,929 1
dist.94 miles.
seen over the Chola range from Tonglo (10,078 ft)
Chumalari M
Chola Peak, 17.319 !
dist.51 mile
Kangehan -junga
bearing N.37 30 E. dist. 25 miles
17AF
View in East Nepal, looking over the Singalelah Mts
Ma
Kangchan-junga, bearing S.60 W. dist 37 miles, from Tibet elev 18.600 ft
1
Chassa Monutains, bearing N 84 E. dist. 90 unles and N 87 E.
dist. Go miles, from Tibet, elev. 18.600 f
Kontalne murales
Joke 16ourf
obik tearf
Want The ARG
Ho-orgiateh
Tah ha orted with unmense
boulders
Tifting
handri
Morames covered with
Arborescent hyper
Maruine 400
Wp4
emper
Morai
em fap 23x
First Lake-hed
Lower or great Moraine
River-bed 10.0001
Yangma
Course of
YANGMA RIVER
from
Tibet Pass of Kanglachem
to
the lowest ancient Moraine
Scale of Geographical miles.
Cha
Teract 14,000 ft
Radished leg whed potatoes turnips
Village of
Yangma
Second
Te-ded
Explanation.
Ancient Moraines
Gravel deposits
Terracer
Lake-beds

28
Wallanchion
To Nepaul
by the Arun R.
F
40
R.Arun
16756
Wallanchoo
10390
M Kangla chem
Riva Mywa
Chamas
9070
Mywa
Guola
エラー
​Loongtoong
T
flows
N
Tchintam
Fashirukpa
1600
acnoo
5615
3400
R.Tambor
into Anur
Dean
Taptiatok
4280
My Tarama
Convent
roma
Guota
(克
​3200
Taskirukpa
Chart
Wiggins
Su
To
Che
1467
ambur
R
Tablicing
Caut mi
2545
PSTLE
Tamroop
amroo
Macaroumb
9320
Tlam
mb
The N. boundary of Sikkim is frond
Donkiah by Kongra Lama to Chomiamo
thence S.S. W to Kangchan Junga.
R&Pang
AGUL
cien
10
Khabar
EN
Sankar He
To Shiyatzi
by Sarrh & Dobtah
To
Tchou ooong
ablaka
3.700
Sciat
R. fqua
bookders
Madia
Tam
Yankautang
or Tonghem
Adel
This country is said to present a very elevated
rugged tract of lofty mount sparingly snowed.
uninhabitable by man or domestic animals
River
Bhat
4680
MSing alelak
88
East Nepal
1 The journey was hurried, the weather unfavorable
and opportunities few of verifying my positions.
2 Пam was sem from a distance only.
3 The courses of the rivers Bhava, Tawat Pangwa.
MINango
Stubis
the positions of Sidingbah M and Ielumbo Pass
ull require confirmation.
4 The rivers Wallanchoon, Yangma. Kambachen &
Yallaong are possibly too far to the N. W
5. My portion on thoonjama Pass was ascertained
by the bearing and angular height of Junno. and
this was the only time a known object was recug-
nized during my travel in their parts after
leaving Sankiatzung
15
11600
me
Kambachen
88"
Conv Tassichooding
Supery
MAP
of
SIKKIM
AND
Esulla bong
5202
Sidingbah
The
be along the Arun and inhabited at every few miles
road from Tashirukpa Chat to Ranbajong is said to
I
M.Melide
26
Choonjerma
۱۵ Falloong
INC
Tamach
Kanglanam
Dumdongta
20
M. Kangchan, Junga
T
Phulloot
1400
Wanla
Jumma
Very rugged. lofty Mountains
from Bhomtao along all N. flank of Arun Palley
lelah
EASTERN NEPAL
by
J.D HOOKER ESQ MD.RN FR.S
SHEWING HIS ROUTES.
English Miles
3630
Telumbo
Paseo
To
3600
28177
NEW
PI
Pniokezon
Kubra
24.004
Jungpoon
Cat Supern
15,000
Gubro
CONN
Tallet
SINGA
Mall
River
Jongr
Linadurd
phot
Simanbone
Loomi
N S
ME
34
Chipmudicum
Mechi
Inger
alha
Meethian woul
Ahea
Meyris
5300
00 AE
2SYRI
Kunbiaspor
Poniente
OF
rele
Gok
Chakoit
1670
Geard
Tuk
We
Lowhi
LOT
noro
ILING
37000
7458
Puudian
22.015
Seen uns
hee
4
Hint
e
Linchanpoom
MORT
scen
H
JUN
ons Guard Ho
ALD.
of Col.Waugh
19242
www
Rinchintong
7165
Sandy Plain
Bhontso
seen from
OTLO
418
Ryng
345
MNursing
19.139
M.Kirsom Kim
Gong Gonn Wayah
தமிழ்
Khevzam
1840+.
MD. 22.581
of Col. Waugh
Rakling
Fiding
An
inkabar
1860
SYRILIK
Ring
et R.
from S. flank
nowed June 134
77
INDIA
beet sai
m
Dallow
isarbatti
Rungmo
2942
Khering
Bod
8800
Singdan
M: Tondo
8082
Sinchul
28600
Kambajong
orar of Soubah Ding
puri & Milit: post
UTA
B
Mukyurm
Túk
E
DING TSA M
Road.......
Pass & Read...
Gearee
1207
Titalya
350 ft
Thlonok
Tyckchaym
Talong
Aplice
Run Triong
Bih
Lingam
Tukbruh Li
www
www.Binigh
ukbrion
Gartn
EAVE BU
Leadong
יוחלת.
Mainom
M
Chomiomo
Din hafn
Phup
Nampal
Zemu
Sa mdong
M Langai
8090
Of Bhamsong
1000
muddy
R
Jumb
Sch
Burmiok
Siligori
anridewa
dh Di
roman
Note
.D Hooker's routes.
Crosses mark the positions of
religious establishments
Bridger crossing Rivers.
Passes over Mountains.
The principal nusses of perpetual
snow..and
lines of Glaciers.
...Camping places on D Booker's router
where he stopped either in tents or huta.
The Blue coloring shows the Glaciers.
ww
Tha
Kata Chat
Nante
Bond
istu
eest?
Phyloony
Change
m
Latong
Sing tam
Rupplam
PRYORA
Yanlaing
28
Cyp
Tup
Rumak
hadam
bar
Tumbong's
Tungu
Peests
pike Lee
falam
Fallwne
Sandolig
S
HOONG
Thlonok
Peak
B
27
Pas
angh
Chamiomo
Runkpo
Mingah
Penzo
wind
4ru
Ver
H
Yealmtso
16/208
ang
Kambajong M
PROVINCE
Arun
13500 Линии по
Bhönitso
Tax
Chakoong
4-100
12.750
Choongtain
5930
Lagkep
ALVA
Tama
Bachoor
8.200
The
0
香​Ⓡ
Lofty carpet Mon all Horizon 20-25000ft
www
Moha
Samdong
15,36645
Baronchia
Tangu choo
umtong
Gay
17,000
T
Gearoo
or Gertzo
Crado
Phulling=
Gnaream Mt
Black Rock, Waugh'
17.556
Donkiah M
Powtaway
Waugh
23,175
Forked Donkiah
M: Glacier
Laches
Peykathlo
Chola Mt
• 1/bd{{{**
17.319
Hồng đã
M
Tunkra
580
Yakla Pars
Longer
ma
1700
Kinchin how
*
Gipmochi
Col. Waugh
14809
A N
s
Kambajong M
Changokhang
28.080
Bhom
89%
tom
aha
True Bearing Oct 17181849. Atmosphere poly transpar
Thatonnes
100 Statue M.
660
Wan allthena's
Bearings (with Prismatic Compass, of ruost lofty
Tibetan mowa dr from Bhoniteo.
305 o Two immour mountains
306 30 very distant.
Peak &'chuster of Snowe........
De nearer ......
337 O
Remarks
1 The wind, dust, & cold rendered the use of Theod & Comp digitale
2..308 Iannoned the loftiest mountain any where (except Jungal
it aubtended 2-0.70. Hence if distant (80 m. alt-234001
It appeared to have 4000 fof mow.-100...
24.680
8...344 A range probably beyond Teampu R. 220.
27.304)
4.30 Said to be Sof Shigazi 40.280 distant 20 m. 20166
6... 11:15 & 15:30 are more distant and lofty by far.
6.43:30 being on Theodolite level & distant 20 m. 19.500.
7.5830 & 70" are continuously snowed & below the
Theodolite level, they possibly form the range
dividing the from Trang districts of Tibet.
28
8- 120' is said to be W. of Jhansi Jhong & Painom Ron T
9-89 30 reem to be meridional ranges of the mowy Himalayah
bebreen which & Waugh's Chumalari there is no mow.
10. 88°0' called Chumalar by the Tibetan Sepas subtende an L
0:30. hence: alt. about 24.160 f (It seems higher than
Sel. Waugh's Cunalari!
341.0
344.0
360.0
11 15 Lorty mountain Snowed.
15.30 Group of D
20.
16.30 Snowed ridge (sparingly).
13.30 Red mountain, no mow 20........
68.30 Distant Snowy range
80..
60.30 Red mountain near, no snow...12...
70.0 Snowy range.....
2780.
79.0
fone of snow with shoulders... 70.....
89 0 Very distant Peak.
170.
85.45 Double topped D? nearer.... 65.
98.01 Immense Snowy mountain). 60
RO 80 called
us.30. Chamalari of Waugh
40..
The Machoo !I am told/
rises from the R. of Tongla
& winds round it as the Lachen
Choombi R.
1.70
Distant Plateau of Show...
Double peak mowed a little... 20.
30
30.
does round fongra-Lama. Tongla is
said to be lower than Longra Lama &
to have snowy mountains on West.
JD.H.
Choombi
200
Paimt
B
Torio Chaho
I
не
Machoo
ہنے
drun
ww
1.The ranges E-of Pundim & W of the Lachen River have
not been visited, nor the E heads of the GRungeet.
2. Bhomteo! Thibet: was well determined from bearings
of junga. D2 & Chamalari. but the unit of
Donkiah was not recognized from any point near
the heads of Lachen and Lachoong. The positions
of the Snowy Peakor &e thereabouts may be 1 or 2
miles wrong in position.
3. The position of Tukchawm also requires con-
firmation to 2 miles.
50
20...
Tongla Paho
M. Chumalari 23629
Seen from Bhomtso
Sinchul &Tonglo
O
Phari
4. The route & positions from Tumloong to Cheadon
are but approximates, owing to airconstances over
which I had no control.
3.The country W. of Gipmochi, portion of Yakla
Pass frontier of Sikkim S. of Chola and lower
course of Teerta River are unknown.
The following positions and their elevations are
taken from Col. Waugh's map (As. Journ Nov 14
Kanchum junga Donkiah
Junno
Kubra
Pundim
Nursing
D. 2
D.3
Tonglo
Graream Dorjiling
Chola
Sinchul
Kirsom Firmi Tendong
Melido
Singalelah
Mainom
Gipmochi
Phulloott
Machoo
All other positions, all rivers, villages, mountains,
passes &c from a rough Survey by Dr Hooker.
R.
Feeders
11 $ 1
English Miles
благать
Approximate determination
of position of the principal
Glaciers of Kinchinghow &
Donkiah M and Chomioma
Lat: 285 and 27:50:
Long: 88° 35' and 88° 50
4
Forked
Donkiah
Glacie
Donkiah
A75
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39 Heroes for the Falth: Scottish Worthies who suffered
during the Reformation. 38. 6d. (Also in boards, 2s. 6d.)
40 Martyrs for the Truth. Last Words and Dying Testi-
monies of the Scottish Worthies. Revised, with Notes. 38. 6d.
41 Cook's Boston Monday Lectures. Ist Series. 340
pp., 2s. 6d.
42 Cook's Boston Monday Lectures. 2nd Series. 300
pp., 2s. 6d.
43 Newman Smyth's Works. Containing "Old Faiths
in New Light," "The Religious Feeling," and
logy." 38. 6d.
Orthodox Theo-
5/-
*44 Hallam's Literature of Europe during the 15th, 16th,
and 17th Centuries. Complete. 900 pp., 58.
3/6
3/6
*45 Lamb's Essays of Ella and Eliana. 850 pp., 38. 6d.
46 History of Rome. By D. ROSE. Edited by H. W.
DULCKEN, Ph.D. 500 pp., 88. 6d.
3/6
47 History of Greece. By D. Rose. Edited by H. W.
DULCKEN, Ph.D. 480 pp., s. 6d.
2/6
48 Palgrave's History of the Anglo-Saxons. 98. 6d.
WARD, LOCK & CO., London, Melbourne, and New York,

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AUG 2 9 1995

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