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HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.

NOTES OE A NATURALIST

IN BENGAL, THE SIKKIM AND NEPAL HIMALAYAS,

THE KHASIA MOUNTAINS, &c.

By JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, M.D. RN. F.R.S.

A NEW EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED AND CONDENSED.

IN TWO VOLUMES.— YOL. I.

WITH WOODCUTS.

LONDON :

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1855.

LONDON :

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

PREFACE.

4

Having accompanied Sir James Ross on liis voyage
of discovery to the Antarctic regions, where botany was
my chief pursuit, I was anxious to add to my acquaint-
ance 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. Fal-
coner, the Superintendent of the H. E. I. C. Botanic
Garden at Calcutta. He 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.

The portion of the Himalaya best worth exploring,
was selected for me both by Lord Auckland and Dr.
Falconer, who each recommended Sikkim, as being
ground untrodden by traveller or naturalist. Its ruler

VI

PREFACE.

was, moreover, all but a dependant of the British
government, and it was supposed, would therefore 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 scientifi-
cally 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
particulars respecting the great mountain Cliumulari,
which was only known from Turner’s account, were
additional Inducements to a student of physical
geography ; but it was not then known that Kinchin -
junga, the loftiest known mountain on the globe, was
situated on my route, and formed a principal feature
in the physical 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 Egjqot, his
Lordship did me the honour of desiring me to consider
myself in the position of one of his suite, for the
remainder of the voyage, which was performed in the
“ Moozuffer,” a steam frigate belonging to the Indian
Navy.

During the passage out, some days were spent in

PEEFACE.

Vll

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 extracts published in the “ London
Journal of Botany,” from letters written to 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, I then
struck north to the Sikkim Himalaya.

In the course of this narrative, I shall give a sketch
of the rise, progress, and prospects of the Sanatarium,
or Health-station of Dorjiling, and of the anomalous
position held by the Sikkim Bajah. The latter cir-
cumstance led indirectly to the detention of Hr.
Campbell, the superintendent of Horjihng (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,

Vlll

PREFACE.

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 the
British and Nepalese governments. The circum-
stances of this outrage were misunderstood at the
time ; its instigators were supposed to be Chinese ;
its perpetrators 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 Bajah ; 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.

Dr. T. Thomson joined me in Dorjiling towards 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 in
the Khasia mountains ; returning to England together
in 1851.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

INTERIOR OP THE TEMPLE AT PEMIONGCHI . . FRONTISPIECE. pftf?e

OLD TAMARIND TREES . . . . . . . .15

CROSSING THE SOANE, WITH THE KTMORE HILLS IN THE DISTANCE 40

EQUATORIAL SUN-DIAL ......... 68

EQUINOCTIAL SUN-DIAL ........ 69

BRASS AZIMUTH CIRCLE 70

MONGHYR ON THE GANGES, WITH THE CURRUCKPORE HILLS IN

THE DISTANCE 80

PUNKABAREE BUNGALOW AND BASE OP THE HIMALAYA . . . 94

LEPCHA GIRL AND BOODHIST LAMA ...... 119

LEPCHA AMULET 132

PINES (PINUS LONGIFOLIA), RUNGEET VALLEY .... 139

CANE BRIDGE .......... 141

LEPCHA WATER-CARRIER WITH A BAMBOO CHUNGI . . . 147

CLASPING ROOTS OP WIGHTIA 155

SIMONBONG TEMPLE ........ 162

TRUMPET MADE OP A HUMAN THIGH-BONE ..... 163

TIBETAN AMULET . . .166

TIBETAN CHARM-BOX . . . . . . . . 188

TAMBUR RIVER AT THE LOWER LIMIT OF FIRS .... 197

WALLANCHOON VILLAGE 200

demon’s head ......... 216

ANCIENT MORAINES IN THE YANGMA VALLEY . . . . 224

LOOKING ACROSS THE YANGMA VALLEY 227

X

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

DIAGRAM OF THE GLACIAL TERRACES AT TEE FORK OF THE

YANGMA VALLEY ........ 232

SKULLS OF OVIS AMMON ........ 235

KANGLACHEM PASS 237

ANCIENT MORAINES IN THE KAMBACHEN VALLEY . . . 248

PEMIONGCHI GOOMPA AND CHAITS 271

SIKKIM LAMAS WITH PRAYING CYLINDER AND DORJE ; THE

LATERAL FIGURES ARE MONKS OR GYLONGS . . . 275

DO-MANI STONE 278

IMPLEMENTS USED IN BOODHIST TEMPLES . . . . .296

GROUP OF CHAITS AT TASSIDING 298

DOORWAY .......... 301

SOUTHERN TEMPLE . . . . . . . ..302

MIDDLE TEMPLE ......... 303

ALTAR AND IMAGES 304

PLAN OF THE SOUTH TEMPLE . . . . . . .305

TEMPLE AND WEEPING CYPRESS . . . . . . . 315

KINCHINJUNGA AND PUNDIM FROM MON LEPCHA . . . 323

MAITYRA, THE SIXTH OR COMING BOODDH . . . . . 334

ALTAR AND SONG-BOOM AT YOKSUN ...... 339

DHURMA RAJAH’S SEAL,

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Sunderbunds vegetation — Calcutta Botanic Garden — Leave for Burd-
wan — Rajah’s gardens and menagerie — Coal-beds, geology, and
plants of — Lac insect and plant — Kunker — Cowage — Effloresced
soda on soil — Glass, manufacture of — Atmospheric vapours —
Temperature, &c. — Mahowa oil and spirits — Maddaobund — Jains
— Ascent of Parasnath — Vegetation of that mountain . . 1

CHAPTER II.

Doomree — Vegetation of table-land — Birds — Lieutenant Beadle —

Hot springs of Soorujkoond — Plants near 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 — Baroon — Lizard —
Aurora Borealis — Cross the Soane — Sand, ripple-marks on —
Kymore hills — Rotas fort and palace — Nitrate of lime — Change
of climate— Lime stalagmites, enclosing leaves — Spiders, &c. —
Scenery and natural history of upper Soane valley — Bhel fruit
— Dust-storm — Alligator — Catechu — Cochlospermum — Leaf-
bellows — Scorpions — Tortoises — Florican — Limestone spheres —

Coles — Tiger-hunt — Robbery .... ... 22

CHAPTER III.

Ek-powa Ghat — Sandstones — Shahgunj — Gum-arabic — Mango —
Fair — Rujubbund — Storm — False sunset and sunrise — Bind hills

xn

CONTENTS.

PAGE

— Mirzapore — Manufactures, imports, &c. — Climate of — Thuggee
— Chunar — Benares — Mosque — Observatory — Sar-nath —
Ghazepore — Rose-gardens — Manufactory of Attar — Lord Corn-
wallis’ tomb — Ganges, scenery and natural history of — Pelicans
• — Vegetation — Insects — Dinapore — Patna — Opium godowns and
manufacture — Monghyr — Hot Springs of Seetakoond — Rocks of
Sultan-gunj — Bhagulpore — Temples of Mt. Manden — Coles and
native tribes — Bhagulpore rangers — Horticultural gardens. . 53

CHAPTER IY.

Leave Bhagulpore — Colgong — Himalaya, distant view of — Cosi,
mouth of — Difficult navigation — Sand-storms — Caragola-Ghat —
Purnea — Ortolans — Mahanuddee, transport of pebbles, &c. —
Betel-pepper, cultivation of — Titalya— Siligoree — View of outer
Himalaya — Terai — Mechis — Punkabaree — Foot of mountains —
Ascent to Dorjiling — Cicadas — Leeches — Animals — Kursiong,
spring vegetation of — Pacheem — Arrive at Dorjiling — Dorjiling,
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 . . . . . . . . 85

CHAPTER Y.

View from Mr. Hodgson’s of the snowy mountains — Their extent
and elevation — Deceptive appearance of elevation — Sinchul, view
from and vegetation of — Chumulari — Magnolias, white and purple
— ‘Rhododendron Dalhousise, arboreum and argenteum — Natives
of Dorjiling — Lepchas, origin, tradition of flood, morals, dress,
arms, ornaments, diet — cups, origin and value — Marriages —
Diseases — Burial — Worship and religion — Bijooas — Kampa Rong,
or Arratt — Limboos, origin, habits, language, &c.— Moormis —
Magras — Mechis — Comparison of customs with those of the
natives of Assam, Khasia, &c. . . . . . .112

CHAPTER VI.

Excursion from Dorjiling to Great Rungeet — Zones of vegetation —
Tree-ferns — Palms — Leebong, tea plantations — Ging — Boodhist

CONTENTS.

xm

PAGE

remains — Tropical vegetation — Pines— Lepcha clearances — Forest
fires — Boodhist monuments — Fig — Cane bridge and raft over
Rungeet — India-rubber — Yel Pote— Butterflies and other insects
— Snakes — Camp — Junction of Teesta and Rungeet — Return to
Dorjiling — Tonglo, excursion to — Bamboo flowering — Oaks —
Peepsa — Simonbong, cultivation at — European fruits at Dorjiling
— Plains of India . ........ 133

CHAPTER VII.

Continue the ascent of Tonglo — Trees — Lepcha construction of hut —
Simsibong — Climbing-trees — Frogs — Ticks— Leeches — Summit of
Tonglo — Rhododendrons — 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. . . . . . . . . .153

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 Dorjiling —

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
Chumnlari — N epal peaks — Sakkiazung — Horn bills — Road to
Wallanchoon — 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 ter-
races—Holy springs — Enormous trees — Luculia gratissima —
Khawa river — 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 . . . . . . . . . 167

VOL, i.

b

XIV

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

PAGE

Leave My wa — Suspension "bridge — Landslips — Y egetation — Bees’
nests — Glacial phenomena — Tibetans, clothing, ornaments, amu-
lets, salutation, children, dogs — Last Limboo village, Taptiatok
— Beautiful scenery — Tibet village of Lelyp — 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 — Bhoteas — Yak-hair tents
— Guobah 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 — Summit — Plants,
woolly, &c. . . . . . . . . . .189

CHAPTER X.

Return from Wallanchoon pass — Procure a bazaar at village — Dance
of Lamas — Temple and convent — Leave for Kanglachem pass —

Send part of party hack to Dorjiling — 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 — 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. — Geo-
logical causes of phenomena in valley — Scenery of valley on
descent ........... 217

CHAPTER XI.

Ascend Nango mountain — Moraines — Vegetation — Honey-combed
surface of snow — Perpetual snow — Top of pass — View — Eleva-
tion-Distance of sound— Plants— Temperature — Scenery — Cliffs

CONTENTS.

xv

PAGE

of granite and hurled boulders — Camp — Descent — Pheasants —

Larch — Distribution of Deodar — Kambachen village — Cultiva-
tion— 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 — Tempera-
ture, and observations — Gorgeous sunset — Descent to Yalloong
valley — Lose path — Night scenes — Musk deer .... 240

CHAPTER XII.

Yalloong valley — Find Kanglanamo pass closed — Change route for
the southward — Picrorhiza — Cross Yalloong range — View —
Descent — Yew — Vegetation — Misty weather — Tonghem village
— Khabang — Tropical vegetation — Sidingbah Mountain — View of
Kinchinjunga — Khabili valley — Ghorkha Havildar’s bad conduct
— Ascend Singalelah — Plague of ticks — Short commons — Cross
Islumbo pass — Boundary of Sikkim — Kulhait valley — Lingcham
— Deception by Kajee — Hear of Dr. Campbell’s going to meet
Bajah — Views in valley — Leave for Teesta river — Tipsy Kajee —
Hospitality — Murwa beer — Temples — Long Mendong — Burning
of dead — Superstitions — Cross Great Bungeet — Purchase of a
dog — Marshes — Lamas — Dismiss Gliorkhas — Bhotea house —
Murwa beer .......... 258

CHAPTER XIII.

Baklang pass — Uses of nettles — Edible plants — Lepcha war — Do-
mani stone — Neongong — Teesta valley — Pony, saddle, &c. — Meet
Campbell — Vegetation and scenery— Presents — Visit of Dewan —
Characters of Bajah and Dewan — Accounts of Tibet — Lhassa —

Siling — Tricks of Dewan — Walk up Teesta — Audience of Bajah
— Lamas — Kajees — Tchebu Lama, his character and position —
Effects of interview — Heir-apparent — Dewan’s house — Guitar —

Tibet officers — Gigantic trees — Neongong lake — Mainom, ascent
of — Vegetation — Camp on snow — View from top — Kinchin, &c.

— Vapours — Sunset effect — Temperature, &c. — Lamas of Neon-
gong—Temples — Beligious festival — Bamboo, flowering — Becross
pass of Baklang — Numerous temples, villages, &c.— Domestic
animals — Descent to Great Bungeet . . . . .276

XVI

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIY.

PAGK

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 Pemiongclii — Pemiongcki,
view from — Vegetation — Temple, decorations, &c. — Former
capital of Sikkim — History of Sikkim — Nightingales — Campbell
departs — Tchonpong — Edgeworthia — Cross Rungbee and Ratong

— Yoksun — Walnuts — View — Funereal cypresses — Doobdi —

Gigantic cypresses — Temples — Snowfall — Sikkim, &c. — Toys , 297

CHAPTER XV.

Leave Yoksun for Kinckinjunga — Ascend Ratong valley — Salt-
smuggling over Ratong — Plants — Buckeem — Blocks of gneiss —

Mon Lepcha — View — Weather — View from Gubroo — Kinchin -
junga, tops of — Pundim cliff — Nursing — Vegetation of Himalaya
— Coup d’oeil 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 ...... .... 318

CHAPTER XVI.

Ratong river below Mon Lepcha — Ferns — Vegetation of Yoksun,
tropical — Araliacece, fodder for cattle — Rice-paper plant — Lake
— Old temples — Funereal cypresses — Gigantic chait— Altars —
Songboom — Catsuperri — Worship at Catsuperri lake — Scenery
— Willow — Lamas and ecclesiastical establishments of Sikkim —
Tengling — Changachelling temples and monks — Portrait of myself
on walls — Lingcham Kajee asks for spectacles — Arrive at Little
Rungeet — At Dorjiling — Its deserted and wintry appearance . 335

HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.

CHAPTER I.

Sunderbuntls vegetation — Calcutta Botanic Harden — Leave for Burdwan
— Rajah’s gardens and menagerie — Coal-beds, geology, and plants of
— Lac insect and plant — Kunker — Cowage — Effloresced soda on soil —
Glass, manufacture of — Atmospheric vapours — Temperature, &c. —
Mahowa oil and spirits — Maddaobund — Jains — Ascent of Parasnath
— Vegetation of that mountain.

I left England on the 11th of November, 1847, and
performed the voyage to India under circumstances
which have been detailed 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 ; growing in brackish swamps, chiefly
made up of a dwarf-palm and small mangroves, with a
few scattered trees on the higher hank that runs along
the water’s edge, consisting of fan and toddy-palms.
Ever}r 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,

VOL. I.

B

2

CALCUTTA.

Chap. I.

and bears a large bead 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,
having floated about there in as great profusion as
here, till buried deep in the silt and mud that now
form the island of Sheppey.*

Higher up, the river Hoogly is entered, and large
trees, with villages and cultivation, replace the sandy
spits and marshy jungles of the great Gangetic delta.
A few miles below Calcutta, the scenery becomes beau-
tiful, beginning with the Botanic Garden, once the
residence of Roxburgh and Wallich, and now of Fal-
coner,— classical ground to the naturalist. Opposite
are the gardens of Sir Lawrence Peel ; unrivalled in
India for their beauty and cultivation, and fairly en-
titled 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. Wil-
liams of the Geological Survey, who was about to move
his camp from the Damooda valley coal-fields, near
Burdwan, to Beejagliur on the banks of the Soane,
where coal was reported to exist, in the immediate

* Bowerbank “ On tlie Fossil Fruits and Seeds of tlie Isle of Sheppey,”
and Lyell’s “Elements of Geology,” 3rd ed. p. 201.

Jan. 1848.

CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDENS.

3

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 land.

At the Botanic Gardens I received every assistance
from Dr. McLelland, who was very bus}7, superintend-
ing the publication of the botanical papers and drawings
of his friend, the late Dr. Griffith, for which native
artists were preparing copies on lithographic paper.

I was surprised to find the Botanic Gardens looked
upon by many of the Indian public, and even by some
of the better informed official men, as rather an extra-
vagant establishment, more 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
superintendence, 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 inspec-
tion 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

4

13URDWAN.

Chap. I.

horticultural to the liberality of the Hon. East India
Company, and to the energy of the several eminent
men who have carried their Hews into execution. The
Indian government itself, has already profited largely
by this garden, 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 Seliarunpore.

From no one did I receive more kindness than from
Sir James Col vile, President of the Asiatic Society,
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
28tli of January, driving to Hoogly on the river of that
name, and thence following the grand trunk-road west-
ward towards Burdwan. The novelty of palkee-tra-
velling at first renders it pleasant : the neatness with
which everything is packed, the good-humour of the
bearers, their merry pace, and the many more comforts

Jan. 1848.

PALKEE-TRAVELLINGf.

5

than could be expected in a conveyance horsed by men ,
the warmth when the sliding doors are shut, and the
breeze when they are open, are all fully appreciated on
first starting ; hut 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 “Bucksheesh, 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 my
journey’s end, I shook off the dust, and wished never
to see a palkee again.

On the following morning I was passing through the
straggling villages close to Burdwan, consisting of
native hovels by the road side, 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. MTntosh’s (the magistrate of the district),
and never more thoroughly enjoyed a hearty welcome
and a breakfast.

In the evening we visited the Rajah of Burdwan’s
palace and pleasure-grounds, where I had the first
glimpse of oriental gardening : the roads were generally
raised, running through rice fields, now dry and hard,
and bordered with trees of Jack, Bamboo, “ Pride of
India,” &c. Tanks were the prominent features: chains

6

BURDWAN.

Chap. I.

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 1 was again in my palkee, and
hurrying onwards, refreshed by the cool and clear night
air, so different from the damp and foggy atmosphere I
had left at Calcutta. On the following morning I found
myself 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 1000 feet high,
covered with a low forest of dusky green or yellow,
from the prevalence of bamboo. The lark was singing
merrily at sunrise, and the accessories of a fresh air
and dewy grass more reminded 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, 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 was busy striking the tents,
and loading the bullocks, bullock-carts and elephants ;

Jan. 1848.

COAL-FIELDS OF BURDWAN.

7

which then proceeded on the march, occupying in
straggling groups nearly three miles of road.

The coal crops out at the surface ; hut the shafts
worked are sunk through thick beds of alluvium. The
age of these coal-fields 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 these have been procured from them, the
majority of which are referred by Dr. McLelland* to
the inferior oolite epoch of England : most of these are
ferns, some of which are supposed to be the same as
occur 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 of Australia : in the first place the out-
lines of the fronds of ferns and their nervation are frail
characters if employed alone for the determination of
existing genera, and much more so of fossil fragments :
in the second place recent ferns are so widely distri-
buted, 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 lati-
tude and longitude of Yorkshire, India, and Australia,
the natural conclusion is that they could not have
supported a similar vegetation at the same epoch. In
fact, finding similar fossil plants at places widely dif-
ferent in latitude, and therefore in climate, is, in the
present state of our knowledge, rather an argument
against than for their having existed cotemporaneously.

* Reports of the Geological Survey of India. Calcutta, 1850.

8

BURDWAN.

Chap. I.

But, even supposing that specific identity of their
contained fossils be considered as fair evidence of the
cotemporaneous origin of beds ; amongst the many
collections of fossil plants that I have examined, there
is hardly a specimen, belonging to any epoch, suffici-
ently perfect to warrant the assumption that the species
to which it belonged can be recognised. The botanical
evidences which geologists too often accept as proofs of
specific identity, are such as no botanist would attach
any importance to in the investigation of existing
plants.

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 char-
coal here used is made from an Acacia : the Seiks, I
believe, employ Justicia Aclhatoda, 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

Jan. 1848.

ELEPHANTS.

9

same or many species of insect, from plants so widely
different in habit and characters, is a very curious
fact ; the more so since none of these plants have red,
but some have milky and others limpid juices.

After breakfast, Mr. Williams and I started on an
elephant, following the camp. 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 compensated for by
being so high above the dust. The mahout or driver
guides by poking his great toes under either ear, en-
forcing obedience with an iron goad, with which he
hammers the animal’s head with quite as much force
as would break a cocoa-nut, or drives it through his
thick skin down to the quick. Our elephant was an
excellent one, when he did not take obstinate fits, and
so intelligent 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 !

We met many pilgrims to Juggernath, most of whom
were on foot, while a few were 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
kindness of the people towards animals, and in some
cases towards their suffering relations, is very remark-
able, and may in part have given rise to the prevalent

10

BURDWAN.

Chap. I.

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 poison-
ing, 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. Occa-
sionally 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
inactivity, 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. The most thriving-looking wanderer is the
bearer of Ganges’ holy water, who drives a profitable
trade, his gains increasing as Iris load lightens, since
the further he wanders from the sacred stream, the
more he gets for the contents of his jar.

The Ganges being still the main channel of commu-
nication between north-west India and Bengal, we
passed very little merchandise ; such as there was,
principally consisted of cotton, which, clumsily packed
in ragged bags, dirty, and deteriorating every day, even
at this dry season, proved in how bad a state it must
arrive at the market during the rains, when the low
waggons are dragged through the streams.

Occasionally a string of camels was seen, but, owing

Feb. 1848.

VEGETATION OF BEHAR.

11

to the clamp climate, these are rare, and east of the
meridian of Calcutta altogether unknown. 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 ; and often occurring in strata,
like flints. 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 impal-
pable dust.

The vegetation of this part of the country was very
poor, consisting of a low stunted jungle, and no good-
sized trees being visible : even grasses were few,
and dried up, except in the beds of the rivulets. Bam-
boos were however common, and the Cowage plant,
now with over-ripe pods, by shaking which, in pass-
ing, 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,
an insignificant village. The air was cool, and the
atmosphere clear; the temperature, at three in the
morning, being 65°. As the sun rose, Parasnatli ap-
peared 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 elevated country, the slope of which, upward to
the base of the mountain, though imperceptible, is
really considerable; and it is surrounded by lesser hills

12

HILLS OF BEHAR.

Chap. I.

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 ; hut still the hills are
clearly defined, without the harsh outlines so charac-
teristic 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 val-
leys in front. There was little cultivation, and that
little of the most wretched kind; even rice-fields were
few and scattered ; there was no corn, nor lentiles,
nor Castor-oil, no Poppy, Cotton, Safflower, nor other
crops of the richer soils that flank the Ganges and
Hoogly ; a very little Sugar-cane, Dhal (a small pea),
Mustard, Linseed, and Rape, the three latter 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 Hate. 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 elephant’s
annoyance.

The country around the base of Parasnatli 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.

Feb. 1848.

MADDAOBUND.

13

The temperature varied from 65° at night, to 82° at
d p.m., 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 Parasnath. Though the nights were clear
and starlight, no dew was deposited, owing to the
great dryness of the air.

On the 2nd of February we proceeded to Tofe-
Clioney, the hills increasing in height to nearly 1000
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 sea-
son of the year. The hills and valleys were richer
than I expected, though far from luxuriant.

This being the most convenient station whence to
ascend Parasnath, we started at 0 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, resembling good
oaks : the natives distil a kind of arrack from its fleshy
flowers, which are also eaten raw. The seeds, too,
yield a concrete oil, by expression, which is used for
lamps and occasionally for frying.

Some villages at the west ha.se of the mountain
occupy a better soil, and are surrounded with richer

14

HILLS OF BEHAK.

Chap. I.

cultivation ; palms, mangos, and tlie tamarind, the
first and last rare features in this part of Bengal, ap-
peared to be common, with fields of rice and broad
acres of flax and rape, through the latter of which the
blue Indian Broom rape ( Orobanche indica) swarmed.
The short route to Maddaobund, through narrow rocky
valleys, was impracticable for the elephant, and we had
to make a very considerable detour, 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 -hearer along the
road declares to carry off the torch -hearers, torch and
all. Bears they said were scarce, and all other wild
animals, hut a natural jealousy of Europeans often
leads the natives to deny the existence of what they
know to he an attraction to the proverbially sporting
Englishman.

The site of Maddaobund, elevated 1230 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 beau-
tiful ; and 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

Feb. 1848

MADDAOBUND,

15

village up a pathway worn by the feet of many a pil-
grim from the most remote parts of India.

OLD TAMARIND TREES.

Parasnath is a mountain of peculiar sanctity, to
which circumstance is to he 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,

1G

HILLS OF BEHAR.

Chap. I.

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 Parasnath’s foot, instead of that of Munja-goslia of
the Boodlis, 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
the feet of Parasnatli, 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 proceed 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., Bajpootana, 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 conveyances
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

Feb. 1848.

ASCENT OF PARASNATH.

17

amusing. Our coolies 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 he 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.

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 atten-
dant worshippers singing in discordant voices, beating
tomtoms, cymbals, &c. Images (of Boodli 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 and willing to explain what they
understood of their own worship.

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

18

HILLS OF BEHAR.

Chap. I.

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 vegetation, especially of the nettle tribe.
Wild bananas formed a beautiful, and to me a 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 debris 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 ; and 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 struck through a thick
forest of Sal (Vateria robusta) and other trees, spanned
with cables of scandent Bauhinia stems. At about
3000 feet above the sea, the vegetation became more
luxuriant, and by a little stream I collected five species
of ferns and some mosses, — all in a dry state, however.
The white ant apparently does not enter this cooler
region. At 3500 feet the vegetation again changed,
the trees all becoming gnarled and scattered ; and as
the dampness also increased, more mosses and ferns
appeared. 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

Feb. 1848.

VEGETATION OF PAR A SNATH.

19

berberry and an Osbeckia marked the change in the
vegetation most decidedly, which were frequent over
the whole summit, with coarse grasses, and various
bushes.

At noon we reached the saddle of the crest (alt.
4280 feet), where was a small temple, one of five or six
wliich occupy various prominences of the ridge. The
wind, N. W., was cold, the temp. 56°. The atmosphere
was unfortunately hazy, nevertheless the view was
beautiful. To the north were ranges of low wooded
hills, and the course of the Barakali and Adji rivers ;
to the south lay a more level 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 rose several sharp
ridges of the mountain itself ; the western considerably
the highest. Immediately below, the mountain flanks
appeared clothed with impenetrable forest, here and
there interrupted by rocky eminences ; while to the
north the grand trunk-road crossed the plains, like a
white thread, as straight as an arrow, spanning the beds
of the mountain torrents with picturesque bridges.

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 8000 feet below on the north flank, here ascended
to near the summit, such as figs and bananas. A short-
stemmed palm was tolerably abundant, and a small

20

HILLS OF BEHAR.

Chap. I.

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 hut the
sculptured feet of Parasnath, and some marble Boodh
idols ; cross-legged figures, with crisp hair and the
Brahminical 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 considerable numbers, passing from one
temple to another, and generally leaving a few grains
of dry rice at each.

The culminant rocks were very dry, but in the rains
may possess many curious plants; a fine Kalanchoc
was common, with a berberry, 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 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

Feb. 1848.

VEGETATION OF PARASNATH.

21

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 us. It was
truly a fearful sight, especially the lepers, and numerous
unhappy victims to elephantiasis.

Though the botany of Parasnath 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.

CHAPTER II.

Doomree — Vegetation of table-land — Birds — Lieutenant Beadle — Hot
springs of Soorujkoond — Plants near 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 — Baroon — Lizard— Aurora Borealis — Cross the
Soane — Sand, ripple- marks on — Kymore hills — Rotas fort and palace
— Nitrate of lime— Change of climate — Lime stalagmites, enclosing
leaves — Spiders, &c. — Scenery and natural history of upper Soane
valley — Bhel fruit — Dust-storm — Alligator — Catechu — Cochlosper-
mwn — Leaf-bellows — Scorpions — Tortoises — Florican — Limestone
spheres — Coles — Tiger-hunt — Robbery.

In tlie evening we returned to our tamarind tree,
and the next morning regained the trunk-road, following
it to the dawk bungalow of Doomree. On the way I
found the Ccesalpinia paniculata, a magnificent climber,
festooning the trees with its dark glossy foliage and
gorgeous racemes of orange blossoms. Receding from
the mountain, the country again became barren ; and
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
browsers and stockings.

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

Feb. 1848.

VEGETATION OF BELCUPPEE.

23

bungalow of Lieutenant Beadle, the surveyor of roads,
sixteen miles further.

At 10 a.m. the sun became uncomfortably hot, the
thermometer being 77°. I had lost my hat, and pos-
sessed no substitute but a silken nightcap ; so I had
to tie a handkerchief over my head, to the astonish-
ment of the passers-by. Holding my head down, I had
little source of amusement but in examining the foot-
marks on the road; and these were strangely diver-
sified 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, naked and shod, were all
recognisable.

It was noon ere I arrived at Lieutenant Beadle’s, at
Belcuppee (alt. 1219 feet), glad enough of the hearty
welcome I received, being very hot, dusty, and hungry.
The country about his bungalow is very pretty, from
the number of wooded hills and large trees, especially
of banyan and peepul, noble oak-like Mahowas, Mangos,
and Figs. These are all scattered, however, and do not
form forest, such as in a stunted form clothes the hills.
Insects and birds are numerous, the latter consisting
of jays, crows, doves, sparrows, and mama (Pastor) ;
also the Phoenicophaus tristis (“ Malioka ” 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, enjoy-
ing in his society several excursions to some hot
springs, and other places of interest, in the neighbour-
hood. These springs (called Soorujkoond) are situated

24

HILLS OF BEHAR.

Chap. II.

close to the road, near the month 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 foetid
flowers. The hot springs are four in number, and rise
in as many ruined brick tanks, each 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 meet in one stream after a few yards, and
are conducted by bricked canals to a pool about eighty
yards off.

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 con-
stantly, boils eggs, and though brilliantly clear, has an
exceedingly nauseous taste.

Confervce abound in the warm stream from the
springs, and two species, one oclireous brown, and the
other green, occur on the margins of the tanks them-
selves, 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 constitution capable of resisting the heat, if not a
predilection for it; these were all Cyperacece, having
their roots in water of 100°, and where they are

Feb. 1848.

INDIAN OLIBANUM.

25

probably exposed to greater beat ; all were very luxu-
riant. From the margins 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 abounded in water at 112°, with quantities
of dead shells; at 90° frogs were very lively, with live
shells, and various water-beetles.

I left Belcuppee on the 8th of February, following
Mr. Williams’ camp : the morning was clear and cold,
the temperature being only 56°. I crossed the nearly
dry broad bed of the Burkutta river, a noble stream
during the rains, carrying along huge boulders of
granite. Near this I passed the Cliolera-tree, a famous
peepul, so called from a detachment of infantry having
been attacked and decimated at the spot by that fell
disease : it was covered with inscriptions and votive
tokens in the shape of rags, &c. The road continued
to ascend to 1360 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 very
fragrant and transparent gum, celebrated throughout
the East, was flowing abundantly from the trunks.

Descending to the village of Bur shoot, we lost sight
of the Olibanum, 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 breakfast. There were a few
lofty fan-palms here too, great rarities in this soil and
at this elevation : one, about eighty feet high, towered

VOL. I.

C

25

HILLS OF BEHAR.

Chap. II.

above some wretched hovels, displaying the curious
proportions of this tribe of palms ; namely, 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.

So little was there to observe, that I again amused
myself by examining 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.

Chorparun, at the top of the Dunwah pass, is situated
on an extended barren flat, 1320 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, with a descent of nearly 1000 feet
in six miles, of which 600 are exceedingly steep. The
pass is well wooded, with abundance of bamboo,
Bombax , Cassia, Acacia, and Butea, with Calotropis,
the purple Mudar, a very handsome road-side plant,
which I had not seen before, but which, with the
Argemone Mexicana , was to be a companion for hun-
dreds of miles farther. All the views in the pass are
very picturesque, though wanting in good foliage, such
as Figs would afford, of which I did not see one tree.
The banyan and peepul always appeared to be planted,
as did the tamarind and mango.

Dunwah, at the foot of the pass, is 620 feet above
the sea, and nearly 1000 below the mean level of the
highland we had been traversing. Every thing bears

Feb. 1848. WILD PEACOCKS AND JUNGLE FOWL.

27

here a better aspect ; the woods at the foot of the hills
afforded many plants ; the bamboo ( B . stricta) is green
instead of yellow and white ; a little castor-oil is cul-
tivated, 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, and contrasting with the wild jungle-
fowl, whose crow by no means rivals that of the farm-
yard cock.

In the evening we left Dunwali 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 road- side, 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 lltli of February to Sheer-
gotty, where Mr. Williams and his camp were awaiting
our arrival. Wherever cultivation appeared the crops
were tolerably luxuriant, of 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.

c 2

28

HILLS OF BEHAR.

Chap. II.

A retrospect of the ground passed over is unsatis-
factory, 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 he obtained, for of annuals I
scarcely found twenty : at that season, however, the
jungles of Debar 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 Bajmahal. This range runs south of
the Soane and Kymore, which it meets I believe at
Omerkuntuk :* further west again, they separate, the
southern forming the Satpur range, which divides
the valley of the Taptee from that of the Nerbudda.
The Parasnath 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
range consists of gneiss, through which granite hills
protrude, the loftiest of which is Parasnath. The north-
east Vindhya (called Kymore), on the other hand,
consists of nearly horizontal beds of sandstone, over-
lving inclined beds of limestone. Between the latter

* A lofty mountain said to be 7000 — 8000 feet high.

Feb. 1848.

SOANE PEBBLES.

29

and the Parasnatli gneiss, come (in order of super-
position) beds of quartz, liornstone, jaspers, &c. These
are thrown up, by greenstone I believe, along the
north and north-west boundary of the gneiss range,
and form the rocks of Colgong, of Sultangunj, and of
Mongliyr, on the Ganges, as also various detached
hills near Gyali, 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 Curruck-
pore range, as on the south hank of the Soane, so
much so 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 to the table -land, properly so called. A
little beyond the coal fields, this table-land reaches an
average height of 1130 feet, which is continued for
upwards of 100 miles, to the Dunwah pass. Here the
descent is sudden to plains, which, continuous with
those of the Ganges, run up the Soane till beyond
Botasgliur. Except for the occasional ridges mentioned
above, and some hills of 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 Eajmahal, and forcing it to

30

SOANE VALLEY.

Chap. II.

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 geological features
less different, or its concomitant and in part resultant
characters of agriculture and native population.

On the 12tli of February, we left Slieergotty (alt.
468 feet), crossing some small streams, which flow N.
to the Ganges. Between Slieergotty and the Soane,
occur many isolated hills of greenstone, better known
to the traveller from having been telegraphic stations.

The road-sides 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 con-
ducted 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 following day we marched to Baroon 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 was the road. The Soane
was 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 were 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

Feb. 1848.

AURORA BOREALIS.

81

is a classical river, being now satisfactorily identified
with the Eranoboas of the ancients.*

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 covered.
The adaptation of the two first specimens in colour to
the parts to which they adhered, was sufficiently
remarkable ; but the third case was certainly most
extraordinary.

During the night of the 14th of February, I observed
a beautiful display of the Aurora borealis. It com-
menced at 9 p.m., with about thirty lancet beams
rising in the north-west from a low luminous arch,
which crossed the zenith, and converged towards the
opposite quarter of the heavens. All moved and
flashed slowly, occasionally splitting and forking,
fading and brightening ; they were clearly defined,
though the milky way and zodiacal light could not be
discerned, and the stars and planets were very pale.
When this display had lasted about an hour, the light

* The etymology of Eranoboas is undoubtedly Hierrinia Vdhu (Sans-
krit), the golden-armed. Sona is also the Sanskrit for gold. The stream
is celebrated for its agates (Soane pebbles), which are common, but gold is
not now obtained from it.

32

SOANE VALLEY.

Chap. II.

became more diffused, the beams lessened by degrees,
and a dark belt appeared in the luminous arch,
gradually breaking it up, and appearing to disperse
the beams, of which, however, a few faint ones con-
tinued to appear occasionally until midnight.

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 sand, and the draught bullocks
were rather in the way than otherwise.

The body of water over which we were 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, and 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 pro-
gressive 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, oases of mud and clay, in laminae
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 termi-

Feb. 1848.

VILLAGE OF TILOTHO.

33

nation of the Kymore Hills, along whose S.E. base
our course now lay, as we here quitted the grand trunk
road for a country rarely visited.

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 covered even tall trees with a golden web,
and the Capparis acuminata was in full flower along
the road side. Tilotho, a beautiful village, was situated
in a superb grove of Mango, Banyan, Peepul, Tamarind,
and Bassia. The Date or toddy-palm and fan-palm
were very abundant and tall : each had a pot hung
under the crown. The natives climb their trunks
with a hoop or cord round the body and both ancles,
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 that from the Date alone ferments, and is
distilled ; while in other parts of India, the 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
sandstone, very like the rocks at the Cape of Good
Plope, with occasionally a shallow valley, and a slope

34

SOANE VALLEY.

Chap. II.

of debris 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 Parasnatli, but stunted :
I climbed to the top, the latter part by steps or ledges
cut in the sandstone. The summit was clothed with
long grass, trees of Diospyros and Terminalici, and
here and there the Bosivellici. On the precipitous
rocks the curious white-barked Sterculia foetida “ flung
its arms abroad,” leafless, and looking as if blasted by
lightning.

On the 17th we marched to Akbarpore, a village
overhung by the rocky precipice of Kotasghur. Passing
between the river and a detached conical hill of lime-
stone, capped with a flat mass of sandstone, the spur of
Rotas broke suddenly on the view, and very grand it
was, quite realising my anticipations 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, about four miles deep, bounded
by a continuation of the escarpment. At the foot of
the crowned spur is the village of Akbarpore, 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

* On the 24th of June, 1848, the Soane rose to an unprecedented height,
and laid this grove of Mangos three feet under water.

Feb. 1848.

BEAUTIFUL OLD WELL.

35

during some rambles in the neighbourhood, and to
whose experience, founded on the best habits of obser-
vation, I am indebted for much information. 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, I found there 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 are doubtless scattered abundantly
over the surrounding plains, but 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 wras about twelve
feet square ; its roots assumed a singular form,
enveloping two sides of the walls 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
00°; and most refreshing to look, either up the shaft
to the green fig-tree 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 Itotas 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

36

SOANE VALLEY.

Chap. II.

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, and
intersected by paths in all directions. The ascent is
about 1200 feet — a long pull in the blazing sun of
February. The turf consists chiefly of spear-grass and
Andropogon muricatus, the kus-kus, which yields a
favourite fragrant oil, used as a medicine in India. A
pretty octagonal summer-house, with its roof supported
b}^ pillars, occupies one of the highest points of the
plateau, and commands a superb view. 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
architecture : 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 preci-
pice of 1000 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 habitable, but the greater
part are ruinous, and covered with climbers, both of
wild flowers and of the naturalised garden plants of the
adjoining shrubbery; the Arbor-tristis, with Hibiscus,

Feb. 1848.

POTAS PALACE.

37

Abutilon, &c., and above all, the little yellow-flowered
Linaria ramosissima, crawling over every ruined wall,
as we see the walls of our old English castles clothed
with its congener L. Cymbalaria.

In the old dark stables I observed the soil to be
covered with a copious evanescent efflorescence of
nitrate of lime, like soap-suds scattered about.

I made Rotas Palace 1490 feet above the sea, so
that this table -land is here only fifty feet higher than
that we had crossed on the grand trunk road, before
descending at the Dunwah pass. Its mean temperature
is below that of the valley, but though so cool, agues
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 atmos-
phere, 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 sacri-
fices, is talked of. Tigers are common, and bears are
numerous ; they have, besides, the leopard, panther,
viverine cat, and civet ; and of the dog tribe the pariah,
jackal, fox, and wild dog, called Koa. Deer are very

38

SOANE VALLEY.

Chap. II.

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.

On the following day we visited Raj ghat, 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 dismounted, and whence
wTe 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 were indi-
cations of coal. The woods were full of monkeys, but
though dense, were very dry, containing no Palm,
Arums, Peppers, Orchids, or Ferns. The springs
were charged with lime, of which enormous tuff beds
were deposited on the sandstone, full of impressions of
the leaves and stems of the surrounding trees, which,
however, I found it very difficult to recognize ; and I
could not help contrasting this circumstance with the
fact that so many 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 streams take up quantities of the
efflorescence, which they scatter over the sandstones
in a singular manner.

On the 19th of February wre 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 abundance of English genera — Cyno-
glossum, Veronica , Potentilla, Ranunculus sceleratus ,
Rumex, several herbaceous Compositce and Labiatce ;
Tamarix formed a small bush in rocky hillocks in the

CROSSING THE SOANE. WITH THE KYMORE HILLS IN THE DISTANC

Feb. 1848.

VEGETATION OF SOANE RIVER.

41

bed of the river, and in pools were several aquatic
plants, Zannichellia , 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.

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 was very sandy,
and about one mile and a half across. 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 Soanepore, 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
trees with their booty, quickly descended, and repeating
the operation of reconnoitring and plundering.

Near this the sandy banks of the Soane were full of
martins’ nests, each 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 the cliff like
corn from a sack, in quantities quite inconceivable. I
did not observe the martin feed on them.

The entomology here resembled that of Europe,
more than I had expected in a tropical country, where
predaceous beetles, at least Car abide ce and Staphy-
linideee , are generally considered rare. The latter

42

SOANE VALLEY.

Chap. II.

tribes swarmed under tlie 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 Death’s-head
Sphynx, and the many-celled nidus of the leaf-cutter
bee, were very common.

A large columnar Euphorbia (. E . ligulata ) is com-
mon all along the Soane, and I observed it to be used
everywhere for fencing. I had not remarked the
E. nerii folia ; 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 certainly not indigenous.

From this place onwards up the Soane, there was no
road of any kind, and we were compelled to be our own
engineers. The sameness of the vegetation and the
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 Maliowa
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.

So slow and difficult was our progress through fields
and woods, and across deep gorges from the hills, that

Feb. 1843. DIFFICULTIES OF MAKING PROGRESS.

43

we advanced but a few miles eacli day; the elephant's
head too frequently ached too badly to let him push,
and the cattle would not proceed when the draught was
not equal. What was worse, it was impossible to get
them 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
capsized 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. ; and I was not surprised when one of my carts
was hopelessly broken down ; advancing on the spokes
instead of the tire of the wheels.

On the 23rd and 24th we continued to follow up the
Soane, the country becoming densely wooded, very wild,
and picturesque ; the woods being full of monkeys,
peacocks, hornbills, and wild animals. Strychnos pota-
torum, whose berries are used to purify water, forms a
dense foliaged tree, 30 to 60 feet high, some individuals
pale yellow, others deep green, though both in apparent
health. Feronia elephantum and JEgle marmelos* were
very abundant, with Sterculia, and the dwarf date-palm.

A spur of the Kymore, like that of Rotas, here pro-
jects 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

* The Bhel fruit, lately introduced into English medical practice, as an
astringent of great effect, in cases of diarrhoea and dysentery.

44

SOANE VALLEY.

Chap. II.

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,
which was attracted to the spur, and darted down as it
were to mingle its fire with that of the forest ; so many
hashes appeared to strike on the flames, that it is pro-
bable the heated air attracted them. We were awakened
between 3 and 4 a.m., by a violent dust-storm, which
threatened to carry away the tents : this was no doubt
owing to our position at the mouth of the gully formed
by the opposite hills. 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 a.m. it suddenly fell calm, and we proceeded to
Chanchee (alt. 500 feet), many of 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 alligator, 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, which was playing in the water as its mother was
washing her utensils in the river. The brute was hardly
dead, much distended by the prey, and the mother was
standing beside it with her hands clasped hi agony,

Feb. 1848.

CATECHU TREES.

45

unable to withdraw her eyes from the cursed reptile,
which still clung to life with that tenacity for which its
tribe are so conspicuous; besides 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 fur-
niture 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 for
yielding the extract.

The Dhak 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 bright orange-red petals con-
trasting brilliantly against the jet-black velvety calyx.
The nest of the leaf-cutter bee was in thousands in the
cliffs, with Mayflies, caddis -worms, spiders, and many
predaceous beetles.

We marched on the 28tli 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

46

SOANE VALLEY.

Chap. II.

ruin of the elephant’s feet, and then over undulating
hills of limestone; on the latter I found trees of Cochlos-
permim , 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 a curious sort of rude
bellows are made, with which the natives of these hills
smelt iron. Scorpions appeared very common here, of
a small kind, 1 J inch 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 Bee-
jaghur, where coal is reported to exist ; and here we
again crossed the Soane, and for the last time. The
ford was 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 many individual trees
were very fine ; one tree of the Hardwickia, about 120
feet high, was as handsome a monarch of the forest as

March, 1S48. SOANE VALLEY, NATURAL HISTORY.

47

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 Beejagliur, 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 terminating in an abrupt spur
(Mungeesa Peak) whose summit was covered with a
ragged forest. At Kunch we saw four alligators sleep-
ing in the river, looking at a distance like logs of wood :
all were of the sliort-nosed or mugger land, dreaded by
man and beast ; I saw none of the sharp -snouted (or
gavial), 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 geological
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 1000 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 en-
gineering, cutting through forest, smoothing down the
banks of the water- courses to be crossed, and clearing

48

SOANE VALLEY.

Chap. II.

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 thence plunged
into a dense forest. Our course was directed towards
Mungeesa Peak, between 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 scratching^ were nothing to this.
Peacocks and jungle -fowl were very frequent, the
squabbling of the former and the hooting of the mon-
keys 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 meet-
ing 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.

In the afternoon, I examined the conical hill, which,
like that near Eotas, is of stratified beds of limestone,
capped with sandstone. A stream runs round its base,
cutting through the alluvium to the subjacent rock,
which is exposed, and contains flattened spheres of
limestone. These spheres are from the size of a fist

* The Coles, like the Dangas 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.

March, 1848.

FORT OF BEEJAGHUR.

49

to that of a child’s head, or even much larger; they are
excessively hard, and neither laminated nor formed of
concentric layers. At the top of the hill the sandstone
cap was perpendicular on all sides, and its dry top
covered with small trees, especially of Cochlospe rmum .
A few large fig-trees clung to the edge of the rocks,
and by forcing their roots into the interstices had
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 Yinclhya range rose in rugged
elevations ; — South, flowed the Soane, backed by ranges
of wooded hills, smoking like volcanos 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 Beejagliur 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
un distinguishable.

There are many tigers on these hills ; and as one
was close by, and had killed several cattle, Mr. Felle

VOL. I.

D

50

SOANE VALLEY.

Chai\ II.

kindly offered us a chance of slaying him. Bullocks
are tethered out, over-night, in the places likely to he
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 where-
abouts 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, when 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, natives were sent, who built maclians
(stages) in the trees, high out of danger’s reach ; Mr.
Theobald and myself occupied one of these perches in
a Harclwickia 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 small 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

March, 184S.

TIGER-HUNT.

51

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 beneath 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. They
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 olfak

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 fiat 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,
tortoiseshell, Ac., 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 are, moreover,
dexterous thieves ; of which we had a proof in their
robbing one of the tents placed between two others,

D 2

52

SOANE VALLEY.

Chap. II.

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 boot}", in the shape of
clothes, and a tempting strong brass -bound box,
containing private letters. The clothes they dropped
outside, but the box 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 — Gum-arabic — Mango — Fair —
Rujubbund — Storm — False sunset and sunrise — Bind hills — Mirza-
pore — Manufactures, imports, &c. — Climate of — Thuggee — Chunar —
Benares — Mosque — Observatory — Sar-nath • — Ghazepore — Rose-
gardens — Manufactory of Attar — Lord Cornwallis’ tomb — Ganges,
scenery and natural history of — Pelicans — Vegetation — Insects —
Dinapore — Patna — Opium godowns and manufacture — Monghyr — Hot
Springs of Seetakoond — Rocks of Sultan-gunj — Bhagulpore — Temples
of Mt. Manden — Coles and native tribes — Bhagulpore rangers —
Horticultural gardens.

On tlie 3rd of March 1 bade farewell to Mr. Williams
and his kind party, and rode over a plain to the village
of Marknnda, at the foot of the Ghat. There the
country becomes very rocky and wooded, and a stream
is crossed, which runs over a flat bed of limestone,
cracked into the appearance o£ a tesselated pavement.
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, and continued in an
unbroken hue ; and the views across the plain and
Soane valley, over which the sun was now setting, wrere

54

KYMORE HILLS.

Chap. III.

superb. At the summit we entered on a dead flat
plain or table -land, with no hills, except along the brim
of the 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 Boump (alt.
1090 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 its formation, much more fertile than that
I had left. Water is abundant, both in tanks and wells,
and rice-fields, broad and productive, cover the ground;
while groves of tamarinds and mangos, now loaded with
blossoms, occur at every village.

The gum-arabic Acacia is abundant here, though not
seen lower, 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 in some decree follows the
range of the camel, which is its constant companion
over thousands of leagues. In the valley of the Ganges
I was told that neither the animal nor plant flourish
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 Yerd Islands, the westernmost limit of its dis-
tribution ; imported thither, however, as it now is into
Australia, where, though there is no Acacia Arabic a ,
four hundred other species of the genus are known.

March, 1848.

MANGO— FAIR.

55

Tlie mango, which is certainty the fruit of India,
(as the pine-apple is of the West Indies,) was now
blossoming, and a superb sight. The young leaves are
purplish-green, and form 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 were
the principal customers; for the latter 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 occupied 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 work-
manship, 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.

I here visited a small tarn, or more property the
expanded bed of a stream, art having aided nature in
its formation : it is called Rujubbund (the pleasant
spot), and is edged by rocks and cliffs fringed with the

56

KYMORE HILLS.

Chap. III.

usual trees of tlie neiglibourliood ; it is a wild and
pretty spot, not unlike some birch-bordered pool in the
mountains of Wales or Scotland, sequestered and pic-
turesque. It was dark before 1 got back, with heavy
clouds and 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 pji.,
blowing open the doors, 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 phenomenon 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 beautiful
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 midnight, with singular
brightness, almost equalling the milky way.

On the 7th of March I left Shahgunj for Mirzapore,
the road leading over a dead alluvial flat to Amowee,
about fifteen miles from the Ganges, which is seen
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

MIRZAPORE.

57

March, 1848.

vast trouble in getting bearers for my palkee. In it I
proceeded tlie next day to Mirzapore, descending a
steep gliat of the Bind hills by an excellent road, to
the level plains of the Ganges. Unlike tlie 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 inhabitants. 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 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 durability, equal to the English. Indigo seed from
Bundelkund is also a most extensive article of com-
merce, 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 deities carved from
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

58

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. III.

abundant and excellent, and the strawberries, which
ripen in March, rival the European fruit in size, though
hardly in flavour.

During the few days spent at Mirzapore, in the
house of my friend C. Hamilton, Esq., 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 atmosphere was extremely
dry and electrical, the hair constant!}" 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 Afghanistan, he constantly expe-
rienced a shock.

Here I had the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant
Ward, one of the suppressors of Thuggee ( Thuggee , in
Hindostan, signifies a deceiver ; fraud, not open force,
being employed). This gentleman kindly showed me
the approvers or king’s evidence of his establishment,
belonging to those three classes of human scourges,
the 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 committed many
murders, saw no harm in them, and felt neither shame
nor remorse. His organs of observation and destruc-
tiveness were large, and the cerebellum small. He
explained to me how the gang waylay the unwary
traveller, enter into conversation with him, and have
him suddenly seized, when the superior throws his own
girdle round the victim’s neck and strangles him, press-

March, 1848.

THUGS— DAKOITS— POISONERS.

59

ing the knuckles against the spine. Taking off his own
girdle, 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 profession have particular stations, which
they generally select for murder, throwing the body of
their victim into a well.

The Dakoit ( clakhee , a robber) belongs to a class who
rob in gangs, hut never commit murder — arson and
housebreaking also forming part of their profession.
These are all high-class Rajpoots, originally from
Guzerat; who, on being conquered, vowed vengeance
on mankind. They speak both Hindostanee and the
otherwise extinct Guzerat language ; this is guttural in
the extreme, and very singular in sound. They are a
very remarkable and cowardly 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, hut far from
powerful Nepalese, with high arched eyebrows, and no
organs of observation.

The Poisoners all belong to one caste, of Pasie, or
dealers in toddy : they go singly 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’ intoxication, during
which he is robbed, and left to recover or sink under
the stupifying effects of the narcotic. The one whom I
saw told me that the Datura seed is gathered without
ceremony, and at any time, place, or age of the plant.
He was a dirty, ill-conditioned looking fellow, with no

60

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. III.

bumps behind his ears, or prominence of eyebrow
region, but a remarkable cerebellum.

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 neighbour-
hood of their own villages ; which, however, were not
exempt from the visits of other Thugs ; so that, as
Major Sleeman says, — “ The 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 penetrated.” Candeisli 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 Mahommedan 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 prodigiously, —
seven original gangs having migrated from Delhi to
the Gangetic provinces about 200 years ago, from
which 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 pro-
fession, regard murder as sport, and are never haunted
with dreams, nor troubled with pangs of conscience

March, 1848.

THUGS.

61

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 con-
sulting omens, such as the direction in which a hare or
jackal crosses the road ; and even far more trivial cir-
cumstances will determine the fate of a dozen of people,
and perhaps of an immense treasure. All worship the
pickaxe, which is symbolical of their profession, and
an oath sworn on it binds closer than on the Koran.
The consecration of this weapon is a most elaborate
ceremony, and takes place only under certain trees.
The Thugs rise through various grades : the lowest are
scouts ; the second, sextons ; the third are holders of
the victim’s hands ; the highest, stranglers.

Though all agree in never practising cruelty, or
robbing previous to murder, — never allowing any hut
infants to escape (and these are trained to Thuggee),
and never leaving a trace of such goods as may he
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 ; hut 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 he sold to prostitution.

Major Sleeman has constructed a map demonstrating

62

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. III.

the number of “ Bails,” or regular stations for com-
mitting 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 confessed to having been
engaged in 931 murders, and the least guilty of the
number in 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 8000/.

Of the various facilities for keeping up the system,
the most prominent are, the practice amongst the
natives of travelling before dawn, of travellers mingling
freely together, and taking their meals by the way- side
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
Government.

March, 1848.

THUGS, SUPPRESSION OF

63

A few examples of the activity exercised by the
suppressors may be interesting. They act wholly
through the information given by approvers, who are
simply king’s evidences. Of GOO Thugs, all except
seventy were captured in ten years, though separated
into six gangs, and their operations continued from
1820 to 1830 : the last party was taken in 1836. And
again between the years 182G and 1835, 1562 Thugs
were seized, of whom 382 were hanged, and 909 trans-
ported ; 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 Xteports (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 Nerbudcla, and considered himself acquainted with
every circumstance that occurred in the neighbourhood ;
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 eveiy
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 crews 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 exclamation.

At Mirzapore I engaged a boat to carry me down

64

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. III.

the river to Bhagulpore, whence I was to proceed to
the SikTim -Himalaya. The sketch at p. 80 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 appear-
ance was not unlike that of a floating haystack, or
thatched cottage : its length was 40 feet, and breadth
15, 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 hut a little above the
water’s edge. My portion of this floating residence
vTas lined with a kind of reed-work formed of long
culms of Saccharum. The crew and captain con-
sisted of six naked Hindoos, one of whom steered by
the huge rudder, sitting on a bamboo -stage astern ;
the others pulled four oars in the very hows oppo-
site my door, or tracked the boat along the river-
bank.

In my room (for cabin I cannot call it) stood my
palkee, fitted as a bed, with musquito 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 tele-
scope, botanical box, dark lantern, barometer, and ther-
mometer, &c., &c. Our position was often ashore , and,
Hindoo-like, on the lee-sliore, going bump, bump,
bump, so that I could scarcely write. I considered
myself fortunate in having to take this slow convey-
ance down, it enabling me to write and arrange all
day long.

March, 1848.

GANGES AT BENARES.

65

On the afternoon of the 15th of March I passed
Chunar.* This is a tabular mass of sandstone, project-
ing into the river, and forming 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 allu-
vium, 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.

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.

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 building-
itself is deficient in beauty or ornament, but the view
from it over the town, especially of the European Resi-
dents’ quarter, is fine ; 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 ;
while opposite is a great sandy plain. The town below
appears a mass of poor, square, flat-roofed houses,

* The first station at which Henry Martyn laboured in India.

66

BENARES.

Chap. III.

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 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. Enormous spiders’ webs hang from
the crumbling walls, resembling curtains of coarse
muslin, being often some yards across, and not arranged
in radii and arcs, but spun like weaver’s woofs. Paint-
ings, remarkable only for their hideous proportions and
want of perspective, are daubed on the walls in ver-
milion, 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

March, 1848.

BENARES OBSERVATORY.

67

city are its most remarkable features : 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.

Through the kindness of Mr. Beade (the Commis-
sioner), 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 dis-
gusting 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. I
emerged, adorned with a chaplet of magnolia flowers,
and with my hands full of Calotroftis 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
Ce3Tlon, accidentally let a medicine -chest fall into it.
The 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, Bajali of Jayanagar, upwards of 200 years ago ;
his skill in mathematical science was so well known,
that the Emperor Mahommed Shah employed him to
reform the calendar.

Of the more important instruments I took sketches ;
No. 1 is the Naree-wila, or Equatorial dial ; No. 2, the

68

BENARES,

Chap. III.

Semrat-yunta, or Equinoctial dial; No. 8, an Equa-
torial dial, probably a Kranti-urit, or Azimuth circle.*
Jey- Sing’s genius and love of science seem, according

i

\

$

1. EQUATORIAL SUN-DIAL.

(DIAMETER OF FACE OF DIAL, 2 FEET 2 INCHES.)

to Hunter, to have descended to some of liis family,
who died early in this century, when “ Urania fled
before the brazen-fronted Mars, and the best of the

* Hunter, in As. Soc. Researches, 177 (Calcutta); Sir R. Barker, in
Phil. Trans., lxvii. 608 (1777); J. L. Williams, Phil. Trans., lxxxiii. 45
(1793).

March, 1848

BENARES OBSERVATORY

69

observatories, that of Gujein, was turned into an arsenal
and cannon foundry.”

The observatory is still the most interesting object

2. EQUINOCTIAL SUN-DIAL.

(length of gnomon, 39 feet ; of each quadrant, 9 feet.)

in Benares, though it is now dirty and ruinous, and the
great stone instruments are rapidly crumbling away.
The building is square, with a central court and flat

70

BENARES.

Chap. Ill,

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

3. BRASS AZIMUTH CIRCLE.

(DIAMETER, 2 FEET.)

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.

March, 1848. BOODHIST TEMPLE, GHAZEPORE.

71

In the afternoon I visited the Sar-nath, a singular
Boodhist temple, a 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 Booclh figures only one remains, the
others having been used by a recent magistrate of
Benares in repairing a bridge over the Goomtee !

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 tliis world, which rests on eternity, whereas
Benares is perched on a prong of Siva’s trident, and is
hence beyond the reach of earthquakes.* 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 manufacture of rose-water, the tomb of Lord
Cornwallis, and a site of the Company’s stud. The
Bose gardens surround the town : they are fields, with
low bushes of the plant grown in rows, red with
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

* 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.

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. III.

h7C)

i £

vessels. Tlie unskimmed water affords the best, and
it is frequently twice and even oftener distilled ; hut
the fluid deteriorates by too much distillation. The
Attar is skimmed from the exposed pans, and sells at
10k 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 Sibyl’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.

On the 21st March I left Gliazepore, 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 debouelie ; and there generally
are formed vast expanses of sand, small “ Saharas,”
studded with stalking pillars of sand, raised 70 or
80 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, and the
great square, Yankee -like steamers, towing their

March, 1848. SCENERY ON BANKS OF GANGES.

73

accommodation-boats (as the passengers’ floating hotels
are called), being the rarest. Trees are scarce 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
invariable 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 reliqua”
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,
and turtle and porpoises tumble along ; all forming a
very busy contrast to the lazy alligator, sunning his
green and scaly back near the shore, with his ichthyo-
saurian 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 sunk on his body and
one leg tucked up, patiently awaits his turn. At night
the beautiful Bralnninee geese alight, one by one, and
seek total solitude ; ever smce 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

VOL. T.

E

74

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. III.

latter, not till after making a hearty and very noisy
Supper. These birds congregate by the sides of pools,
and violently beat the water with their wings, so
as to scare the fish, which thus become an easy pre}^ ;
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 mountains whence the many
feeders flow.

Flies and mosquitos are terrible pests ; and so are
odious flying-bugs, * which insinuate themselves
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 up 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.

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

* Large Hemipterous insects, of the genus Derecteryx.

March, 1848.

DINAPORE.

75

flows. Trees were scarcely discernible., and so dry was
the wind that drops of water vanished like magic.

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 down 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. In the gardens, Papaw, Croton , Jatropha ,
Buddleia , Cookia, Loquat, Litclii, Longan, all kinds of
the orange tribe, and the cocoa-nut, some by their
presence, and many by 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.

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.. The produce is made
over to district collectors, who approximately fix the
worth of the contents of each jar, and forward it to
Patna, where rewards are given for the best samples,

76

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. III.

and the worst are condemned without payment ; hut
all are 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 F ebruary, and the capsules are sliced in
F ebruary and March with a little instrument like a saw,
made of three iron plates with jagged edges, tied
together. The cultivation is very carefully conducted,
nor are there any 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, called Passewa.

At the end of March the opium jars arrive at the
stores, and continue accumulating for some weeks.
Every jar is labelled and stowed in a proper place,
separately tested with extreme accuracy, and valued.
When the whole quantity has been received, the con-
tents of all the jars are thrown into great vats, 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 stage and a tray before him. On the top stage
is a tin basin, containing 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 pan-

March, 1848.

OPIUM MANUFACTURE.

77

cakes of poppy petals pressed together, tlie 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 pancake, makes a coat for the opium.
Of this he takes about one-third of the mass before
him, puts it inside the petals, and agglutinates many
other coats over it : the balls are then again weighed,
and reduced or increased to a certain weight. At the
end of the day 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 in
a clay cup) are carried to an enormous drying-room,
where they are exposed in tiers, and constantly ex-
amined and turned, to prevent their being attacked by
weevils, which are very prevalent during the moist
winds ; little boys creep 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 good workman will prepare from thirty to
fifty balls a day, working for ten hours ; and the total
produce is 10,000 to 12,000 a day; during the 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-

rs

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. III.

maker, and worked into the ball, is merely inspissated
opium -water, the material 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.

A powerful smell of opium pervaded these vast
buildings, which Dr. Corbett assured me did not affect
himself or the assistants.

Even the best East Indian opium is inferior to the
Turkish, and, owing to peculiarities of climate, will
probably ahvays he so. It never yields more than five
per cent, of morphia, whence its inferiority, hut is as
good in other respects, and even richer in narcotine.

The care and attention devoted to every department
of collecting, 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 intoxicating 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 country has been
aptly compared to a drawn dagger, pointed at the heart

April, 1848.

MONGHYR.

79

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 he seen, and the highly cultivated flat
country is unfavourable to native vegetation.

During the remainder of my voyage down the river,
I experienced a succession of east and north-east
winds : such are very prevalent throughout the month
of March, and they rendered the passage in my sluggish
boat extremely 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 whirling current is seen to carry a cloud
of white dust, like smoke, along its course.

On the 1st of April I arrived at Monghyr, by far the
prettiest town I had seen on the river, backed by a
long range of wooded hills. The banks are steep, and
appear even 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 Birming-
ham of Bengal. Generally speaking, these weapons are
inferior, 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.

80

GANGES VALLEY

Chap. Ill

The inhabitants are reported to he sad drunkards, and
the abundance of toddy palms was quite remarkable.
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.

MONGHYR ON THE GANGES, WITH THE CURRUCKPORE HILLS IN THE DISTANCE.

Unlike the Soorujkoond hot-springs, these 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. It is clear and tasteless
(temp. 104°), and so pure as to be exported copiously;
whilst at Mongliyr itself they manufacture from it
soda-water, which presents the anomaly of owing its
purity to Seeta’s ablutions.

April, 1848.

BHAGULPORE.

81

On my passage down the river I passed the pictu-
resque 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
wreathercocks, and two little banners. The temple is
dedicated to Naragur, and inhabited by Fakirs; it is
the most holy on the Ganges.

At Bhagulpore, where I arrived on the 5th, I took up
my quarters with my friend Dr. Grant, till he should
arrange my dawk for Sikkim.

The town has been supposed to be the much-sought
Palibotlira, and a dirty stream hard by (the Cliundum),
the Eranoboas ; but Mr. Kavensliaw has now brought
all existing proofs to bear on Patna and the Soane. It
is, like most hilly places in India, S. 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 number. At the assumed summer-palaces of
the kings of Palibotlira the ground is covered with
agates, brought from the neighbouring hills, which
were, in a rough state, let into the walls of the buildings.

Again, near the hills, the features of interest are very
numerous. The neighbouring mountains of Curruck-
pore, which are a portion of the Pajmahal and Paras-
nath range, are peopled by tribes representing the
earliest races of India, prior to the invasion of young
llama, prince of Oude, who, according to the legend,

82

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. III.

spread Brahminism with his conquests, and won the
hand of King Jannuk’s daughter, Seeta, by bending
her father's how. These people are called Coles, a
middle-sized, strong, very dark, and black-liaired race,
with thick lips: they have no occupation but collecting
iron from the soil, which occurs abundantly in nodules.
They eat flesh, whether that of animals killed by them-
selves, or of those which have died a natural death ;
and mix with Hindoos, but not with Mussulmen.

The hill - rangers, or Bliagulpore - rangers, are all
natives of the Bajmahal 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 embodying 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 Bliagulpore was
the Horticultural Gardens, whose origin and flourishing
condition are due to the activity and enterprise of the
late Major Napleton, commander of the hill-rangers.
The site is good, consisting of fifteen acres, that were,
four years ago, an indigo field, but now form 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, Slssoo, Casuarina, Ter-
minalia, Melia, Bauhinia. Of introduced species there

April, 1818.

HORTICULTURAL GARDENS.

83

are English and Chinese flat peaches (pruned to the
centre to let the sun in), Mangos of various sorts,
Eugenia Jambos, various Anonas, Litchi, Loquat and
Longan, oranges, Sapodilla ; apple, pear, both succeed-
ing tolerably ; various Cabool and Persian varieties of
fruit-trees ; figs, grapes, guava, apricots, and jujube.
The grapes looked extremely well, but their manage-
ment requires great skill and care. 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 fruit on that side is inferior to that on
the opposite trellis. Easterly winds, again, being moist,
blight the vines and other plants, by favouring the
abundant increase of insects, and by causing the leaves
to curl and fall off ; and against this evil there is no
remedy. The white ant sometimes 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;” raspberries, currants, and gooseberries will
not grow at all.

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

84

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. III.

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 healthful 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.

CHAPTER IV.

Leave Bliagulpore — Colgong — Himalaya, distant view of — Cosi, mouth of
— Difficul t navigation — Sand-storms — Caragola - Ghat — P ur nea — 0 rto -
Ians — Mahanuddee, transport of pebbles, &c. — Betel-pepper, cultiva-
tion of — Titalya — Siligoree — View of outer Himalaya — Terai — Mechis
— Punkabaree — Foot of mountains — Ascent to Dorjiling — Cicadas —
Leeches — Animals — Kursiong, spring vegetation of — Pacheem — Arrive
at Dorjiling — Dorjiling, 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.

I took as it were a new departure, on Saturday,
April the 8tli, my dawk being laid on that day from
Caragola- Ghat, about thirty miles down the river, for
the foot of the Himala}Ta range and Dorjiling.

Passing the pretty villa-like houses of the English
residents, the river-hanks re -assumed their wonted
features : the hills receded from the shore ; and steep
clay cliffs, twenty to fifty feet high, on one side,
opposed long sandy shelves on the other.

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

86

GANGES VALLEY.

Chap. IV.

from twenty-eight to forty feet deeper than now. We
landed opposite the rocks, and proceeded to the
residence of Mrt G. Barnes, prettily situated on one of
the conical elevations characteristic 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, and tiger, — a sort
of rude fresco -painting. We did not arrive till past
mid-day, 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.

The view from Mr. Barnes’ house is very fine : it
commands the river and its rocks ; the Bajmalial
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
Kinchin junga in Sikkim, and Gossain-Tlian 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 indicate the proximity of some very restless
and resistless power. During the rains, the scene

April, 18-18.

DELTA OF THE COSI.

87

must indeed be extraordinary, when the Cosi lays
many miles of land under water, and pours so vast a
quantity of detritus into the bed of 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 warning, 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.

Bain generally falls in partial showers at this
season, and is 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.

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 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 every-'
where, 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

88

PURNEA DISTRICT.

Chap. IV.

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-Gliat 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, a large station,
considered very unhealthy during and after the rains.
I quitted it at noon for Kishengunj, passing through
some pretty lanes, with groves of planted Guava and
a rattan palm (Calamus), the first I had seen. The
whole country wore a greener garb than I had seen
anywhere south of the Ganges : the climate was
evidently more humid, and had been gradually
becoming so from Mirzapore. 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 previous excursion .

Though no hills are nearer than the Himalaya
(distant 100 miles), yet from the constant alteration of
the river-beds, the road undulates remarkably for this

April, 1848.

THE MAHANUDDEE— ORTOLANS.

89

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.

Thirty- six miles from Purnea brought me to
Kisliengunj, 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 Dorjiling, so that I had only to take
patience, and be thankful for having to exercise it in
such pleasant quarters. The Malianuddee, 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 amongst 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
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

90

OUTER HIMALAYA.

Chap. IY.

arrived ; so bidding a hurried adieu to my kind host, I
proceeded on my journey.

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 disburse-
ment 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 came again to the
banks of the Mahanuddee, whose bed was strewn with
pebbles and small boulders, brought thus far from the
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
were twenty to fifty yards long, eight or twelve broad,
and scarce!}7 five feet high ; they were made of bamboo,

April, 1848.

TERAI.

91

wattled all round and over the top. Slender rods were
placed a few feet apart, inside, up which the Pepper
Vines climb, and quickly fill the place with their deep
green glossy foliage. The owner enters every morning
b}' a little door, and carefully cleans the plants. Con-
stant heat, damp, and moisture, shelter from solar
beams, from scorching heat, and from nocturnal radi-
ation, 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 profitable. Snakes
frequently take up their quarters in these hot-liouses,
and cause fatal accidents.

Titalya was once a military station of some import-
ance, and, from its proximity to the hills, has been
selected by Dr. Campbell (the Superintendent of
Dorjiling) 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 Dorjiling 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 G 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, 1
caught the first glimpse of the outer range — sombre
masses of far from picturesque outline, clothed every-
where 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 Bralnna-koond in Upper Assam.

92

OUTER HIMALAYA.

Chap. IY.

Every feature, botanical, geological, and zoological, is
new on entering this district. Tlie change is sudden
and immediate : sea and shore are hardly more con-
spicuously different; nor from the edge of the Terai to
the limit of perpetual snow is airy botanical region
more clearly marked than this, which is the commence-
ment of Himalayan vegetation. A sudden descent
leads to the Mahanuddee, flowing in a shallow valley,
over a pebbfy bottom: it is a rapid river, even at this
season ; its banks are fringed with bushes, and it is
as clear and sparkling as a trout stream in Scotland.
Beyond it the road winds through a thick brush-wood,
choked with long grasses, and with but few trees,
chiefly of Acacia, Dalbergia Sissoo, and a scarlet-fruited
Sterculia. At this season only a few spring plants
were in flower ; 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 brush-wood and climbers of Convolvulus, Vines,
Bignonias, &c.

Fatal as this district is, and especially to Europeans,
a race inhabit it with impunity, who, if not numerous,
do not owe their paucity to any climatic causes. These
are the Mecliis, often described as a squalid, unhealthy
people, typical of the region they frequent ; but who
are, in reality, more robust than Europeans in India,
and whose disagreeably sallow complexion 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

Apkil, 1843. SCENERY AT FOOT OF HIMALAYA.

95

cleared spots ; and, though so sequestered and isolated,
they rather court than avoid intercourse with those
whites whom the}7 know to he kindly disposed.

After proceeding 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 sensitive^,
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 destination, nestled in the
woods, crowning a lateral knoll, above which, to east
and west, as far as the eye could reach, were range
after range of wooded mountains, 6000 to 8000 feet
high.

From this steppe, the ascent to Punkabaree is
sudden and steep, and accompanied with a change
in soil and vegetation. A giant forest replaces the
stunted and bushy timber of the Terai Proper ; of
which the Duabangcc and Terminalias form the pre-
vailing trees, with Cedrela and the Gordonia Wallichii.
Smaller timber and shrubs are innumerable ; whilst a
succulent character pervades the bushes and herbs,
occasioned by the prevalence of the nettle tribe. 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

96

OUTER HIMALAYA.

Chap. IV.

trunks are richly clothed with epiphytical Orchids,
pendulous Lycopodia and many ferns, and similar
types of the hottest and dampest climates.

The bungalow at Punkabaree was good — which was
fortunate, as my luggage -bearers were 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 gathering, and throwing away my 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 Acanthacecc, were the
predominant features of the shrubby vegetation, and
very handsome.

All around, the hills rise steeply five or six thousand
feet, clothed with 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 spurs are very thickly wooded, and enclose

April, 1848.

TERAI.

97

broad, dead-flat, hot and damp valleys, apparently
covered with a dense forest. 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 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 innumerable 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. 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 luxuriance 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, imported, expended,
re-collected, and returned.

VOL. I.

F

OUTER HIMALAYA.

Chap. IY.

9S

Tlie soil and bushes everywhere swarmed with large
and troublesome ants, and enormous earthworms. In
the evening, the noise of the great decides in the trees
was almost deafening. They burst suddenly into full
chorus, with a voice so harshly croaking, so dissonant,
and so unearthly, that in these solitary forests I could
not help being startled; and they cease as suddenly
as they commence. In general character the note was
very similar to that of other Cicadce. On the following
morning my baggage arrived, and, leaving my palkee,
I mounted a pony kindly sent for me from Dorjiling
by Mr. Hodgson, and commenced a very steep ascent
of about 3000 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 water-course, 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

April, 1848.

CHARACTER OF VEGETATION.

99

specimen of engineering — tlie reverse of the native
track, for it winds judiciously.

At about 1000 feet above Punkabaree, the vegetation
is very rich, and appears all the more so from the
many turnings of the road, which afford glorious
prospects of the foreshortened tropical forests. The
prevalent timber is gigantic, and scaled by climbing
Leguminosce , which sometimes sheath the trunks, or
span the forest with huge cables, binding tree to tree.
Their trunks are also clothed with parasitical Orchids,
climbing Pothos, Peppers, Vines, Convolvulus, and
Bignonias. 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. Bamboo abounds
everywhere : its dense tufts of culms, 100 feet and
upwards high, are as thick at the base as a man’s thigh.
Twenty or thirty species of ferns (including a tree-fern)
were luxuriant and handsome ; while foliaceous
lichens and a few mosses appeared at 2000 feet. Such
is the vegetation of the roads through the tropical
forests of the Outer Himalaya.

At about 4000 feet a great change took 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 }rellow fruit,

100

OUTER HIMALAYA.

Chap. IV.

called here the “ yellow raspberry.” Scattered oaks of
a noble species, with large lamellated cups and mag-
nificent foliage, succeeded ; and along the ridge of the
mountain to Kursiong (a dawk bungalow at about 4800
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, Stellaria, and Arum ,
Vaccinium, wild strawberry, maple, geranium, bramble.
A colder wind blewT here : mosses and lichens carpeted
the banks and roadsides : the birds and bisects were
very different from those below ; and everything pro-
claimed the marked change in elevation, and not only
in this, but also in the season, for I had left the winter
of the tropics and here encountered the spring of the
temperate zone.

These flowers 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 2000 feet higher up, with tree-ferns, Potlios, bananas,
palms, figs, peppers, numbers of epiphytal Orchids, and
similar genume tropical genera. The uniform tempe-
rature and humidity of the climate here favour the
extension of tropical plants into a temperate region ;
exactly as the same conditions cause similar forms to
attain higher latitudes in the southern hemisphere (as
in New Zealand, Tasmania, South Chili, &c.) than they
do in the northern.

Kursiong bungalow, where I stopped for a few hours,
is superbly placed, on a narrow mountain ridge. The

April, 1848.

PACHEEM.

101

west window looks down the valley of the Balasun,
the east into that of the Mahanuddee : both of these
rivers rise from the outer range, and flow in broad,
deep, and steep valleys (about 4000 feet deep) which
are richly wooded from the Terai to their tops.

From Kursiong a very steep zigzag leads up the
mountain, through a magnificent forest of chesnut,
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, which
bloom in a profuse manner, whitening their trunks
like snow. More bulky trunks were masses of inter-
lacing climbers, enclosing a hollow, once filled by the
strangled 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.

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, enveloped
in mists and rain, and hideous in architecture, being a
miserable attempt to unite the Swiss cottage with the

102

OUTER HIMALAYA.

Chap. IV.

suburban gothic ; — it combined a maximum of dis-
comfort 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 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
clung to the damp walls, — and these I immediately
secured. After due exertions and perseverance with
the wet 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.

Pacheem stands at an elevation of nearly 7300 feet,
and as I walked out on the following morning I met
with Englisli-looking plants in abundance, but was too
early in the season to get aught but the foliage of most.
Epiphytes were rare, still I found some white and
purple Coelogynes , and other Orchids, and a most noble
white rhododendron, whose 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-
clierry, common cherry, and apple. The absence of
leguminous plants was remarkable, and the most promi-
nent 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

April, 1848.

VEGETATION OF PACHEEM.

103

moist for those of temperate regions ; cool, equable,
humid climates being generally unfavourable to these
plants. I found very few native species of grasses ;
though both Poa annucc 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 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 Composite, Legu-
minosce , Crucifer ce , j Uanunculacece, and Grasses ; and
in the predominance of rarer and more local families,
as those of Rhododendron, Camellia, Magnolia, Ivy,
Cornel, Honeysuckle, Hydrangea, Begonia, and Epi-
phytic Orchids.

From Pacheem, the road runs in a northerly direc-
tion to Dorjiling, still along the Balasun valley, till the
saddle of the great mountain Sinchul is crossed. This
is narrow, and stretches 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 he seen when the
weather is propitious. The valleys on the inner side
of the mountain run northwards, and discharge their
streams into great rivers, which, coming from the snow,
wind amongst the hills, and debouche into the Teesta,
to the east, where it divides Sikkim from Bhotan.

Dorjiling station occupies a narrow ridge, which
divides into two spurs, and descends steeply to the bed

104

DOEJILINGr.

Chap. IV.

of tlie 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 posi-
tions 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 6000 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. To my right the amphi-
theatre of hills was very fine ; it enclosed an area some
four miles across and 4000 feet deep, clothed throughout
with an impenetrable, dark forest : there was not one
clear patch except near the very bottom, where were
some scattered hamlets, each consisting of two or three
huts. 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.

I arrived at Dorjiling 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 f 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 Dorjiling ;

April, 1S4S.

ORIGIN OF DORJILING.

105

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 accom-
panied 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 the specimens fell to the Lepchas, who,
after a little training, became, with constant super-
intendence, 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 Dorjiling owes its
origin (like Simla, Mussooree, &c.) to the necessity that
exists in India, of providing places where the health of
Europeans may be recruited by a temperate climate.
Sikkim proved an eligible position for such an establish-
ment, owing to its proximity to Calcutta, which lies but
370 miles to the southward; whereas the north-west
stations mentioned above are upwrards of a thousand
miles from that city. Dorjiling ridge varies in height
from 0,500 to 7,500 feet above the level of the sea; 8000
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

F 3

106

DORJILING.

Chap. IV.

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 gua-
ranteed him the sovereignty. Our main object in doing
this was to retain Sikkim as a fender between Nepal
and Bhotan : and hut for this policy, the aggressive
Nepalese would, long ere now, have possessed themselves
of Sikkim, Bhotan, and the whole Himalaya, eastwards
to the borders of Burmah.*

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, Dorjiling 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 especially on 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 this 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, promising to become
more peaceable neighbours to us than the Bhotanese are. Such they would
doubtless have proved, but the Nepal frontier is considered broad enough
already.

April, 1848,

SIKKIM RAJAH AND DEW AN.

107

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 Dorjiling,
for an equivalent in money or land. His first demand
was unreasonable ; but on further consideration he
surrendered Dorjiling unconditionally, and a sum of
300?. per annum was granted to him as an equivalent
for what was to him a worthless uninhabited mountain.
In 1840 Dr. Campbell was removed from Nepal to be
superintendent of the new station, and was entrusted
with the charge of the political relations between the
British and Sikkim governments.

Once established, Dorjiling made rapid progress.
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 retired 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 monopolise the trade of the country, and to enrich
himself at its expense. Every obstacle was thrown by
him in the way of a good understanding between

103

DORJILING.

Chap. IV.

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 Bajah’s representatives, were chosen for
their overhearing manners and incapacity. The con-
duct of the Dewan throughout was Indo-Chinese ;
assuming, arrogant, aggressive, never perpetrating open
violence, but by petty insults effectually preventing all
good understanding. He was met by neglect or for-
bearance on the part of the Calcutta government ; and
by patience and passive resistance at Dorjiling. Such
has been our policy in China, Siam, and Burmah,
and in each instance the result has been the same :
our inaction and long-suffering have been taken for
weakness, and our concessions for timidity. 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
unr estricte d c ommunic ation .

These political difficulties have not, however, pre-
vented the rapid increase of Dorjiling ; 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

April, 1848.

HEALTHINESS OF CLIMATE.

109

inhabitants under British protection when the ground
was transferred ; 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 Dorjiling * The trade
has been greatly increased by the annual fair which
Dr. Campbell has established at the foot of the hills,
to which many thousands of natives flock from all
quarters, and which exercises a most beneficial in-
fluence throughout the neighbouring territories. At
this, 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.

When estimating in a sanatory 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 idiosyncracy and dis-
position, if well. I have seen prejudiced individuals
rapidly recovering, in spite of themselves, and all the
while complaining in unmeasured terms of the climate
of Dorjiling, and abusing it as killing them. There
are others who languish under the heat of the plains at
one season, and the damp at another ; and who, though

* 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.

110

DOKJILING.

Chap. IY.

sickening and dying under its influence, yet consistent^
praise a tropical climate to the last. The opinions of
those who resort to Dorjiling in health, differ equally ;
those of active minds invariably thoroughly enjoy it,
while the mere lounger or sportsman 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 Dorjiling. It is incredible
what a few weeks of that mountain air will do for the
India-born children of European parents : they are taken
there sickly, pallid or yellow, soft and flabby, to become
transformed 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 and liver com-
plaints of long standing ; which are not benefited by a
residence on these hills, though how much worse they

April, 1848. TROOPS, DISEASES AMONGST. Ill

might have become in the plains is not shown. I
cannot hear that the climate aggravates, hut it certainly
does not remove them. Whoever, on the contrary, is
suffering from the debilitating effects of any of the
multifarious acute maladies of the plains, finds imme-
diate relief, and acquires a stock of health that enables
him to 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 the plains can, on their first arrival, expose
themselves with impunity to the cold of these eleva-
tions ; and this was shown in the winter of 1848-9,
when troops brought up to Dorjiling wrere cantoned in
newly-built dwellings, on a high exposed ridge 8000
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 papers,
to the unhealthy nature of the climate of Dorjiling.

CHAPTER V.

View from Mr. Hodgson’s of the snowy mountains — Their extent and
elevation — Deceptive appearance of elevation — Sinchnl, view from and
vegetation of — Chumulari — Magnolias, white and purple — 'Rhododen-
dron Dalhousiee, arboreum and argenteum — Natives of Dorjiling —
Lepchas, origin, tradition of flood, morals, dress, arms, ornaments,
diet — cups, origin and value — Marriages — Diseases — Burial — Worship
and religion — Bijooas — Kampa Bong, 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 Dorjiling, 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 con-
sequence of his having given me a hospitable invitation
to consider his house my home. The view from his
windows is quite unparalleled for the scenery it em-
braces, 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

April, 1S4S.

VIEW OF SNOWY MOUNTAINS.

113

narrow gulf 7000 feet deep in the mountains, where
the Great Kungeet, white with foam, threads a tropical
forest with a silver line.

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 moun-
tains 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 case the observer
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 aerial to be chained to the memory, and

114

DORJILING.

Chap. V.

fade from it so fast as to be gazed upon day after day,
with undiminished admiration and pleasure, long after
the mountains themselves have lost them 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 80° 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 8000 feet, this white ridge stretches uninterruptedly
for more than 160°. No known view is comparable
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 beautiful 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 forty-five miles distant.

On first viewing this glorious panorama, the
impression produced 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

April, 1848. SINCHUL MOUNTAIN. 115

measuring only 4° 31/ above liis own level ! Donkia
again, which is about 15,700 feet above Mr. Hodgson’s,
rises only 1° 55' above the horizon ; an angle which
is quite inappreciable to the eye, when unaided by
instruments.

This view may be extended a little by ascending
Sinchul, which rises a thousand feet above the elevation
of Mr. Hodgson’s house, and lies a few miles to the
south-east of Dorjiling : 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 Kincliinjunga, 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
Dorjiling, 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 embracing
this splendid view of the snowy range over the
Dorjiling spur, commands also the plains of India,
with the courses of the Teesta, Mahanuddee, Balasun

116

DORJILING-.

Chap. Y.

and Me chi 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)
is the predominant tree at 7000 to 8000 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. C ampbellii) hardly
occurs below 8000 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 end of its branches great
rose-purple cup-sliaped flowers, whose fleshy petals
strew the ground. On its branches, and on those of
oaks and laurels, Rhododendron Dcdliousice grows as
an epiphyte, 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
the flowers are as large as those of R. Dalliousice , 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.

April, 1848.

LEPCHAS, CHARACTERISTICS OF.

117

Oaks, laurels, maples, bircli, 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. 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 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 ; a
plant now cultivated in the open air in England.

Before proceeding to narrate my different expeditions
into Sikkim and Nepal from Dorjiling, I shall give a
sketch of the different peoples and races composing
the heterogeneous population of Sikkim and the
neighbouring mountains .

The Lepclia is the aboriginal inhabitant of the
country, and the prominent character in Dorjiling,
where he undertakes all sorts of out-door employment.
The race to which lie belongs is a very singular one ;
markedly Mongolian in features, and a good deal too,
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 tract
of mountain country, barely GO miles in breadth. The
Lepclias possess a tradition of the flood, during which
a couple escaped to the top of a mountain (Tendongj
near Dorjiling. The earliest traditions which they have
of their history date no further back than some three

118

DORJILINGr.

Chap. Y.

hundred years, when they describe themselves as having
been long-haired, half-clad savages. At about that
period they were visited by Tibetans, who introduced
Boodh worship, the plaiting of their hair into pig-tails,
and 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,
or whether they are a cross between the Tamulian
of India and the Tibetan, has not been decided.
Their language, though radically identical with Tibetan,
differs from it in many important particulars. They,
or at least some of their tribes, call themselves Bong,
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 pene-
trated as far west as the Arun.

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 con-
trasting 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,
cowardly, and cruel. A group of Lepclias 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,

April, 1848

LEPCHAS

119

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 power-
fully developed, befitting genuine mountaineers : the

LEPCHA GIRL AND BHOODIST LAMA.

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,

120

DORJILING.

Chap. V.

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, livety, laughing urchins. The old women are
thorough hags. Indolence 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 unre-
strained. Their intercourse with one another and with
Europeans is scrupulously honest ; a present is divided
equally amongst a party, without a syllable of discon-
tent or grudging look or word ; each, on receiving his
share, coming up and giving the donor a brusque how
and thanks. They have learnt to overcharge already,
and to use extortion in dealing, as is the custom with
the people of the plains ; hut 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* hut never draw it on one
another : family and political feuds are alike unheard
of amongst them.

* It is called “Ban,” and serves equally for plongh, toothpick, table-
knife, hatchet, hammer, and sword.

ArRiL, 1848. LEPCHAS, DRESS AND ORNAMENTS.

121

The Lepcha is in morals far superior to his Tibet
and Bhotan neighbours, polyandry being unknown, and
polygamy rare. This is no doubt greatly due to the
conventual system not being carried to such an excess
as in Bhotan, where even the ties of relationship are
disregarded.

Like the New Zealander, Tasmanian, Fuegian, and
the 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 vestment, 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 com-
mon wooden handle, hangs by his side, stuck in a
sheath ; he has often also a quiver of poisoned arrows
and a bamboo how across his hack. On his left 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. He seldom
wears a hat, and when he does, it is often extravagantly
broad and flat-brimmed, with a small hemispherical
crown. It is made of the leaves of Scitaminece, between
two thin plates of bamboo-work, clumsy and heavy;
this is generally used in rainy weather, while in dry a
conical one is worn, also of platted slips of bamboo,

VOL. I.

a

DOBJILINGr.

Chap. V.

122

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 bead reaches to
the thighs behind. It is made of platted bamboo,
enclosing broad leaves of Phrynium . Lepchas running
along in the pelting rain, with these on, are very droll
figures ; they look like snails with their shells on their
hacks.

The Lepchas are fond of ornaments, wearing silver
hoops in their ears, necklaces 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 workmanship, and often of great
value : they contain little idols, charms of written
prayers, or the bones, hair, or nail-parings 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, tease 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 distinguished
from their effeminate -looking partners, who wear only
one. When in full dress, the woman’s costume is ex-
tremely ornamental and picturesque ; besides the shirt
and petticoat, she wears a small sleeveless woollen
cloak, of gay pattern, usually covered with crosses, and

App.il, 1848.

LEPCHAS, CUSTOMS OF.

123

fastened in front by a girdle of silver chains. Her neck
is loaded with silver chains, amber necklaces, &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,
castor oil, &c.

These people are gross feeders ; * 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. AVhen travelling, they live on
whatever they can find, whether animal or vegetable.
Fern-tops, roots of Scitaminece , and their flower-buds,
various leaves, and fungi, are chopped up, fried with a
little oil, and eaten. Their 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 curious on
several accounts ; they are very pretty, often polished,
and mounted with silver. Some are supposed to

* Ur. Campbell’s definition of the Lepcha’s Flora cibaria is, that he
eats, or must have eaten, everything soft enough to be chewed ; for, as he
knows whatever is poisonous, he must have tried all ; his knowledge being
wholly empirical.

124

DORJILINGr.

Chap. V*

be antidotes against poison, and lienee fetch an
enormous price ; they are of a peculiar wood, rarer
and paler-coloured. I have paid a guinea for one
such, hardly different from the common sort, which
cost but 4 d. or Qd. MM. Hue and Gabet graphically
allude to this circumstance, when describing the pur-
chase of cups at Lhassa, where then* price is higher,
as they are all imported from the Himalaya. The
knots from which the}- 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 the 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 onl}r musical
instrument I have seen in use among them. When
travelling, and the fatigues of the day are over, the
Lepclias will sit for hours, chatting, telling stories,
singing in a monotonous tone, or blowing the flute.
I have often listened with real pleasure to the simple
music of this rude instrument ; its low and sweet tones
are singularly iEolian, as are the airs usually played,
which fall by octaves : the sound seems to harmonise
with the solitude of their primaeval 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.

April, 1848. LEPCHAS, MARRIAGES. 125

Tlieir marriages are contracted in childhood, and the
wife purchased 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 her father for
a stated period in lieu. On the time of service ex-
piring, 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 by Dr. Pearson, and
it is much practised by Dr. Campbell, it being eagerly
sought. Cholera is scarcely known at Dorjiling, and
when it has been imported thither has never spread.
Disease is very rare amongst the Lepclias ; and
ophthalmia, elephantiasis, and leprosy, the scourges of
hot climates, are rarely known. Goitre prevails, though
not so conspicuously as amongst Tibetans, 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

126

DORJILINGr.

Chap. V.

rains. The European complaints of liver and bowel
disease are all hut unknown. Death is regarded with
horror. The dead are burnt or buried, sometimes
both ; much depending on custom and rank. Omens
are sought in the entrails of fowls, &c., and other
vestiges of a savage origin are still preserved, though
now gradually disappearing.

The Lepchas profess no religion, though acknow-
ledging the existence of good and had 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, and mountain, are constantly
at mischief, and to them we must pray, for they hurt
usT 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 he
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 intermediate between the begging friars of
Tibet, whose dress and attributes they assume, and the
exorcists of the aboriginal 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 tk 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,

April, 1S4S.

LEPCHAS, BHOTEAS.

127

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 3000
to 0000 feet. In their relations with us, they are con-
spicuous for their honesty, their power as carriers and
mountaineers, and especially for their skill as woodsmen ;
for they will 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 bedstead for
three persons, in an hour, using no implement but tlieir
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 liills-man 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 Gliorkas, or dark Bhotanese, the folly
would soon lead to destruction.

Before leaving the Lepchas, it maj^ be worth men-
tioning that the northern parts of the country, towards
the Tibet frontier, are inhabited by Sikkim Bhoteas *

* Bliote is the general name for Tibet (not Bhotan), and Kumpa is a
large province, or district, in that country. The Bhotanese, natives of

128

DORJILING.

Chap. V.

(or Kumpas), a mixed race calling themselves Knmpa
Rong, or Knmpa Lepchas ; but they are emigrants
from Tibet, having come with the first rajah of Sikkim.
These people are 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 Lliassa, and inhabited
by robbers. All the accounts I have received of it
agree with those given by MM. Hue and Gabet.

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 2000 feet
to 5000 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 emigrated from Tibet, which their Tartar
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 Lepclia 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

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.

April, 184S. LIMBOOS, ORIGIN AND CUSTOMS.

129

with difficulty dislodged from their strongholds. They
are said to he equally brave and cruel in battle, putting
the old and weak to the sword, carrying the younger
into slavery, and killing on the march such captives as
are unable to proceed. Many enlist at Dorjiling, which
the Lepclias 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 6000
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 Dorjiling. Their habits are so similar to
those of the Lepclias, that they constantly intermarry
with them. 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 Lepclias is employed,
but the Limboo has also priests of his own, called
“ Phe dan gb os,” 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.

130

DORJILING.

Chap. V.

The Moormis are the only other native tribe
remaining in any numbers in Sikkim, except the
Tibetans of the loftier mountains (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, 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 numerous in central and
eastern Nepal, and are a pastoral and agricultural
people, inhabiting elevations of 4000 to G000 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 Lepclias 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.

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

* Tlie 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.

April, 184S. SIKKIM, TRIBES IN. 131

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,
Bunn ah, &c.

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
west of that point practise the bloody and brutal rites
in war that prevail amongst the Cookies, Ivhasias,
Garrows, and other Indo-Chinese tribes of the
mountain forests of Assam, Eastern Bengal, and the
Malay peninsula.

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 with the
exception of a tincture of the Boodhist religion among
some few of the 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 liave been waged

132

DOEJILINGr.

Chap. Y.

amongst them, but they were neither sanguinary nor
destructive, and the fact remains no less remarkable,
that at the period of our occupying Dorjiling, friendship
and unanimity reigned amongst all these tribes ; from
the Tibetan at 14,000 feet, to the Meclii of the plains;
under a sovereign whose temporal power was wholly
unsupported by even the semblance of arms, and whose
spiritual supremacy was acknowledged by very few.

I.EP'JH A AMULET.

CHAPTER VI.

Excursion from Dorjiling to Great Rungeet — Zones of vegetation — Tree-
ferns — Palms — Leebong, tea plantations — Ging — Boodhist remains —
Tropical vegetation — Pines — Lepcha clearances — Forest fires — Boodhist
monuments — Fig — Cane bridge and raft over Rungeet — India-rubber
— Yel Pote — Butterflies and other insects — Snakes— Camp — Junction
of Teesta and Itungeet — Return to Dorjiling — Tonglo, excursion to
— Bamboo flowering — Oaks — Peepsa — Simonbong, cultivation at —
European fruits at Dorjiling — Plains of India.

A very favourite ancl interesting excursion from
Dorjiling is to the cane bridge over the Great Rungeet
river, 0000 feet below the station. To this an excel-
lent road has been cut, which the whole descent of
six miles, as the crow flies, is easily performed on
pony-back ; the road distance being only eleven miles.
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 Dorjiling, the zones of vegeta-
tion are well marked by — 1. The oak, chesnut, and
Magnolias. — 2. Immediately below 6,500 feet, the tree-
fern appears, a widely- distributed plant, common from
Nepal eastward to the Malayan peninsula, Java, and
Ceylon. — 3. Of palms, a species of Rattan-cane, and

134

GREAT RUNGEET.

Chap. YI.

Plectocomia ; the latter, though not a very large plant,
climbs lofty trees, and extends about 40 yards through
the forest. — 4. The fourth striking feature is a wild
plantain, which ascends to nearly the same elevation.
This is replaced by another, and rather larger species,
at lower elevations ; both ripen austere and small
fruits, which are full of seeds, and quite uneatable :
that commonly grown in Sikkim is an introduced
stock ; 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 innumerable spurs
which project from the Dorjiling ridge, cast his eyes
up the gorges of green on either hand.

At 1000 feet below Dorjiling a fine wooded spur
projects, called Leebong. This beautiful spot is fully
ten degrees warmer than Mr. Hodgson's house, and
enjoys considerably more sunshine ; 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. 7000 feet), but the frosts and snow of
that height injure it, as do the hailstorms in spring.

Below Leebong is the village of Ding, surrounded
by steeps, cultivated with maize, rice, and millet. It
is rendered very picturesque by a long row of tall
poles, each bearing a narrow, vertically elongated
banner, covered with Boodliist inscriptions, and sur-
mounted by coronet-like ornaments, or spear-heads,

May, 1848.

ZONES OF VEGETATION.

IO F
O [)

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 additional 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.

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.

At about 2000 feet, and ten miles distant from
Dorjiling, we arrived at a low, long spur, dipping down
to the bed of the Bungeet, at its junction with the
Bungmo. 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 the stem of
the rattan-palm. The beds were afterwards softened by
many layers of bamboo leaves, 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 sur-
rounded by lofty mountains ; it is narrow, and covered
with red clay, which the natives chew as a cure for

136

GREAT RUNGEET.

Chap. VI.

goitre. 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 Sinchnl,
7000 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 abund-
ance of the long-leaved Pine and Sal. The dwarf
date-palm also is very abundant.

The descent to the river was exceedingly steep, the
banks presenting an impenetrable jungle. The pines
on the arid crests of the hills around formed a remark-
able feature : they grow like the Scotch fir, their 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 pigment.

The Lepclia never inhabits the same spot for more
than three successive 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 opera-
tion, 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 extending over

May, 1848.

BOODHIST EMBLEMS.

137

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 clay, are seen raging all
around, appearing to an inexperienced 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 Lthe forest fires. At night we were literally sur-
rounded by them ; some smouldering, like 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 irre-
sistible might. Their triumph is in reaching 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 Dorjiling
the blaze is visible, and the deadened reports of the
bamboos bursting is heard throughout 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 river ; passing a rude Boodhist 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 the sacred characters

138

GREAT RUNGEET.

Chap. YI.

“ 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. Boodliism in some form is the
predominating creed, from Siberia and Kamscliatka to
Ceylon, from the Caspian steppes to Japan, through-
out China, Burmah, Ava, and a part of the Malayan
Archipelago. Its associations enter into every hook
of travels over these vast regions, with Boodh,
Dhurma, Sunga, Jos, Fo, and praying- wheels. The
mind is arrested by the names, the imagination cap-
tivated by the symbols ; and though I could not worship
in the grove, it was impossible to deny to the inscribed
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 Lepclia went further: to a due ob-
servance of demon-worship he united a deep reverence
for the Lamas, and he venerated their sjmibols rather
as theirs than as those of their religion. He walked

O

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 bv 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.

RUNG-EET valley

139

Mat, 1848.

In the valley of the Rungeet the heat was intolerable,
though the thermometer did not rise above 95°. The
mountains leave hut a narrow gorge between them, here

PINES (PINUS LONGIFOLIA), KUNGEET VALLEV.

and there bordered by a belt of rich soil, supporting a
towering crop of long cane -like grasses and tall trees.

140

GREAT RUNGEET.

Chap. VI.

The troubled river, about eighty yards wide, rushes
along over a gravelly bed. Crossing the Bungmo, where
it falls into the Bungeet, 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 Gliorka (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 rocky, their flanks clothed with the richest tropical
forest, their crests tipped with pines. On the river’s
edge, the Banana, screw-pine, and Bauhinia, were fre-
quent, 'and Figs prevailed. One of the latter (of an
exceedingly beautiful species) projected over the 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 the bridge,*
about eighty yards long, ever rocking over the torrent
(forty feet below). The lightness and extreme sim-
plicity 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

* A sketch of one of these bridges will be found in Vol. ii.

May, 184S.

CANE BRIDGE.

141

to keep apart. Tlie 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 hare feet it
is often difficult, there being frequently hut 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 pro-
cured from a species of rattan ; they are as thick as the
fin ger, 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 hundred and
forty pounds on his back, crosses without hesitation,
slowly hut steadily, and with perfect confidence.

A deep broad pool below the bridge was made avail-
able 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

142

GREAT RUNGEET.

Chap. VI.

cane reaching across to that on which we were. The
bridge being in a dilapidated condition, a stout Lepclia
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.

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 trace. After a while, part
of a wedding-procession came up, headed by the bride-
groom, a handsome young Lepclia, leading a cow for
the marriage feast ; and after talking to him a little, he
volunteered to show us the path. 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

May, 1848.

BUTTERFLIES AND OTHER INSECTS.

143

•course. Tlie beautiful India-rubber fig was common,
as was Bassia butyracea, the “ Yel Pote ” of the Lepclias,
from the seeds of which they express a concrete oil,
which is received and hardens in bamboo vessels. On
the forest-skirts, parasitical orchids 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 abun-
dant 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 themselves 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. Cicindelce were very numerous, and in-
credibly active, as were locusts ; and the great cicadas
were everywhere lighting on the ground, when they
uttered a short, sharp, creaking sound, and anon dis-
appeared, 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 horizontally, occasionally retracting, and darting an
unerring aim at some insect. The narrowness of the
gorge, and the excessive steepness of the bounding

144

GREAT RUNGEET.

Chap. VI.

hills, prevented any view, except of the opposite
mountain face, which was clothed with a 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
sat 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 begrimed. Our Lepchas preferred remaining on
the river-bank, whence they had to bring up water to
us, in great bamboo “ chungis,” 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.

Our course down the river was by so rugged a path,
that, giddy 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 themselves,
with the Teesta flowing at their base ; and we emerged

May, 1848.

CAMP. TEMPERATURE.

145

at the angle formed by the junction of the Rungeet,
which we had followed from the west, of the Teesta,
coining from the north, and of their united streams
flowing south.

We were not long before enjoying the water, when I
was surprised to find that of the Teesta singularly
cold, its temperature being 7° 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), most rapid and
deepest. 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 Kincliinjunga and its sister peaks, is chiefly supplied
by the rainfall of the outer ranges of Sincliul and
Singalelah, and hence its waters are clear, except during
the height of the rains.

* 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 through-
out a much longer portion of its course.

VOL. I.

H

146

TONGrLO.

Chap. YI.

From tliis place we returned to Dorjiling, arriving
on the afternoon of the following clay.

The most interesting trip to he made from
Dorjiling, is that to the summit of Tonglo, a mountain
on the Singalelah range, 10,079 feet high, clue vTest of
the station, and twelve miles in a straight line, hut 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 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, hut the grain is large,
coarse, reddish, and rather gelatinous when boiled.

At about 4000 feet the great bamboo (“ Pao” Lepcha)
abounds ; it flowers every year, which is not the case
with all the species 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 clue, 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 00 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 Dorjiling. Besides this, the Lepclias are acquainted
with nearly a dozen kinds of bamboo ; these occur at

May, 1848

BAMBOOS,

147

various elevations below 12,000 feet, forming, even in
the pine -woods, and above tlieir zone, in the skirts of
the Rhododendron scrub, a small and sometimes almost

LEPCHA WATER-CARRIER WITH A BAMBOO CHUNGI.

impervious jungle. In an economical point of view
they may be classed as those which split readily, and
those which do not. The young shoots of several are

ji 2

148

TONGLO.

Chap. YI.

eaten, and tlie seeds of one are made into a fermented
drink, and into bread in times of scarcity ; but it would
take many pages to describe tlie numerous purposes to
which the various species are put.

Some low steep spurs were well cultivated, though
the angle of the field was upwards of 25° ; the crops,
chiefly maize, were just sprouting. The flowers of this
plant are occasionally hermaphrodite in Sikkim, where
they form a large drooping panicle and ripen small
grains; this 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 to nearly 10,000 feet. Of the
former there were here five species, 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 Simulium) swarms on the banks of tlie
streams; it is very small and black, floating like a
speck before the eye ; its bite leaves a spot of extra-
vasated blood under the cuticle, very irritating if not
opened.

Crossing the Little Kungeet river, we camped at the

* Of two of these cloth is made, and of a third, cordage. The tops of
two are eaten, as are several species of Procris. To this order belongs
the “Poa,” from the fibre of which is made that kind of grass-cloth now
abundantly imported into England from the Malay Islands, and used
extensively for shirting.

May, 1848.

NATIVE AND CULTIVATED FRUITS.

149

base of Tonglo. Tlie night was calm and clear, with
faint cirrus, hut no dew ; and the following morning was
bright, and clear over head, though the clouds over the
mountains looked threatening. Dorjiling, perched on
a ridge 5000 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 cliaits * 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., marked 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 7000 feet, in
Sikkim, though I think the root (from the Dorjiling
stock) cultivated 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 8000 to 7000 feet

* The chait of Sikkim, borrowed from Tibet, is a square pedestal, sur-
mounted by a hemisphere, the convex end downwards, and on it is placed
a cone, with a crescent on the top. These are erected as monuments to
Lamas, and illustrious persons, and are venerated accordingly, the people
always passing them from left to right, often repeating the invocation,
“ Om Mani Padmi om.”

150

TONGLO.

Chap. VI.

elevation, and flowers abundantly ; the fruit making the
nearest approach to maturity (according to the elevation)
between July and October. At Dorjiling it follows the
English seasons, flowering in March and fruiting in
September, when the scarce reddened and still hard
fruit falls from the tree.

It is curious that throughout this temperate region,
there is hardly an eatable fruit except the native walnut,
and some brambles, of which the “yellow” and
“ ground ” raspberries 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 really ripen, which
they do in the greatest abundance. Vines, figs, pome-
granates, plums, apricots, &c., will not succeed even as
trees. European vegetables again grow, and thrive
remarkably well throughout the summer of Dorjiling,
and the produce is very fair, sweet and good, but
inferior in flavour to the English.

Of tropical fruits cultivated below 4000 feet, oranges
and indifferent bananas alone are frequent, with lemons
of various kinds. The season for these is, however,
very short ; oranges abound in winter, and are excellent,
but neither so large nor free from 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 direct

May, 1848.

FRUITS IN INDIA.

151

rays of the sun during 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 atmos-
phere. 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 functions 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 then flower and fruit, neither
these nor others will thrive in the summer of 7000 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 at the
level of the sea. There is in this respect a great differ-
ence between the climate of the central and eastern and
western Himalaya, at equal elevations. In the western
(Simla, &c.) the winters are colder than in Sikkim —
the summers warmer and less humid. The rainy

152

TONGfLQ.

Chap. VI.

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.
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 that instru-
ment 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, where it is marked by one
season of excessive humidity and the other of excessive
drought, can never he favourable to the production
either of good European or tropical fruits. For this
reason not one of the latter is 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 AVestern Africa.

CHAPTER VII.

Continue the ascent of Tonglo — Trees — Lepcha construction of hut — Simsi-
bong — Climbing-trees — Frogs — Ticks — Leeches — Summit of Tonglo —
Rhododendrons — 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.

Above Simonbong, the path up Tonglo is little
frequented, although it is one of the many routes
between Nepal and Sikkim, which cross the Singalelah
spur of Kinchinjunga at various elevations between
7000 and 15,000 feet. As usual, the track runs along
steep and narrow ridges, wherever these are to be
found, through deep humid forests of oaks and
Magnolias, many laurels, and a species of cinnamon,
ascending to 8,500 feet. Chesnut and walnut here
appeared, with some leguminous trees, which however
did not ascend to 0000 feet. Scarlet flowers of an
epiphytical Vaccinium, were strewed about, and the
great blossoms of Rhododendron Dalhousia and of a
Magnolia lay together on the ground. The latter forms
a tree, with very dense foliage, and shining deep green
leaves, a foot to eighteen inches long. Most of its
flowers drop unexpanded from the tree, and diffuse a

154

TONGrLO.

Chap. YII.

very aromatic oclour ; 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 seek
the nearest camping-ground. For this purpose we
ascended to a spring, called Simsibong, at an elevation
of 6000 feet; where the Lepclias rapidly constructed a
house, and thatched it with bamboo and the broad
leaves of the wild plantain. A table was then raised
in the middle, of four posts and as many cross pieces of
wood, lashed together with strips of bamboo. Across
these, pieces of bamboo were laid, ingeniously flattened,
by selecting cylinders, crimping them all round, and
then slitting each down one side so that it opened into
a flat slab. Similar but longer and lower 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 foliage all
round rendered the habitation tolerably warm.

We here found many large 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 remarkable vegetable pheno-
mena 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 net-work round the
trunk, by the coalescence of their branches and aerial
roots, &c. : these wholly envelope and often conceal the

May, 1848

CLASPING- TRESS,

155

tree they enclose, whose branches appear rising far
above those of its destroyer. To the first of these

CLASPING ROOTS OF WIGHTIA.

groups belong many natural orders, of which the most

» •

prominent are — leguminous and aroid plants, ivies,

156

TONGLO.

Chap. YII.

hydrangea, and vines. The inosculating ones are
almost all figs and Wightia , a plant allied to Bignonia:
the latter is the most remarkable, and I give 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 every thing,
and the rain pattered on the leaves of our hut. At
midnight a tree-frog broke the silence with his curious
metallic clack, and others quickly joined the chorus,
keeping up their strange music till morning. Like
many Batracliians, 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 notes. 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.*

On the following morning we proceeded upwards,
though our prospect was more gloomy than ever. The
path, which still led up steep ridges, was very slippery,
owing to the rain upon the clayey soil, and was only
passable from the hold afforded by the interlacing roots
of trees.

A large tick infested the small bamboo, and a more

* A very common Tasmanian species utters a sound that appears to ring
in an underground vaulted chamber, beneath the feet.

May, 1848.

RHODODENDRONS, &c.

157

hateful insect I never encountered. The traveller
cannot prevent these insects coming on his person
(sometimes in great numbers) as he brushes through
the forest ; they get inside his dress, and insert their
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 their
proboscis, but in vain. Leeches also swarm below
7000 feet; a small black species above 3000 feet, and
a large yellow-brown solitary one below that elevation.

Our ascent to the summit was by the bed of a water-
course, now a roaring torrent, from the heavy and
incessant rain. 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. The trees were principally
— the scarlet Rhododendron arhoreum and barbatum,
large bushy luxuriant trees, loaded with beautiful
flowers ; 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.
There were still a few purple Magnolias, very large
Pyri, 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 the
Brahmins in Nepal. An erect white -flowered rose

158

TONGrLO.

Chap. YIL

(B. sericea, tlie only species occurring in Southern
Sikkim) was very abundant : its numerous inodorous
flowers are pendent, apparently as a protection 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. Amongst the herbs were many of great
interest, as a rhubarb, and an aconite, which yields one
of the celebrated “ Bikh ” poisons. Of European genera
I found Thalictrum, Anemone , Fumaria, violets, Stel-
laria, Hypericum , two geraniums, balsams, Epilobium ,
Potentilla, Paris and C onvallarice ; one of the latter
lias verticillate leaves, and its root, also called “bikh,”
is considered a very virulent poison.

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, indicates a decided peculiarity in Sikkim.
On the other hand, certain tropical genera are more
abundant in the temperate zone of the Sikkim moun-
tains, and ascend much higher there than in the
Western Himalaya : of this fact we have conspicuous
examples in the palms, plantains, and tree-ferns.
The 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 plants far beyond
the tropical limit in the Southern Ocean, where various
natural orders, which do not cross the 30tli and 40th

May, 1S4S.

CAMP. HEAVY RAIN.

159

parallels of N. latitude, are extended to the 55th of S.
latitude, and are 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 the long-leaved Pine) and 10,000
feet (that of the Yew), there is no coniferous tree
whatever on the outer ranges of Southern Sikkim.

AVe 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 tempera-
ture was 50°, this wind produced cold to the feelings.
Our poor Lepclias 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.

160

TONGLO.

Chap. VII.

During tlie niglit the rain did not abate ; and the
tent-roof leaked in such torrents that we had to throw
pieces of wax-clotli over our shoulders as we lay in bed ;
and there was no improvement whatever in the weather
on the following morning. Two of the Hindoos 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, but 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.

My barometrical observations, 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, as the summit commands a
superb prospect. 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 com-

Mav, 1848.

TEMPLE OF SIMONBONGr.

161

menced tlie descent, which, owing to the late torrents
of rain, was most fatiguing and slippery ; it again com-
menced to drizzle at noon, nor was it till we had
descended to 6000 feet that we emerged from the
region of clouds. By dark we arrived at Simonbong,
having descended 5000 feet, at the rate of 1000 feet
an hour ; and were kindly received by the Lama, who
gave us his temple for the accommodation of our
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
Goompas, or temples, in Sikkim ; being built of wood
only. It consisted of one large room, raised on a
stone foundation, with small sliding shutter windows,
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

* It consisted of a leathern cylinder placed upright in a frame ; a pro-
jecting piece of iron struck a little bell at each revolution, the movement
being caused by an elbowed axle and string. Within such cylinders are
deposited written prayers, and whoever pulls the string properly is

162

TONGLO,

Chap. VII

some implements for common purposes, bags of juniper,
English wine-bottles and glasses, with tufts of Abies
Webbiana, rhododendron flowers, and peacock’s feathers,
besides various trifles, clay ornaments and offerings,

SIMONBONG TEMPLE.

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
Lliassa, of beautiful design, and a human thigh-bone,
hollow, and perforated through both condyles.*

considered to have repeated his prayers as often as the bell rings. Represen-
tations of these implements will be found in other parts of these volumes.

* 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.

May, 1848.

TEMPLE OF SIMONBONG.

168

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 clorge, or double-headed thunderbolt,
which the Lama holds in his hand during service. Of
all these articles, the human thigh-bone is by much the

TRUMPET MADE OF A HUMAN THIGH-BONE.

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, these relics are generally
procured from Tibet, where the corpses are cut in pieces
and thrown to the kites, or into the water.

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.

It is reported at Dorjiling, tliat one of the first Europeans buried at
tins station, being a tall man, was disinterred by tlie resurrectionist
Bhoteas for liis trumpet-bones.

164

TGNGLO.

Chap. VII.

We were awakened at daylight by the discordant
orisons of the Lama ; these commenced hy the hoys
beating the great tambourine, then blowing the conch-
shells, and finally the trumpets and thigh-bone. Shortly
afterwards 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, commenced matins, counting
his beads, ringing the bell, and uttering most dismal
prayers. After various disposals of the cups, a larger
bell was violently rung for some minutes, himself snap-
ping 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 in-
tolerable. 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 india-rubber, and waterproof,
containing half-fermented millet. This mixture, called
Munva , is invariably offered to the traveller, either in
the state of fermented grain, or more commonly in a

May, 1848.

RETURN TO DOR.JILING.

165

bamboo jug, filled 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 09°; the latter was
an agreeable temperature for the coolies, who plunged,
teeming with perspiration, into the water, catching fish
with their hands. We reached Dorjiling late in the
evening, again drenched with rain ; our people impru-
dently 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 fewer than seven were laid up
with fever and ague.

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
command for communion. A more interesting and
attractive companion than the Lepcha I never lived
with : cheerful, kind, and patient with a master to whom
lie is attached ; rude but not savage, ignorant and yet
intelligent ; with the 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.

166

TONGLO.

Chap. VII.

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 bare-
legged, possessing little or nothing save a cotton
garment and a long knife, followed me for many
months, from the scorching plains to the everlasting
snows. Ever foremost 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.

TIBETAN AMULET.

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 Dorjiling — Goong ridge — •
Behaviour of Bhotan coolies — Nepal frontier — Myong valley — Ham —
Sikkim massacre — Cultivation — Nettles — Camp at Nanki on Tonglo
— Bhotan coolies run away — View of Chumularf — Nepal peaks —
Sakkiazung — -Hornbills — Road to Wallanchoon — Scarcity of water — -
Singular view of mountain-valleys — Encampment — My tent and its
furniture — Evening occupations — Dunkotah— Cross ridge of Sakkia-
zung— Yews — Silver-firs — View of Tambur valley — Pemmi river —
Pebbly terraces — Holy springs — Enormous trees — Luculia gratissima
— Khawa river — 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 endeavours to procure leave to penetrate
further beyond the Dorjiling territory than Tonglo,
were attended with some trouble and delay.

In the autumn of 1848, the Governor- General com-
municated with the Rajah, desiring him to grant me
honourable and safe escort through his dominions; but
this wras at once met by a decided refusal, apparently
admitting of no compromise. Pending further nego-
tiations, which Dr. Campbell felt sure would terminate

168

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. VIII.

satisfactorily, though perhaps too late for that season,
he applied to the Nepal Rajah for permission for me
to visit the Tibetan passes, west of Kinchinjunga ;
proposing in the meanwhile to arrange for my return
through Sikkim. Through the kindness of Colonel
Thoresby, the Resident at that Court, and the influence
of Jung Bahadur, this request was promptly acceded
to, and a guard of six Nepalese soldiers and two
officers was sent to Dorjiling 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 from
his position he could command, besides personally
superintending the equipment and provisioning of my
party. Taking loaded animals of any kind was not
expedient : the whole journey was to be performed 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
for 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

Oct. 1848.

ARRANGEMENT OF PARTY.

169

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 were many residing as British subjects in
Dorjiling, 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 Dorjiling, who are accustomed
to travel at all elevations, 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, will generally work and
behave well for money. The choice, as will hereafter
be seen, was unfortunate, though at the time unani-
mously approved.

My party mustered fifty-six persons, including
myself, and one personal servant, a Portuguese half-
caste, who undertook all offices, and spared me the
usual train of Hindoo and Mahometan servants. My
tent and equipments (for which I was indebted to Mr.
Hodgson), instruments, bed, 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
interpreter, the coolie Sirdar (or headman), and my
chief plant collector (a Lepcha), had a man each. Mr.
Hodgson’s bird and animal shooter, collector, and

VOL. I.

i

170

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. YIII.

stuffer, for 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, capsicums,
salt and flour.

I carried a small barometer, a large knife and digger
for plants, note -book, telescope, compass, and other
instruments ; whilst two or three Lepcha lads accom-
panied me with 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 always kept
near me with one of his men, rendering innumerable
little services : the other sepoys were distributed
amongst the remainder of the party ; while one went
ahead to prepare the 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 profit-
ably spent in collecting ; 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., arriving between 4 and 6 p.m. at the

Oct. 1848. BAD BEHAVIOUR. OF BHOTAN COOLIES.

171

next camping-ground. My 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
Lepehas, in the manner described in the Tonglo
excursion. The evenings I employed in writing up my
notes and journals, plotting maps, and ticketing the
plants collected during the day.

I left Dorjiling on the 27th October, accompanied
by Dr. Campbell, who saw me fairly off, the coolies
having preceded me. Our direct route would have
been over Tonglo, but the threats of the Sikkim autho-
rities 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 Dorjiling. 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 too foggy and dark to send back to
meet them. 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 liis 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 coolies, who were equally deaf to threats
and entreaties. As they did not come up till dusk, we

172

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. VIII.

were obliged to encamp at the common source of the
Balasun, which flows to the plains, and the Little
Rungeet, whose course is northwards.

The contrast between the conduct of the Bhotan men
and that of the Lepchas and Nepalese was so marked,
that I seriously debated the propriety of sending the
former back to Dorjiling, but yielded to the remon-
strances of their Sirdar and the Nepal guard, who
represented the great difficulty I should have in
replacing them, and above all, the loss of time, at this
season a matter of great importance. I accordingly
started again the following morning, and still keeping
in a westerly direction, descended into the Myong
valley in Nepal, through which flows a river of the
same name, a tributary of the Tambur. This 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 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 Ham, a
celebrated stockaded post of the Ghorkas : its position
is marked by a conspicuous conical hill. The inhabi-
tants are chiefly Brahmins, but there are also some
Moonnis, 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

* This Mahometan title, by which the officers of state are known in
Sikkim, is there generally pronounced Kajee.

Oct. 1848.

SCENERY OF MYONG VALLEY.

173

me the usual present of a kid, fowls, and eggs, and
begged me to express to Dr. Campbell bis desire to
settle at Dorjiling.

The scenery of this valley is the most beautiful I
know of in the lower Himalaya, and the Cheer Pine
(P. longifolia) is abundant, cresting the bills, which are
loosely clothed with clumps of oaks and other trees,
bamboos, and common English bracken. The spurs
separate little ravines luxuriantly clothed with tropical
vegetation, through which flow pebbly streams of
transparent 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 the 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 ; he comes to your camping-ground, sits down,
and stares, but offers no assistance ; if he brings a
present he expects a return on the spot, and goes on
begging till satisfied. I was amused by the cool way
in which my Gliorka guard treated the village lads,
when they wranted help, taking them by the shoulder,
pulling out their knives for them, placing them in their

174

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. VIII.

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.

My object being to reach the Tambur, north of the
great east and west mountain ridge of Sakkiazung,
without crossing the innumerable feeders of the Myong
and their dividing spurs, I 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), 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 came
along, and neither their Sirdar nor the Gliorka 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. No course remained but to send to
Dorjiling for others, or to return to the Myong valley,
and take a more circuitous route over the west end of
Sakkiazung, which led through villages from which I

Nov. 1848.

VIEW FROM TONGLO.

175

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 ; 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 rendered 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, 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 Donkia
(23,176 feet), and Chumulari (23,929). Though both
were much more distant than the snowy ranges, being
respectively eighty and ninety miles off, they raised
their gigantic heads above them, seeming what they
really are, by far the loftiest peaks next to Kinchin-
junga ; and the perspective of snow is so deceptive, that
though from forty to sixty miles beyond, they appeared
as though in the same line with the ridges they over-
topped. Of these mountains, Chumulari presents
many attractions to the geographer, from its long dis-
puted position, its sacred character, and the interest

176

EAST NEPAL.

CnAP. VIII.

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, there was no con-
tinuous snowy chain ; 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 eighty miles distance, called,
by my Nepal people, “ Tsungau.” From the bearings
I took of it from several positions, this 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 as being 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.

To the west, the black ridge of Sakkiazung, bristling
with silver-firs, 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 low hills rose on the 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 intercepted the view of the plains of

Nov. 1348.

CAMP ON SAKKIAZUNGr.

Ikw Hr

I 1

India, of winch I had a distant peep to the south-
west only.

A few of the Bhotan coolies having returned, I left
Tonglo on the 5th, and proceeded to the Mai, a feeder
of the Myong. The descent was as abrupt as that of
the east face, but through less dense forest ; the
Sikkim side being much the dampest. I encamped at
dark near a small village (Jummanoo), at 4,360 feet,
having descended 5000 feet in five hours. Hence I
marched eastward to the village of Sakkiazung, which
I reached on the third day.

Though rich and fertile, the country is scantily popu-
lated, and I had much difficulty in procuring coolies :
I therefore sent back to Dorjiling all but 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. Water is very scarce along the ridge ; we
walked fully eight miles without finding any, and were
at length obliged to encamp at 8,350 feet by the only
spring that we should be able to reach. With respect
to drought, this ridge differs materially from those of
Sikkim, where water abounds at all elevations ; and the
cause is obviously its position to the westward of the
great ridge of Singalelah (including Tonglo) by which
the S.W. currents are drained of then1 moisture. Here
again, the east flank was much the dampest and most
luxuriantly wooded.

While my men were forming their encampment, I
ascended a rocky summit, from which I obtained a

178

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. YIII.

superb view to the westward. Immediately beneath 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 6000 to 7000 feet deep, of wooded ridges,
which, as it were, radiated outwards in rocky spurs
to the fir-clad peaks around. To the south-west,
in the extreme distance, were the 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 ; 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. 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 hi a flood of crimson and purple, sending
broad beams of gray shade and purple light up to the
zenith, and all around. As evening advanced, mists
rapidly formed below me hi little isolated clouds, which
coalesced and spread out like a heaving sea, leaving
nothing above their surface but the ridges and spurs
of the adjacent mountains. These rose like capes,
promontories, and islands, of the darkest leaden hue,
bristling with pines, and advancing boldly into the
snowy ocean, or starting from its bed in the strongest
relief. As darkness came on, and the stars arose, a

Nov. 1848.

ARRANGEMENTS OF CAMP.

179

light fog gathered round me, and I quitted with
reluctance one of the most impressive and magic scenes
I had ever beheld.

Returning to my tent, I was interested in observing
how well my followers accommodated themselves to
their narrow circumstances. Their fires gleamed
everywhere amongst the trees, and the people pre-
sented an interesting picture of native, savage, and
half- civilised life. I wandered amongst them in the
darkness, and watched 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, wdiile with the other
they held hack their long tangled hair. Others were
bringing water from the spring below, some gathering
sprigs of fragrant worm-wood 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 recumbent forms.
The Bliotanese were rude and boisterous in their
pursuits, constantly complaining to the Sirdars, and
wrangling over their meals. The Gliorkas were
sprightly, combing their raven hair, telling interminably
long stories, or singing Hindoo songs 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,

180

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. VIII.

an earthen pot as his kettle, and all manner of herbs
collected during fhe 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 light from draught and
insects, 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 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 my
journal, 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 set to change the plant-papers, while I
explored the neighbourhood, and having taken observa-
tions and breakfasted, we were ready to start at
10 A.M.

Noy. 1848.

VIEW FROM SAKKIAZUNG.

181

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 hushes, and commanding 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 from the bark of the Daphne. Here too I
gained a fine view of the plains of India, including the
course of the Co si river, which, receiving the Arun and
Tambur, debouches into the Ganges opposite Colgong.

A little further on I crossed the main ridge of
Sakkiazung, a chain stretching for miles to the
westward from Phulloot on Singalelah, and forming the
most elevated and conspicuous transverse range in this
part of Nepal. 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) :
there were, however, a few yews, exactly like the English.
The view that opened on cresting this range was again
magnificent, of Kinchinjunga, 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
intervene between Kinchinjunga and the great Nepal
mountain before mentioned. For fully forty miles
to the northward there were no lofty forest-clad
mountains : villages appeared everywhere, with crops
of golden mustard and purple buckwheat in full flower ;
yellow rice and maize, green hemp, pulse, radishes,

182

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. YIII.

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 rushed in white foam over their rocky beds.
Kmchinjunga was 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 wdiite rock with a faint pink tint : — on the
other hand the cliffs of the lofty Nepal mountain in the
far west were all black. 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 wras shorter,
leading down to the Pemmi river, and thence along its
banks, west to the Tambur. I chose the latter.

Plie descent was very abrupt to the bed of the Pemmi,
2000 feet ; and the path was infamously bad, generally
narrow, winding, and rocky, leading among tangled
shrubs and large boulders, brambles, nettles, and
thorny bushes, often in the bed of the torrent, or
crossing spurs covered with forest. 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 grown
as a narcotic.

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 wTater,
ornamented the rocks with red paint, and a row of

Nov. 1848.

TAMBUR RIVER.

183

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, wild cherry-trees
covered with scarlet blossoms, and trees of the purple
and lilac Bauhinia ; while Thunbergia, Convolvulus ,
and other climbers, hung in graceful festoons from the
boughs, and on the dry micaceous rocks the Luculia
gratissima, one of our choice hot-house ornaments,
grew in profusion, its gorgeous heads of blossoms
scenting the air.

At the junction of the Pemmi and Khawa rivers,
elevated 2250 feet, appeared many trees and plants of the
Terai and plains, as pomegranate, peepul, and sal ; with
extensive fields of cotton, indigo, and irrigated rice.

We followed the north bank of the Kbawa, westerly,
through a gorge between high cliffs, and reached the
east hank of the Tambur, on the 13th of November,
at its junction with the Kliawa. 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, hut ice
never descends nearly so low ; its breadth was sixty to
eighty yards, and that of the foaming Khawa twelve to
fifteen yards. 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

184

EAST NEPAL.

Ciiap. Till.

water-worn boulders ; it was girt by another broken
terrace, twelve feet or so above tlie water, and covered
with long grass and bushes.

The main road from Ham to Wallanclioon, which I
quitted on Sakkiazung, descends steeply on the op-
posite bank of the river : there is considerable traffic
along it ; 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 appeared singularly indolent, and great beggars.

The land seems highly favoured by nature, and the
population, though so scattered, is, in reality, con-
siderable, 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 plantains, 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 MywaGuola; 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 formed of a hollow
trunk of Toon thirty feet long, and much ruder than

Nov. 1848. FERRY AND SUPERSTITIOUS CUSTOMS.

1S5

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 hushes before em-
barking,— the votive offerings of a Boodhist through-
out 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; its banks were very steep for 600
feet above the stream, though the mountains which
flanked it did not exceed 4000 to 5000 feet : this is a
constant phenomenon in the Himalaya, and the paths,
when within a few hundred feet of the rivers, 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 ingenuity : often the
hank 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 excessively 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’s rays at this
season do not, in many places, reach the bottom of
these valleys until 10 a.m., and are withdrawn by 3 p.m. ;
and the radiation to a clear sky is so powerful that dew
frequently forms in the shade, throughout the day, and
it is common at 10 a.m. to find the thermometer sink
from 70° in a spot dried by the sun, to 40° in the shade

186

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. VIII.

close by, where the sun has not yet penetrated. Snow
never falls.

In one place the road ascended for 2000 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 tremen-
dous chasm, flanked by well-cultivated hills, and
emerging fifteen miles to the northward, from black
mountains of savage grandeur, whose 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
here crossed by an excellent iron bridge, formed of
loops hanging from two 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.

Mywa Guola (or bazaar) is a large village 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

Nov 1848.

MESSAGE. FROM RAJAH.

187

stationed there, with a few soldiers. The houses are
of wrood, and well built : the public ones are large,
with verandahs, and galleries of carved wood ; the
workmanship is of Chinese character, and inferior to
that of Katmandoo ; but in the same style, and unlike
anything I had previously seen.

The river-terrace is similar to that at the junction of
the Tambur and Khawa, but very extensive : the
stones it contained were of all sizes, from that of 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.

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 had authorised me to return through any
part of Sikkim I thought proper. The hearer was a
Lepcha attached to the court : his dress was that of a
superior person, being 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 attache, who wrore a magnificent pearl and gold
ear-ring, and carried his master’s how, as well as a
basket on his hack; 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 intel-
ligent companion, guide, and often collector, during
many months afterwards.

The vegetation round Mywa Guola is thoroughly
tropical : the banyan is planted, and thrives tolerably,

188

EAST NEPAL

Chap. YIII

the heat being great during the day. Like the whole
of the Tambur valley below 4000 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.

As it was doubtful if we should be able to procure
food further on, I laid in a full stock here, and distri-
buted blankets, &c., sufficient for temporary use for all
the people, dividing them into groups or messes.

TIHETAN CHARM-BOX,

CHAPTEK IX.

Leave Mywa — Suspension bridge — Landslips — Vegetation — Bees’ nests — -
Glacial phenomena — Tibetans, clothing, ornaments, amulets, saluta-
tion, children, dogs — Last Limboo village, Taptiatok — Beautiful
scenery — Tibet village of Lelyp — Edgeworthia — Crab-apple — Cha-
meleon and porcupine — Praying machine — Abies Brunoniana —
European plants — Grand scenery — Arrive at Wallanchoon — Scenery
around — Trees — Tibet houses — Manis and Mendongs — Tibet house-
hold— Food — Tea-soup — Hospitality — Yaks and Zobo, uses and habits
of — Bhoteas — Yak-hair tents — Guobah of Walloong — Jhatamansi — *
Obstacles to proceeding — Climate and weather — Proceed — Rhododen-
drons, &c. — Lichens — Poa annua and Shepherd’s purse — Tibet camp
— Tuquoroma — Scenery of pass — Glaciers and snow — Summit — Plants,
woolly, &c.

On the 18th November, I 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 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.

190

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

The Wallanchoon path follows the west hank, hut
the bridge above having been carried away, we crossed
by a plank, and proceeded along very steep hanks of
decomposed schist, affording an insecure footing,
especially where great landslips had occurred. 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 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. From this elevation to 9000 feet, its sinuous
track extends about thirty miles, which gives a fall of
200 feet to the mile, quadruple of wdiat it is for the
lower part of its course. So long as its bed is below
5000 feet, a tropical vegetation prevails, but the steep
mountain sides above are either bare and grassy, or
cliffs with scattered shrubs and trees, their summits
bristling with pines : those faces exposed to the south
and east are invariably the driest and most grassy ;
while the opposite are well wooded.

In the contracted parts of the valley, the mountains
often dip to the river-bed in precipices, 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

Nov. 1848.

CHANGE IN THE POPULATION.

191

Rhododendron flowers, just as that, eaten by the
soldiers in the retreat of the Ten Thousand, was by
the flowers of the R. ponticum.

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 : 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 ; they
are probably due to ancient glacial action, especially
when laden with such enormous blocks as are probably
ice-transported.

A change in the population accompanies that in the
natural features of the country, Tibetans replacing
the Nepalese who inhabit the lower region. I 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 were middle-
sized or small, very square-built and muscular ; they
had no beard, moustache, or whiskers, the few hairs on
their faces being carefully removed with tweezers.
They were dressed in loose blanket robes, girt about
the waist with a leather belt, in which they placed
their iron or brass pipes, and from which they sus-
pended their long knives, chop -sticks, tobacco-pouch,
tweezers, tinder-box, &c. The robe, boots, and cap
were gray, or striped with bright colours, and they wore
skull-caps, and the hair plaited into a pig-tail.

The women were dressed in long flannel petticoats
and spencer, over which was thrown a sleeveless, short,

192

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

striped cloak, drawn round the waist by a girdle of
broad brass or silver links, to which bung their knives,
scissors, needle-cases, &c., and with which they often
strapped their children to their backs ; the hair was
plaited in two tails, and the neck loaded with coral and
glass heads, and great lumps of amber, glass, and
agate. Both sexes wore silver rings and ear-rings, set
with turquoises, and square amulets upon their necks
and arms, which were 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 charms. All were 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, hut 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;
hut this method entails so much ridicule in the low
countries, that thejr do not practise it to Nepalese or
strangers ; most of them when meeting me, raised
their hands to their eyes, threw themselves on the
ground, and kotowed most decorously, humping their
foreheads three times on the ground ; even the women
did this on several occasions. On rising, they begged
for a hucksheesh, which I gave in tobacco or snuff, of

Nov. 1848.

PA11TIES OF TIBETANS.

193

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

These groups of Tibetans are singularly picturesque,
from the variety in their parti-coloured dresses, and
their odd appearance. First comes a middle-aged
man or woman, driving a little silky black yak, grunting
under his load of 260 lbs. of salt, besides pots, pans,
and kettles, stools, 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-lieacled mastiff, loaded like the
rest, his glorious bushy tail thrown over his back in a
majestic sweep, and a thick collar of scarlet wool
round his neck and shoulders, setting off his long silky
coat to the best advantage ; he is decidedly the noblest
looking of the party, especially if a fine and pure black
one, for they are often very ragged, dun-coloured, sorry
beasts. He seems rather out of place, neither
guarding nor keeping the party together, but he knows
that neither yaks, sheep, nor goats, require his atten-
tion ; 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.

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

VOL. I.

K

194

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

some way through a narrow gorge, along which the
river foamed and roared, the sudden opening out of
this broad, oval expanse, more than a mile long, was
very striking : the mountains rose bare and steep, the
west flank terminating in shivered masses of rock,
while that on the right was more 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, mur-
muring river, with its rapids and shallows, forcibly
reminding me of a trout-stream in the highlands of
Scotland.

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

Nov. 1848.

BHOTEAS.

195

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

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

* A kind of Daplme, from whose bark the Nepal paper la manufactured.

196

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

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

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

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

TAM HER RIVER AT THE LOWER LIMIT OR FIRS,

Nov. 1848.

WALLANCHOON VILLAGE.

199

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 Wallanclioon was rendered
more so from the comparatively few trees ; for though
the silver fir and juniper were both abundant higher up
the valley, they bad been felled here for building
materials, fuel, and export to Tibet. From the naked
limbs and gaunt black trunks of those that remained,
stringy masses of bleached lichen ( Usnea ) many feet
long, streamed in the wind : both men and women seemed
fond of decorating tlieir hair with wreaths of this lichen,
dyed yellow with leaves of Symplocos.

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

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

200

EAST NEPAL

Chap. IX

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

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WALLANOHOON VILLAGE.

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

Nov. 1848.

WALLANCHOON VILLAGE.

201

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

A Tibetan household is very slovenly ; the family
live higgledy-piggledy in two or more apartments, the
largest of which has an open fire on the earth, or
on a stone if the floor be of wood. The pots and tea-
pots 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.

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

K 3

202

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

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 cup, which the good
woman of the house keeps incessantly replenishing, and
urging you to drain. Sometimes, but more rarely, the
Tibetans make a drink by pouring boiling water over
malt, as the Lepchas do over millet. A pipe of yellow
mild Chinese tobacco generally follows the meal ; more
often, however, their tobacco is brought from the plains
of India, when it is of a very inferior description.
The pipe, carried in the girdle, is of brass or iron,
often with an agate, amber, or bamboo moutli-piece.

Many herds of fine yaks were grazing about Wallan-
clioon : 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 appear-
ance ; it is invaluable to these mountaineers from its
strength and hardiness, accomplishing, at a slow pace,
twenty miles a day, bearing either two bags of salt or
rice, or four to six planks of pine-wood slung along
both flanks. Their ears are generally pierced, and
ornamented with a tuft of scarlet worsted; they have
large and beautiful eyes, spreading horns, long silky
hair, and grand bushy tails : black is their prevailing
colour, but red, dun, parti- coloured, and white are
common. In winter, the flocks graze below 8000 feet,
on account of the great quantity of snow above that
height ; in summer they find pasturage as high as

Nov. 1843.

HABITS AND USES OF THE YAK.

203

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

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

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

204

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

always sleep. Tlieir 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 gives her
the calf s foot to lick, or lays a stuffed skin before her, to
fondle, which she does with eagerness, expressing her
satisfaction by short grunts, exactly like those of
a pig, a sound 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 7000
feet, where liver disease carries it off after a very
few years.* Lastly, the yak is ridden, especially
by the Lamas, who find its shaggy coat warm, and its
pace easy; under these circumstances it is always led.
The wild yak or bison (DTiong) of central Asia, the
superb progenitor of this animal, is the largest native-
animal of Tibet, in various pails of which country it is
found; and the Tibetans say, in reference to its size,

* 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 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 Surgeons, London. The artist is probably a little indebted to
description for the appearance of its hair in a native state, for it is repre-
sented much too even in length, and reaching to too uniform a depth from
the flanks.

Nov. 1843.

BHOTEA SALT-TRADERS.

205

tliat 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 fierce, falling upon you with horns and
chest, and if he rasps you with his tongue, it is so
rough as to scrape the flesh from the bones. The
horns are used as drinking-cups in marriage feasts, and
on other grand occasions. My readers are probably
familiar with Messrs. Hue and Gabet’s account of
a herd of these animals being frozen fast in the head-
waters of the Yangtsekiang river.

The inhabitants of these frontier districts belong to
two very different tribes, but all are alike called
Bhoteas (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 Lepclia
or Nepalese, migrating between 6000 and 15,000 feet
with the seasons, accompanied by their herds. In
appearance, religion, manners, customs, and language,
they are Tibetans and Lama Booddhists, but they pay
tax to the Nepal and Sikkim Bajahs, to whom they
render immense service by keeping up and facilitating
the trade in salt, wool, musk, &c., which could hardly
be conducted without their co-operation. They levy a
small tax on all imports, and trade a 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

206

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

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

On my arrival at Wallanclioon, I was conducted to
two tents, each about eight feet long, of yak’s hair,
striped blue and white, which had been pitched close
to the village for my accommodation. Though the best
that could he 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 supported 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 he found, except with
regard to spinning, which is their constant occupation,

Nov. 1848.

GrUOBAH OF WALLANCHOON.

207

every man and woman carrying a bundle of wool in tlie
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 Guobali
(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 bo)v ; he wore a
neat thick white felt cap, with the border turned up,
and a silk tassel on the top ; this he removed with both
hands and held before him, bowing three times on
entering. He was followed by a crowd, some of whom
were his own people, and brought a present of a kid,
fowls, rice, and eggs, and some spikenard roots ( Nar -
dostachys Jatamansi , a species of valerian smelling
strongly of patchouli), which is a very favourite per-
fume. After paying some compliments, he showed
me round the village. During my walk I found that I
had a good many objections to overrule before I could
proceed to the Wallanchoon pass, nearly two days’
journey to the northward. In the first place, the
Guobah disputed the Nepal Rajah’s authority to pass
me through his dominions ; and besides the natural
jealousy of this people when intruded upon, they have
very good reasons for concealing the amount of revenue

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

208

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX..

they raise from tlieir 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 Gliorkas,
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. My provisions were
running short, and I had no present hope of replenish-
ing them. All my party had, I found, reckoned on the
certainty that I should have had enough of this
elevation and weather by the time I reached Walloong.
Some of them fell sick ; the Guobali swore that the
passes were full of snow, and had been impracticable
since October ; and the Ghorka Havildar respectfully
deposed that he had no orders relative to the pass.
Prompt measures were requisite, so I told all my people
that I should stop the next day at Walloong, and
proceed on the following on a three days’ journey to
the pass, with or without the Guobah’s permission.
To the Ghorka soldiers I said that the present they
would receive, and the character they would take to
their commandant, depended on their carrying out this
point, which had been fully explained before starting.
I told my servants that their pay and reward depended
on their implicit obedience. I took the Guobali 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

Nov. 1848.

TEMPERATURE OF WALLANCHOON.

209

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

During my two days’ stay at Walloong, the weather
was bitterly cold : as heretofore, the nights and
mornings were cloudless, hut by noon the whole sky
became murky. At this season the prospect was
dreary in the extreme ; and the quantity of snow upon
the mountains, which was continually increasing, held
out a dismal promise for my chance of exploring lofty
uninhabited regions. All annual and deciduous vege-
tation was long past, and the lofty Himalayas are very
poor in mosses and lichens, as compared with arctic
regions in general. The temperature fluctuated from
22° at sunrise, to 50° at 10 a.m. ; one night it fell to
6|°. Throughout the day, a south wind blew strong
and cold up the valley, and at sunset it was replaced by
a keen north blast, piercing through tent and blankets.
Though the sun’s rays were hot for an hour or two in
the morning, their genial influence was never felt in the
wind. The sky, when cloudless, was generally a cold
blue or steel-grey colour, but at night the stars were
large, and twinkled gloriously. In my tent the tempe-
rature fluctuated with the state of the fire, from 20° at
night to 58° when the sun beat on it; but the only
choice was between cold and suffocating smoke.

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

210

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

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

The path lay north-west up the valley, which became
thickly wooded with silver-fir and juniper ; we gradually
ascended, crossing many streams from lateral gulleys,
and huge masses of houlders. Evergreen rhododen-
drons 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 hushes of rose, Spiraea, dwarf juniper, stunted
birch, willow, lioney-suckle, berberry, and mountain-
ash. At 12,000 feet the valley was wild, open, and
broad, with sloping mountains clothed for 1000 feet
with dark-green rhododendron hushes ; the river ran
rapidly, and was broken into falls here and there.
Huge angular masses of rock were scattered about, and
snowy peaks towered over the surrounding mountains,
while among the latter narrow gulleys led up to blue
patches of glacial ice, with trickling streams and shoots
of stones. Dwarf rhododendrons with strongly-scented
leaves (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 liill-sides. The prevalence of lichens, common
to the Himalaya and to Scotland (especially L. geo-
graphicus), which coloured the rocks, added an addi-
tional feature to the resemblance to Scotch Highland
scenery. Along the narrow path I found the two com-
monest of all British weeds, a grass (Poa annua), and the

Nov. 1848.

EUROPEAN PLANTS.

211

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

On reaching 13,000 feet, the ground was everywhere
hard and frozen, and I experienced the first symptoms
of lassitude, headache, 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 the salt-bags removed
from their herd of yaks, which was grazing close by.
They looked miserably cold and haggard, and their
eyes, much inflamed and bloodshot, testified to the
hardships they had endured in their march from the
salt regions : they were crouched round a small fire of

212

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

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 then aware of the value they attach to a rock, on
account of the great warmth which it imbibes from the
sun’s rays during the day, and retains at night. This
invaluable property of otherwise inhospitable granite I
had afterwards many opportunities of proving ; and
when driven to such shelter as rude nature might
afford on the bleak mountain, I have had my blankets
laid beneath “ the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land.”

The name of Dhamersala is applied, in the mountains
as in the plains of India, to a house provided for the
accommodation of travellers, whether it be one of the
beautiful caravanserais built to gratify the piety, osten-
tation, or benevolence of a rajah, or such a miserable
shieling as that of Tuquoroma, in which we took up
our quarters, at 18,000 feet elevation. A cheerful fire
soon blazed on the earthen floor, filling the room with
the pungent odour of juniper, which made our eyes
smart and water. The Ghorkas withdrew to one
corner, and my Lepclias to a second, while one end
was screened off for my couch ; unluckily the wall
faced the north-east, and in that direction there was a
gulley in the snowy mountains, down which the wind
swept with violence, penetrating to my bed. I had
calculated upon a good night’s rest here, which I much
needed, having been worried and unwell at Wallan-
choon, owing to the Guobah’s obstinacy. I had not

Nov. 1848.

WALLANCHOON PASS.

213

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

On the following morning (Nov. 2Gtli) I started with
a small party to visit the pass, continuing up the broad,
grassy valley ; much snow lay on the ground, which had
fallen the previous month ; and several glaciers were
seen in lateral ravines. After a couple of miles, we
struck northward up a narrow, stony, and steep gorge,
crossing an immense ancient moraine at its mouth.
This path, which we followed for seven or eight miles,
led up to the pass, winding considerably, and keeping
along the south-east exposures, which, being the most
sunny, are the freest from snow. The morning was
splendid, the atmosphere over the dry rocks and earth
vibrating from the power of the sun’s rays, while vast
masses of blue glacier and fields of snow choked every
gulley, and were spread over all shady places. Although,
owing to the steepness and narrowness of the gorge,
no view was obtained, the scenery was wild and very
grand. Just below perpetual snow, an ugly carved
head of a demon, with blood-stained cheeks and
goggle-eyes, was placed in a niche of rock, and pro-
tected by a glass.

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

214

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

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

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

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

Nov. 1848.

SUMMIT OF WALLANCHOON.

215

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

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

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

216

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. IX.

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

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

demon’s head.

CHAPTEB X.

Return from Wallanchoon pass — Procure a bazaar at village — Dance of
Lamas — Temple and convent — Leave for Kanglachem pass — Send part
of party back to Dorjiling — 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 — 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, eleva-
tion of — Moonlight scene — Return to Yangma — Temperature, &c.
— Geological causes of phenomena in valley — Scenery of valley on
descent.

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

VOL. I.

L

218

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. X.

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

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

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

Nov. 1848.

ASCEND THE YANGMA RIVER.

219

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
holding a lotus flower with a jewel in it.

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

220

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. X.

During the night, I was startled from my sleep by a
blaze of light, and jumping up, found myself in presence
of a party of most sinister-looking, black, ragged
Tibetans, bearing huge torches of pine, that filled
the room with flame and pitchy smoke. I remembered
their arriving just before dark, and their weapons
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 difficulty), and
with some trouble ejected the visitors, happily without
setting the house on fire. I heard them toppling head
over heels down the ladder, which I had afterwards
drawn up to prevent further intrusion, and in spite of
their drunken orgies, was soon lulled to sleep again by
the music of the roaring river.

On the 29tli November, I continued my course up
the Yangma valley, which after five miles opened con-
siderably, the trees disappearing, and the river flowing
more tranquilly. The Guobah of Wallanchoon over-
took 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 6000 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 con-
siderable. Every yak going and coming is said to pay

Nov. 1848.

ANCIENT MORAINES.

221

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 his traps repacked, and was off
again.

We encamped at a most remarkable place : the
valley was 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 pheno-
menon had excited all my curiosity on first obtaining
a view of it. The path, I found, led over it, close under
its west end, and wound amongst the enormous
detached fragments of which it was formed, and which
were often eighty feet square : all were of gneiss, schist,
and granite. A superb view opened from' the top,
showing it to be a vast moraine, far below the influence
of any existing glaciers, but which at some antecedent
period had been thrown across the valley by a glacier de-
scending to 10,000 feet, from a lateral gulley on the east
flank. Standing on the top, and looking south, was the
Yangma valley (up which I had come), gradually con-
tracting to a defile, girdled by snow-topped mountains,
whose rocky flanks mingled with the black pine forest
below. Eastward the moraine stretched south of the

222

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. X.

lateral valley, above which towered the snowy peak of
Nango, tinged rosy red, and sparkling in the rays of
the setting sun : blue glaciers peeped from every
gulley on its side, but these were 2000 to 3000 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 the lateral valley, from this great one up
to the existing glaciers. Looking up the Yangma
to the north, there appeared a flat grassy plain, hemmed
in by mountains, and covered with other stupendous
moraines, which rose ridge behind ridge, and cut off
the view of all but the mountain tops. The river
meandered through the plain (which was about 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-beck

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

Nov. 1848.

ANCIENT MORAINES.

223

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

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

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

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

EAST NEPAL.

Chap, X.

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

Nov. 1848.

YANGfMA CONVENTS.

225

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

Yangma convents stood at the mouth of a gorge
which opened upon the uppermost terrace ; they con-
sisted of a wretched collection of stone huts, painted
red, and enclosed by loose stone dykes. Two shock-
ingly dirty Lamas conducted me to the temple, which
had very thick walls, but was undistinguishable from
the other buildings. A small door opened upon an
apartment piled 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 oiled paper.
On one side was the library, a carved case, with a
hundred gilded pigeon-holes, each holding a real or
sham book, and closed by a 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,

226

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. X.

graced with his Chinese attribute of very long pen-
dulous moustaches and heard, and totally wanting that
air of contemplative repose which the Tibetan Lamas
give to their idols. Banners were suspended around,
with paintings of Lhassa, Teshoo-Loombo, and various
incarnations of Boodclh. The books wTere of the usual
Tibetan form, oblong squares of separate block -printed
leaves of paper, made in Nepal or Bliotan from the
bark of 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 the
tasteful combination which appears on the cover of
these volumes.

Beyond the convents the valley again contracted,
and on crossing a third, but much lower, moraine, a
lake opened to view, surrounded by flat terraces, and a
broad gravelly beach, part of the lake being dry. To
the west, the cliffs were high, black, and steep : to the
east a large lateral valley, filled at about 1500 feet up
with blue glaciers, led to the gleaming snows of Nango.
Much snow lay on the ground, and the cold was
pinching in the shade ; still I could not help attempt-
ing 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,

Deo. 1848.

YANGMA VALLEY.

227

every snowy crest and ridge being rendered with perfect
precision.

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

LOOKING ACROSS I HE YANGMA VALLEY.

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

228

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. X.

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

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

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

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

Dec. 1S48.

YANGMA VILLAGE.

229

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 objects for contemplation,
rendered more impressive by the silence that reigned
around. The village seemed buried in repose : the
inhabitants had already begun to hybernate ; 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 Booddh, if of anything at all, the dead, long
winter through. The yaks alone find anything to do ;
so long as any vegetation remains they roam and eat
it, still yielding milk, which the women take morning
and evening, when their shrill whistle and cries are
heard for a few minutes as they call the grunting
animals. No other sounds, save the harsh roar and
hollow echo of the falling rock, glacier, or snow-bed,
disturbed the perfect silence of the day and night*

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

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

* Snow covers the ground at Yangma from December till April, and the
falls are said to be very heavy, at times amounting to 12 feet in depth.

230

EAST NEPAL.

. Chap. X.

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

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

Dec. 1848.

VILLAGE OF YANGMA.

231

stone, and clustered in groups against the steep
face of the terrace ; filthy lanes wound amongst them,
so narrow, that by turning my head, I could look into
the slits of windows on either hand, and feel the
noisome warm air in whiffs against my face. Glacial
boulders lie scattered around and beneath the clusters
of houses, which it is sometimes difficult to distinguish
from the native rock. I entered one house by a narrow
low door through walls four feet thick, and found
myself in an apartment 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 Kamtschatk house in
Cook’s voyage), and went into a small low room. The
inmates looked half-asleep, they were intolerably indo-
lent and filthy, and were spinning wool and smoking. A
door in the wall of the upper apartment led me on to
the stone roof of the neighbouring house, from which I
passed to the top of a boulder, descending thence by
rude steps to the narrow alley. Wishing to see as much as
I could, I was led on a winding course through, in and
out, and over the tops of the houses of the village,
which alternately reminded me of a stone quarry or
gravel-pit, and gipsies living in old lime -kilns ; and of
all sorts of odd places that are turned to account as
human habitations.

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

Chap. X.

northward. The
surface is very
uneven, being
worn into hol-
lows, and pre-
senting ridges
and hillocks of
sand and gravel,
with small black
tufts of rhodo-
dendron. Enor-
mous granite
boulders were
scattered over
the surface ; one
of the ordinary
size was seventy
feet in girth, and
fifteen feet above
the ground, into
which it had
partly sunk.

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

Deo. 1848.

TERRACES IN YANGMA VALLEY.

233

little flat lake -bed ; other terraces skirted it, cut, as
it were, from the side of that I was on. On the
opposite flank of the valley were several terraces, of
which the highest appeared to tally with the level I
occupied, and the lowest was raised very little above
the river ; none were continuous for any distance, but
the upper one, in particular, could be most con-
spicuously traced up and down the main 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 on the great terrace ; for two miles it
was nearly level along the gradually narrowing shelf,
at times dipping into the deep gulleys formed by
torrents from the mountains ; and as the terrace dis-
appeared, or melted, as it were, into the rising floor
of the valley, the path descended upon the lower and
smaller shelf.

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

234 EAST NEPAL. Chap. X.

v

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

Soon after descending to the broad and open floor of
the valley, I came on a second dry lake-bed, a mile
long, with shelving banks all round, heavily snowed on
the shaded side ; the river meandered through it, and a
fine glacier-bound valley opened into it from the south.

A rather steep ascent through a contracted part of
the valley led to another lake-bed, a quarter of a mile
long and 100 yards broad, covered with patches of
snow, and facing the stupendous masses of snow and
ice which filled the upper part of the Yangma valley.
This lake-bed (altitude 15,180 feet) was strewed with

SKULLS OF OYIS AMMON.

236

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. X.

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

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

We could make no further progress ; the pass lay at
the distance of several hours’ march, up a valley to the
north, down which the glacier must have rolled that
had deposited this great moraine : it had been
closed since October, being very lofty, and the head
of this valley was far more snowy than that at Wal-
lanchoon. We halted in the snow from 3 to 4 p.m.,
during which time I again took angles and observa-
tions ; 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 31°.

After fixing in my note and sketch books the

Dec. 1848

KANGLACHEM PASS

237

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 re-
markable instance of the clearness of the atmosphere

KANGLACHEM PASS.

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 con-
templating the varied phenomena, which seemed to
crowd upon the imagination. Happily I had noted
everything on my way up, and left nothing intentionally
to be done on returning. In making such excursions

238

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. X.

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

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

Considering this latter as the upper terrace, and con-
cluding that it marks a water level, it is not very
difficult to account for its origin. There is every
reason to suppose that the flanks of the valley were
once covered, to the height of the upper terrace, with
an accumulation of debris ; though it does not follow
that the whole valley was filled to the same depth ; the
effect of glaciers being to deposit moraines between
themselves and the sides of the valley they fill ; as also
to push forward similar accumulations. Glaciers from
each valley, meeting at the fork, where their depth
would be 700 feet of ice, would both deposit the
necessary accumulation along the flanks of the 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, on a small scale, are found at the termi-

Dec. 1848.

ORIGIN OF TERRACES.

289

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

CHAPTER XL

Ascend Nango mountain — Moraines — Vegetation — Honey-combed surface
of snow — Perpetual snow — Top of pass — View — Elevation — Distance
of sound — Plants — Temperature — Scenery — Cliffs of granite and burled
boulders — Camp — Descent — Pheasants — Larch — Distribution of
Deodar — Kambachen village — Cultivation — Moraines in valley, dis-
tribution of — Picturesque lake-beds, and their vegetation — Tibetan
sheep and goats — Cryptogramma crisp a — 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 — Lose path — Night scenes — Musk deer.

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

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

Dec. 1343.

ASCENT OF NANGO MOUNTAIN.

241

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

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

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

At a little below 15,000 feet, we reached enormous
flat beds of snow, which were said to be perpetual,
but now deepened by the October fall. They were con-
tinuous, and like all the snow I saw at this season, the
surface was honeycombed into thin plates, the inter-
vening fissures being about six inches deep. A thick
mist here overtook us, and this, with the great difficulty
of picking our way, rendered tire 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, oppres-
sion of breathing, a dense drizzling fog, a keen wind, a
slippery footing, where I was stumbling at every few

VOL. I.

M

242

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. XI.

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

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

Dec. 1848.

GRANITE BLOCKS.

243

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

The few plants about were mostly 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 tem-
perature at 4 p.m. was 23°, and bitterly cold ; the
elevation was 15,770 feet.

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

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

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

244

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. XI.

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.
Bice, 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.

On looking out the following morning, it was with
a feeling of awe that I gazed at the stupendous ice-
crowned precipices that shot up to the summit of
Nango, their flanks spotted wiiite 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 debris at the bottom, thus tracing the
course which had probably been taken by that rock
under whose shelter I had passed the previous night.

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

We descended at first through rhododendron and

Dec. 1848.

HIMALAYAN LARCH.

245

juniper, then through black silver-fir (Abies Webbiana),
and below that, near the river, we came to the Hima-
layan 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, pensile, whip -like branches; its leaves —
now red — were falling, and covering the rocky ground
on which it grew. It is found as far west as the heads
of the Co si river ; hut does not inhabit Central nor
West Nepal, nor the North-west Himalaya.

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

* Since writing the above, I have seen, in the magnificent Pinetum at
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.

246

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. XI.

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

At the bottom of the valley we crossed the river —
which was a furious torrent, about twelve yards wide
— to the village of Kambachen, on a flat terrace, a few
feet above the stream. There were about a dozen
houses of wood, plastered with mud, scattered over a
grassy plain of a few acres, fenced in, as were also a
few fields, with stone dykes. The only cultivation
consists of radishes, potatos, and barley : no wheat is
grown, the climate being said to be too cold for it, by
which is probably meant that it is foggy, — the eleva-
tion (11,880 feet) being 2000 feet less than that of
Yangma village, and the temperature 6° to 7° warmer ;
but of all the mountain gorges I have ever visited, this
is by far the wildest, grandest, and most gloomy ; and
that man should hybernate here is indeed extraordi-
nary, for there is no route up the valley, and all
communication with Lelyp, two marches down the
river, is cut off during the winter, when the houses are
buried in snow, and drifts fifteen feet deep are said
to he common. Standing on the little flat of Kam-
bachen, precipices, with inaccessible patches of fir-trees,
appeared 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: enormous black, round-
backed moraines, rose tier above tier, from a fiat
lake-bed, apparently hemming in the river between

Dec. 1848. MORAINES IN KAMBACHEN VALLEY.

247

the lofty precipices on the east flank of the valley.
These had all been deposited at the month 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, which, though but
11,400 feet above the sea, lies between two mountains
only eight miles apart, the one 25,312 feet high, the
other (Nango) 19,000 feet.

The villagers received me very kindly, and furnished
me with a guide for the Choonjerma pass, leading to
the Yalloong valley, the most easterly in Nepal ; but
he recommended my not attempting the ascent till the
morrow, as it was past 1 p.m., and we should find
no camping-ground for half the way up. The villagers
gave me 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,
till we crossed the stream from the lateral valley, and
ascending a little, camped on its bank.

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

* This is one of the most sudden slopes in this part of the Himalaya,
the angle between the top of Junnoo and Kambachen being 2786 feet per
mile, or 1 in 1 ‘8. The slope from the top of Mont Blanc to the Chamouni
valley is 2464 feet per mile, or 1 in 2*1. That from Monte Rosa top to
Macugnaga greatly exceeds either.

248

EAST NEPAL,

Chap. XI

glacial valley (represented in the accompanying cut) to
the snowy peaks south of Junnoo, was particularly grand,
and most interesting from the precision wTith 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. With a telescope I could descry many
similar smaller glaciers, with huge accumulations of
shingle at their terminations ; but this great one was
beautifully seen by the naked eye, and formed a very
curious feature in the landscape.

Between the moraines, near my tent, the soil was

Dec. 1848.

IvAMBACHEN MORAINES.

249

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 rhododen-
dron and prostrate juniper, as trim as if they had been
clipped. Altogether these formed the most picturesque
little nooks it was possible to conceive ; and they
exhibited the withered remains of so many kinds of
primrose, gentian, anemone, potentilla, orchis, saxifrage,
parnassia, campanula, and pedicularis, that in summer
they must be perfect gardens of 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-branclied silver firs, conical
deep green tree -junipers, and feathery larches ; whilst
amongst the blocks grew a profusion of round masses
of evergreen rhododendron bushes. Beyond were
stupendous frowning cliffs, beneath which the river
roared like thunder ; and looking up the glacial valley,
the setting sun was bathing the expanse of snow in
the most delicate changing tints of pink, amber, and
gold.

The boulders forming the moraine were so enormous
and angular, that I had great difficulty in ascending it,
and where the large rhododendrons grew amongst
the rocks I found it impossible to penetrate. The
largest of the moraines was piled to upwards of 1000
feet against the south flank of the lateral 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

250

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. XI.

on the Rhododendron Thomsoni and campylocarpum.
On the roots of one species a parasitical Broom-rape
( Orobanche ) grew abundantly ; and about the moraines
were more mosses, lichens, &c., than I had elsewdiere
seen in the loftier Himalaya, 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 overhanging peaks.

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

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

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

Dec. 1848.

TIBETAN CAMP.

251

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.

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

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

252

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. XL

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

As evening drew on, another wonderful spectacle
presented itself, similar to that which I described at
Sakkiazung, but displayed here on an inconceivably
grander scale, with all the effects exaggerated. I saw
a sea of mist floating 3000 feet beneath me, just below
the upper level of the black firs ; the magnificent spurs
of the snowy range which I had crossed rising out of it
in rugged grandeur as promontories and peninsulas,
between which the misty ocean seemed to finger up like
the fiords of Norway, or the saltwater lochs of the west
of Scotland ; whilst islets tailed off from the promon-
tories, 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, hut 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 discerned the most lofty group of mountains
in Nepal beyond Kinchinjunga, which I believe are on
the west flank of the great valley through which the
Arun river enters Nepal from Tibet: they were very

* The appearance of Mont Cervin, from the RifFelberg, much reminded
me of that of Junnoo, from the Choonjerma pass, the former hearing the
same relation to Monte Rosa that the latter does to Kinchinjnnga. Junnoo,
though incomparably the more stupendous mass, is not nearly so remark-
able 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 diminishes both its apparent height and distance.

Dec. 1848.

SUMMIT OF CHOONJERMA PASS.

253

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

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

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

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

254

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. XI.

little inequalities of the ragged edges of the mist were
lighted up and shone like a row of volcanos in the
distance. I have never before or since seen anything,
which for sublimity, beauty, and marvellous effects,
could compare with what I gazed on that evening from
Choonjerma pass. In some of 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 “Whalers,” and the ruddy fire in
his “Wind, Steam, and Bain,” which one almost fears
to touch. Dissolving views give some idea of the magic
creation and dispersion of the colours, but any combi-
nation of science and art can no more recal the scene,
than it can the feelings of awe that crept over me,
during the hour I spent in solitude amongst these
stupendous mountains.

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

Dec. 1848.

A NIGHT SCENE.

255

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

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

It was a dead calm, and nothing broke the awful
silence but the low hoarse murmur of many torrents,
whose mingled voices rose and fell as if with the
pulsations of the atmosphere ; the undulations of which
thus appeared to be marked by the ear alone. Some-
times it was the faintest possible murmur, and then it
rose swelling and filling the air with sound : the effect
was that of being raised from the earth’s surface, and
again lowered to it ; or that of waters advancing and
retiring. In such scenes and with such accompani-
ments, 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

256

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. XI.

impressive scenes is very seductive, and withal very
dangerous, for the temperature was at freezing-point,
my feet and legs were wet through, and it was well
that 1 was soon roused from my reveries by the
monosyllabic 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, which, having been
repeatedly begged for in vain, and being no longer
expected, was received with unfeigned joy. Fortunately
with these people a little spirits goes a long way, and
I kept half for future emergencies.

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

Dec. 1848.

MUSK-DEER, OR KOSTURAH.

257

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

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

CHAPTER XII.

Yalloong valley — Find Kanglanamo pass closed — Change route for the
southward — Picrorhiza — Cross Yalloong range — Yiew — Descent —
Yew — Vegetation — Misty weather — Tonghem village — Khabang —
Tropical vegetation — Sidingbah Mountain — Yiew of Kinchinjunga —
Khabili valley — Ghorkha Havildar’s bad conduct — Ascend Singalelah
— Plague of ticks — Short commons — Cross Islumbo pass — Boundary
of Sikkim — Kulhait valley — Lingcham — Deception by Kajee — Hear
of Dr. Campbell’s going to meet Rajah — Views in valley — Leave for
Teesta river — Tipsy Kajee — Hospitality — Murwa beer — Temples —
Long Mendong — Burning of dead — Superstitions — Cross Great Run-
geet — Purchase of a dog — Marshes — Lamas — Dismiss Ghorkhas —
Bhotea house — Murwa beer.

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

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

Dec. 1848.

THE YALLOONG RIDGE.

259

Bengal “ Teeta,” and used as a febrifuge : the present
one was that of Picrorhiza, a plant allied to Speedwell,
which grows at from 12,000 to 15,000 feet elevation,
and is a powerful bitter. They had with them above
100 sheep, of a tall, long-legged, Koman-nosed breed.
Each carried upwards of forty pounds of salt, done up
in two leather bags, slung on either side, and secured
b}^ 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 crea-
tures, travelling twelve miles a day with great ease,
and being indifferent to rocky ground.

December 7. — I ascended the Yalloong ridge to a
saddle 11,000 feet elevation, whence the road dips
south to the gloomy gorges of the eastern feeders of
the Tarnbur. Here I bade adieu to the grand alpine
scenery, and for several days my course lay through
Nepal in a southerly direction, parallel to Singalelah,
and crossing many spurs and rivers sent off by that
mighty range. The latter flow towards the Tarnbur,
and their beds for forty or fifty miles are elevated about
3500 feet. I ascended few of the spurs above 5000
feet, but all of them rise to above 12,000 feet to the
westward, where they join the Singalelah range.

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

260

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. XII.

tlie 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 confused masses, and
white sheets of mist came driving up, clinging to the
mountain-tops, and shrouding the landscape with ex-
treme 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 Rhododendron Falconeri and Hodgsoni,
then through Abies Brunoniana , with yew (now covered
with red berries) to the region of Magnolias and Rho-
dodendron barbatum and arboreum. One bush of the
latter was in flower, making a gorgeous show. Here also
appeared the great oak with lamellated acorns, which
I had not seen in the drier valleys to the westward ;
with many other Dorjiling trees and shrubs. A heavy
mist climg to the rank luxuriant foliage, tantalising
from its obscuring all the view. After so many days
of bright sunshine and dry weather, I found this quiet,
damp, foggy atmosphere to have a most depressing
effect : there was little to interest in the meteorology,
the atmospheric fluctuations being far too small ; geo-
graphical discovery was at an end, and I groped my
way along devious paths in wooded valleys, or ascended
spurs and ridges, always clouded before noon, and
clothed with heavy forest.

Dec. 1848.

TONGHEM. KHABANG.

261

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

The next day, after crossing the river, a very wind-
ing and fatiguing up-and-down march brought me to
the village of Khabang, in the magnificent valley of
the Tawa, about 800 feet above the river, and 5,500
feet above the sea.

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

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

The temperature here was 7 2° ; and Magnolias and
various other tropical trees were common, with the
herbaceous vegetation of low elevations. Large sugar-
canes, palms, and wild plantains grew near the river,
and Rhododendron arboreum was very common on dry
slopes, with the gorgeous and sweet-scented Luculia
gratissima.

Up the valley of the Tawa the view was very grand
of the magnificent rocky mountain called Sidingbah,

262

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. XII.

situated on a spur of the Singalelah range which runs
westerly, and forms the south flank of the Tawa, and
the north of the Khabili valley. This mountain is
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 firs.

From the opposite side of the Tawa I was most
fortunate in obtaining a splendid view of Kinchinjunga
with its associates, rising over the dark mass of Sin-
galelah, its flanks showing like tier above tier of green
glaciers : its distance was fully twenty-five miles, and
as only about 8000 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 I proceeded southward to the valley
of the Khabili, and my daily marches were up ridges,
and down into deep valleys, with feeders from the flanks
of Sidingbali to the Tambur. During this part of the
journey, though I was day after day marching only
seven to ten miles distant from the Tambur river, I
did not once see it, so uneven is the country.

The valley of the Khabili is very grand, broad, open,
and intersected by many streams and cultivated spurs :
the road from Yamroop* to Sikkim, once well fre-
quented, runs up its north flank, and though it had
long been closed we determined to follow and clear it.

* A large village and military post to the west of my route.

Dec. 1848. GHORKA HAYILDAR’S BAD CONDUCT.

263

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

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

264

EAST NEPAL.

Chap. XII.

ascending to the region of oaks and magnolias. The
path was soon obstructed, and we had to tear and cut our
way, from 6000 to 10,000 feet, which took two days’
very hard work. Ticks swarmed in the bamboo jungle,
and my body was covered with these loathsome 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 daytime 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 painlessly insert
a stout barbed proboscis, which requires great force to
extract it, and causes severe smarting in the operation.
What the tick feeds on in these humid forests is a
perfect mystery to me, for they literally swarmed, where
there was neither path nor animal life. They were,
however, more tolerable than a commoner species of
parasite, from which I found it impossible to escape,
all classes of mountaineers being infested with it.

On the 14tli, after an arduous ascent through the
pathless jungle, I 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 my 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 I crossed the Islumbo
pass over Singalelali into Sikkim, the elevation being
11,000 feet. Above my camp the trees were few and

Dec. 1848.

KULHAIT VALLEY.

265

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

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

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

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

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

VOL. I.

N

266

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XII.

villages and much cultivation, I crossed the river,
and ascended to the village of Lingcham, just below
the convent of Changaclielling, very tired and hungry.
Bad weather had set in, and it was pitch dark and
raining hard when I arrived; but the Kajee, or head
man, sent out a party with torches to conduct me, and
gave me a most hospitable reception, honoured me
with a salute of musketry, and brought abundance of
milk, eggs, fowls, plantains, and Murwa beer. Plenty
of news wras awaiting me here, and a messenger with
letters was three marches further north, at Yoksun,
waiting my expected arrival over the Kanglanamo pass.
Dr. Campbell, I was told, had left Dorjiling, and was
en route to meet the Bajah at Bhomsong on the
Teesta, where no European had ever yet been ; and as
the Sikkim authorities had for sixteen years steadily
rejected every overture for a friendly interview7, and
had 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, but in vain. It will
hardly be believed that though this chief s dominions
were redeemed by us from the Nepalese, though wre
had bound ourselves to support him on his throne,
and though the terms of the treaty stipulated for free
intercourse, mutual protection, and friendship ; yet the
Sikkim authorities had hitherto been allowed to
obstruct all intercourse, and in every wTay to treat
the Governor- General’s agent and the East India
Company with contempt. An affectation of timidity,

Dec. 1848.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES.

267

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 them resident agent at Dorjiling.

On the following morning the Kajee waited on me
with a magnificent present of a calf, a kid, fowls, eggs,
rice, oranges, plantains, egg-apples, Indian 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 Dorjiling, 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 Kungeet, for ten of which it is inhabited, the
villages being invariably on long meridional spurs that
project from either flank ; they are about 2000 feet
above the river, and about 5000 feet above the sea.
Except where these spurs project, the flanks of the
valley are very steep, the mountains rising to 8000
feet.

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

268

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XII.

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 gulley and
water-course. The timber has long since been cleared
from the tops, but, to a great extent, still clothes their
flanks and the intervening gorges. I have been par-
ticular 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 2000 and 8000 feet, and are rendered con-
spicuous by being always chosen as 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 with comparatively flat tops, occu-
pying about the same elevation, it is necessary to look
for some levelling cause. The action of denudation is
still progressing with astonishing rapidity, under an

Dec. 1848.

HOSPITALITY OF THE PEOPLE.

269

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

A letter 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 : I therefore left on the 20th of December,
accompanied by my friend the Kajee, who was going to
pay Iris respects to the Bajah. He was followed by a
lad, carrying a bamboo of Murwa beer slung round his
neck, with which he kept himself always groggy. His
dress was thoroughly Lepcha, and highly picturesque,
consisting of a very broad-brimmed round-crowned
bamboo -platted hat, scarlet jacket, and blue-striped
cloth shirt, bare feet, long knife, bow and quiver, rings
and earrings, and a long pigtail. He spoke no Hin-
doostanee, but was very communicative through my
interpreters.

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

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

270

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XII.

to the bottom of the steaming bamboo jug 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, and make the stranger feel himself
welcome. Just now too, the Durbar had ordered every
attention 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 remem-
brance. 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 Pemiongchi a superior Lama met me with another
overwhelming 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.

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

* 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. A tall stone, nine feet high, covered also with inscriptions,
terminates it at the lower end.

Dec. 1848

THE KAYSING MENDONG

271

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

PEMIONGCHI GOOMPA AND CHAITS.

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

272

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XII.

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

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

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

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

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

Dec. 1848. MONASTERIES. CAMP AT LINGrDAM.

273

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

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

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

This being the high road from Tumloong or Sikkim
Durbar (the capital, and 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

274

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XII.

Bajah. A dispensation having previously been pro-
cured from Lhassa, this marriage had been effected by
the Lamas, in order to counteract the efforts of the
Dewan, who sought to exercise an undue influence
over the Bajah and his family. The Tupgain Lama
having only spiritual authority, and being bound to
celibacy, the temporal authority had devolved on the
second son, who was heir-apparent ; he, however,
having died, an illegitimate son of the Bajah had been
favoured by the Dewan as heir-apparent. The bride
was brought from Tibet, and the marriage party was
feasted for eighteen days at the Bajah’s expense. All
the Lamas whom I met were clad in red robes, with
girdles, and were shaven, with bare feet and heads,
or mitred ; they wore rosaries of onyx, turquoise,
quartz, lapis-lazuli, coral, glass, amber, or wood : some
had staves, and one a trident on a long staff, an emblem
of the Hindoo Trinity, called Trisool Mahadeo, which
represents Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu, in Hindoo ; and
Booddh, Dhurma, and Sunga, in Booddliist 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, having just received a letter from his
Bajah, which he wished to communicate to me in
private ; so I accompanied him to a house close by,
where he was a guest, when the secret came out, that
his highness was dreadfully alarmed at my coming
with the two Nepalese soldiers, whom I accordingly
dismissed.

Dec. 1848.

MURWA BEER.

275

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

SIKKIM LAMAS WITH PRAYING CYLINDER AND DORJE ; THE LATERAL FIGURES

ARE MONKS OR GYLONGS.

CHAPTER XIII.

Raklang pass — Uses of nettles — Edible plants — Lepcha war — Do-mani
stone — Neongong — Teesta valley — Pony, saddle, &c. — Meet Campbell
— 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 — Tibet officers — Gigantic trees —
Neongong lake — Mainom, ascent of — Vegetation — Camp on snow —
View from top — Kinchin, &c. — Vapours — Sunset effect— Tempera-
ture, &c. — Lamas of Neongong — Temples — Religious festival — Bamboo,
flowering — Recross 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 close by, I
ascended the Raklang pass, which crosses the range
dividing tke waters of the Teesta from those of the
Great Rungeet. The Kajee still kept beside me, and
proved a lively companion : seeing me continually
plucking 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-

Dec. 1848.

RAKLANG PASS.

277

flowered Begonia was abundant, and he cut its juicy
stalks to make sauce (as we do apple -sauce) for some
pork which he expected to get at Bhomsong ; the taste
is acid and very pleasant. A large succulent fern,
called 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 the young tops of a Polypo-
dium with their shrimp curries ; and both in Sikkim
and Nepal the watery tubers of an Aspidium are abun-
dantly 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 : the pith of all is composed of
a coarse sago.

A thick forest covers the summit, 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 continuous with Kin-
chinjunga, projecting from it down into the very heart
of Sikkim. A considerable stand was made here by
the Lepchas during the Nepal war in 1787 ; they
defended the pass for some hours, and then retired
towards the Teesta, making a second stand lower down,
where rocks on either side gave them the same
advantages. The Nepalese, however, advanced to the
Teesta, and then retired with little loss.

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

Descending by a very steep, slippery path, I came

278

SIKKIM HIMALAYA

Chap. XIII.

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

DO-MANI STONE.

purchase a good metempsychosis by walking along the
slope, with his heels or toes in their cavities. An
inscription in one corner is said to imply that this
tv as the work ot a pious monk of Paklang; and the
stone is called Do -mani, literally, u stone of jirayer.”

I he rocks of Mainom are said to overhang the
descent with grandeur ; but the continued rain hid

Dec. 1848.

MESSENGER FROM DR. CAMPBELL.

279

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

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

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

280

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIII.

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

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

Dec. 1843. BHOMSONG. PRESENT FROM RAJAH.

281

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

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

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

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

282

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIII.

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

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

Dec. 1848.

INTERVIEWS WITH DEW AN.

283

interview with his Highness. At present our relations
were singularly infelicitous. There was no agent on
the Rajah’s part to conduct business at Dorjiling,
as the Dewan insisted on sending a creature of his
own, who had before been dismissed for insolence.
Malefactors who escaped into Sikkim were protected,
and our police interrupted in the discharge of their
duties ; slavery was practised ; and government com-
munications were detained for months raider 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 conversations with him, during which
politics were never touched upon. Our queries
naturally referred to Tibet, especially its great feature
the Yarou Tsampoo river; this he assured us was the
Burrampooter of Assam, and that no one doubted it in
that country. Lliassa he described as lying in the
bottom of a flat-floored valley, surrounded by snowy
mountains : neither grapes, tea, silk, nor cotton are
produced near it, but in the Tartclii province, one
month’s journey to the eastward, rice, and a coarse
kmd of tea are both grown. Two months’ journey
north-east of Lhassa is Siling, the well-known great
commercial entrepot* in west China ; and there coarse
silk is produced. All Tibet he described as moun-
tainous, 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,

* The entrepot is now removed to Tang-Keou-Eul. — See Hue and Gabet.

284

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIII.

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

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

One day we walked up the Teesta to the Rumphiup
river, a torrent from Mainom mountain to the west;
the path led amongst thick jungles of palm, prickly
rattan canes, and a screw-pine, called “Borr,” which
has a straight, often forked, palm -like trunk, and an
immense crown of grassy, saw-edged leaves, four feet
long ; it bears clusters of 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

Dec. 1848.

AUDIENCE WITH RAJAH.

285

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

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

The audience chamber was a mere roofed shed of
neat bamboo wattle, about twenty feet long : two Bho-
teas in scarlet jackets, and with hows 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 overhung by a canopy of tattered blue silk,
with which material part of the walls also was covered.
An oblong box (containing papers) with gilded dragons
on it, was placed on the stage or throne, and behind this
was perched cross-legged, an odd, black, insignificant
looking old man, with twinkling upturned eyes : he
was swathed in yellow silk, and wore on his head a
pink silk hat with a flat broad crown, from all sides of
which hung floss silk. This was the Rajah, a genuine
Tibetan, about seventy years old. On some steps

286

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIII.

close by, and ranged down the apartment, 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 Bajah. Kajees,
counsellors, and mitred Lamas were there, to the
number of twenty, all planted with their backs to the
wall, mute and motionless as statues. A few spec-
tators 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.

We saluted, but received no return ; we then seated
ourselves, when the Dewan came in, clad in a superb
purple silk robe, worked writh circular gold figures,
and formally presented us. As the Bajah did not
understand Hindoostanee, our conversation was carried
on through the medium of a little bare-headed rosy-
cheeked Lama, named “ Tchebu,” wTko acted as inter-
preter. The conversation was short and constrained :
Tchebu was known as a devoted servant of the Bajah ;
and in common with all the Lamas hated the Dewan,
and desired a friendly intercourse between Sikkim and
Dorjiling. He was, further, the only servant of the
Bajah capable of conversing both in Hindoo and
Tibetan ; and the uneasy distrustful look of the Dewan,
who understood the latter language only, was very
evident. He was as anxious to hurry over the inter-
view, 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 our departure white silk scarfs were
thrown over our shoulders, according to the established

Dec. 1848.

SIKKIM RAJAH.

287

custom in Tibet, Sikkim, and Bliotan ; 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 utter ignorance of the usages of Oriental
life, and of his not having any one near to instruct
him. The neglect of our salutation, and the conver-
sion of our presents into tribute, did not arise from
ill -will ; but was owing to the craft of the Dewan in
taking advantage of the Rajah’s ignorance of his own
position, and of good manners. Miserably poor, with-
out any retinue, and taking no interest in what passes
in his own kingdom, subsisting on the coarsest food,
effectually abstracting his mind from the consideration
of earthly 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
Booddh, which is the aim of all good Booddhists. The
conduct of his courtiers, who looked like attendants at
an inquisition, and the profound attention expressed in
every word and gesture of those who did move and
speak, recalled a Pekin reception. His attendants
treated him as a being of a different nature from
themselves ; and well might they do so, since they
believe that he will never die, but retire from the
world only to re-appear under some equally sainted
form.

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

288

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIII.

people, who had long wished it; and the congratulations
we received thereon during the remainder of our stay
in Sikkim were many and sincere. The Lamas we
found universally in high spirits, on account of the
marriage of the heir- apparent, who was said to possess
much ability and prudence, and hence to be very
obnoxious to the Dewan, who vehemently opposed the
marriage. As, however, the minister had established
his influence over the youngest, and estranged the
Eajah 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 hows, arrows, and round Lepcha
shields of cane, each with a scarlet tuft of yak-hair in
the middle ; there were also muskets, Tibetan arms,
and much horse -gear; and at one end was a little altar,
with cups, bells, pastiles, and images. He was robed
in a fawn-coloured silk gown, lined with the softest
of wool, that taken from unborn lambs : like most
Tibetans, he extracts his beard with tweezers ; an
operation he civilly recommended to me, accompanying
the advice with the present of a neat pair of steel
forceps. He aspires to be considered a man of taste,
and plays the Tibetan guitar, on which he performed
some airs for our amusement; the instrument is round-
bodied and long-armed, with six strings placed in pairs,
and probably comes from Kashmir: the Tibetan airs

Dec. 1848.

LEAVE BHOMSONG. HOT BATH.

289

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

Dr. Campbell’s object being accomplished, be was
anxious to make the best use of the few days that
remained before his return to Dorjihng, and we there-
fore arranged to ascend Mainom, and together visit the
principal convents ; 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 started on
Christmas -day, accompanied by two officers, of the
ranks of Dingpun and Soupun, 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
Bhoteas (i.e. Tibetans, born in Sikkim, sometimes
called Arratts), tall, powerful, and well built, but inso-
lent and bullying : the Dingpun wore the Lepcha knife,
ornamented with turquoises, together with Chinese
chopsticks. Near Bhomsong, Campbell pointed out a
hot bath to me, which he had seen employed ; it con-
sisted of a hollowed 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 the
patient submits at intervals for several days, never
leaving till wholly exhausted.

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

VOL. I.

0

290

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIII.

We slept at Nampok, and the following morning
commenced the ascent : on the way we passed the temple
and lake of Neongong. The latter is a mere pool, about
400 yards round, and has no outlet; it contained
two English plants, the common duckweed, and
Potamogeton natans : some coots were swimming in it,
and having flushed a woodcock, I sent for my gun, 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 with us bedding,
food, &c., for two days. A path hence up the moun-
tain is frequented once a year by the Lamas, who make
a pilgrimage to the top for worship. We met with
snow at the level of Dorjiling (7000 feet), indicating a
colder climate than at that station, where none had
fallen ; the vegetation was, however, similar, but not
so rich, and at 8000 feet trees common also to the top
of Sincliul appeared, with Rhododendron Hodgsoni,
and a beautiful little winter-flowering primrose, whose
stemless flowers spread like broad purple stars on the
deep green foliage. Above, the path runs along the
ridge of the precipices facing the south-east, and here
we caught a glimpse of the great valley of the Ryott,
beyond the Teesta, with Tumloong, the Rajah’s resi-
dence, on its north flank, and the superb snowy peak
of Chola at its head.

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

Dec. 1848.

CAMP ON MAINOM.

291

troublesome, so we encamped 800 feet below the top,
in a wood of Magnolia, Rhododendron, and bamboo ;
our beds being laid on a thick layer of rhododen-
dron twigs, bamboo, and masses of moss.

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

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

292

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIII.

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

We enjoyed the view of this superb scenery till noon,
when the clouds which had obscured Dorjiling since
morning were borne towards us by the southerly wind,
rapidly closing in the landscape on all sides. At
sunset they again broke, retreating from the northward,
and rising from Sinchul and Dorjiling last of all,
whilst a line of vapour 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 projected ; or that its true position was com-
paratively close to the mountain on which we were
standing, and was due to condensation around its cool,
broad, flat summit.

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

Dec. 1848.

DESCEND TO NEONGrONGr.

293

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.

Having taken sketches and observations, and collected
much information from our guides, we returned on the
28th to our tents at Neongong; descending 7000 feet,
a very severe shake along Lepcha paths. In the
evening the Lamas visited us, with presents of rice,
fowls, eggs, &c., and begged subscriptions for their
temple, which was then being built; reminding Dr.
Campbell that he and the Governor- General had an
ample share of their prayers, and benefitted in pro-
portion. As for me, they said, I was bound to give
alms, as I surely needed praying for, seeing how I
exposed myself ; besides my having been the first
Englishman who had visited the snows of 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 clay and pounded
slate ; 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 using rammers of heavy wood.
The outer work was of good hard timber, of Magnolia
and oak. The common “ Ban,” or Lepcha knife,

294

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIII.

supplied the place of axe, saw, adze, and plane ;
and the graving work was executed with small tools,
chiefly on Toon, a very soft wood.

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 sub-
stantial offerings, there were little cones of rice, each
with a round wafer of butter at the top, ranged in order
on the altar.* Six Lamas were at prayer, psalms,
and contemplation, sitting cross-legged on two small
benches that ran down the building: one read, with his
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 praying-cylinders, drums, gongs,
books, and trumpets made of human thigh-bones, both
plain and mounted in silver.

Throughout Sikkim, we were roused each morning
at daybreak by this wild music, the convents being so
numerous that we were always within hearing of it.
To me it was deeply impressive, awakening me so

* The worshippers, on entering, walk np to the altar, and before or
after having deposited their gifts, they lift both hands to the forehead, fall
on their knees, and touch the ground three times with head and hands.
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 number of people request a benediction, the Lama pro-
nounces it from the door of the temple with outstretched arms, the people
all being prostrate, with their foreheads touching the ground.

Dec. 1848. LAMA MUSIC. NUMEROUS CONVENTS.

295

effectually to the strangeness of the wild land in which
I was wandering, and of the 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 almost oppressive.

Ascending from Neongong, we reached that pass
from the Teesta to the Great Kungeet, which I had
crossed on the 22nd ; and this time we had a splendid
view, down both valleys, of the rivers, and the many
spurs from the ridge communicating between Tendong
and Mainom, often crowned with hamlets, surrounded
by 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, 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 Bungeet, and in those of its tributaries ; all
of considerable size, and perched at elevations varying
from 3000 to 7000 feet, and commanding splendid
prospects.

We encamped at Lingcham, and the weather being
fine, I took bearings of all the convents and mountains
around. There was much cultivation here, and many
comparatively rich villages. The houses were large,

296

SIKKIM HIMALAYA,

Chap. Kill

and the yards were 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.

Hence we descended north-west to the Great Bun-
geet, 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,
screw-pine, wild plantain, and Pothos, were interlaced in
an impenetrable jungle, and air-plants clothed the trees.

IMPLEMENTS USEE IN BOODHIST TEMPLES.

Praying cylinder in stand ; another to be carried in the hand ; cymbals ; bell ;
brass cup ; three trumpets ; conch; dorje.

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 — Pemiongchi, view from — Vegeta-
tion— Temple, decorations, &c. — Former capital of Sikkim — History
of Sikkim — Nightingales — Campbell departs — Tchonpong — Edge-
worthia — Cross Rungbee and Ratong — Yoksun — Walnuts— View —
Funereal cypresses — Doobdi — Gigantic cypresses — Temples— Snow-
fall— Sikkim, &c. — Toys.

Tassiding hill is the steep conical termination of a
long spur from a fir -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 was up a very steep, dry, zigzag path,
amongst many tropical plants, especially the “ Tukla ”
(Rottlera tinctoria), a plant which yields a brown dye.
The top was a flat, covered with temples, chaits, and
mendongs of the most picturesque forms and in 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

298

SIKKIM HIMALAYA

Chap. XIY.

spread their weeping limbs and pensile branchlets over
the buildings.* It is not wild in Sikkim, but imported
there and into Bhotan from Tibet ; it does not thrive

GROUP OF CHAIT3 AT TASSIDING.

well above 6000 feet elevation. It is called “ Tchen-
den ” by the Lepchas, Bhoteas, and Tibetans, and its
fragrant red wood is burnt in the temples.

The Lamas met us on the top of the bill, bringing a

* 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.

Dec. 1848.

CONVENT OF TASSXDING.

299

noble 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 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 cha-
racter of their neighbours, it is not wonderful that the
monks should have chosen commanding spots, and
good shelter : for the same reason these monasteries
secured views of one another.

We camped on a saddle near the village of Sunnook,
at 4000 feet above the sea ; and on the last day of the
year we visited this most interesting monastic establish-
ment ; ascending from our camp 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^°, 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 fluctuates considerably with
the season. It is very remarkable that such an isolated
spring should exist on the top of a ridge, 2800 feet
above the bottom of this deep valley.

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 enclosure facing the south, full

300

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIY.

of chaits and mendongs, looking like a crowded ceme-
tery, and planted with funereal cypresses.

The house of the principal Lama was an oblong
square, the lower story of stone, and the upper of
wood : we ascended a ladder 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.

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 introduc-
tion of Boodliism 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 nar-
rowed 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, protected 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 per-
pendicular. 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

Dec. 1848

TEMPLES AT TASSIDING

301

attendant monks and servants, accessible by a ladder at
one end of the building. The main body of the temple

DOORWAY.

is one large apartment, entered through a small trans-
verse 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 ori-
ginally dedicated to the evil spirits of the Lepcha
creed. The southern, which contains the library, is

302

SIKKIM HIMALAYA

Chap. XIV

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
Boodli, &c. From the vestibule the principal apart-
ment is entered by broad folding-doors, studded with

SOUTHERN TEMPLE.

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 thick-
ness of the walls (three or four feet), a very feeble light
is admitted. In the principal temple, called “ Dugang,”
six hexagonal wooden columns, narrowed above, with

Dec. 1848.

DECORATIONS OF TEMPLE.

303

peculiar broad transverse capitals, exquisitely 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

/

MIDDLE TEMPLE.

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.

The altars and idols are placed at the opposite end ;
and two long parallel benches, like cathedral stalls,

304

SIKKIM HIMALAYA

Chap. KIY

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 Boodli, or image, is placed behind the
altar under a canopy, or behind a silk screen : gaily

ALTAR AND IMAGES.

Central figure Akshobya, the first of the Pancha Boodha.

dressed and painted effigies of sainted male and female
persons are ranged on either side, or placed in niches
around the apartment, sometimes with separate altars

Dec. 1848.

DECORATIONS OF TEMPLE.

305

before them ; whilst the walls are more or less covered
with paintings of monks in prayer or contemplation.
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,

PLAN OF THE SOUTH TEMPLE.

a. entrance ; b. four praying cylinders ; o. altar, with seven brass cups ot water
d. four columns ; e. and f. images ; g. library.

with the two forefingers up, or holds the dorje, or rests
on the calf of the upturned leg. Sakya has generally
curled hair, Lamas have mitres, females various head-
dresses ; most wear immense ear-rings, and some rosa-
ries. 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

306

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIY.

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 shape, placed before an image encircled
by a glory. Flowers, juniper, peacock’s feathers, pas-
tiles, and brass cups of water were the chief ornaments
of the altars, besides the instruments I have elsewhere
enumerated. In this temple was the library, con-
taining several hundred books, in pigeon-holes, placed
in recesses.

The effect on entering these cold and gloomy temples
is very impressive ; the Dugang in particular was exqui-
sitely ornamented with painting, and the vista from the
vestibule to the principal idol, of carved and coloured
pillars and beams, was very picturesque. Within, the
general arrangement of the colours and gilding is felt
to be harmonious and pleasing, especially from the
introduction of slender white streaks between the con-
trasting masses of colour, in the same manner as was
adopted in the Great Exhibition building of 1851. It
is also worthy of remark that the brightest colours are
often used in broad masses, and when so, are always
arranged in the sequence of the rainbow’s hues, and
are hence never displeasing 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

Dec. 1848.

TEMPLES, CHAITS, AND MENDONGS.

307

their grave and decorous conduct, and by the feeling
of respect demanded by a religion which inculcates
and adores virtue in the abstract, and those only
amongst men who practise virtue. To the idol itself
the Boodhist attaches no importance ; it is an object
of reverence, not of worship, and no virtue or attribute
belongs to it per se ; it is a symbol of the creed, and the
adoration is paid to the abstraction which 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
extremely picturesque, and those at Tassiding, 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 accom-
panied 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 wrere
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 ornaments ; since which time Pemi-
ongchi 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.

308

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIY.

Although the elevation is but 4,840 feet, the weather
was cold and raw, with ram at noon, followed by thun-
der 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 Eatong.

The ascent to Pemiongchi was 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 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
Eatong and Eungbee rivers ; and the great Changa-
chelling temple and monastery stand on another emi-
nence 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 3000 feet above the
sea, and are choked with fig-trees, plantains, and
palms ; to these succeed laurels and magnolias, and
still higher up, oaks, chesnuts, birches, &c. ; there is,
however, no marked line between the limits of these
two last forests, which form the prevailing arboreous
vegetation between 4000 and 10,000 feet, and give a
lurid hue to the mountains. Fir forests succeed for

Jan. 1849.

TEMPLE AT PEMIONGCHI.

809

2000 feet higher, when they give place to a skirting
of rhododendron and berberry. Among these appear
black naked rocks, between which are gulleys, down
which the snow now descended to 12,000 feet. The
mountain flanks are much more steep and rocky than
those at similar heights on the outer ranges, and cata-
racts are very numerous, and of considerable height,
though small in volume.

Pemiongchi temple,* the most ancient in Sikkim, is
said to he 400 years old ; it stands on a paved plat-
form, and is of the same form and general character
as those of Tassiding. Inside, it is most beautifully
decorated, especially the beams, columns, capitals and
architraves, 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 alle-
gorical paintings of Lamas and saints 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 east across the

* See Frontispiece to this volume.

310

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIY.

Teesta, whilst the Ghorkas plundered Tassiding, Pemi-
ongchi, Changachelling, and all the other temples and
convents to the west of that river. It was then that
the famous history of Sikkim,* compiled 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
wrere told that the monks of Changachelling and those
of this establishment had copied what remained, and
were busy compiling the rest from oral information,
&c. : whatever value the original may have possessed,
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 covered with
snow ; we therefore 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 ther-
mometer fell to 28°, and the ground next day was
covered with hoar-frost. 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.

* 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.

Jan. 1849.

SEPARATE FROM DR. CAMPBELL.

311

On the 2nd of January I parted from my friend, Dr.
Campbell, who was obliged to hurry to the great annual
fair at Titalya. I regretted much being unable to
accompany him 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
anxious to continue my explorations northward till the
latest moment; I however accompanied him for a
short distance on his way towards Dorjiling.

A steep zigzag path, descending amongst long
grass and scarlet rhododendrons, led to the Kaysing
Mendong. Here I bade adieu to Dr. Campbell, and
returned 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
impossible for any one who cannot from experience
realize 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.

On my return to Pemiongchi I spent the remainder
of the day sketching in the great temple, gossipping
with the Lamas, and drinking salted and buttered
tea-soup, which I had begun to like, when the butter
was not rancid.

312

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIY.

My route hence was to he along the south hank 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
convents of Yoksun lay near my route, and the temples
of Doobdi, Catsuperri and Molli, on the Eatong river.

I descended to the village of Tchonpong, 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
an English conservatory.

From Tchonpong we descended to the bed of the
Eungbee (alt. 3,160 feet), an affluent of the Eatong,
flowing in a deep gulley with precipitous sides : 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 Eatong, where we encamped, the coolies being
unable to proceed further along such very bad roads.

We encamped on a gravelly flat, fifty feet above the
river, strewn with water-worn boulders, and so densely
covered with tall Artemisia bushes, gigantic grasses,
bamboos, plantains, ferns, and acacias, that we had to
clear a space in the jungle, which exhaled a rank
heavy smell.

Jan. 1849.

YOKSUN. FUNEREAL CYPRESSES.

313

Hence I ascended to Yoksun, one of the most
curious and 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 Dorjiling, where it hears a small-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, which was covered with light
black mould, and had been recently cleared by fire ;
on it we found millet cultivated. From the top the
view was very fine : to the north lay Yoksun, appearing
from this height to occupy a flat, girdled by steep
mountains to the north and east, and dipping very
suddenly to the Batong, the gorge of which opened
as a gloomy defile, above which rose partial^
snowed mountains, which shut out Kinchinjunga.
To the right was a lofty hill, crowned with the
large temple and convents of Doobdi, shaded by beau-
tiful weeping cypresses, and hacked by lofty fir-clad
mountains. To the west, massive fir-clad mountains
rose steeply ; while the little hamlet of Lathiang
occupied a remarkable shelf overhanging the river,
appearing inaccessible except by ropes from above.
South-west, the long spurs of Molli and Catsuperri,
each crowned with its convents or temples, de-
scended from Singalelah ; and parallel to them on
the south, but much longer and more lofty, was the

VOL. I.

P

314

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIV.

great mountain range north of the Kulhait, with the
temples and convents of Pemiongchi and Changa-
chelling, towering in the air. The latter range dips
suddenly to the Great Rungeet, where Tassiding, with
its chaits and c}^presses, 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, were wonderfully fine.

Yoksun was the earliest civilised corner of Sikkim,
and derived its name (which signifies in Lepclia “ three
chiefs ”) from having been the residence of three
Lamas of great influence, who were the means of intro-
ducing the first Tibetan sovereign into the country.
At present it boasts of but little cultivation, and a
scattered population, 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 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, 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, hut not like the
picture in Macartney’s Embassy to China, whence ori-
ginated the familiar “willow-pattern ” of our crockery.
The ultimate hranchlets are very slender and pen-
dulous ; my Lepclia hoys used to make elegant chaplets
of them, binding the withes with scarlet worsted. The

Jan. 1849

TEMPLES AT DOOBDI

315

trunk is quite erect, smooth, cylindrical, and pine-
like ; it harbours 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

TEMPLE AND WEEPING CYPRESS.

was broad, and skilfully conducted up a very steep
slope covered with forest ; the top, which is nearly
1000 feet above Yoksun, is a broad partially paved
platform, on which stand two temples, surrounded by
beautiful weeping cypresses : one of these trees (perhaps
the oldest in Sikkim) measured sixteen and a half feet
in girth, at five from the ground, and was apparently

p 2

316

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XIY.

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 Orchids. 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 preliminary, 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- selling ” by the Bhoteas; the
two terminations alike signifying “ tree.”

Although the elevation is so low, snow falls abun-
dantly at Doohdi in 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

Jan. 1849. ANALOGIES OF MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

317

greater than at equal heights about Dorjiling, no doubt
owing to its proximity to Kinchinjunga.

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, 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 he accidental, hut I question their being
really so. On the plains of India, men may often he
seen for hours together, flying what with us are
children’s kites ; and I procured a jew’s 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.

CHAPTEB XV.

Leave Yoksun for Kincliinjunga — Ascend Ratong valley — Salt smuggling
over Ratong — Plants — Buckeein — Blocks of gneiss — Mon Lepcha —
View — Weather — View from Gubroo — Kincliinjunga, tops of — Pundim
cliff — Nursing — Vegetation of Himalaya — Coup d’oeil 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.

I left Yoksun on an expedition to Kincliinjunga
on tlie 7th of January. It was evident that at this
season I could not attain any height: hut 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 Batong, 1000 feet above its bed, leading through
thick forest. It was often difficult, crossing torrents
by stems 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

Jan. 1849.

SALT-SMUGGLING.

319

Singalelah, till I found from my guide that salt
was habitually smuggled over this pass to avoid the
oppressive duty exacted by the Dewan on all imports
from Tibet by the eastern passes : he further told me
that it took five days to reach Yalloong hi Nepal from
Yoksun, on the third 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 in the
western districts of Sikkim were compelled to pay an
enormous sum for salt ; and in consequence 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 East Nepal 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*

On the following day, I proceeded north-west up the
Batong river, which I crossed, and then ascended a
very steep mountain called “ Mon Lepclia.” Immense
detached pieces of gneiss, full of coarse garnets, lay on

* An accusation in which there was probably some truth ; for the Sikkim
Dingpun, who guided Dr. Campbell and myself to Mainom, Tassiding, &c.,
afterwards 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 paramour and her jewels. He vowed vengeance
against Dr. Campbell, and found means to gratify it, as I shall hereafter
show.

320

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XY.

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.

I encamped at a place called Buckeem (alt. 8,650 ft.),
in a forest of Abies Brunoniana and silver fir, yew,
oak, various rhododendrons, and small bamboo. Snow
lay in patches, and the night was cold and clear. On
the following morning I continued the ascent, alter-
nately 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.

Enormous angular boulders were frequent over the
whole of Mon Lepcha. I measured one forty feet high,
resting on a steep narrow shoulder in a position to
which it was impossible that it could have rolled ;
though it is almost equally difficult to suppose that
glacial ice could have deposited it 4000 feet above the
bottom of the gorge, except we conclude the valley to
have been filled with ice to that depth.

The toilsome ascent through the soft snow and
brushwood delayed the coolies, who scarcely accom-
plished five miles in the day. Some of them having
come up by dark, I prepared to camp on the mountain-
top, a broad bare flat, elevated 13,080 feet, and fringed

Jan. 1849.

NIGHT ON MON LEPCHA.

321

by a copse of rose, berberry, and alpine rhododen-
drons : the Himalayan heather (Andromeda fastigiata)
grew abundantly here, affording us good fuel ; and
thick masses of it, with moss (which latter hung in
great tufts from the bushes) laid on the snow, formed
my bed : 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 for a few minutes I walked
about barefoot on the frozen snow without incon-
venience, preferring it to continuing in wet stockings :
the temperature at the time was 29j°, with a brisk
south-east moist wind.

The night was magnificent, brilliant starlight, with
a pale mist over the mountains : the thermometer fell
to 15j°, and 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 uncomfort-
able night. The minimum thermometer fell to 1° in
shade : 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 ther-
mometer 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

322

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XY.

the horizon : behind these the sun rose majestically,
instantly dispersing them, while a thin haze spread
over all the intervening mountains : this, as the sun
mounted higher, became invisible, though still giving
that transparency to the atmosphere and brilliant de-
finition of the distances, so characteristic of a damp,
yet clear day.

Mon Lepcha commands a most extensive view of
Sikkim, southward to Dorjiling. At my feet lay the
profound valley of the Ratong, a dark gulf of vegeta-
tion. Looking northward, the eye followed that stream
along its devious course from the glaciers descending
from the summit of Kinchinjunga (distant eighteen
miles), which fronts the beholder as Mont Blanc
does when seen from the mountains on the opposite
side of the valley of Cliamouni. To the east are the
immense precipices and glaciers of Pundim, and on the
west those of Kuhra, forming great supporters to the
stupendous mountain between them. Mon Lepcha
itself is a spur running south-east from the Kuhra
shoulder : it is very open, and covered with rounded
Bills for several miles further north, terminating in a
conspicuous conical black rocky hummock called
Gubroo, of 15,000 feet elevation, which presents a
black cliff to the south.

Kinchinjunga is topped by three small hummocks,
rising to nearly equal elevation,* which form a line
running north-west. It exposes many white or grey
rocks, bare of snow ; the colour of all which above

* The eastern and western tops are respectively 27,826 and 28,177 feet
above the level of the sea.

Jan. 1849.

PRECIPICE OF PUNDIM.

323

20,000 feet, and the rounded knobbed form of the
summits, suggest a granitic formation. Lofty snowed
ridges project from Kubra into the Patong valley, pre-
senting black precipices to tlie south-ward. Pundim has
a very grand appearance ; being eight miles distant,
and nearly 9000 feet above Mon Lepcha, it subtends

KIN CHIN JUNGA AND PUNDIM FROM MON LEPCHA.

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
Patong valley which intervenes, is 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 he

324

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XY.

nearly perpendicular ; and it presented a superb geolo-
gical section. This cliff is of black stratified rocks,
permeated from top to bottom by veins of white gra-
nite, disposed in zigzag lines, which give it a marbled
appearance. The summit of Pun dim 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, which, being black, contrast strongly
with the white granite beneath them : these ridges,
instead of being round-topped, are broken into splin-
tered crags ; and behind them rises the beautiful
conical peak of Nursing, 19,139 feet above the sea,
and eight miles distant.

At the foot of these precipices was a very conspi-
cuous series of lofty moraines, round whose bases the
Patong wound ; these appeared to be nearly uniform
in height, rising several hundred feet above the valley;
they were comparatively level-topped, and had steep
shelving rounded sides.

I have been thus particular in describing the upper
Patong valley, because it drains the south face of the
loftiest mountain on the globe; and I have been precise
in my details, because the vagueness with which terms
are usually applied to the apparent altitude and steep-
ness of mountains, is apt to give false impressions. It
is essential to attend to such points where scenery of
real interest and importance is to be described. It is

Jan. 1849.

VIEW FROM MON LEPCHA.

325

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 land-
scape. 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 mountains 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 dis-
tance from the observer.

The view to the southward from Mon Lepcha 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 hut a step at the first coup-cVoeil, hut on a closer
inspection resolves itself into five belts : 1, palm and
plantain; 2, oak and laurel; 3, fir; 4, rhododendron
and grass; 5, rock and snow. From the bed of the
Ratong, in which grow palms with screw-pine and plan-
tain, 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,

326

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XY.

on the contrary, all the intermediate phases of vege-
tation are seen at a glance. Except in the Himalaya
this is no common phenomenon, and is there owing to
the very remarkable depth of the river-beds. That part
of the valley of the Ratong where tropical vegetation
ceases, is hut 4000 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 4000
to 300 feet, flowing amongst tropical scenery, through
a valley whose flanks rise in mountains 5000 to 12,000
feet above its bed.

From Mon Lepcha we proceeded north-west towards
Jongri, a cattle station during summer ; the path to
which led along a very open rounded bare mountain,
covered with enormous boulders. 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,
composed all the conspicuous vegetation at this season.

After a two hours’ walk, we sighted two stone huts
on the bleak face of the spur, undistinguisliable at
the distance of half a mile from the great blocks around
them. To the north Gubroo rose in dismal grandeur,

Jan. 1849.

IMPORTATION OF SALT.

327

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, Umbellifers,
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 my dwelling, and a fire-place
in front.

Hence the route to Yalloong in Nepal, by the Kang-
lanamo pass, 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 every pound of salt imported into this
part of Sikkim from Tibet, and as an enumeration of
the chief features of the route followed, 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 ac-
complished in four days. The shortest route to

328

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XY.

Yoksun (the first village south of Kinchin) from the
nearest Tibetan village north of that mountain, involves
a detour of one -third of the circumference 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 in Tibet.

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 Kambachen, 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
Pabuk, 15,000 feet.

7. Cross Kanglachem pass, probably 16,000 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 fourteen of road distance ; the labour expended
on which would accomplish fully thirty upon good
roads. Four snowed passes at least are crossed, all
above 15,000 feet, and after the first day the path does

Jan. 1849.

CAMPING OPERATIONS.

329

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.

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 instruments, was to sink the ground thermometer ;
but the earth being frozen for 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 botanising. When the sun shone, the smell of the
two alpine 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 Linnaeus 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, gelidci, 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,

330

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XV.

and the rocks of the stormy Antarctic ocean; since
visiting which regions I had not gathered them. The
lichen called geograpliicus was most abundant, and is
found to indicate a certain degree of cold in every
latitude ; descending to the level of the sea in latitude
52° north, and 50° south, whilst in lower latitudes it is
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 rocks.

The cutting up of the whole surface of this rounded
mountain into little pools, now dry, of all sizes, from
ten to 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 when they enter the pools, upon several of the
larger of which I observed curving ridges of large
stones, radiating outwards on to their beds from either
margin of the entering stream : more generally large
stones were deposited opposite every embouchure.

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

•Jan. 1849.

BAROMETRIC OBSERVATIONS.

331

the great upper valley of the Patong. Stately masses
of white cumuli wheeled around 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 the
sun shining powerfully, 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 first threw a flood of yellow light over the serried
tops south of Pundim ; thence advancing obliquely
towards Nursing, it “ stood tip-toe ” 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, fire-
wood 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 studied every change of
the wind, every fluctuation of the barometer and
thermometer, and the courses of the clouds aloft. At
7 p.m., the wind suddenly shifted to the west, and the
thermometer instantly rose. After 8 p.m., the tempe-
rature fell again, and the wind drew round to the
north-east, when the fog cleared off. The barometer

332

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. KY.

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.

On the following morning I ventured on a walk
towards Gubroo, carefully taking bearings of my
position. I found a good many plants in a rocky
valley close to that mountain, which I in vain attempted
to ascend. A strong and damp south-west wind blew,
and the cold was so piercing, that two lads who were
with me, although walking fast, became benumbed, and
could not return without assistance. A thick fog soon
obliged us to retrace our steps : it was followed by
snow in soft round pellets like sago, that swept across
the hard ground. During the afternoon it snowed
unceasingly, the wind repeatedly veering round the
compass. The flakes were 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, hut they
augured no change. As darkness came on, the tempe-
rature fell to 11°, and it snowed very hard.

The night was very cold and wintry : I sat for some
hours 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 improve-
ment, 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 for
exposing a party to so great danger at such a season.

Jan. 1849.

SNOW-STORM ON MON LEPCHA.

333

I found comfort in tlie 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 the fire declined, and the flakes sputtered on the
embers ; my little puppy, who had gambolled all day
amongst the drifting pellets, now whined, and crouched
under my thick woollen cloak ; the 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, should it 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 ; while the minimum thermometer had
fallen to 3f°.

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 spectacles of woven hair ; and the
Lepchas loosened their pig-tails, and combed their
long hair over their eyes and faces. It is from fresh-
fallen snow alone that much inconvenience is felt ;

334

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XV.

owing, I suppose, to the light reflected from the
myriads of facets which the crystals present. I have
never suffered 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, so that although we
started at 10 a.m., it wTas 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.

MAITYRA, THE SIXTH OR COMING BOODDH.

CHAPTER XVI.

Ratong river below Mon Lepcha — Ferns — Vegetation of Yoksun, tropical — •
Araliacece, fodder for cattle — Rice-paper plant — Lake — Old temples
— Funereal cypresses — Gigantic chait — Altars — Songboom — Catsu-
perri — Worship at Catsuperri lake — Scenery — Willow — Lamas and
ecclesiastical establishments of Sikkim — Tengling — Changachelling
temples and monks — Portrait of myself on walls — Lingcham Kajee
asks for spectacles — Arrive at Little Rungeet — At Dorjiling — Its
deserted and wintry appearance.

On the following day I marched to Yoksun : the
weather was fair, though it was snowing on the moun-
tains. I halted by 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 rocks,
and is flanked by flat-topped beds of boulders gravel
and sand, twelve to fourteen feet thick. Its vegetation
resembles that of Dorjiling, but is more alpine, owing
no doubt to the proximity of Kinchinjunga. The
magnificent Rhododendron argenteum was growing on
its banks. On the other hand, I was surprised to see
a beautiful fern (a Trichomanes, very like the Irish one)
which is not found at Dorjiling. The same day, at
about the same elevation, I gathered sixty species of
fern, many of very tropical forms : no doubt the range of

336

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XYI.

such genera is extended in proportion to tlie extremely
damp and equable climate. Tree-ferns are however
absent, and neither plantains, epiphytical orchids, 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, and various Araliacecz, amongst which was
one species whose pith was of so curious a structure,
that I had no hesitation in considering the then un-
known Chinese substance called rice-paper, to belong
to a closely allied plant.*

The natives collect the leaves of many Aralias as
fodder, for which purpose they are of the greatest
service in a country where grass for pasture is so
scarce ; this is the more remarkable, 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, a plant also of a very poisonous family,
abounding in prussic acid.

"We were received with great kindness by the
villagers of Yoksun, who had awaited our return with
some anxiety, and on hearing of our approach had
collected large supplies of food ; amongst other things

* 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 cor-
respondence, 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.

Jan. 1849.

LAKE OF YOKSUN.

337

were tares, yams, and bread made by bruising together
damp maize and rice into tough thin cakes. 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 re-open the Kanglanamo pass, and thus give some
occupation to their herds of yaks, which were now
wandering idly about.

The Yoksun flat abounds in depressions that must
formerly have been lake-beds, and are now marshes in
the rainy season ; but there is only one existing pool,
and this has no permanent affluent or outlet, its
drainage being either subterranean, or more probably
by evaporation. It is eighty to a hundred yards across,
and nearly circular ; its depth three or four feet, in-
creased 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. Around it lay many great blocks,
some fully twelve feet square.

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, 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 the ruins are some grand
old funereal cypresses, with ragged scattered branches
below, where they struggle for light in the dense forest,
but raising their heads aloft as bright green pyramids.

VOL. I.

Q

338

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XVI.

After some difficulty I found the remains of a broad
path that divided into two ; one 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 Melastomas 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, 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 ascend-
ing through holes in the upper slabs, escapes by lateral
openings from the top compartment. These structures
are said to be common in Tibet, but I saw no other
in Sikkim.

On the 14tli 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 we reached
the Ratong, here a turbulent stream, twelve yards
across, bordered as usual with gravel terraces strewed

Jan. 1849

CATSUPERRI LAKE,

339

with huge boulders of gneiss ; and 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 behaving with

ALTAR AND SONG-BOOM AT YOKSUN.

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

340

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XYI.

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 rainy season, but at the time I saw
it was much less, and was bordered by a broad marsh
of bog-moss (Sphagnum), in which was abundance of
Azolla, colouring the waters red, and sedges. Along
the banks were bushes of [Rhododendrons and a new
kind of berberry ,* but the mass of the vegetation was
similar to that of Dorjiling.

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 was
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 water, whose surface was
soon covered with a thick cloud of white smoke.
Taking a rupee from me, the priest then 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 Spirit,
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

* Berberis insignis . This magnificent species has not yet been introduced
into England ; it forms a large bush, with deep-green leaves seven inches
long, and bunches of yellow flowers .

Jan. 1849.

SIKKIM MONASTERIES.

341

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 but 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 their formal
recognition of the spiritual supremacy of his church.
This is most remarkably shown in their acknowledg-
ment 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 above
the lake ; 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 1000 priests. These
have various claims upon the devout: thus, T as siding,
Doobdi, Changachelling, and Pemiongclii, are cele-
brated for their antiquity, and the latter also for being
the residence of the head Lama ; Catsuperri for its
lake ; Baklang for its size, &c. All are under one spi-
ritual head, who is the Tupgain Lama, or eldest son of
the Rajah, and who resides at the Phadong convent,

342

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XYI.

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, hut indirectly on works
also ; pilgrimages to Lhassa and Teshoo Loomho 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 autho-
rities the claims those who perform them have for
preferment. Dispensations for petty offences are
granted to Lamas of low degree and monks, by those
of higher station, hut 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. I never heard of any Sikkim
Lama arriving at such sanctity as to be considered
immortal, and to reappear after death in another indi-
vidual, nor is there any election of infants. All are of
the Ningma, Dookpa, or Shammar sect, and are dis-
tinguished by their red mitres; they were once dominant
throughout Tibet, but after many wars with the yellow-
caps, they were driven from that country, and took
refuge principally in the Himalaya. The Bhotan or
Dhurma Rajah became the spiritual head of this sect;
and I am indebted to Dr. Campbell for a fac -simile
and translation of his great seal, containing the attri-
butes of his spirituality, a copy of which I have
appended to the end of this chapter.

rThe internal organisation of the different monastic

Jan. 1849.

ARRANGEMENTS OF MONASTERIES.

343

establishments is very simple. The head or Teshoo
Lama rules supreme; then come the monks and various
orders of priests, and then those who are candidates
for orders, and dependants, both lay-brothers and
slaves : there are a few nunneries in Sikkim, and the
nuns are all relatives or connections of the Bajah.
During the greater part of the year, all lead a more
or less idle life ; the dependants 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 contributions from the
people; land is sometimes granted by the Bajah, but
is oftener purchased by the priests, or willed, or given
by the proprietor. The services are very irregularly
performed ; in most temples only on festival days,
which correspond to the Tibetan ones so admirably
described in MM. Hue 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 intolerably filthy; in some cases so far carrying out
their doctrines as not even to kill the vermin with
which they swarm. All are nominally bound to chas-
tity, 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

344

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XVI.

of children about the Lamaseries, who were invariably
called nephews and nieces.

Descending from the Catsuperri temples, I encamped
at the village of Tengling, where I was waited upon by
a bevy of forty women, Lepchas and Sikkim Bhoteas,
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.

I did not visit the Molli temples, but crossed the
spur of that name, and ascended to the Changachelling
temples. The ridge on which both Pemiongclii and
Changachelling are built, is excessively narrow at top ;
it is traversed by a “via sacra,” connecting 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
Dorjiling ranges shut out the view of the plains of
India.

Changachelling temples and chaits crown a beautiful
rocky eminence, the ascent to which is by broad flights
of steps cut in the 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. The monks were repairing the principal temple,
which consisted of a large chamber and vestibule : the
outside walls were daubed red, with a pigment of burnt
clay, which is dug hard by. Some were painting the
vestibule with colours brought from Lliassa, where

Jan. 1849.

CHANGACHELLING TEMPLE.

345

they had been trained to the art. Amongst other
figures was one playing on a guitar, a very common
symbol in Sikkim temples : I also saw an angel playing
on a 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 de-
light, I recognised as myself. I was depicted in a
flowered silk coat instead of a tartan shooting jacket,
my shoes were turned up at the toes, and I had on
spectacles and a tartar cap, and was writing notes in
a book. On one side a snake-king was politely hand-
ing me fruit, and on the other a horrible demon was
writhing.

A crowd had collected to see whether I should
recognise 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 -ham 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 base-
ment story were approached by an outside ladder, like
a Swiss cottage : within were two rooms floored with
earth ; the innermost of which was small, and opened
on a verandah that faced Kinchinjunga, whence the
keen wind whistled through the apartment.

The head Lama, my jolly fat friend of the 20tli of
December, came to breakfast with me, followed by

346

SIKKIM HIMALAYA,

Chap. XVI.

several children, nephews and nieces he said ; hut they
were uncommonly like him for such a distant relation-
ship, and he seemed extremely fond of them, and much
pleased when I stuffed them with sugar.

The view of the Kinchin range from this spot being
one of the finest in Sikkim, and the place itself being
visible from Dorjiling, 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.

Hence I descended to the Kulhait river, on my route
back to Dorjiling, visiting my very hospitable tippling
friend, the Kajee of Lingcham, on the way down : he
earnestly begged me to give him a pair of spectacles,
for no other object than to look wise, as he had the
eyes of a hawk ; he told me that mine procured me
universal respect in Sikkim, and that I had been drawn
with them on, in the temple at Cliangaclielling ; 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.

On the next day I crossed Hee hill, and camped in
a dense forest. The next march was southward to the
Little Kungeet guard- house, below Dorjiling spur,
which I reached after a fatiguing walk through
torrents of rain. On the 19tli of January, I ascended
the Tukvor spur to Dorjiling, and received a most

DHURMA RAJAH’S SEAL.

Jan. 1849.

RETURN TO DORJILINGr.

347

hospitable welcome from my friend Mr. Muller, now
almost the only European inhabitant of the place ;
Mr. Hodgson having gone 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, the many houses
without smoke or inhabitants, and the tall scattered
trees with black bark and all but naked branches,
was dismal in the extreme. The effect was heightened
by an occasional Hindoo, who flitted here and there
along the road, crouching and shivering, with white
cotton garments and bare legs.

The delight of my Lepcha 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 gratitude. 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 tbe 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 Boodhists. 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,

348

SIKKIM HIMALAYA.

Chap. XYI.

meaning “I,” or “I am.” The sixteen radial compartments contain his
titles and attributes, thus, commencing from the centre erect one, and
passing round from left to right : —

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.

10. I am above all the Lamas of the

Dookpa Creed.

11. 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 Reli-

gious Knowledge.

16. The Enemy of all false Avatars.

END OF YOL. I.

BRADBURY AM) EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIAES.

. / . - :

mu

LIVING BRIDGE” FORMED OF THE AftRIAL ROOTS OF THE INDIA-RUBBER AND OTHER KINDS OF FIGS. [Seepage -71.

HIMALAYAN JOURNALS

NOTES OE A NATURALIST

IN BENGAL, THE SIKKIM AND NEPAL HIMALAYAS,

THE KHASIA MOUNTAINS, &c.

By JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, M.D. R.N. F.R.S.

A NEW EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED AND CONDENSED.

IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. II.

WITH WOODCUTS.

LONDON :

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1855.

LONDON :

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

4

%

i: LIVING BRIDGE” FORMED OF THE AERIAL ROOTS OF THE

INDIA-RUBBER AND OTHER KINDS OF FIGS . FRONTISPIECE. page
A MECH, NATIVE OF THE SIKKIM TERAI ..... 25

POCKET-COMB USED BY THE MECH TRIBES . . . . . 27

BORR, PANDANUS ......... 34

CANE-BRIDGE AND TUKCHAM MOUNTAIN 46

JUNIPERUS RECURVA ........ 51

LAMTENG VILLAGE . . . . . . . . . 57

BLACK JUNIPER AND YOUNG LARCH . . . . . .74

TUNGU VILLAGE .......... 91

LEPCHA GIRLS AND TIBETAN WOMEN ...... 104

TIBET MARMOT . . . . . . . . 109

LACHOONG VALLEY AND VILLAGE, LOOKING SOUTH . . . 116

LOFTY ANCIENT MORAINES IN THE LACHOONG VALLEY, LOOKING

SOUTH-EAST ........ . 117

HEAD AND FEET OF TIBET MARMOT . . . . . .119

GNEISS-BLOCK WITH GRANITE BANDS, ON THE KINCHINJHOW

GLACIER 141

SUMMIT OF FORKED DONKIA, AND “ GOA ” ANTELOPES . . 144

VIEW FROM AN ELEVATION OF 18,000 FEET OF THE EAST TOP OF
KINCHINJHOW, AND OF TIBET, OVER THE RIDGE THAT
CONNECTS IT WITH DONKIA. WILD SHEEP (OVIS AMMON) IN
THE FOREGROUND . , . . . . . . 147

antelope’s head . . . . . . .165

a 2

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,

yI

Page

HEAD AND FEET OF TIBET MARMOT ,170

TIBETAN PHED . . . 191

TIBETAN IMPLEMENTS . . . . . , . .193

TCHEBU LAMA ........ . . 197

CLASP OF A WOMAN’S CLOAK . 199

RAJAH’S RESIDENCE, AND THE HUT ASSIGNED TO US. ARRIVAL OF

THE DEWAN .

TIBET-PIPE, AND TINDER-POUCH WITH STEEL ATTACHED

LEPCHA SEPOYS. TIBETAN SEPOYS IN THE BACK-GROUND . .

dewan’s EAR-RING .........

CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDENS .......

VIEW IN THE JHEELS ........

222

224

242

248

251

266

MAMLOO CASCADES .....

KOLLONG ROCK ......

HORNS OF THE SHOWA STAG, A NATIVE OF TIBET
CHELA VILLAGE ......

NONKREEM VILLAGE .....

BELLOWS .......

OLD BRIDGE AT AMWEE ....

STONES AT NURTIUNG .....

GURJUN TREE ......

. 281
. 292

. 293

. 301

. 305

. 306

. 30S

. 312

. 333

CONTENTS.

*

CHAPTER XVII.

PAGE

Excursion to Terai. — Dispatch collections — Acorns — Heat — Punka-
baree — Bees — Titalya — Earthquake — Proceed to Nepal frontier —

Terai, geology of — Physical features of Himalayan valleys — Ele-
phants, purchase of, &c. — Mechi river — Return to Titalya — Leave
for Teesta — Jeelpigoree — Cooches — Alteration in the appearance
of country by fires, &c. — Grasses — Cottages — Rajah of Cooch
Behar — Condition of people — Hooli festival — Ascend Teesta —
Canoes — Cranes — Forest — Baikant-pore — Rummai — Exit of
Teesta — Canoe voyage down to Rangamally — Birds — Beautiful
scenery — Botanising on elephants — Willow — Iron — Lohar-ghur
— Coal and sandstone beds — Mechi fisherman — Hailstorm —
Ascent to Dorjiling ........ 1

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 — Gorh — Opposition of Lama — Arrival
of Meepo — Cross Teesta — Difficulties of travelling — Lepchas
swimming — Moxa for sprains — Singtam — Singtam Soubah — Bees’ -
nests and honey-seekers — Land-slips — Leeches, &c. — Chakoong
— Vegetation — Gravel terraces — Unpleasant effects of wormwood
— Choongtam, scenery and vegetation of — Inhabitants — Tibetan
salute — Lamas — Difficulty of procuring food— Venomous snakes
— Hornets and other insects — Choongtam temple — Pictures of
Lhassa — Scenery . . , . . . 28

Till

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIX.

PAGE

Routes from Choongtam to Tibet frontier — Choice of that by the
Lachen river — Arrival of supplies — Departure — Features of the
valley — Eatable Polygonum — Cross Taktoong river — Pines,
larches, and other trees — Chateng pool — Water-plants and in-
sects— Tukcham mountain — Lamteng village — Inhabitants —
Alpine monkey — Botany of temperate Himalaya — European and
American fauna — Japanese and 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 — 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 . . . . . . .52

CHAPTER XX.

Camp on Zemu river — Scenery — Falling rocks — Tukcham mountain
— Height of glaciers — Botany — Gigantic rhubarb — Storm — Tem-
perature of rivers — Behaviour of Lachen Phipun — Hostile conduct
of Bhoteas — View from mountains above camp — Descend to Zemu
Samdong — Vegetation — Letters from Dorjiling — Arrival of Sing-
tarn Soubah — Presents from Rajah — Parties collecting Arum-roots
— Insects — Ascend Lachen river — Tallum Samdong village —
Cottages — Mountains — Plants — Entomology — Weather — 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
chums — Hospitality — Ivinchinjhow and Chomiomo — Magnificent
scenery — Reach Kongra Lama Pass . . . . . . 75

CHAPTER XXI.

Top of Kongra Lama — Tibet frontier — Elevation — View — Vegeta-
tion— Descent to Tungu — Tungu-choo — Ponies — Kinchinjhow and
Changokhang mountains — Palung plains — Tibetans — Dogs —
Dingcham province of Tibet — Inhabitants — Dresses — Women’s
ornaments — Blackening faces — Coral — Tents — El evation of

CONTENTS.

IX

PAGE

Palung — Lama — Shawl-wool goats — Shearing — Siberian plants
— Height of glaciers, and perpetual snow — Plants, and wild
animals — Marmots — Insects — Birds — Choongtam Lama — Reli-
gious exercises — Tibetan hospitality — Delphinium — Perpetual
snow — Return to Tallum Samdong — To Lamteng — Houses —
Cicadas — Landslips — Arrival at Choongtam — Cobra — Rageu —
Velocity and volume of rivers measured — Leave for Lachoong
valley — Keadom — General features of valley — Lachoong village
— Tunkra mountain — Moraines — Cultivation — Lachoong Phipun
— Lama ceremonies beside a sick-bed . . . . .98

CHAPTER XXII.

Leave Lachoong for Tunkra pass Moraines and their vegetation —

Pines of great dimensions — Wild currants — Glaciers — Summit ot
pass — Elevation — Views — Plants — Winds — Lacheepia rock —
Extreme cold — Kinchinjunga — Himalayan grouse — Return to
Lachoong — Ascent to Yeumtong — Flats and debacles — Buried
pine-trunks — Hot-springs — Behaviour of Singtam Soubah — Leave
for Momay Samdong — Upper limit of trees — Glacial terraces, &c.

— Forked Donkia — Ascent to Donkia pass — Scenery — Lakes —

Tibet — Bhomtso — Arun river — Kianglah mountains — Yar u -
Tsampu river — Appearance of Tibet — Kinchin j how, and Kinchin-
junga— Chola range — Deceptive appearance of distant landscape
— Perpetual snow — Pulses — Plants — Tripe de roche — Return to
Momay — Dogs and yaks — Birds — Insects — Quadrupeds — Hot-
springs — Marmots — Kinchinjhow glacier . . . . . 120

CHAPTER XXIII.

Donkia glaciers — Moraines — Dome of ice — Honey-combed surface —
Accident to instruments — Sebolah pass — Bees and May-flies —

View — Lamas and travellers at Momay — Weather and climate —
Sensations arising from elevation — Dr. Campbell leaves Dorjiling
for Sikkim — Leave Momay — Yeumtong — Lachoong — Retardation
of vegetation at low elevations — ■ Choongtam — Landslips and
debacle — Meet Dr. Campbell — Motives for his journey — Second
visit to Lachen valley — Autumnal tints — Red currants — Lachen
P hipun — 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.

X

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Campbell lost — Extreme cold — Headaches — Tibetan Dingpun and
guard — Arms and accoutrements — Temperature of Yeumtso —
Migratory birds — Visit of Dingpun — Yeumtso lakes . . .142

CHAPTER XXIY.

Ascent of Bhomtso — View of snowy mountains — Cbumulari — Arun
river — Jigatzi — Lbassa — Dingcbam province of Tibet — Misappli-
cation of term “Plain of Tibet” — Sheep, flocks of — Crops —
Probable elevation of Jigatzi — Yaru-Tsampu river — Tame ele-
phants— Wild horses — Cholamoo lakes — Effects of great elevation
— Ascent of Donkia — Moving piles of debris — Cross Donkia pass
— Second visit to Momay Samdong — Descent to Yeumtong —
Lachoong — Retardation of vegetation— Jerked meat — Fish — Lose
a thermometer- — Lepcha lad sleeps in hot-spring — Keadom —
BucMandia — Arrive at Choongtam — Mendicant — Meepo—
Lachen-Lachoong river — Wild grape — Virulent nettle . . . 171

CHAPTER XXY.

Journey to the Rajah’s residence at Tumloong — Ryott valley — Rajah’s
house — Tupgain Lama — Lagong nunnery — Phadong Gloompa — *
Phenzong ditto — Lepcha Sepoys — Proceedings at Tumloong —
Refused admittance -do 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. — Con-
ference— Laghep — Cathcartia — Phieung-goong — Rutto river —
Barfonchen — Curling of rhododendron leaf — Woodcock — Chola
pass — 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 — Ding-
pun 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 Dorjiling . . . . .194

CHAPTER XXYI.

Dr. Campbell is ordered to appear at Durbar — Lamas called to
council — Threats — Scarcity of food — Arrival of Dewan — Our

CONTENTS.

xi

PAGE

jailor, Thoba-sing — Temperature, &c., at Tumloong — Services of
Goompas — Lepcba girl — Jews’ -harp — Terror of servants — Ham-
sing’ s family — Interview with Dewan — Remonstrances — Dewan
feigns sickness — Lord Dalbousie’s letter to Rajah — Treatment ot
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 Dorjiling
— 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 —
Sepoy’s insolence — Dewan alarmed — View of Dorjiling — Threats
of a rescue — Fears of our escape — Tibet flutes — Negociate our
release — Arrival at Dorjiling — Dr. Thomson joins me — Move-
ment of troops at Dorjiling — Seizure of Rajah’s Terai property . 220

CHAPTER XXVII.

Leave Dorjiling for Calcutta — Jung Bahadoor — Dr. Falconer — Im-
provements in Botanic Gardens — Palmetum — Victoria — Amher-
stia — Orchids spread by seed — Banyan — Importation of American
plants in ice — Return to Dorjiling — Leave with Dr. Thomson
for the Khasia mountains — Mahanuddee river — Vegetation of
banks — Maldah — Alligators — Rampore-Beauleah — Climate of
Ganges — Pubna — Jummul river — Altered course of Burrampooter
and Megna — Dacca — Conchshells — Saws — Cotton muslins — Fruit
— Vegetation — Rose of Bengal — Burrampooter — Delta of Soormah
river — Jheels — Soil — Vegetation — Navigation — Mosquitos —
Effects of geological changes — Imbedding of plants — Teelas or
islets — Chattuc — Salubrious climate — Rains — Canoes — Pundua —
Terrya Ghat — Ascent to Churra — Scenery and vegetation at foot
of mountains — Cascades 249

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 — Flora of Churra — Orchids —
Rhododendrons — Pine - — Climate — Extraordinary rain-fall — Its

XU

CONTENTS.

PAGE

effects — Gardens of Lieuts. Raban and Cave — Leave Churra to
cross the mountain range — Kalapanee river — Lailangkot — Boga-
panee river — View of Himalaya — Age of Pine-cones — Moflong
plants — Coix — Chillong mountain — Extensive view — Road to
Syong — Broad valleys — Myrung — Kollong rock — Pine- woods —
Features of country — Orchids — Iron forges . , . . . 273

CHAPTER XXIX.

View of Himalaya from the Khasia — Great masses of snow — Chumu-
lari — Donkia — Grasses — Nunklow — Burrampooter — Tropical
forest — Borpanee — Rhododendrons — Wild elephants — Blocks of
Syenite — Return to Churra — August temperature — Leave for
Chela — Birds — Habits of leaf-insects — Curious village — Houses
— Canoes — Boga-panee river — Jheels — Chattuc — Churra — Leave
for Jyntea hills — Trading parties — Dried fish — Cherries — Cinna-
mon— Fraud — Nonkreem — Granite boulders — Iron washing —
Forges — Tanks — Siberian Nymphcea — Pomrang — Patchouli plant
— Mooshye — Pitcher-plant — Joowye cultivation and vegetation —

Sulky hostess — Nurtiung — Sacred grove and gigantic stone struc-
tures— Altars — Pyramids, &c. — Origin of names — Collections —
November vegetation ........ 294

CHAPTER XXX.

Boat voyage to Silhet — River — Palms — Fish weirs — Forests of Cachar
— Sandal- wood, &c. — Porpoises — Alligators — Silchar — Tigers
— Rice-crops — Cookies — Munniporees — Hockey — Dance — Nagas
— Excursion to Munniporee frontier — Elephant bogged — Climate,

&c. of Cachar — Mosquitos — Fall of bank — Silhet — Tree-ferns —
Chattuc — Megna — Noacolly — Salt -smuggling — Delta of Ganges
and Megna — Westward progress of Megna — Tide — Waves — Dan-
gerous navigation — Moonlight scenes — Mud island — Chittagong —
Views — Trees — Coffee — Pepper — Excursions from Chittagong —
Gurjun trees — Earthquake — Birds — Papaw — Poppy and sun
fields — Seetakoond bungalow and hill — Perpetual flame — Climate
— Leave for Calcutta — Hattiah island — Plants — Sunderbunds —
Steamer — Tides — Nip a fruticans — Crocodiles — Phcenix rpalu-
dosa — Fishing — Otters — Departure from India . . .317

HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.

CHAPTER XVII.

EXCURSION TO TERAI.

Dispatch collections — Acorns — Heat — Punkabaree — Bees — Titalya —
Earthquake — Proceed to Nepal frontier — Terai, geology of — Physical
features of Himalayan valleys — Elephants, purchase of, &c. — Mechi
river — Return to Titalya — Leave for Teesta — Jeelpigoree — Cooches —
Alteration in the appearance of country by fires, &c. — Grasses —
Cottages — Rajah of Cooch Behar — Condition of people — Hooli festival —
Ascend Teesta — Canoes — Cranes — Forest — Baikant-pore — Rummai —
Exit of Teesta — Canoe voyage down to Rangamally — Birds — Beautiful
scenery — Botanising on elephants — W illo w — Iron — Lohar-ghur —
Coal and sandstone beds — Mechi fisherman — Hailstorm — Ascent to
Dorjiling.

Haying arranged the collections (amounting to
eighty loads) made during 1848, they were conveyed by
coolies to the foot of the hills, where carts were
provided to carry them five days’ journey to the
Mahanuddee river, which flows into the Ganges,
whence they were transported by water to Calcutta.

On the 27th of February, I left Dorjiling to join
Mr. Hodgson, at Titalya on the plains. The weather
was raw, cold, and threatening ; snow lay here and

VOL. II.

B

2

TERAI.

Chap. XYII.

there, and all vegetation was very backward, and wore
a wintry garb. The laurels, maples, and deciduous-
leaved oaks, hydrangea and cherry, were leafless, but
the abundance of chesnuts and evergreen oaks,
rhododendrons, Aucuba, 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 4000 feet
aloft by the heated ascending currents that impinge
against the flanks of the mountains.

The evening was sultry and close, the heated surface
of the earth seemed to load the atmosphere with
warm vapours, and the sensation, as compared with
the cool pure air of Dorjiling, was that of entering a
confined tropical harbour after a long sea-voyage ;
and the forest, which had looked so gigantic on my
arrival the previous year, now appeared small after the
far more lofty and bulky oaks and pines of the upper
regions.

I slept in the little bungalow of Punkabaree, and
was awakened next morning by sounds to which I had
long been a stranger, the voices of innumerable birds,

Feb. 1849.

SILIGOREE BUNGALOW.

3

and tlie 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 earth was dusty and parched ; while the
sun rose through a murky yellowish atmosphere with
ill- defined orb. Thick clouds of smoke pressed upon
the plains, and the faint easterly wind wafted large
flakes of grass charcoal sluggishly along. Coarse,
ill-favoured vultures wheeled through the air, languid
Bengalees replaced the active mountaineers, jackal-like
curs teemed at every village, and ran howling away
from the onslaught of my Alpine dog ; and the tropics,
with all their beauty of flower and genial warmth,
looked as forbidding and unwholesome 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 slopes of the Terai, intervening between the
foot of the mountains and Siligoree bungalow. In the
afternoon I rode on leisurely to Titalya, sixteen miles
further, along the banks of the Mahanuddee. The
atmosphere was so 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. During the afternoon the wind
blew with violence, but being hot and dry, brought no

4

TERM.

Chap. XVII.

relief to my unacclimated frame. My pony alone
enjoyed the freedom of the 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’ of tropical heat. My
little dog had run thirty miles the day before, exclusive
of all the detours he had made for his own enjoyment,
and he became so tired after twenty more this day,
that I had to take him on my saddle-bow, where, after
licking his hot swollen feet, he fell fast asleep.

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 earthquake in quick succession, at 9 '8 p.m., appear-
ing to come up from the southward : they were
accompanied by a hollow rumbling sound like that of a
waggon passing over a wooden bridge. They were
felt strongly at Dorjiling, and registered by Mr.
Muller at 9T0 p.m. : we had accurately adjusted our
watches (chronometers) the previous morning, and the
motion may therefore fairly be assumed to have been
transmitted northwards through the intervening
distance of forty miles, in two minutes. Both Mr.
Muller and Mr. Hodgson had noted a much more
severe shock at 6T0 p.m. the previous evening, which
I, who was walking down the mountain, did not
experience ; this caused a good deal of damage at
Dorjiling, in cracking well-built walls. Earthquakes
are frequent all along the Himalaya, and are felt far in

March, 1849.

DESCRIPTION OF TERAI.

5

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. Cntch and Scinde, as is well
known, have suffered severely on many occasions, and
in several of them the motion has been propagated
through Afghanistan and Little Tibet, to the heart of
Central Asia.

On the morning of the 1st of March, Dr. Campbell
arrived from his tour of inspection along the frontier
of Bliotan ; and we accompanied him as far as the
Mechi river, which bounds Nepal on the east.

Terai is a name applied to a tract of country at the
very foot of the Himalaya : the word 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 alter-
nating beds of sand, gravel, and boulders brought
from the mountains ; the soil being generally light, dry,
and gravelly. 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 in Sikkim, where it has been destroyed.
The Terai varies in breadth, from ten miles on 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 livers

6

TERAl.

Chap. XVII.

to the Ganges. The gravel-beds extend 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 Himalaya itself, even in
the beds of rivers, however large and rapid. Through-
out its breadth this formation is conspicuously cut into
flat-topped terraces, flanking the spurs of the moun-
tains, at elevations varying from 250 to nearly 1000 feet
above the sea. 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 once washed the base of the
Sikkim Himalaya, received the contents of its rivers,
and, wearing away its bluff spurs, spread a talus
upwards of 1000 feet thick along its shores.

The alluvium of the Gangetic valley was no doubt
deposited in deep water, whilst the coarser matter was
accumulating at the foot of the mountains.

This view has occurred, I believe, to almost every
observer, at whatever part of the base of the Himalaya
he may have studied this deposit. Its position
indicates its 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.
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 terracing and alternation of

March, 1849.

ANCIENT MORAINES.

7

these deposits, 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 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 characterise every mountainous coast, of what-
ever geological formation : such as the west coasts of
Scotland and Norway, of South Chili and Fuegia, of
New Zealand and Tasmania. There are too in these
Hi malayan valleys 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 with masses of rock. Such
accumulations and transported 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.

In every Himalayan valley which I ascended, I met
with ancient moraines at or about 7000 or 8000 feet
elevation, proving, that at one period, the glaciers de-
scended 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 8000 feet, since the formation of these moraines.

8

TERAI.

Chap. XVII.

The country about Titalya looks desert, from that
want of trees and cultivation, so characteristic of the
upper level throughout this part of the plains, which is
covered with short, poor, pasture-grass.

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
wus 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, anl
enforcing their orders with an iron goad. There
appeared as many tricks in elephant-dealers as in
horse -jockeys, and of many animals brought, hut fey
were purchased. Government limits the price to
about 7 61., 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 feet are examined for
cracks, the teeth for age, and many other points at-
tended to.

The Sikkim frontier, from the Mahanuddee westward
to the Mechi, is marked by a row of tall posts. The
country is undulating; and though fully 400 miles
from the ocean, and not 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

March, 1849.

THE SIKKIM FRONTIER.

9

jujube bushes, occasionally tenanted by the Florican,
which scours these downs like a bustard. Sometimes
a solitary fig, or a thorny acacia, breaks the horizon,
and there are a few gnarled trees of the scarlet Butea
frondosa.

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 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. Tigers, wild elephants,
and the rhinoceros, 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
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 800
miles to these feeding grounds, for the use of which a

10

TERAI.

Chap. XVII.

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 wTas
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
savannahs from December to March. We always
started soon after daybreak on ponies, and enjoyed a
twelve to sixteen miles’ gallop in the cool of the
morning before breakfast, which wTe found prepared
on our arrival at a tent sent on ahead the night
before. The route led across an open country, or
followed paths through iiiterminable rice -fields, now
dry and dusty. On poor soil a white-flowered Leucas
monopolised 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.

On the second day we arrived at Jeelpigoree, a large
straggling village near the hanks of the Teesta, a good
way south of the forest : here we were detained for
several days, waiting for 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 Coocli Behar.
Latterly the upper classes have adopted the religion of
the Brahmins, and have had caste conferred upon them ;

March, 1849. EFFECTS OF FIRE ON THE JUNGLES.

11

while the lower orders have turned Mahometans : these,
chiefly agriculturists, are a timid, oppressed class,
who everywhere fled before us, and were with difficulty
prevailed 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
obliged to depend on our own resources. Turf is the
prevailing feature of the country, there being 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 tall jungle -
grasses which abound in the Terai forest ; and the
troops cantoned at Titalya (a central position) from
1816 to 1828, confirm this statement as far as that
immediate neighbourhood is concerned.

These gigantic grasses 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 civilisa-
tion. Next to the rapidity with which it can be cleared,
the adaptability of a great part of the soil to irrigation

12

TERM.

Chap. XYII.

during the rains, has greatly aided the bringing of it
under cultivation.

At Jeelpigoree we were waited upon by the Dewan,
who governs the district for the Rajah, 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 he a man of
intelligence, who promised us elephants as soon as
the great Hooli festival, now commenced, should he
over.

The large village, at the time of our visit, was gay
with holiday dresses. It was surrounded by trees,
chiefly of banyan, jack, mango, peepul, and tamarind :
endless rice -fields extended on all sides, but except
bananas, slender betel-nut palms, and sometimes pawn,
or betel-pepper, there was little other cultivation. The
rose-apple, orange, and pine-apple were rare, as were
cocoa-nuts ; there were few date or fan -palms, and only
occasionally poor crops of castor-oil and sugar-cane.
In the gardens I noticed many of the very commonest
Indian ornamental plants ; while for food were culti-
vated Chenopodium, yams, sweet potatos, 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, the stems
being densely crowded, erect, as thick at the base
as the arm, copiously branching, and very feathery
throughout their whole length of sixty feet.

March, 1849.

NATIVE HOUSES AND DRESSES.

13

The cottages were remarkable, 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 touched
the ground at each gable ; looking at a distance like a
gigantic round-backed elephant. The walls were of
neatly-platted bamboo : each window (of which there
were two) was crossed by slips of bamboo, and wanted
only glass to make it look European ; they had besides,
shutters of wattle, that opened upwards, projecting
during the day like the port-hatches of a ship, and let
down at night. Within, the rooms were airy and
clean ; one end contained the machans (bedsteads), the
other some raised clay benches, the fire, frequently an
enormous Hookah, round wattled stools, and various
implements. 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 perpendicularly to
the knee ; the colour of this was 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 Bajah of Jeelpigoree. All Eastern courts, subject
to the Company, are, however, now shorn of much of
their glory ; and the condition of the upper classes is
greatly changed.

One evening we visited the young Bajah at his
residence, which had rather a good appearance at a
distance, its white walls gleaming through a dark tope

14

TERAI.

Chap. XYII.

of mango, betel, and cocoa-nut. A short rude avenue
led to the entrance, under the trees of which a large
bazaar was being held; stocked with clothes, simple
utensils, ornaments, sweetmeats, fish from the Teesta,
and betel -nuts.

We entered through a guard-house, where were some
of the Rajah’s Sepoys in European costume, and a few
of the Company’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 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 ;

March, 1849. VISIT TO RAJAH OF JEELPIGrOREE.

15

she was carried about for our admiration, like a huge
Dutch doll, crying lustily all the time.

The festivities of the evening commenced by handing
round trays full of pith-halls, 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 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 increas-
ing 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 hi 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
imbeciles 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

16

TERAI.

Chap. XVII.

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 Hewan were seated hi a sort of cradle ;
the rest were some in howdahs, and some astride dn
elephants’ backs, six or eight together. All the idols
were paraded before them, and powdered with red dust ;
the people howling, shouting, and quarrelling. When
the mob had sufficiently pelted one another with balls
and dirty red powder, a torchlight procession was
formed, headed by the idols, to a very large tank,
bounded by a high rampart, within which was a broad
esplanade round the water.

The effect of the whole scene 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 moon-
beams 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

March, 1849.

RANGrAMALLY.

17

elephants for the following morning, we hade a cordial
farewell to our engaging little hosts and their staid old
governor.

On the 10th of March we left for Kangamally, a
village eight miles distant in a northerly direction, our
course lying along the west hank 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 whole country improved in fertility as we
advanced towards the mountains ; the grass became
greener, and more trees, shrubs, herbs, and birds
appeared. 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 occurring in October; a
small quail was also common on the ground. Tama-
risk grew in the sandy bed of the river ; its flexible
young branches are used in various parts of India for
wattling and basket-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 stretching itself
against such objects.

At Rangamally, the height of the sandy hanks of the
Teesta varies from fifteen to twenty feet. The bed is a

18

TERAI.

Chap. XYII.

mile across and all sand, but the stream does not
occupy one-third of this space ; the current is much
divided, and opaque green, from the glacial origin of
most of its head-streams. The west hank 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 when it fills its
whole bed. This information we had from a police
Jemandar, who has resided many years on this un-
healthy spot, and annually suffers from fever. The Sal
forest has been encroached upon from the south, for
many miles, within the memory of man, by clearing in
patches, and by indiscriminate felling.

About ten miles north 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 as 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.

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 our
tent on a narrow low ridge, above the level of the
plain.

March, 1849.

VEGETATION OF SAL FOREST.

19

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.

On the following morning we left for the exit of the
Teesta, proceeding northwards, sometimes through a
dense forest of Sal timber, sometimes dipping into
marshy depressions, or riding through grassy savan-
nahs, breast-high. The coolness of the atmosphere
was delicious, and the beauty of the jungle seemed to
increase the further we penetrated into these primeval
forests.

Eight miles from Eummai 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.

We here mounted the elephants, and proceeded several
miles through the prairie, till we again struck upon the
high Sal forest-bank : it formed one of many terraces
which stretch along the foot of the hills, from Punka-
baree to the Teesta, but of which none are said to
occur for eight miles eastwards along the Bliotan
Dooars : if true, this is probably due in part to the
alteration of the course of the Teesta, which is
gradually working to the westward, and cutting away
these lofty banks.

The Sal bank formed a very fine object : it was quite

20

TERM.

Chap. XVII.

perpendicular, 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-cVeau 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. On 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 fore-
heads and down our open throats; 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

March, 1849.

DESCEND TEESTA RIVER.

21

shot a rapid, the scene changed from bright to
brighter still ; so continuing until dusk, when we were
slowly paddling along the then torpid current opposite
It an gam ally.

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 un-
laden. 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 hounds their course.

We passed hut two crossing-places : at one the river
is divided by an island, covered with the rude chaits
and flags of the Boodhists. 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

22

TERM.

Chap. XYII.

Sal cutters, or the shelter of timber-floaters, who seem
to pass the night in nests of long dry grass.

On the 14tli 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,
common and Gargany teal ; two lands of gull ; one of
Shearwater; 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, king-fisher, 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, starling,
vulture, kingfisher, magpie, quail, and lapwing.

The country gradually became quite beautiful, much
undulated and varied by bright green meadows, sloping
lawns, and wooded streams, which led from the Sal
forest and meandered 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

March, 1849.

BOTANISING ON ELEPHANTS.

28

saw on the plains, except the spiny hare, and the
barking deer. The hare we found to be the best game
of this part of India, except the teal. The pheasants
of Dorjiling are poor, the deer all hut uneatable, and
the florican, however dressed, I considered 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 botanising
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.
A peculiar species of willow is common here ; which is
a singular fact, as the genus is characteristic of cold
and arctic latitudes, and no species is found below
8000 feet elevation on the Sikkim mountains, where it
grows on the inner Himalaya only, some kinds
ascending to 16,000 feet.

The latter part of the journey I performed on
elephants during the heat of the day, and a more
uncomfortable mode of conveyance 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 its black hack, and the odour of its
oily driver, are disagreeable accompaniments, as are its
habit of snorting water from its trunk over its parched

24

TERAI.

Chap. XVII.

skin, and the consequences of the great hulk of green
food which it consumes.

The Duabanga is the pride of these forests. Its
trunk, from eight to fifteen feet in girth, is generally
forked from the base, and 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 hud, smell most disagreeably
of assafoetida.

The report of a bed of iron-stone eight or ten miles
west of Punkabaree determined us on visiting the
spot; and the locality being in a dense jungle, the
elephants were sent on a-head.

Lohar-ghur, or “ iron hill,” lies in a thick 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.

Below Punkabaree the Baisarhatti stream cuts
through banks of gravel overlying the tertiary sand-
stone. The latter is gritty and micaceous, inter-
calated with beds of indurated shale and clay; in
which I found the shaft (apparently) of a bone. In
the bed of the stream were carbonaceous shales, with
obscure impressions of fossil fern leaves, characteristic
of the Burdwan coal-fields, hut too imperfect to
justify any conclusion as to the relation between
these formations.

March, 1S49.

GEOLOGY.

25

Ascending the stream, these shales are seen in situ,
overlain by the metamorphic clay- slate of the mountains.
This is at the foot of the Punkabaree spur, and close

A MECH, NATIVE OF THE SIKKIM TERAI.

to the bungalow, where a stream and land-slip expose

good sections. The coal-seams are few in number, six

to twelve inches thick, very confused, and full of

c

VOL. II.

26

TERAI.

Chap. XYII.

nodules of quartzy slate, covered with concentric scaly
layers of coal. These scanty notices being collected
in a country clothed with the densest tropical forest,
where a geologist pursues his investigations under
disadvantages that can hardly be realised in England,
will I fear long remain unconfirmed.

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, and 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 entrance formed ; the cage is placed 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 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 separate conical pieces, and that by
heavy rain. On the mountains this storm was most
severe ; the stones lay at Dorjiling for seven days,
congealed into masses of ice several feet long and
a foot thick in sheltered places : at Purnea, fifty miles
south, stones one and two inches across fell, probably
as whole spheres. When we reached Dorjiling on the
24th of March, we found that the hail which had

March, 1849

SEVERE HAILSTORM,

27

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.

POCKET-COMB USED BY THE MECH TRIBES,

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 — Gorli — Opposition of Lama — Arrival of Meepo —
Cross Teesta — Difficulties of travelling — Lepchas swimming — Moxa for
sprains — Singtam — Singtam Soubah — Bees’ -nests and honey-seekers —
Land-slips — Leeches, &c. — Chakoong — Vegetation — Gravel terraces —
Unpleasant effects of wormwood — Choongtam, scenery and vegetation
of — Inhabitants — Tibetan salute — Lamas — Difficulty of procuring food
— Venomous snakes — Hornets and other insects — Choongtam temple
— Pictures of Lhassa — Scenery.

After my return to Dorjiling, 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 provisioning
a party of from forty to fifty men, even had the Dewan
been favourable to my travelling, which was clearly not
the case.

I)r. Campbell communicated to the Rajah my in-
tention of starting early in May for the upper Teesta
valley, and, in the Governor- General’s name, requested

LASSO 0 KAJEE.

29

May, 1849.

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 led to so many
delays that my exploration of the country was not con-
cluded till October, and I was prevented returning to
Dorjiling before the following Christmas.

Since Dr. Campbell’s and my visit to the Rajah in
December, no Vakeel (agent) had been sent by the
Durbar to Dorjiling, and consequently we could only
communicate indirectly with his Highness, while we
found it impossible to ascertain the truth of various
reports promulgated by the Dewan, and meant to deter
me from entering the country. In April, the Lassoo
Kajee was sent as Vakeel, hut, 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 retired
exasperated, pretending that he had orders to delay
my starting, 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
orders to the contrary were received through a proper
accredited agent, and I left Dorjiling on the 3rd of
May, accompanied by Dr. Campbell, who saw me fairly
over the frontier.

Arrangements were made for supplies of rice follow-
ing me by instalments ; our daily consumption being
80 lbs., a man’s load. After crossing into Sikkim, I

30

TEESTA VALLEY.

Chap. XVIII.

mustered my party at the Great Rungeet river. I had
forty -two in all, of whom the majority were young
Lepchas, 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 who cooked
for me ; he was a native of Calcutta, and though
hardy, patient, long-suffering, and far better tempered,
was, in other respects, very inferior to my servant of the
previous year, 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
conspicuous feature from Dorjiling, 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,
and that it was current amongst the Lepchas before its
English name was heard of, the latter having been
suggested from the form of its summit resembling that
given in children’s books as the resting-place of the ark.

On the route I was met by the Lama of Silokfoke
Goornpa. Though a resident on the Lassoo Kajee’s
estates, he politety brought me a present, at the same
time apologising for not waiting till I had encamped,
owing to his excessive fat, which prevented his

May, 1849.

LAMA OF SILOKFOKE.

31

climbing. I accepted his excuses, though well aware
that the 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.

Namtchi was once a place of considerable importance ;
and still possesses a mendong, with six rows of in-
scribed 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 Lassoo Kajee or his orders, and should proceed
on the following morning : he then urged the bad
state of the roads, and requested me to wait till he
should receive orders from the Bajah ; upon which I
dismissed him.

Soon afterwards I saw twenty or thirty men rapidly
descending the rocky path ; they were Lepchas, with
blue and white striped garments, bows and quivers, and
long knives gleaming in the sun : they seemed to be
following a Lama with a scarlet handkerchief wound

32

TEESTA VALLEY.

Chap. XVIII.

round his head, its ends streaming out behind him.
Though expecting this apparition to prove the renowned
Kajee and his myrmidons, coming to put a termi-
nation to my progress, I could not help admiring the
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 recognised the rosy face and twinkling eyes of my
friend of Bhomsong, the only man of intelligence about
the Rajah’s court, and the one whose services as
Vakeel were particularly wanted at Dorjiling.

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 mes-
senger 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 this.

On the following morning I continued the ascent of
Tendong, by a narrow winding path, covered with oaks,
rhododendrons, and various shrubs, not found at equal
elevation on the wetter Dorjiling ranges. 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,
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 ; and found the elevation to be
8,671 feet.

May, 1849.

VEGETATION.

33

The descent on the north side was steep, through a
rank vegetation, 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, how-
ever), which I found to be 49 feet in girth at 5 feet
from the ground.

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 an
Aristolochia, 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. Hout -
tuynia , a curious herb allied to pepper, grew on the
banks, which, from the profusion of its white flowers,
resembled strawberry-beds ; the leaves are eaten by the
Lepchas. But the most magnificent plant of these
jungles is Hodg sonia, (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 are eaten. The stem, when
cut, discharges water profusely from whichever end is
held downwards. The “ Took ” {Hydno carpus) 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

34

TEESTA VALLEY

Chap. XVIII

buttressed trunks, appear truly gigantic ; one measured
47 feet in girth, at 5 feet, and 21 at 15 feet from the

BORR, PANDANUS.

ground ; and was fully 200 feet high. I could only
piocure the leaves by firing a ball into the crown.

dhe rains commenced on the 10th of May, mode-
rating the heat by drenching thunder-storms, but greatly

May, 1849.

SCENERY OF BHOMSONGf.

35

increasing the discomforts of travelling, and so soaking
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 Plirynium leaves. I was
delighted to find that my little tent was impervious to
water, though its thickness was hut of 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 conse-
quent 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
and my home.

The little flat on which I 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 ; hut 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 beautiful landscape. I had rather expected to

36

TEESTA VALLEY.

Chap. XVIII.

meet either with a guide, or with some further obstruc-
tion here, but as none appeared, I proceeded onwards
as soon as the weather moderated.

Higher up, the banks are so steep as to allow of no
road, and the path ascends from the river, for nearly
4000 feet, to Lathiang village, up a wild, rocky torrent
that descends from Mainom.

From the village the view was superb, embracing the
tropical gulley, with the flat of Bhomsong deep in the
gorge, its bright rice -fields gleaming like an emerald
amid the dark vegetation that surrounded it; the Teesta
winding to the southward; the pine -clad rocky top of
Mainom to the south-west ; the cone of Tendong far to
the south ; to the north, black mountains tipped with
snow ; and to the east the magnificent snowy range of
Chola, crowning the valley of the Ryott with a diadem
of frosted silver.

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 im-
perative, 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 road and bridges. He came again at daylight,
and expostulated further ; but finding it of no use, he
volunteered to accompany me, officiously offering me

May, 1849.

ARRIVAL OF MEEPO.

37

the choice of two roads. I asked for the coolest,
knowing that it was useless to try and outwit him in
sncli 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 the canes
were loosened, and slips of bamboo, so small as nearly
to escape observation, wxere 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, of my coming to mischief through 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

38

TEESTA VALLEY.

Chap. XVIII.

with Chinese interference on the frontier. All these
objections I overruled, by refusing to recognise any
instructions that were not officially communicated to
the Superintendent of Dorjiling.

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
was a thorough Lepcha in heart, a great friend of his
Rajah and of Tcliebu Lama, and one who both feared
and hated 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 2000 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 and stinging flies of various

May, 1849.

LACHEN-LACHOONG RIVER.

89

kinds began to swarm as the damp increased. 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 naked, and were
constantly plunging into the pools of the rivers ; 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 mus-
cular figures in the water, diving after large fish, and
sometimes catching them by tickling them under the
stones.

My servant having severely sprained his wrist by a
fall, the Lepclias wanted to apply a moxa, which they do
by lighting a piece of puff-ball, or of 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 our route lay over a ridge
5,500 feet high ; hence a rapid descent leads to the
village of Singtam, 3000 feet above the river, which
is here no longer called the Teesta, but 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 Laclien is in the
Cholamoo lakes in Tibet ; while the Laclioong rises on

40

TEESTA VALLEY.

Chap. XVIII.

the south flank of Donkia mountain, both many marches
north of my present position.

At Singtam I was waited on by the Soubah of the
district, a tall portly Bhotea, who was destined to
prove the 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, I was obliged
to move on with no addition to my store, and trust to
obtaining some at the next village, or from Dorjiling.
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 course of the Teesta is
materially different from wliat it is lower down; it
becomes 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 it practicable for rafts at any season ; the only
means of passing it being by cane bridges that are
thrown across, high above the stream.

The slope on either side of the valley is very steep ;
that on the north, in particular, appearing too pre-
cipitous for any road, and being only frequented by
honey- seekers, who scale the rocks by cane ladders,

May, 1849.

BEES’-NESTS. LAND-SLIPS.

41

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 footing 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 3000 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 rocks ; and are much increased 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 occurred here the previous
year, by which a village was destroyed, together with
twelve of its inhabitants, and all the cattle. I crossed
its debris 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
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

42

TEESTA VALLEY.

Chap. XVIII.

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.

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 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. 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 intolerable irritation, and is in this respect the
most insufferable torment in Sikkim ; the minutest
rent in one’s clothes is detected by 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 mos-
quitos, besides being infested with ticks.

As the rains advanced, insects seemed to be called
into existence in countless swarms ; moths, cock-

May, 1849.

VEGETATION OF CHAKOONG.

43

chafers, 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 daddy-
long-legs swept across my face as I wrote my journal,
or plotted off my map. After 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 a mountain 17,557 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
Dorjiling, 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, and gigantic
bamboos : figs, balsams, peppers, and gigantic climbing
vines, grow mixed with brambles, speedwell, 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 counter-
balanced by the abundance of a grateful yellow raspberry.
Parasitical Orchids cover the trunks of oaks, while
Thalictrum and Geranium grow under their shade.
Monotropa and Balanophora, both parasites on the
roots of trees (the one a native of north Europe and
the other of tropical latitudes), push their leafless

44

LACHEN-LACHOONG VALLEY.

Chap. XVIII.

stems and heads of flowers through the soil together :
and lastly, tree-ferns grow associated with the brake
and Lycopodium 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 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. Everywhere immense
boulders are scattered about, some of which are sixty
feet 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 2000 feet above the river, I had
passed numerous angular blocks resting on gentle
slopes where no land-slips could possibly have depo-
sited them, and which I therefore refer to ancient
glacial action ; one of these 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 Clioongtam, 1500 feet higher, fevers and ague
prevail in summer on similar flats, hut which have been
cleared of jungle, and are therefore exposed to the sun.

I had had constant headache for several mornings
on waking, which I did not fail to attribute to coming
fever, or to the unliealthiness of the climate; till I
accidentally found it to arise from the wormwood (the
common English Artemisia vulgaris), upon a thick couch

Mat, 1S49.

ROAD TO CHOONGTAM.

45

of the cut branches of which I was accustomed to sleep,
and which in dry weather produced no such effects.

From Chakoong to Choongtam the route lay north-
wards, following the course of the river, or crossing
steep spurs that dip into the valley, and leave no space
between their perpendicular sides and the furious
torrent. Immense land-slips seamed the steep moun-
tain flanks ; and wre crossed with precipitation one that
extended fully 4000 feet (and perhaps much more)
up a mountain 12,000 feet high ; 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, 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 moun-
tains, and the headstrong course of the foaming
torrent below, amid whose deafening roar it was
impossible to speak and be heard.

The mountain behind Choongtam is about 10,000
feet high ; it divides the Lachen from the Lachoong
river, and terminates a range that runs for twenty-
two miles south from the lofty mountain of Kinchinjhow.

46

CHOONGTAM.

Chap. XVIII.

Its south exposed face is bare of trees, except clumps
of pines towards the top, and is very steep, grassy,
and rocky, without water. The scenery much resembles
that of Switzerland, and of the north-west Himalaya,
especially in the great contrast between the southern

CANE-BRIDGE AND TUKCHAM MOUNTAIN.

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, 300 feet above the
river, to which it descends by three level cultivated
shelves. The village, consisting of a temple and twenty
houses, is placed on the slope of the hill. I camped

May, 1849. IMPEDIMENTS CAUSED BY THE DEWAN.

47

on tlie flat in May, before it became very swampy : it
was covered with tufts of sedge and fringed with scarlet
rhododendron, walnut, Andromeda, and small trees of
a Photinia, a plant allied to hawthorn, of the leaves of
which the natives make tea. Bice cultivated in pools
surrounded by low 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 with a troop of
followers, and there was lolling out of tongues, and
scratching of ears, at every sentence spoken, and every
object of admiration. This extraordinary Tibetan
salute at first puzzled me excessively, nor was it until
reading MM. Hue 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

48

CHOONGTAM.

Chap. XVIII.

difficulty and delays in the remittance of food, caused
by the land-slips 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 Bajah had
issued orders for my being cared for, and having some
practice among the villagers in treating rheumatism
and goitres, 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 Bajah having 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 Dorjiling, and, in short, attempting to starve
me out. At this juncture, Meepo received a letter
from the Durbar, purporting to be from the Bajah,
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 communication ; following up
my refusal by telling Meepo that if he thought his
orders required it, he had better leave me and return
to the Bajah, as I should not stir without directions
from Dr. Campbell, except forwards. He remained,
however, and said he had written to the Bajah, urging
him to issue stringent orders for my party being
provisioned.

AVe were reduced to a very short allowance before

Mat, 1849.

SNAKES.

49

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 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
De wan’s orders.

I have seldom had occasion to allude to snakes,
which are rare and shy in most parts of the Himalaya ;
I, however, found an 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
inhabiting 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 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 ann for several weeks.

YOL. II.

D

50

CHOONGTAM.

Chap. XVIII.

It is called Yok by the Lepchas, a common name for
any bee : its larvae 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
disports itself in company with magnificent black, gold,
and scarlet-winged butterflies, so typical of the Indian
tropics. At night my tent was filled with small water-
beetles that quickly put out the candle ; and with
lovely moths came huge cockchafers and enormous and
foetid flying-bugs, 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 Lliassa, with
its extensive Lamaseries and temples ; they convey the
idea of a town, gleaming, 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.

The weather in May was cloudy and showery, but
the rain which fell was far less in amount than that at
Dorjiling : 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 firs crest the heights

May, 1849.

GEOLOGY OF CHOONGTAM.

51

around, and landslips score their flanks with white
seams below ; while streaks of snow remain throughout
the month at 9000 feet above ; and everywhere silvery
torrents leap down to the Lachen and Lachoong.

juniperus recurva (height 30 feet).

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 — Cross Taktoong river — Pines, larches, and other
trees — Chateng pool — Water-plants and insects — Tukcham mountain
— Lamteng village — Inhabitants — Alpine monkey — Botany of tempe-
rate Himalaya — European and American fauna — Japanese and 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 — 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 Lachoong to the Donkia pass.
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 mv party and mislead myself, and the country
people’s dread of incurring the Dewan's displeasure.

The Lachen valley being pronounced impracticable
m the height of the rains, a month later, it behoved me
to attempt it first, and it possessed the attraction of

LACHEN RIVER.

53

May, 1849.

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 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 Lam-
teng, three marches up the Lachen.

Descending the step-formed terraces, I crossed the
Lachen by a good cane bridge. The river is a head-
strong 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 4000 to 10,000 feet. It is crossed three
times by cane bridges, and I cannot conceive any
valley of a similar nature to be more impracticable
at such a season. On both sides the mountains rose,
densely forest-clad, 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.

At times we scrambled over rocks or descended into

54

LACHEN VALLEY.

Chap. XIX.

gorges, through whose tributary torrents we waclecl ; or
crossed swampy terraced flats of debris above the
stream ; whilst it was sometimes necessary to round
rocky promontories in the river, stemming the foaming
torrent, as, one by one, we were dragged along by power-
ful 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 buck-
wheat (. Polygonum ) 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 Clioongtam, we passed some
cottages, but between this and Lamteng, the country is
uninhabited, nor is it frequented during the rains. We
consequently found that the paths 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
in a sheet of silvery foam, eighteen yards broad. It
does not 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

May, 1849.

DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVELLING.

55

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 hack, and assured me
there was no other crossing (a statement I afterwards
found to be untrue) ; so, comforting 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, hut
kept my eye on the white jets d’eau springing up
between the woodwork, and felt thankful when fairly on
the opposite hank : my loaded coolies followed, crossing
one by one without fear or hesitation. The bridge was
swept into the Lachen very shortly afterwards.

Towards Lamteng, the path left the river, and passed
through a wood of Abies Smithiana. Larch appeared at
9000 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, were more or less abundant in
the valley, at about 7000 feet ; as was 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.

Chateng, a spur from the lofty peak of Tukcham, rises
1000 feet above the west bank of the river ; and where
I crossed it commanded one of the finest alpine views

56

LAMTENG VILLAGE.

Chap. XIX.

in Sikkim. It was grassy, strewn with huge boulders,
and adorned with clumps of firs : on the summit was
a small pool, beautifully fringed with bushy trees of white
rose, a white-blossomed apple, a Pyrus like mountain-
ash, scarlet rhododendrons, holly, and maples ; there
were also Daphnes, purple magnolia and a pink
sweet-blossomed Sphserostema. Many English water-
plants grew in the pond, hut I found no shells ; tadpoles,
however swarmed, which later in the season become
large frogs. The “ painted-lady ” butterfly 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.

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. The village stands on a grassy and bushy flat,
around which the fir-clad mountains rise steeply to
the black cliffs and snowy peaks which tower above.
It contains above 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, hut the elevation
being lower, and the situation better 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 decay in two or
three years. Many are painted lilac, with the gables

LAMTENG VILLAGE.

May, 1849.

NATURAL HISTORY OF LAMTENGf.

59

in diamonds of red, black, and white : the roofs are
either of wood or bark, held down by large stones :
within they are airy and comfortable. They are
surrounded by a little cultivation of buck-wheat,
radishes, turnips, and mustard. The inhabitants,
though paying rent to the Sikkim Bajah, consider
themselves as Tibetans, and are so in language, dress,
features, and origin : they seldom descend to Choong-
tam, but yearly travel to the Tibetan towns of Jigatzi,
Kambajong, Giantchi, and even to Lliassa, having
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 feet, the yaks, sheep, and ponies had just been
driven 2000 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
goitres 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.

On arriving I saw a troop of large monkeys gamboll-
ing 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 ;

60

LAMTENG VILLAGE.

Chap. XIX.

being, though dark-coloured and lean, tender, sweet,
and short-fibred. Birds were scarce, with the ex-
ception of alpine pigeons, red-legged crows, and the
horned pheasant. 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. Sikkim is, geographically, peculiarly well
situated for investigations of this kind, being centrically
placed, whether as regards south-eastern Asia or the
Himalayan chain. Again, the Laclien valley at this
spot is nearly equi-distant from the tropical forests of
the Terai and the sterile mountains of Tibet, for which
reason representatives both of the dry Asiatic and
Siberian, and of 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°, 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 descending to that of New York
in the United States. I shall take for comparison
the flora of 7000 to 10,000 feet; of the mean tempera-
ture, namely, between 53° and 43°, the isothermal lines

Mat, 1849.

BOTANY OF LACHEN VALLEY.

61

corresponding to which embrace, at the level of the
sea, a space varying from three to twelve degrees of
latitude.* At first it appears incredible that so limited
an area 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 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, juniper, and 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, &c. Her-
baceous plants are far too numerous to be enumerated,
as a list would include most of the common genera of
European and North American plants.

Of North American genera, not found in Europe,
were Buddleia, Magnolia, Sassafras, Hydrangea, Aralia,
Panax, Trillium. The absence of heaths is also equally
a feature in the flora of North America. The Japanese
and Chinese floras are represented in Sikkim by
Camellia, Deutzia, Aucuba, Hydrangea, Skimmia, and
Enkianthus. The Malayan by Magnolias, vacciniums,
rhododendrons, and many genera of orchids.

* 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.

62

LAMTENG VILLAGE.

Chap. XIX.

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 com-
plying 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 Choongtam Lama giving his high authority to the
superstition, it appeared 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 Dorjiling, now, owing to
the state of the roads, at the distance of twenty
days’ march. The people were always civil and kind :
there was no concealing the fact that the orders were
stringent, which prohibited my party being supplied with
food, but many of the villagers sought opportunities by
night of replenishing 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, while the women take the active duties ; a few

June, 1849. RAINS. LANDSLIPS AND AVALANCHES.

63

were engaged in drying the leaves of a shrub (Syvn-
plocos) 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.

During my stay at Lamteng, the weather was all but
uniformly 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 tent was constantly
wet, nor did I '"once sleep in a dry bed till the 1st of
June, which ushered in the 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 : sometimes it was a rumble, at others
a harsh grating sound, and often accompanied with the
crashing of immense timber-trees.

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 Dorjiling. 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 Dorjiling
with rice, but that being unable or afraid to pass the
landslips, they had returned : we had now no food

64

LAMTENG VILLAGE.

Ciiap. XIX.

except a kid, a few handfuls of flour, and some potatos,
which had been sent from Choongtam. All my en-
deavours to gain information respecting the distance
and position of the frontier were unavailing ; the
villagers calling all the lofty pastures a few marches
beyond Lamteng “ Bhote ” or “Cheen” (Tibet). Dr.
Campbell had jDrocured for me information by wThich 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 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, 2000 feet
higher; and, lastly, to Kongra Lama, 16,000 feet up
the west flank of Kinchinjhow.

On the 3rd 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 services,
and we started, accompanied by a large body of
villagers, who eagerly gathered plants for me along
the road.

June, 1849.

PROCEED TO ZEMU SAMDONG.

65

The scenery was very pretty ; the path crossed
extensive and dangerous landslips, or ran through fine
woods of spruce and Abies Brunoniana, and afterwards
along the river-banks, which were fringed with willow
(called “ Lama ”) and Hippophae. A great red rose,
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 bordered the stream.

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 wras entreated to respect two
sticks and a piece of worsted stretched across it ; this
I thought ridiculous, so as my followers 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 hotanising 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
flat, several hundred feet above the river, amid the
jungle of which 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, cgntented with the supposed
success of their strategy, returned to Lamteng.

My guide from the Durbar had stayed behind at

66

LACHEN VALLEY.

Chap. XIX.

Lamteng, and 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 pro-
visions 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
firs. Stacks of different sorts of fir-wood were
stored on the flat at its base, for export to Tibet,
all thatched with hark. Of these the larch splits well,
and is the most durable of any ; but the planks
are small, soft, and white.f The silver fir also splits
well ; it is white, soft, and highly prized for durability.
The wood of Abies Brunoniana is like the others in
appearance, but is not durable ; its hark is however
very useful. The spruce (Abies Smithiana) has also
white wood, which is employed for posts and beams. +
These are the only firs whose ■woods are considered
very useful ; and it is a curious circumstance that none
produce any quantity of resin, turpentine, or pitch ;

* The eastern afterwards proved to be the Lachen.

+ 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.

X These woods are all soft and loose in grain, compared with their
European allies.

June, 1849.

PROCEED UP ZEMU.

67

which may perhaps he accounted for by the humidity
of the climate.

On the flat were flowering a beautiful magnolia with
globular sweet-scented flowers like snow-balls, several
balsams, honeysuckle, &c. On the hill-side were
creeping brambles, lovely yellow, purple, pink, and
white primroses, anemone, berberry, white rose,
fritillary, &c.

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 Zemn. I had explored
the path, and finding it practicable, and likely to
intersect a less frequented route to the frontier, I
determined to follow it. A supply of food arrived
from Dorjiling on the 5th of June, reduced, however,
to one bag of rice, but with encouraging 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 , wild leeks, nettles, and Procris (an allied,
and more succulent herb), eked out by eight pounds of
Tibet meal which I had bought for ten shillings by
stealth from the villagers.

From Zemu Samdong the valley turns north-west to
the junction of the Zemu with the Thlonok, which rises

68

ZEMU VALLEY.

Chap. XIX.

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.
Hue 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 : 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. In the
fir-woods a large mushroom 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 hell-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,”
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, young shoots of the mountain bamboo, which
are good either raw or boiled, and may he obtained up
to 12,000 feet in this valley. At 10,000 feet silver-fir
commenced, with a close undergrowth of a small twiggy

June, 1849. JUNCTION OF ZEMU AND THLONOK.

69

holly. This, and the dense thicket of rhododendron*
on the banks of the river and edges of the wood, ren-
dered the march very fatiguing, and swarms of midges
kept up a tormenting irritation.

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. At its junction with the
Thlonok, it comes down a steep g'ulley from the north,
foreshortened into a cataract 1000 feet high, and
appearing the smaller stream of the two ; whilst the
Thlonok winds down from the snowy face of Kinchin-
junga, whose summit is seen up the valley, 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; it was sheltered
by some enormous transported blocks 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 were very abundant;
and the ground 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 miser-
*

Of which I had already gathered thirteen kinds in this valley.

70

ZEMU VALLEY.

Chap. XIX.

able 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 pre-
paration only keeps a few daj^s, and produces bowel
complaints, and loss of the skin and hair, especially
when insufficiently fermented. Besides this, the
“ cliokli-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 Tukcliam
along a watercourse, by the side of which were immense
slips of rocks and snow-beds ; the mountain-side being
excessively steep. My object was chiefly to obtain
views and compass-bearings, in which I was generally
disappointed : once only I had a magnificent prospect
of Kincliinjunga, 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 ; being doubtless one of the largest
glaciers in the Himala}ra. The south side of the
Thlonok valley is formed by a range from Kincliinjunga,
running east to Tukcliam, where it terminates : from it
rises the beautiful mountain Liklo, 22,582 feet high,
which, from Dorjiling, appears as a sharp peak, but is
here seen to be a jagged crest running north and south.

June, 1849.

GLACIERS OF THLONOK VALLEY.

71

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 the Lepchas 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,
returning 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

72

ZEMU VALLEY.

Chap. XIX.

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 19T3, indicating an elevation of 11,903
feet: here the temperature at 1 p.m. was nearly 70°.
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 beneath
some sheltering rock ; each with his little polished
w'ooden 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 interest 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.

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, how-
ever, 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

June, 1849.

CAMP ON NORTH BANK.

73

glaciers. The path, gradually vanishing, ran alter-
nately 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 Pliipun 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
Dorjiling, 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 up the Zemu, camping on a
high rock above the forest region, hoping thence to
penetrate northwards. I left my collections in the
interim at the junction of the rivers, where the sheds
and an abundance of firewood were great advantages
for preserving the specimens. I repeatedly followed
the river for several miles, but though its valley
widened, the rhododendron thickets below, and the
cliffs above, defeated all endeavours to reach the drier
climate beyond, of which I had abundant evidence in

VOL. II.

E

74

ZEMU VALLEY

Chap. XIX.

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.

black juniper (height sixty feet) and young larch

CHAPTER XX.

Camp on Zemu river — Scenery — Falling rocks — Tukcliam mountain —
Height of glaciers — Botany — Gigantic rhubarb — Storm — Temperature
of rivers — Behaviour of Lachen Phipun — Hostile conduct of Bhoteas
— View from mountains above camp — Descend to Zemu Samdong —
Vegetation — Letters from Dorjiling — Arrival of Singtam Soubah —
Presents from Rajah — Parties collecting Arum -roots — Insects — Ascend
Lachen river — Tallum Samdong village — Cottages — Mountains —
Plants — Entomology — Weather — 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 — J ourney 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 hank 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 (owing to the melting of the snow,
and consequent disintegration of the blocks) huge masses

76

ZEMU VALLEY.

Chap. XX.

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 descended, and the sound
was not dissipated as in the day-time, the noise of these
falls was 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 most narrow escape. I have seen few
finer sights than the fall of these stupendous blocks
into the furious torrent, along which they were carried
amid feathery foam for many yards before settling.

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 instruments
adjusted for ascertaining its height. Its top is a sharp
cone, surrounded by rocky shoulders, that rise from a
mass of snow.

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 stupendous
glacier filling the broad head of the Thlonok is cer-
tainly not below 14,000 feet; though being continuous
with the perpetual snow (or neve) of the summit of
Kinchinjunga, it must have 14,000 feet of ice, in
perpendicular height, to urge it forwards.

June, 1849.

VEGETATION.

77

All my attempts to advance up the Zemu were fruit-
less, 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 pre-
vented any excursions for days together. Botany was
my only resource, and as vegetation was advancing
rapidly under the influence of the southerly winds, I
made a rich harvest : for though some of the finest
Himalayan plants flower later, June is still the most
glorious month for show.

Rhododendrons occupied 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 were next,
both in beauty and abundance ; and they were accom-
panied 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 sparkled like sap-
phires on the turf. Gentians began to unfold their
deep azure bells, aconites to rear their tall blue spikes,
and fritillaries to burst into flower. On the black rocks
the gigantic rhubarb formed pale pyramidal towers a
yard high, of inflated reflexed bracts, that conceal the
flowers, and over-lapping 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

78

ZEMU VALLEY.

Chap. XX.

pink. This is the handsomest 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 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.

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. Snow fell
abundantly as low as 18,000 feet, and the rivers were
much swollen, the size and number of the stones they
rolled along producing a deafening turmoil. The wind
was southerly, very raw and cold, and drizzling rain
constantly fell.

The temperature of these rivers varies extremely at
different parts of their course, depending on that of
their affluents. The Teesta is always cool in summer
(where its bed is below 2000 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 to 1000 feet, its
temperature 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 conspicuous

June, 1849.

HOSTILITY OF BHOTEAS.

79

example : during my stay at its junction with the Thlo-
nok it was 40°, or 6° warmer than that river ; at 1,100
feet higher it was 48°, and at 1,100 feet higher still 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 compara-
tively 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 paste-boards, papers, and utensils.
The Lepchas came to me breathless, saying that there
were Tibetan soldiers amongst them, who declared that
I was in Clieen, and that they were coming on the
following morning to drive me back to Dorjiling. 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

80

ZEMU VALLEY.

Chap. XX.

without food ; the 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 moreover accom-
plished in Tibet slang.

On the following morning it rained harder than
ever, and the wind was piercingly cold. My timid
Lepclias huddled behind my tent, which, from its
position, was only to be stormed in front. I dis-
mantled 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 legs,
in scanty woollen garments sodden with rain, which
streamed off their shaggy hair, and furrowed 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 away
immediately ; 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

July, 1849.

RETURN TO ZEMU SAMDONG.

81

spot when he could produce any proof of my being in
Bhote (or Tibet), which he knew well I was not ; that,
since my arrival at Lachen, he had told me nothing
hut lies, and had contravened every order, both of the
Bajah 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, and finally took himself off
much discomfited, and two days afterwards sent men
to assist me in moving my things.

The 1st of July was such a day as I had long
waited for to obtain a view, and I ascended the moun-
tain west of my camp, to an elevation of 14,914 feet.

Drizzling mist, which had shrouded Tukcham all
the morning, 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 grass}*-
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 fortnight, and now presented almost a
tropical luxuriance and beauty. At Zemu Samdong
I found the vegetation even more gay and beautiful :
the gigantic lily was in full flower, and scenting the
air, with a lovely red rose. Neillia also was blossoming

82

LACHEN VALLEY.

Chap. XX.

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 highness’ orders had been full
and peremptory that I should be supplied with pro-
visions, and safely conducted to the frontier. With
these came letters on the Rajah’s part from Tchehu
Lama to the Lachen Phipun, ordering him to take me
to the pass, hut not specifying its position ; fortunately,
however, Dr. Campbell sent me a route, which stated
the pass to he at Kongra Lama, several marches
beyond this, and in the barren country of Tibet.

On the 5tli of July the Singtam Soul) ah arrived :
he was charged to take me to the frontier, and brought
letters from the Rajah and a handsome present, con-
sisting 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. The Soubah wanted
to hurry me to the frontier and back at once, being no
doubt instigated to do so by the Dewan, and by his
having no desire to spend much time in the dreary
regions I wanted to explore. I positively refused,
however, to start until more supplies arrived, unless
he used his influence to provide me with food ; and as
he insisted that the frontier was at Tallinn Samdong,
only one march up the Lachen, I foresaw that this

July, 1849.

FOOD FROM ARUM-ROOTS.

83

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, on their way from Tungu, to collect
arum-roots at the Thlonok, all with baskets at their
backs, down to rosy urchins of six years old ; they re-
turned after several days, their baskets neatly lined with
rhododendron leaves, and full of a nauseous-looking
yellow acid pulp, which told forcibly of their extreme
poverty. 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 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 all were good-humoured and pleasant,
behaving with great kindness to one another, and
unaffected politeness to me.

84

ZEMU RIVER.

Chap. XX.

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
butterfly was common, feeding on umbelliferous plants,
as in England ; and that of a Sphynx was devouring
the euphorbias ; the English “ painted-lady ” was
common, as were “sulphurs,” “marbles,” “whites,”
“ blues,” and Thecla, of British aspect but foreign
species. Amongst these, tropical forms were rare,
except one fine black swallow-tail. Beetles were most
rare, and (what is remarkable) the wood-borers particu-
larly so. A large Telephora was very common, and
had the usual propensity of its congeners for blood ;
lamellicorn beetles were also abundant.

On the 1 1th 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 Laclien on the
following day, with renewed hopes and high spirits.
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 1000 feet, in a chasm from which rise lofty
black pine -clad crags, topped by snowy mountains,
15,000 feet high.

Above 11,000 feet the valley expands remarkably,
the mountains recede, become less wooded, and more

JuLr, 1849. TALLUM VILLAGE. MOUNTAINS AROUND.

85

grassy, while the stream is suddenly less rapid, mean-
dering in a broader bed, and bordered by marshes,
covered with sedges, dwarf Tamarisk, and many kinds
of yellow and red Pedicularis. There are far fewer
rhododendrons here than in the damper Zemu valley
at equal elevations, and more Siberian, or dry country
types of vegetation.* The Singtam Soubah and
Laclien Phipun received me at the bridge at Tallum,
and led me across the river (into Tibet they affirmed)
to a pretty green sward, near some gigantic boulders,
where I camped.

The village of Tallum consisted 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 gullies on the east flank. The
cottages were from four to six feet high, without
windows, and consisted of a single apartment, in which
the inmates were huddled together amid smoke, filth,
and darkness : it contained neither table, chair, nor stool ;
their beds were merely a plank, and their only utensils
a bamboo churn, copper, bamboo and earthenware
vessels for milk, butter, &c.

Grassy or stony mountains slope upwards from

* The following common English wild and garden plants grow here.
Umbelliferce , with sage, Ranunculus , Anemone , Aconites, 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 Spircea , Vaccinium, Aralia, Eeutzia, Philadelphus,
rhododendrons, 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.

86

LACHEN VALLEY.

Chap. XX.

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 dazzlingly
white, rising into peaks, and precipitous on all sides ;
they are grand, hold, 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 gather forty- three species,* of which
all hut two belonged to English genera. In the rich
soil about the cottages were crops of dock, shepherd’s -
purse, balsams, nettle, mustard, radish, turnip, &c. On
the neighbouring hills I found many fine plants, par-
taking more or less of the Siberian type. Altogether
I gathered upwards of 200 species, nearly all belonging
to North European genera. Twenty-five were woody
shrubs, and six were ferns ; sedges were in great pro-
fusion, amongst them three of British kinds ; seven
or eight were orchids, including a beautiful lady’s -
slipper.

The entomology of Tallinn, 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 European forms of

* In England thirty is, on the average, the 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.

July, 1849.

TALLUM, CLIMATE, &c., OF.

87

others that inhabit yak -droppings. Bees were common,
but there were no wasps, and but few ants. Grass-
hoppers were rare ; Tipula was common, with a small
sand-fly ; but 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 rain-
collecting mountains, I experienced a considerable
change in the climate ; very little rain fell, and that
chiefly drizzle ; but this was so constant that the
weather felt chilly 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 seen, and
black clouds rolled up the steep valley of the Lachen
to be dissipated in mist over Tallinn.

These streams are not marked by 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 prevent alike 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.

The Singtam Soubah visited me daily, and we held
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

88

LACHEN VALLEY.

Chap. XX.

further. His first question was always “ 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 (alluding to
the sextant, &c.) lower down ; it is very cold here, and
there is no food : ” — to all which I had hut one reply,
that I should not return till I had visited Kongra
Lama. He was, 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 gilt
temples, 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 that it woidd
he unfair to he angry with a man who was evidently in a
false position between myself and his two rulers, the
Bajah and Hew an ; 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 among these Tibetans) and
gathering in his crops of rice, millet, and buckwheat.
Though I may owe him a grudge for his subsequent
violence, I still recal with pleasure the hours we spent
together on the hanks 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, hut unfortunately my despatches
were lost ; the messenger who conveyed them missed
his footing in crossing the Lachen, and narrowly

July, 1849.

SINGTAM SOUBAH.

89

escaped 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 incorrigibly obstinate must be mad, and that
they had better leave me. 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 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 calculated
on starving me out, and retired, looking perplexed and
crestfallen. Nothing puzzled him so much as my
being always occupied with such, to him, unintelligible
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, windiest,
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

90

LACHEN VALLEY.

Chap. XX.

from Tchebu; that I had written to him, and that
it would he 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, he offered
to take me to Tungu with my tent and people, and
thence to Kongra Lama, if I would promise to stay hut
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 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.

After leaving Tallum, the valley contracts, passing

TUNGU VILLAGE.

92

LACHEN VALLEY.

Chap. XX.

over great ancient moraines, and again expanding
wider than before into broad grassy flats. The vege-
tation rapidly diminishes in stature and abundance, and
though the ascent to Tungu is trifling, the change in
species is very great.

Tungu occupies a very broad grassy valley, from
which the hills slope gently upwards to 16,000 feet; no
snow is anywhere to be seen* 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 suggest 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 wood-
cut. A few wooden houses were collected near this
rock, and several black tents were scattered about.
I encamped at an elevation of 12,750 feet, 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.

On my arrival I found the villagers in a meadow, all
squatted cross-legged in a circle, smoking their brass

* In the woodcut the summit of Chomiomo is introduced, as it appears
from a few hundred feet above the point of view.

July, 1849.

TUNGrU, INHABITANTS, YAKS, &c.

93

and iron pipes, drinking 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
requires 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 46j°. As, however,
I do not know whether these cerealia were grown as
productive crops, much stress cannot be laid upon the
fact of them having been cultivated, for in many parts
of Tibet the barley is cut green for fodder.

In the evening the sick came to me ; their complaints,
as usual, being rheumatism, ophthalmia, goitres,
cuts, bruises, and poisoning by Tong, fungi, and
other deleterious vegetables. At Tallinn I attended
an old woman who dressed her ulcers with 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

94

LACHEN VALLEY.

Chap. XX.

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, 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 impracti-
cable 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 as he went, and
leaving me on the ground, amid shrieks of laughter
from my Lepchas. My steed being caught, I again
mounted, 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
powerful in their fore-quarters ; 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.

About six miles above Tungu, the Lachen meanders
along a broad stony bed, and the path rises over a great
ancient moraine, whose level top is covered with pools,

July, 1849.

TIBET TENTS, CHURNS, &c.

95

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, of rhododendron, 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.

At the foot of the moraine was a Tibetan camp
of black yak-hair tents, looking at a distance — (to
borrow M. Hue’s graphic simile) — like fat-bodied, long-
legged spiders ! Their general shape was hexagonal ;
they were about twelve feet in diameter, and were
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 bircli-bark, or close
bamboo wicker-work, full of branched rhododendron
twigs, in which the cream was 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.

96

LACHEN VALLEY.

Chap. XX.

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 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.

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, and
sat cross-legged in a circle inside the tent, the Soubah
and myself being placed on a Chinese rug. Salted and
buttered tea was prepared in a tea-pot for us on the
mat, and in a great cauldron for the rest of the party ;
parched rice and wheat-flour, curd, and roasted maize *
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 manage, and only succeeded
in making a nauseous paste, that stuck to my jaws and
in my throat.

* Prepared by roasting tbe 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.

July, 1349.

FALLING- ROCKS, &c.

97

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, precipitated avalanches of rocks and snow.
We proceeded amidst dense fog, soon succeeded
by 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 precipices of
blue ice and black rock towering 5000 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 vegetation, lighted up by occasional gleams of
sunshine. Though all around was enveloped in gloom,
there was in front a high blue arc of cloudless sky,
between the beetling cliffs that formed the stern portals
of the Kongra Lama pass.

VOL. II.

i’

CHAPTER XXI.

Top of Kongra Lama — Tibet frontier — Elevation — View — Vegetation — De-
scent to Tungu — Tungu-choo — Ponies — Kinchinjhow and Changokhang
mountains — Palung plains — Tibetans — Dogs — Dingcham province
of Tibet — Inhabitants — Dresses — W omen’ s ornaments — Blackening
faces — Coral — Tents — Elevation of Palung — Lama — Shawl-wool goats
— Shearing — Siberian plants — Height of glaciers, and perpetual snow
— Plants, and wild animals — Marmots— Insects — Birds — Choongtam
Lama — Religious exercises — Tibetan hospitality — I) elphiniu in —
Perpetual snow — Return to Tallum Samdong — To Lamteng — Houses
— Cicadas — Landslips — Arrival at Choongtam — Cobra — Rageu —
Velocity and volume of rivers measured — Leave for Lachoong valley —
Keadom — General features of valley — Lachoong village — Tunkra
mountain — Moraines — Cultivation — Lachoong Phipun — Lama ceremo-
nies beside a sick-bed.

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 temperature of the air varied from 41^° to 42 J°;
that of the Lachen river was 47°, which was remarkably
high. We were bitterly cold ; as the previous rain had

July, 1849.

KONGRA LAMA PASS.

99

wetted us through, and a keen wind was blowing.
The mist and fog intercepted all view, except
of the flanks of the mountains on either hand, of
the rugged snowy ones to the south, and of those
bounding the Lachen to the north. The latter were
unsnowed, and appeared lower than Kongra Lama, but
when I ascended them, three months afterwards, I
found they were 3000 feet higher ! a proof how utterly
fallacious are estimates of height, when formed by the
eye alone.

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 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 at equal elevations
on the moister mountains to the southward. Some
most delicate -flowered plants even defy the biting winds
of these exposed regions ; such as a prickly Meconopsis
with slender flower-stalks and four large blue poppy-
like petals, a Cyananthus with a bell-shaped corolla,
and a fritillary. Other curious plants were a little
yellow saxifrage with long runners, and the strong-
scented spikenard.

We made a fire at the top with sheep’s droppings (of
which the Phipun had brought up a bagful), with the
aid of 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

100

KONGPLA LAMA PASS.

Chap. XXI.

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 walked about thirteen miles
botanizing, I was glad to ride hack. 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 magnificent glimpses of the majestic
mountains. As the moon sank, and we descended the
narrowing valley, darkness came on, and with a hoy to
lead my sure-footed pony, I was at liberty 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 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 26tli of July the Phipun, who waited on

July, 1849.

EXCURSION TO TIBETAN CAMP.

101

me every morning with milk and butter, and whose
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 over the slopes, chased by the
grunting herds : in other places, where the path was
narrow and dangerous, the sagacious animals proceeded
with the utmost gravity and caution. Rounding one
rocky spur, my pony stumbled, and pitched me for-
wards; fortunately I alighted on the path.

A sudden bend in the valley opened a superb view of
Kinchinjhow, its perpendicular sides extending for four
or five miles east and west, and studded with immense
icicles, which are said to have obtained for it the name
of “jhow,” — the “bearded” Kinchin. Eastward a
jagged spur stretched 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
Chachoo, along whose bed ancient moraines rose in
successive ridges : over one of these the path ascends
to the plains of Palung, an elevated grassy expanse,

102

PALUNG.

Chap. XXI.

two miles long and four broad, extending northward
to the base of Kinchinjhow. Its surface, though very
level for so mountainous a country, is yet varied with
open valleys and sloping hills, upwards of 500 feet
high : it is bounded on the west by low rounded spurs
from Kinchinjhow, 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 immediately under the cliffs of Kinchinjhow,
and then turns south to the Tunguchoo. The lower
course of the Chachoo is most curious ; it meanders
in sickle-shaped curves along the marshy bottom of an
old lake-bed, with steep shelving sides, 500 feet deep,
and covered with juniper bushes. It is fed by the
glaciers of Kinchinjhow, and some little lakes to the east.

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. The ice-clad cliffs of Kinchinjhow rise
before the spectator, just as those of the Jungfrau,
Monch, and Eigher Alp 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 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

July, 1S49.

TIBETAN CAMP ON PALUNO PLAINS.

103

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 the adjacent province of
Dingcham, which is the loftiest, coldest, most windy
and arid in Eastern Tibet ; they 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 indescribably 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 wTere dressed
as usual in the blanket-cloak, with brass pipes, long
knives, flint, steel, and amulets ; the women wore
similar, hut 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 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.

The children crawled half-naked about the tent, or

104

PALUNG.

Chap. XXI.

burrowed like moles in an immense heap of goats’ and
sheep’s 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

LEPCHA GtRLS (THE OUTER FIGURES), AND TIBETAN WOMEN.

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

July, 1849. TIBETANS. FURNITURE OF TENTS.

105

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 the tent a wall of similar height
was built all round : in the middle was a long clay
arched fire-place, with holes 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 nor stool,
but Chinese rugs for sleeping on. I boiled water on
the fire-place, and obtained an elevation of 15,867
feet.

A Lama accompanied this colony of Tibetans, a
festival in honour of Kinchinjhow being annually held
at a large cliait hard by, which is painted red, orna-
mented with banners, and surmounted 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 par-
taking 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 “ Kappoo ; ” the other
smaller, and with slender horns, is called “ Tsilloo.”

* The extensive use of these ornaments throughout Tibet, on the occasion
of religious festivals, is alluded to by MM. Hue and Gabet.

106

PALUNG-.

Chap. XXL

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 eleva-
tions in Tibetan climates; where a warm exposure, the
amount of sunshine, and of radiated heat, have a much
greater influence.

On the top of the surrounding 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 Rhododendron nivale ,
the most alpine of woody plants. On their sterile
slopes grew a curious plant allied to the Clierleria of
the Scotch Alps, forming great hemispherical balls on
the ground, eight to ten inches across, altogether

July, 1849.

NATURAL HISTORY OF PALUNG.

107

resembling in habit the curious Balsam-bog (. Bolax
glebaria) of the Falkland Islands, which grows in very
similar scenes.

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 reached the Tibetans, from
whom I obtained a guide in consequence. 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
the perpetual snow; the larger beds of snow, where
presenting a flat surface, being generally drifts col-
lected in hollows, or accumulations that had fallen
from above : when these rest on slopes they become
converted into ice, and, obeying the laws of fluidity,
flow downwards as glaciers. 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 apparatus for taking elevations, re-
freshed us wonderfully.

The plants found close to the snow were minute
primroses, Parnassia, Draba, tufted wormwoods,
saxifrages, gentian, small Compositse, grasses, and
sedges. Our ponies unconcernedly 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

108

TUNGU.

Chap. XXL

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 individuals,
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 hearing a great analogy to the Himalaya, in the
want of 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 wTest 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 vegetation 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

July, 1849. TUNGU. HOSPITALITY OF TIBETANS.

109

absence of the remains of large herbivora in formations
disclosing a redundant vegetation.

Besides the wild sheep found on these mountains, a
species of marmot sometimes migrates in swarms (like

TIBET MARMOT.

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.

The Choongtam Lama was at a small temple near
Tungu during the whole of my stay, but he would not
come to visit me, pretending to be absorbed in his
devotions. Passing one day by the temple, I found
him catechising two young aspirants for holy orders.
He 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

110

TUNGfU.

Chap. XXI.

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 neighbouring 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
attendants 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-liair 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 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, and rain at Tungu ; the former soon melted,
and I made an excursion to Chomiomo on the
following day, hoping to reach the line of perpetual
snow. Ascending the valley, I struck north up a steep
slope, that ended in a spur of vast masses of quartz
and felspar, piled like slabs in a stone quarry.

July, 1849.

LEAVE TUNGU.

Ill

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
glaciate was also abundant, exhaling a rank smell of
musk. It indicates a very great elevation in Sikkim,
and on my ascent far above it, therefore, I was not
surprised to find 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.

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.

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

* 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 dyeing.
This is, no doubt, a considerably exaggerated statement, and may perhaps
refer to both the Kongra Lama and Donkia passes.

112

LACHEN VALLEY.

Chap. XXI.

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 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.

Terrific landslips had taken place along the valley,
carrying down acres of rock, soil, and pine -forests,
into the stream ; and I saw one which swept over
100 yards in breadth of forest. The bridge at the
Tuktoong being carried away, we had to ascend for
1000 feet to a place where the river could be crossed.
In many places we had great difficulty in proceeding,
the track being obliterated by the rams and landslips.
Along the flats, now covered with a dense vegetation,
we waded often knee-deep in mud, swarming with
leeches ; and instead of descending into the valley of
the now swollen Lachen, we made long detours,
rounding spurs by canes and bamboos suspended from
trees.

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, four feet long, glided amongst
the bushes. My dogs caught a “ Itageu,” a very

Aug. 1849. VELOCITY AND DISCHARGE OF RIVERS.

113

remarkable animal, half goat and half deer ; the flesh
was good and tender, dark-coloured, and lean.

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 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 volume and velocity of
the Lachen and Lachoong rivers. Both were rapid
torrents, the rains being 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, and then I timed floating masses thrown in at
the upper point. I was surprised to find the velocity of
the Lachen only nine miles an hour, for its waters
seemed to shoot past with the speed of an arrow. The
breadth of the river averaged sixty-eight feet, and the
discharge was 4,420 cubic feet of water in a second.

The mean velocity of the Lachoong was eight miles
an hour, the breadth ninety-five feet, the depth about
the same as that of the Lachen, and the discharge 5,700
cubic feet of water in a second.*

On the 15th of August, having received supplies
from Dorjiling, I started up the north bank of the

* Hence it appears that the Lachoong, being so much the more copious,
should in one sense be regarded as the main stream of the Teesta,
rather than the Lachen, which, however, has by far the most distant
source. 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 where that river leaves the Himalaya.
The Ganges, where it leaves the Himalaya at Hurdwar, discharges 8000
feet per second during the dry season.

114

LACHOONGr VALLEY.

Chap. XXI.

Laclioong, witli the Singtam Soubah, who accompanied
me officially, and with a very bad grace ; poor fellow,
he expected me to have gone back to Dorjiling, 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.

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 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 ap-
proached him. On the present occasion, I had stopped
below the bridge, botanizing, 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 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

Aug. 1849.

KINCHIN DROWNED. LACHOONG.

115

no purpose ; lie 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 my tent.
He bad become a very handsome dog, with glossy
black liair, pendent triangular ears, short muzzle, high
forehead, jet-black eyes, straight limbs, arched neck,
and a most glorious tail curling over bis back.

A very bad road led to the village of Keadom,
situated on a flat terrace several hundred feet above
the river, where I spent the night. Here are cultivated
plantains and maize, although the elevation is equal to
parts of Dorjiling, where these plants do not ripen.

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 miles to the north the valley forks ; two
conspicuous domes of snow rising from the intermediate
mountains. On the east, Tunkra mountain rises in a
superb unbroken sweep of dark fir-wood and cliffs,
surmounted by black rocks and white fingering peaks
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. Southwards
the view is bounded by snowy mountains, and the
valley seems blocked up by a remarkable moraine -
like spur.

LACHOONG VALLEY AND VILLAGE, LOOKING SOUTH.

118

LACHOONG VALLEY.

Chap. XXI.

Stupendous moraines rise 1,500 feet above the
Lachoong in several concentric series, curving down-
wards and outwards, so as to form a bell-shaped mouth
to the valley of the Tunkraclioo. 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 are 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 Tunkraclioo river the
moraines are also more or less terraced, as is the
floor of the Lachoong valley, and its east slopes, 1000
feet up.*

The river is fourteen yards broad, and neither deep
nor rapid: the village is on the east bank, and 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
was some wretched cultivation in fields,! of wheat,

* 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 Lavanclii moraine. The spectator standing in the
expanded part below the village of Argentiere, and looking upwards, sees
the valley closed above by the ancient moraine of the Argentiere glacier,
and below by that of Lavanchi ; and on all sides the slopes are cut into
terraces, strewed with boulders. The average slope of these pine-clad
Sikkim valleys much approximates to that of Chamouni, and never ap-
proaches the precipitous character of the Bernese Alps' valleys, Kandersteg,
Lauterbrunnen, and Grindenwald.

+ Full of such Eoglish weeds as shepherd’s purse, nettles, and dock ;
besides many Himalayan ones, as balsams, thistles, a beautiful geranium,
mallow, and Cucurbitaceous plants.

Aug. 1849.

LACHOONGr.

119

barley, peas, radishes, and turnips. Rice was once
cultivated at this elevation (8000 feet), but the crop
wras uncertain ; some very tropical grasses grow wild
here. In gardens the hollyhock is seen ; said to have
been 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.

Soon after camping, the Lachoong Phipun, a very
tall, intelligent, 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 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 — Lacheepia rock— Extreme cold
— Kinchinjunga — Himalayan grouse — Return to Lachoong — Ascent to
Yeumtong — Flats and debacles — Buried pine-trunks — Hot-springs —
Behaviour of Singtam Soubah — Leave for Momay Samdong — Upper
limit of trees — Glacial terraces, &c. — Forked Donkia — Ascent to
Donkia pass — Scenery — Lakes — Tibet — Bhomtso — Arun river —
Kiang-lah mountains — Yaru-Tsampu river — Appearance of Tibet —
Kinchinjhow, and Kinchinjunga — Chola range — Deceptive appearance
of distant landscape — Perpetual snow — Pulses — Plants — Tripe de
roche — Return to Momay — Dogs and yaks — Birds — Insects — Quadru-
peds— Hot springs — Marmots — Kinchinjhow glacier.

"The Singtam Soubah being again laid up here from
the consequences 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, and composed of enormous blocks dis-
integrating into a deep layer of clay. All are clothed
with luxuriant herbage and flowering shrubs, besides
small larches and firs, rhododendrons, and maples ;
with Pyrus, cherry, Pieris, laurel, and Goughia. The
musk-deer inhabits these woods, and at this season I

Aug. 1849.

THE PATH TO TUNKRA PASS.

121

have never seen it higher. Large monkeys are also
found on the skirts of the pine-forests, and a curious
long-tailed animal, Ailurus ochraceus, 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 in height. The silver fir 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 strawberry with oblong fruit.
Currant-bushes also 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 rhododendron shrubs, and nearly en-
circled by snowy mountains. 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 my followers burrowed.

On the next 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, with rushes,

YOL. II.

G

122

LACHOONG VALLEY.

Chap. XXII.

mountain- sorrel 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
hounded 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. 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,
crevassed, and often conspicuously marked with dirt-
bands.

A gently 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 Maclioo, which flows in a part of Tibet
between Sikkim and Bhotan ; its height is 16,083 feet
above the sea. Nothing can he more different than the
two slopes of this pass ; that by which I had come
presented a gentle snowy acclivity, hounded by pre-
cipitous 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 feed-
ing near a small lake not 1000 feet down. Nor were
snowy mountains visible anywhere in this direction,
except far to the south-east, in Bhotan. This remark-
able difference of climate is due to the southerly wind

Aug. 1849.

TUNKRA PASS.

123

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.

Very few plants grew amongst the stones at the
top of the Tunkra pass, and those few were mostly
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. The wind was variable, blowing
alternately up both valleys, bringing much snowT when
it blew from the Teesta, though deflected to a north-
west breeze ; when, on the contrary, it blew from Tibet,
it was, though southerly, dry. Clouds obscured all
distant view. The temperature was 39-|0, the air
being extremely damp and consequently very cold.

Returning to the foot of the glacier, I took up m}T
quarters for two days under an enormous rock over-
looking the broad valley in which 1 had spent the
previous night, and directly fronting Tunkra moun-
tain, which bore north about five miles distant. This
rock was sixty to eighty feet high, and 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 Laclieepia, as it is called, I never
laid my unhoused head in. It commanded an incom-
parable view across the Lachoong and Laclien valleys,
of the whole group of Kinchinjunga snows, from Tibet
southwards, and was therefore a most valuable position
for geographical purposes.

124

LACHOONG VALLEY.

Chap. XXII

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. At
sunrise the mist rose majestically from all the mountain-
tops ; but the view obtained was transient, for in less
than an hour the dense fog which choked the valleys
ascended 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 -
perclix nivicola), a small gregarious bird which inhabits
the loftiest mountains, and utters a short cry of
“ Quiok, quiok;” in character and appearance it is
intermediate 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 at Lacheepia, passing
the day in botanizing and taking observations. 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. My 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 snows, I descended to Lachoong, where I remained
for some days botanizing.

During my stay at Lachoong I was several times
awakened by all the noises and accompaniments of a

Aug. 1849. DEBACLES. ARRIVE AT YEUMTONGr.

125

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.

On the 29tli of August I left Lachoong and proceeded
up the valley, along a terrace covered with long grass,
and bounded by lofty banks of gravel and sand. The
old moraines were verv 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, alternated
with others covered with mud, boulders, and debris,
which had flowed down from the gorges on the west,
and which still contained trees, inclined in all direc-
tions, and buried up to their branches ; some of these
debacles were 400 yards across, and sloped at an angle
of 2° to 3°, bearing on their surfaces blocks fifteen
feet in diameter.* They seem to subside materially,
as I perceived they had left marks many feet higher on
the tree-trunks. Such debacles must often bury
standing forests in a very favourable material, climate,
and position for becoming fossilized.

I arrived at Yeumtong, a small summer cattle -station,

* None were to be compared in size and extent with that at Bex, at the
mouth of the Rhone valley.

126

LACHOONG VALLEY.

Chap. XXII.

the general features of which closely resemble those of
the narrow Swiss valleys. The west flank was lofty
and precipitous, with narrow gulleys still retaining the
winter’s snow ; the east gradually sloped up to the two
snowy domes seen from Lachoong ; the bed of the
valley was alternately a flat lake -bed, in which the river
meandered at the rate of three and a half miles an hour,
and a sudden descent, cumbered with old moraines,
over which it rushed in sheets of foam. Up the valley
Chango - Kliang was visible, 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 constant
alarm, and causing a great commotion among the yaks,
dogs, and ponies. On the opposite side of the river was
a deep gorge ; in which an immense glacier descended
lower than any I have seen in Sikkim. I made several
attempts to reach it by the gulley of its discharging
stream, but was always foiled by the rocks, and the
dense jungle of pines, rhododendron, and dwarf holly.

Some hot-springs burst from the bank of the Lachen
a mile 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^°, and in the bath 106°. The
water has a slightty 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°.

Aug. 1849.

SOUBAH’S CONDUCT.

127

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 into 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 Dorjiling, I left Yeumtong
the following day for Momay Samdong, the loftiest
yak-grazing station in Sikkim, and within a few hours’
journey of the Donkia pass.

The valley was almost level for several miles, the
road continuing along the east bank of the Lachen.
Shoots of stones had descended from the ravines, all of
a white fine-grained granite, stained red with a minute
conferva, which has been taken by Himalayan travellers
for red snow ; a phenomenon I never saw in Sikkim :

128

MOMAY.

Chap. XXII.

nor do I know any authentic record of its having been
seen in the Himalaya.

At a fork of the valley several miles above Yeum-
tong, 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 descrip-
tion : they were scantily clothed with stunted silver
firs.

Beyond this, the path crossed the river, and ascended
rapidly over a mile of steeply sloping landslip, com-
posed of angular fragments of granite, which wrere
constantly falling from above, and were extremely
dangerous. At 14,000 feet, trees and shrubs ceased,
willow and honeysuckle being the last ; and thence
onward the valley was bleak, open, and stony, with
lofty rocky mountains on either side. The south
wind brought a cold drizzling ram, which numbed
us, and two of the lads wiio had last come up from
Dorjiling were seized with a remittent fever, originally
contracted in the hot valleys : luckily wre found some
cattle-sheds, hi 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 Kinchinjliow, and seven south-wrest of Donkia: it is
in the same latitude as Palung, but scarcely so lofty ;

Sept. 1849. GEOLOGY AND BOTANY OF MOMAY.

129

being nearly the elevation of Laclieepia (near the
Tunkra pass), from which, however, its scenery and
vegetation entirely differ.

I pitched my tent close to a little shed at the base of
a mountain that divided the Lachoong river from a
western tributary. It was a wild and most exposed
spot : stony mountains, grassy on the base near the
river ; distant snowy peaks, stupendous precipices,
moraines, glaciers, transported boulders, and rocks
rounded by glacial action, formed the landscape which
everywhere met the view. There was not a bush six
inches high, and the only approach to woody plants
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 sand, pebbles, and boulders ; the remains,
doubtless, of an enormously thick glacial deposit.
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 around it : those 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 re-
markable and conspicuous feature from Momay. This,
which I have called Forked Donkia, is elevated about
21,870 feet, and is the termination of a magnificent
amphitheatre of stupendous snow-clad precipices, con-
tinuously upwards of 20,000 feet high, that forms the
east flank of the upper Lachoong valley. From Donkia
top again, the mountains sweep round to the westward,
rising into fingered peaks of extraordinary magnificence ;

130

LACHOONG VALLEY.

Chap. XXII.

and tlience — still running west — dip to 18,500 feet,
forming the Donkia pass, beyond which they 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 northern drainage
is to the Cholamoo lakes in Tibet; in which is the
source of the Lachen, which flows round the north base
of Kinchinjhow to Kongra Lama.

The Lachoong is here twelve or fifteen yards wide,
and runs over a pebbly bed, cutting a shallow channel
down to the subjacent rock, which is in some cases
scooped out six or eight feet deep by its waters.

On our arrival, we found that a party of buxom,
goodnatured 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
spot appearing 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 for what more they
could get. The Singtam Soubali was intensely dis-
gusted with my determination : he accompanied me
next day to the pass, and having exhausted his per-
suasions, threats, and warnings, about snow, wind,
robbers, starvation, and Tibetan sepoys, departed on
the 12th for Yeumtong, leaving me truly happy for
the first time since quitting Dorjiling. I had now a

Sept. 1849.

GLACIERS, LAKES, &c.

181

prospect of uninterruptedly following up my pursuits
at an elevation little below that of Mont Blanc,
surrounded by the loftiest mountains, and perhaps the
vastest glaciers on the globe ; my instruments 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 eastward my attention was attracted
by 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 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 Kinchinjhowis called.
Above this the valley expands very much, and is stony
and desert : stupendous mountains rear themselves on
all sides, and the desolation and grandeur of the
scene are unequalled in my experience.

I passed several shallow lakes at 17,500 feet; their
banks were green and marshy, and supported thirty
or forty kinds of plants. I collected in the dry bed
of a stream a curious white substance like thick felt,
formed of felspathic silt (no doubt the product of
glacial streams) and the siliceous cells of infusorian

132

DONKIA PASS.

Chap. XXII.

(Diatomacese). It mucli 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. At the head of the
valley a steep crest 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. The view on
this occasion was obscured by clouds and fogs, except
towards Tibet, in which direction it was magnificent ;
but as I afterwards twice 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 Cholamoo
lake lay 1,500 feet below me, at the bottom of a rapid
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 the
one side, and from Donkia on the other : the Lachen
flowed from its northern extremity, and turning west-
ward, entered a broad barren valley, hounded on the
north by red stony mountains, called Bhomtso, which
I saw from Ivongra Lama, and ascended with Dr.
Campbell in the October following : though 18,000 to
19,000 feet high, these mountains were wholly un-
snowed. Beyond 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 moun-
tains, reduced to mere specks on the horizon. The
valley of the Arun was bounded on the north by very

Sept. 1849.

FEATURES OF THE LANDSCAPE.

133

precipitous black rocky mountains, sprinkled with
snow ; beyond these again, 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 Yaru-tsampu :
it appeared forty to fifty miles off, and of great mean
elevation : the vast snowy mountains that rose beyond
it were, I was assured, beyond the Yarn, in the salt-
lake country.* A spur from Chomiomo cut off the
view to 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 enormous 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 of a yellowish red colour, rising and falling in long
undulations like dunes, 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 the whole immense area was very open
and undulating, like the great ranges of central Asia
described by MM. Hue and Gfabet. Still further, 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
higher. The most lofty mountains were on the range

* 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 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.

134

DONKIA PASS.

Chap. XXII.

north of Nepal, not less than 120 miles distant, and,
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, and on its west bank
a lofty brick-red spur sloped upwards from it, con-
spicuously cut into terraces for several hundred feet
above its waters.

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, capping the ridges, but obtained
no further prospect. To the west, the beetling
summit of Kinchinjhow rises at two miles’ distance,
3000 to 4000 feet above the pass. A little south of it,
and north of Chango-Khang, the view extends through
a gap in the Sebolali range, across the valley of the
Lachen, to Kinchinjunga, 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 re-
peatedly 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 Dorjiling, but from here
are sunk far below the horizon : on comparing these

Sept. 1849.

TIBETAN LANDSCAPE.

135

with the northern landscape, the wonderful difference
between their respective snow-levels, amounting to
fully 5000 feet, was very apparent. South-east the
stupendous snowy amphitheatre formed by the pre-
cipitous flank of Donkia was a magnificent 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 given to understand that from
Donkia pass the whole country of Tibet sloped away in
descending steppes to the Yaru river, and was more or
less of a plain ; and could I have trusted my eyes only,

A

I should have confirmed this assertion so far as the
slope was concerned. When, however, the levelled
theodolite was directed to the distance, the 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 1000 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 several 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

136

DONKIA PASS.

Chap. XXII.

familiar objects to assist the eye in tlie 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.

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 om,” 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. 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
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 proportion. From
the elevation of about 19,300 feet, which I attained on
Donkia, I saw a fine illustration of that atmospheric
phenomenon called the “ spectre of the Brocken,” my
own shadow being projected on a bank of thin mist
that rose above the tremendous precipices on whose

Sept. 1849.

OBSERVATIONS ON DONKIA PASS.

137

crest I stood. My head was surrounded with a
brilliant circular glory or rainbow.

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 left a minimum thermometer on the summit on the
9th of September, 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 ; the index standing at 28°.

A violent southerly wind, with a scud of mist, and
sometimes snow, blew over the pass ; but we found
shelter on the north face, where I twice kindled a fire,
and boiled my thermometers. 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°.

I found one flowering plant on the summit ; the
tufted alsinaceous one before mentioned. The Fescue
grass, a little fern, and a Saussurea ascended nearly
to the summit, and several Lichens grew on the top ;
also some barren mosses. At 18,300 feet, I found on
one stone only a fine lichen, the “ tripe de roche ” of
Arctic voyagers, and the food of the Canadian hunters ;
it is also abundant on the Scotch alps.

138

DONKIA PASS.

Chap. XXII.

Before leaving, I took one more long look at tlie
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 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 Cliolamoo lake, nor are
the tombs of Petra hewn in more desolate cliffs than
those which flank the valley of the Tibetan Arun.

On our return 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 awakening
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,

Sept. 1849.

INCIDENTS AT MOMAY.

139

finches, warblers, abundance of sparrows, feeding on
the yak- droppings, with occasionally 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 Yeumtong. 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 mag-
gots of two large flies, a yellow and black, affording
abundant food to red-legged crows, ravens, and
swallows. 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 seldon seen, and always at great
elevations. 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 ;
but the common Prunella of Europe is wild, and so are
a groundsel and Ranunculus. I also collected about
200 other plants near my tent ; amongst which grasses
were numerous ; chiefly belonging to European genera.

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

* An elevation of 20,000, and perhaps 22,000 feet might, I should
think, easily be attained by practice, in Tibet, north of Sikkim.

140

MOMAY.

Chap. XXII.

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 during
this month being so bad that I rarely returned dry to
my tent; fog and drizzle, if not sleet and snow, coming
on every day, without exception.

I made frequent excursions to the great glacier of
Kinchinjhow. Its valley is about four miles long,
broad and flat; Chango-Khang 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 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 temperature is 110°, and in places 116°, or
4° hotter than that of the Yeumtong hot-springs, though
4000 feet higher, and of precisely the same character.
A few plants make the neighbourhood of the hot-springs
a little oasis, and the large 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 parallel ridges
(indicating the periodic retirements of the glacier) lead
down to the ice, which must have sunk several hun-
dred 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 pools of water,

Sept. 1849.

KIN CHINJHOW GLACIER.

141

ninety feet deep, 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. Between the moraine and the west flank of
the valley is a large lake, with terraced banks, whose
bottom is several hundred feet above that of the valley;
it is half a mile long, and a quarter broad, and fed
partly by glaciers from Chango-Khang and Sebolah,
and partly by filtration through the lateral moraine.

GNEISS-BLOCK WITH GILA N ITE BANDS, ON THE KINCHINJHOW GLACIER.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Donkia glaciers — Moraines — Dome of ice — Honey-combed surface — Acci-
dent to instruments — Sebolab pass — Bees and May-flies — View —
Lamas and travellers at Momay — Weather and climate — Sensations
arising from elevation — Dr. Campbell leaves Dorjiling for Sikkim —
Leave Momay — Yeumtong — Lachoong — Retardation of vegetation at
low elevations — Choongtam — Landslips and debacle — Meet Dr. Camp-
bell— 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 — Cbolamoo lakes — Antelopes — Return
to Yeumtso — Dr. Campbell lost — Extreme cold — Headaches — Tibetan
Dingpun and guard — Arms and accoutrements — Temperature of
Yeumtso — Migratory birds — Yisit 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 contains four
marshes or lakes, alternating with as many transverse
moraines that seem 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 on the floor of the valley are all polished on

Sept. 1849.

DONKIA GLACIER.

143

the top, sides, and face looking up the valley, hut are
rugged on that looking down it : gigantic blocks are
poised on some.

Under the red cliff of Forked Donkia the vallev
becomes very broad, bare, and gravelly, with a con-
fusion of moraines, and turns more northwards. At
the angle, the present terminal moraine rises about
800 feet high, and from the summit a most striking
scene opened. The ice filling an immense basin,
several miles broad and long, formed a low dome, 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 and loftier tops of Donkia appeared behind these,
but I could not recognise the true summit (23,176
feet). The surface was very rugged, and so deeply
honey-combed that the foot often sank from six to eight
inches in crisp wet ice. I proceeded a mile on it, with
much more difficulty than on any Swiss glacier ; this
wras owing to the elevation, and the corrosion of the
surface into pits and pools of water ; the crevasses
being but few and distant. I attained an elevation of
18,307 feet; the weather was then very cold, the thermo-
meter fell to 34°, and it snowed heavily after 3 p.m.

On another occasion I ascended, to the north of this,
a second spur from Donkia, to 19,000 feet, which
abutted on the scarped precipices 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.

At these great heights the weather was never fine
for more than an hour at a time, and thick snow drove

SUMMIT OF FORKED DONKIA. AND “ GOA ANTELOPES.

Sept. 1849.

VIEW FROM DONIvIA.

145

me clown on both these occasions. Another time I
ascended a third spur from this great mountain, and
was overtaken by a heavy gale and thunder-storm, the
latter of which is a rare phenomenon ; 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, which 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 with which I had
taken so many thousand observations, were seriously
injured : to my delight, however, I found the damage
to be very trifling.

The Kincliinjhow spurs are not accessible to so
great an elevation as those of Donlda, but they afford
finer views over Tibet, across the ridge connecting
Kincliinjhow with Donlda.

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.

On the 18th of September I ascended the range
which divides the Lachen from the Lachoong valley, to
the Sebolah pass, a very sharp ridge which runs south

VOL. II.

H

146

MOMAY.

Chap. XXIII.

from Kinchinjhow to Chango-Kliang ; following a yak-
track, which led across the Kinchinjhow glacier, along
the hank of the lake, and thence westward up a very
steep spur, on which was much ice and snow. At
nearly 17,000 feet I passed two small lakes, on the
hanks of one of which I found bees, a May-fly and
gnat ; the two latter bred on stones in the water.

The view from the summit commands the whole
castellated front of Kinchinjhow, the sweep of the
Donkia cliffs to the east, and Chango-Khang’s blunt
cone of ribbed snow over head, while to the west, across
the grassy Palung slopes, rise Chomiomo, the Tlilonok
mountains, and Kinchinjunga in the distance. The
Palung plains, now yellow with withered grass, were
the most curious part of the landscape : hemmed in by
this range which rises 2000 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. The black tents of the Tibetans were
still there, but the flocks were gone. The broad fosse-
like valley of the Cliachoo was at my feet, with the
river winding along its bottom, and its flanks dotted
with black juniper bushes.

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 some-
times 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-cliurn,

H

9

RIM AN ELFAATION OF 1S,0C0 FEET OF THE EAST TOP OF KINCHINJHOW, AND OF TIBET, OVER THE
DOE THAT CONNECTS IT WITH DONKTA. WILD SHEEP (ovis AMMON) IN THE FOREGROUND.

148

MOMAY.

Chap. XXIII.

bellows, stools, books, and sacred implements, usually
bung rattling on all sides of bis holiness, and a
sumpter yak carried the tents and mats for sleeping.
On several occasions large parties of traders, with
thirty or forty yaks 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 in
stating the Kambajong or Chomachoo river, north 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 1 1 a.m. ; little snow or rain fell,
but thin mists and drizzle prevailed. 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
discharging frequent showers in Tibet, as far north as
Jigatzi, vdiere, however, violent dry easterly gales are
said to be the most prevalent.

The equinoctial gales set in on the 21st, with a
falling barometer, and sleet at night; on the 23rd and

Sept. 1849.

PRESSURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE.

149

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.

On first arriving at Momay I experienced the usual
sensations accompanying great elevations, but these
gradually wore off, and I was more than ever impressed
with the fact that of all the phenomena of climate,
the weight of the atmosphere is the most remarkable
for its elusion of direct observation, when unaided
by instruments. At the level of the sea, a man of
ordinary bulk and stature is pressed upon by a
superincumbent weight of 30,000 pounds, or 13J tons.
An inch rise or fall of the barometer shows that this
load is lightened or increased, sometimes in a few
hours, by nearly 1000 pounds; yet no notice is taken
of it, except by the meteorologist, or by the speculative
physician, seeking the subtle causes of epidemic and
endemic complaints. At Dorjiling (7,400 feet eleva-
tion), the load is reduced to less than 22,500 pounds,
with no appreciable result whatever on the frame, how-
ever suddenly it be transported to that elevation. And
an observation of my own habits convinced me that
I took the same amount of food, drink, sleep, exercise
and work, not only without inconvenience, but without
the slightest perception of my altered circumstances.
On ascending to 14,000 feet, owing to the greatly
diminished supply of oxygen, exercise brings on vertigo
and headache ; ascending higher still, lassitude and
tension across the forehead ensue, with retching, and a
sense of weight dragging down the stomach, probably

150

MOMAY.

Chap. XXIII.

due to the dilatation of the air contained in that organ.
Such are the all but invariable effects of high elevations;
varying with most persons according to the suddenness
and steepness of the ascent, the amount and duration
of exertion, and the length of time previously passed at
great heights. After having lived for some weeks
at Momay where I was relieved of upwards of six tons
of pressure (!), I have thence ascended several times
to 18,500, and once above 19,000 feet, without any
sensations hut lassitude and quickness of pulse ; but in
these instances it required great caution to avoid
painful symptoms. Residing at Momay, however, my
functions were wholly undisturbed ; nor could I detect
any quickness of pulse or of respiration when the
body was at rest, below 17,000 feet.

Not only is the frame of a transient visitor unaffected
(when at rest) by the pressure on his body being
reduced from 30,000 to 13,000 pounds, but the Tibetan,
born and constantly residing at upwards of 14,000
feet, differs in no respect that can be attributed to
diminished pressure, from the native of the level of
the sea. The average duration of life, and the amount
of food and exercise is the same; eighty years are
rarely reached by either. The Tibetan, too, however
inured to cold and great elevations, still suffers when
he crosses passes 18,000 or 19,000 feet high, and
apparently neither more nor less than I did.

Liebig remarks (in his “ Animal Chemistry ”) that in
an equal number of respirations, we consume a larger
amount of oxygen at the level of the sea than on a
mountain ; and it can be shown that under ordinary

Sept. 1849.

PRESSURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE.

151

circumstances at Dorjiling, 20*14 per cent less is
inhaled than on the plains of India. Yet the chest
cannot expand so as to inspire more at once, nor is the
respiration appreciably quickened ; by either of which
means nature would be enabled to make up the defi-
ciency. It is true that it is difficult to count one’s own
respirations, but the average is considered in a healthy
mai to be eighteen in a minute ; in my own case it
is s.xteen, an acceleration of which by three or four
couR not have been overlooked, in the repeated trials I
made at Dorjiling ; and still less the eight additional
inhalations required at 15,000 feet to make up for the
deficieicy of oxygen in the air of that elevation.

It Ins long been surmised that an alpine vegetation
may ove some of its peculiarities to the diminished
atmospleric pressure ; and that the latter being a
condition which the gardener cannot supply, he for
this reason seldom successfully cultivates such plants.
I kiow of no foundation for this hypothesis ; many
plaits, natives of the level of the sea in other parts
of he world, and some even of the hot plains of
Bernal, ascend to 12,000 and even 15,000 feet on the
Himlaya, unaffected by the diminished pressure.
A grat number of species from low countries may be
cultiuted, and some have been for ages, at 10,000 to
14,00' feet without change. It is the same with the
lower animals ; innumerable instances may with ease
be adciced of pressure alone inducing no appreciable
change whilst there is absence of proof to the con-
trary. The phenomena that accompany diminished
pressue are the real obstacles to the cultivation of

152

MOMAY.

Chap. XXIII.

alpine plants ; of which cold and the excessive climate
are perhaps the most formidable. Plants that grow in
localities marked by sudden extremes of heat and
cold, are always very variable in stature, habit, and
foliage. In a state of nature we say the plants
“ accommodate themselves to these changes,” and so
they do within certain limits ; but for one that survives
of all the seeds that germinate in these inhospitable
localities, thousands die. In our gardens we can
neither imitate the conditions of an alpine climate nor
offer others suited to the plants of such climates.

On the 28th of the month the Singtam Soubabcame
up from Yeumtong, to request leave to depart hr his
home, on account of his wife’s illness ; and to inform
me that Dr. Campbell had left Dorjiling, accoupanied
(by the Rajah’s orders) by the Tchebu Lana. I
therefore left Momay on the 30th, to meet him at
Clioongtam, arriving at Yeumtong the sams n'ght,
amid heavy rain and sleet.

Autumnal tints reigned at Yeumtong, and the hovers
had disappeared from its heath-like flat ; a snail
eatable cherry with a wrinkled stone was ripe, and
acceptable in a country so destitute of fruit.* Tlence
I descended to Lachoong, on the 1st of October, igain
through heavy rain, the snow lying on Tunkra noun-
tain at 14,000 feet. The larch was slieddhg its
leaves, which turn red before they fall, but the gmual

* The absence of Vaccinia (whortleberries and cranberries) am eatable
Rubi (brambles) in the alpine regions of the Himalaya is very rer&rkable,
and they are not replaced by any substitute. With regard to Vdcinium ,
this is the more anomalous, as several species grow in the tmperate
regions of Sikkim.

Oct. 1849.

CROSS LACHOONGK CHOONGTAM.

153

vegetation was much behind that at 14,000 feet, and so
many late flowers had come into blossom, that the
place still looked gay and green ; the blue climbing
gentian ( Crawfurclia ) now adorned the bushes ; this
plant would he a great acquisition in English gardens.
A Polygonum still in flower here, was in ripe fruit
near Momay, 6000 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 7000 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 Choongtam 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 in the season.

As I expected Dr. Campbell on the following
morning, I proceeded down the river to meet him : the
whole valley was buried under a torrent or debacle of
mud and boulders, and half a mile of its course was
dammed up into a deep lake. Amongst the granite
boulders brought down by this debacle, I collected
some actinolites : hut all minerals are extremely rare
in the Sikkim Himalaya, 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.

154

CHOONGTAM.

Chap. XXIII.

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 5000 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 addi-
tion 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) to his visiting Sikkim. Foremost, was
his earnest desire to cultivate a better understanding
with the Rajah and his officers. He had always taken
the Rajah’s part, from a conviction that his Highness
was not to blame for the misunderstandings that the
Sikkim officers pretended existed between their country
and Dorjiling ; he had, whilst urgently remonstrating
with the Rajah, insisted on forbearance on my part, and
had long exercised it himself. In detailing the treat-
ment to which I was subjected, I had not hesitated
to express my opinion that the Rajah was more

Oct. 1849.

LEAVE FOR KONGRA LAMA.

155

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 ; the
transaction was a violation of good faith on the part
of the Sikkim government towards the British, for
which the Bajah, however helpless, was yet responsible.
To act upon my representations 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 further 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 were pledged
to defend.

On the Gtli 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 Laclien Pliipun and the Tibetans did not object.
Our great obstacle was the Singtam Soubah, who (by
the Bajah’ 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 Baj all’s
confidence.

Our first day’s march up the Laclien valley was of

156

TUNGU.

Chap. XXIII.

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 river, though still
swollen, was comparatively clear; the rains usually
ceasing, or at least moderating, in October.

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 at Chateng, and the
following day made a long march, crossing the Zemu,
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
mountains 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 9tli) the great Sikkim currant
was in fruit ; the 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.

Near the village I found Dr. Campbell remonstrating
with the Lachen Phipun on the score of the delays
and rude treatment I had received in June and July :

Oct. 1849.

LACHEN PHIPUN.

157

the man, of course, answered every question with
falsehoods ; such being the custom of these people ;
and he produced 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 subor-
dinate officer) had prepared for us a sumptuous
refreshment of tea- soup, which was brewing by the
road-side, 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 de-
tained for several days by bad weather : I was assured
that during all August and September the weather
had been uniformly gloomy, as at Momay, though
little rain had fallen.

We had much to do in purchasing blankets5*5 for
some of the people, and arranging for our journey, to
which the Lachen Phipun was favourable, promising
us ponies. The vegetation around was wholly changed
since my July visit : the rhododendron scrub was
verdigris -green from the young leaves which burst
in autumn; 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.

* These were made of goat’s wool, teazed into a satiny surface by little
teazle-like brushes of bamboo.

158

TUNGU.

Chap. XXIII.

Amongst other luxuries, we procured the flesh of
yak calves, which is excellent veal ; the Tibetan
mutton we generally found dry and stringy.

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 having
eaten the leaves of Rhododendron cinnabarinum, which
species alone is said to be poisonous ; when used as
fuel, it causes the face to swTell 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 rhodo-
dendron woods give poor fires ; juniper burns the
brightest, and with least smoke. The silver fir, though
emitting much smoke, gives a cheerful fire, far superior
to larch, spruce, or Abies Brunoniana. At Dorjiling,
oak is the common fuel : alder is also good. Cliesnut
is invariably used for blacksmith’s charcoal. Magnolia
has a disagreeable odour, and laurel burns very badly.
The phenomenon of phosphorescence is very con-
spicuous on stacks of fire -wood. At Dorjiling during
the damp, warm, summer months (May to October), at
elevations of 5 to 8000 feet, it may be witnessed every
night by walking a few yards in the forest — at least it
was so hi 1848 and 1849 ; and during my stay there
billets of decayed wood were repeatedly sent me by
residents, with inquiries as to the cause of their
luminosity. It is no exaggeration to say that one does
not need to remove 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

Oct. 1849.

PHOSPHORESCENT WOOD.

159

a pale phosphoric light. A stack of fire-wood,
collected near my host’s (Mr. Hodgson’s) cottage, pre-
sented a beautiful spectacle for two months (in July and
August), and on passing it at night, m}7 pony was always
alarmed by it. The phenomenon invariably accom-
panies decay, and is common on oak, laurel, 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
reason to believe that it spreads with great rapidity
from old surfaces to fresh-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 often seen to bound mycelia on dead wood, and to
precede a more rapid decay. I have often tried, hut
always in vain, to coax it into developing some fungus,
by placing it in damp rooms, &c. When camping in
the mountains, I have 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 atmosjffiere :
hut except in this difference of intensity, it presents
no change in 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.

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

ICO

TUNGrU.

Chap. XXIII.

of tlie Pliipun and Tchebu Lama, who relished a cup
of sugarless tea more than any other refreshment wre
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. Snuff is little
used, and is principally procured from the plains of
India.

We visited Palling twice, chiefly in hopes that Dr.
Campbell might see the magnificent prospect of Kin-
chinjhow from its plains : the first time we gained
little beyond a ducking, but on the second the view
was superb ; and I caught a glimpse of Kinchinjunga
from the neighbouring heights, bearing south-west,
and distant forty miles. I also measured barometri-
cally the elevation at the great chait at Palung, and
found it 15,620 feet.

The mean temperature at Tungu had fallen from 50°
in July to 41° : the weather during October, was, how-
ever, uniformly cold and misty. Much more rain fell
in October at Tungu than at Dorjiling, which is the
opposite to what occurs during the rainy season.

October 15 th. 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 ; being
sheltered by rocks which ward off the keen blasts :
its elevation is 15,370 feet above the sea, and the

Oct. 1849.

START FOR KONGRA LAMA.

161

magnificent west cliff of Kinchinjhow towers over it not
a mile distant. The afternoon was misty, but at sunset
the south-east wind fell, and was immediately suc-
ceeded 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.

On the 16tli 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 survey of the Teesta
river, and which promised immense results in the views
I should obtain of the country, and of the 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 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°. We started on ponies,
accompanied by the Lama only, to hold a parley with
the Tibetans ; ordering the rest of the party to follow
more leisurely. We had not proceeded far when we
were joined by two Tibetan Sepoys, who, on our reach-
ing the pass, bellowed lustily for their companions ;
when Campbell and the Lama drew up at the chait
on Kongra Lama, and announced their wish to confer
with their commandant.

162

KONGRA LAMA.

Chap. XXIII.

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.

A few miles ride in a north-east direction over an
open, undulating country, brought me to the Lachen,
flowing westward in a broad, open, stony valley,
hounded by Kinchinjliow on the south (its face being
as precipitous as that on the opposite side), and on the
north by a low range of rocky, sloping mountains, of
which the summits were 18,000 to 19,000 feet above
the sea. Enormous erratic blocks 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 vegetation
diminished rapidly, and consisted chiefly of scattered
hushes of a dwarf scrubby honeysuckle and tufts of
nettle, both so brittle as to he trodden into powder,
and the short leafless twiggy Ephedra, a few inches
higher. The most alpine rhododendron (It. nivale)
spread its small rigid branches close to the ground ;
the hemispherical Arenaria, another type of sterility,
rose here and there, and tufts of forget-me-not,
Artemisia, Astragali, and Androsace, formed flat
cushions level with the soil. Grass was very scarce,

Oct. 1849.

APPEARANCE OF TIBET.

163

but a running wiry sedge bound the sand like that 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 hence becomes a type
of such elevations in Tibet. As I proceeded, the soil
became still more sandy, chirping under the pony’s
feet ; and where harder it was burrowed by innumerable
marmots, foxes, and the “ Goomchen,” or tailless rat,
sounding hollow to the tread, and being so dangerous
that I was obliged to dismount and walk.

The upper part of Kincliinjliow is composed of bold
ice-capped cliffs of gneiss, and long spurs stretch
northwards from it, 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 geolo-
gical formation.

Opposite the most prominent of these spurs the
river runs west, forming marshes, which were full of
Zannichellia palustris and Ranunculus aquatilis , both
English and Siberian plants : the waters were full of a
species of shell, 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.

164

TIBET.

Chap. XXIII.

Beyond this I recognised a hill of which I had taken
bearings from Donkia pass, and a few miles further, on
rounding a great spur of Kinchinjliow, 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 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
gratified ambition which, being unalloyed by selfish
considerations for the future, become springs of
happiness during the remainder of one’s life.

The landscape about Cholamoo lakes is simple in
its elements, stern and solemn, and though my solitary"
situation rendered it doubly impressive to me, still I
doubt whether the world contains any scene with more
sublime associations than this calm sheet of water,
17,000 feet above the sea, with the shadows of moun-
tains 22,000 to 24,000 feet high, sleeping on its bosom.

There was much short grass about the lake, on
which large antelopes and deer were feeding. There
were also many slate-coloured hares with white rumps,
with marmots and tailless rats. The abundance of
animal life was wonderful, compared with the want of
it on the south side of Donkia pass, not five miles
distant in a straight line ! this is partly due to the pro-
fusion of carbonate of soda, of which all ruminants are
fond, and partly to the dryness of the climate, which is
favourable to burrowing quadrupeds. A flock of

Oct. 1849.

CHOLAMOO LAKES.

165

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 1 p.m., remaining half an hour. I could not

antelope’s head.

form an idea as to whether Campbell had followed or
not, and began to speculate on the probability of having
to pass 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

166

TIBET.

Chap. XXIII.

Yeumtso at 3 p.m., quite exhausted with fatigue and
headache : I there found, to my great relief, the
Tchebu Lama and Lachen Phipun in some alarm at
my absence ; 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 wa}^ : 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 they themselves had
brought on the coolies, who were close behind, hut
that they 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 lofty valleys, and con-
sequent rarefaction of the air. Intense terrestrial
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 hack of Kinchinjhow for those of Chola-
moo, was looking for me. He too 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 he down beside. He told me that after I had quitted
Kongra Lama, leaving him with the Tchebu Lama and
Phipun, the Tibetan Dingpun and twenty men came
up, and very civilly hut formally forbad his crossing
the frontier ; hut that upon explaining his motives, and

Oct. 1849.

TIBETAN DINGPUN AND SOLDIERS.

167

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 head-
aches, 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 Nepalese. The
Tibetan Dingpun and his soldiers 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 long-sleeved
cloaks, 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 appearance. A dozen cart-
ridges, each in an iron case, were slung round the
waist, and they also carried a long knife, flint, steel,
and iron tobacco pipe, pouch, and purse, suspended
from a leather girdle.

168

TIBET.

Chap. XXIII.

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 that was not felt at
Dorjiling, 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 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. The light of the sun, though
sometimes intercepted by vapours aloft, was very
brilliant.

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 * 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 them-
selves 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.

* 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, Giantclii, and Lhassa, along the banks of
the Yaru river, Ramchoo, and Yarbru and Dochen lakes. Amongst 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 charac-
teristic of the tropics dwelling for months in such climates is a very in-
structive one, and should be borne in mind in our speculations upon the
climate supposed to be indicated by the imbedded bones of birds.

Oct. 1849.

YEUMTSO LAKE.

169

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 conducting us
across the frontier, and he drew from his breast a long
letter, written on Daphne paper, the ends of which
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 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 relish, leaving a mere sip
for his comrades at the bottom of his little wooden
cup, which they emptied, and afterwards licked clean,
and replaced in his breast for him. We prepared
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 : it is a mile and a half long, and occupies a
large depression between two rounded spurs, being fed
by glaciers from Kinchinjhow.

The ice on the cliffs and summit of Kinchinjhow

* 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.

VOL. II.

I

170

TIBET.

Chap. XXIII.

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 was coursing over the wet banks ; finches
and other small birds were numerous, eating the sedge -
seeds, and picking up the insects. No view could be
obtained to the north, owing to the height of the
mountains on the north flank of the Lachen.

HEAD AND FEET OF TIBET MARMOT.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Ascent of Bhomtso — View of snowy mountains — Chumulari — Arun river
— Jigatzi — Lhassa — Dingcham province of Tibet — Misapplication of
term “ Plain of Tibet ” — Sheep, flocks ot — Crops — Probable elevation
of Jigatzi — Yaru-Tsampu river — Tame elephants — Wild horses —
Cholamoo lakes — Effects of great elevation — Ascent of Donkia —
Moving piles of debris — Cross Donkia pass — Second visit to Momay
Samdong— Descent to Yeumtong — Lachoong — Retardation of vegeta-
tion— Jerked meat — Fish — Lose a thermometer — Lepcha lad sleeps
in hot spring — Keadom — Bucklandia — Arrive at Choongtam —
Mendicant — Meepo— Lachen-Lachoong river — Wild grape — Virulent
nettle.

In the afternoon we crossed the valley, and, after
fording the river, ascended Bhomtso. Some stupendous
boulders 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 hats ; many more plants grew here
than I had expected, in inconspicuous scattered tufts.

Bhomtso is 18,590 feet above the sea : it presented
an infinitely more extensive prospect than I had
ventured to anticipate, commanding all the most
important Sikkim, North Bhotan, and Tibetan moun-
tains, including Kinchinjunga and Chumulari. Due
south, across the sandy valley of the Lachen, Kinchin-

172

TIBET.

Chap. XXIY.

jhow reared its long and rugged precipices, 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 to 22,000 feet elevation. To the east of
Kinchin j how were the Cholamoo lakes, with the rugged
mass of Donkia stretching continuously southwards to
Forked Donkia, which overhung Momay Samdong.

A long sloping spur sweeps from the north of
Donkia to Bhomtso, rising to a height of more than
20,000 feet without snow. Over this spur the cele-
brated Chumulari peeps, from its isolated 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 ranges of very much loftier mountains, which
terminated the view of the snowy Himalaya ; the dis-
tance embraced being fully 150 miles, and perhaps
much more. Of one of these eastern masses I after-
wards took bearings and angular heights from the
Kliasia mountains, in Bengal, upwards of 200 miles
south-east of its position.

Turning to the northward, a singular contrast was
presented : the broad sandy valley of the Arun lay a
tew 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 not a particle
of snow was to be seen ; beyond that, rugged purple-

Oct. 1849.

ARUN VALLEY FROM BHOMTSO.

173

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 various 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 Eamchoo lakes to Teshoo
Loombo ; its elevation may be 17,000 feet above the
sea. Beyond it a gorge led through rugged mountains,
by which the Painom 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
divides the Lhassan or “ U ” from the “ Tsang ” or
Jigatzi province of Tibet; it appeared fully 100 miles
off, and was probably much more ; 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 Sikkim to Lhassa, and is considered very lofty,
from affecting the breathing.

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. Both Dr. Campbell
and I made repeated estimates of their height and dis-
tance by the eye ; comparing their size and snow-level
with those of the mountains near us, and assuming
4000 to 5000 feet as the minimum height of their
snowy cap, this would give them an elevation of 23,000
to 25,000 feet. An excellent telescope brought out no

174

TIBET.

Chap. XXIV.

features on their flanks not visible to the naked eye,
and by the most careful levellings with the theodolite,
they were depressed 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 he described, nor the
clearness and precision with which the most distant
objects are projected against the sky. From having
afterwards measured peaks 210 miles distant from the
Khasia mountains, I feel sure that I underrated the
estimates made at Bhomtso, and I have no hesitation
in saying, that the mean elevation of the sparingly-
snowed* watershed between the Yarn and Arun will be
found to he 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 moun-
tains, towards the Nepal frontier, at Tingri Maidan.
No part of that watershed perhaps rises so high as
24,000 feet, hut 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

* Were the snow-level in this part of Tibet country as low as it is in
Sikkim, the whole from Donkia almost to the Yaru-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 9000 feet elevation, it is difficult to
avoid the conclusion that such a state of things once existed, and that at a
geologically very recent period.

Oct. 1849. DINGCHAM PROVINCE, ELEVATION OF.

175

skirts the frontier of Sikkim, Bhotan, and Nepal. It
gives rise to all the Himalayan rivers, and its mean
elevation is probably 15,000 feet : its general appear-
ance, as seen from greater heights, is that of a much
less mountainous country than the snowy and wet
Himalayan regions ; this is because its mean elevation
is so enormous, that ranges of 20,000 to 22,000 feet
appeal’ low and insignificant upon it. The absence of
forest and other obstructions to the view, the breadth
and flatness of the valleys, and the undulating cha-
racter of the lower ranges that traverse its surface,
give it a comparatively level appearance, and suggest
the term “ 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 3000 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 6000, and even 9000 feet, are met
with in passing from valley to valley, sometimes in one
day’s march.

The swarthy races of Dingcham are an honest,
hospitable, and very hardy people, differing from the
northern Tibetans chiefly in colour, and in invariably
wearing the pigtail, which MM. Hue and Gahet assure
us is not usual in Lhassa.* They are a pastoral race,

* 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 avoid temptation. The custom is common enough, but the

176

TIBET.

Chap. XXIV.

and Campbell saw a flock of 400 hornless sheep,
grazing on short sedges 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 wras painted red.

There is neither tree nor shrub in this country ;
and, with the exception of a very little wheat (which
seldom ripens), and occasionally peas, barley, turnips,
and radishes are, I believe, the only crops. Other
legumes, cabbages, &c., are cultivated in the sheltered
valleys of the Yarn 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 valu-
able exports to Sikkim from the latter city, next to 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.

Digarchi, Jigatzi (or Shigatzi-jong, the fort of
Shigatzi), is the capital of the “ Tsang ” province, and
Teshoo Loombo is the neighbouring city of temples
and monasteries, the ecclesiastical capital of Tibet,

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 naively remarked, when questioned on
the subject, “the Tibetan women are not so different from those of other
countries as to wish to conceal what charms they possess.”

Oct. 1849.

YARU RIVER.

177

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 the most honoured
being living in the world.

Of the Yarn 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 assume its elevation there to be 18 —
14,000 feet ; it approaches the Nepal frontier west of
Tingri, and sweeping to the northward 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
enquiries 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 testimony of the

178

TIBET.

Chap. XXIY.

Assamese, that the Dihong is the Yarn, on its southern
course to become the Burrampooter, renders this point
as conclusively settled as any resting on mere oral
evidence is likely to he.

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 ( Cara -
gana ), is said to grow there. The Bactrian 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 remarkable fact, that there are two tame elephants
near the latter city, kept by the Teshoo Lama. They
were taken thither through Bhotan ; and I have been
informed that they have become clothed with long hair,
owing to the cold of the climate ; hut 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.

A kind of wild ass, the Equus Hemionus of Pallas,
the untameable Kiang of Tibet, abounds in Dingcliam,
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 Iviang-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, hut is undoubtedly the same
as the Siberian animal.

No village or house is seen throughout the extensive

Oct. 1849.

TIBET ANIMALS. FALSE SUNSET.

179

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. The wild ass grazing with 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 Tar-
tarian 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 ; while the
kite and raven wheel through the air, with as 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, long black Y-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 Yarn to the Ganges,
over 500 miles of space, and through 22,000 feet of
elevation. One plant alone, a yellow lichen ( Borrera ),
is found at this height, and that only as a visitor ;
for, Tartar-like, it migrates 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.

Every night that we spent in Tibet, we enjoyed a
magnificent display of sunbeams converging to the
east, and making a false sun-set. 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 remained from

180

TIBET.

Chap. XXIV.

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. Before leaving I removed a thermometer
sunk three feet in the gravelly soil, which showed
a temperature of 43°, which is 12|° above the mean
temperature of the two days we camped here.

This accumulated heat in the upper strata of soil
must have a very powerful effect upon vegetation,
preventing the delicate rootlets of shrubs from becoming
frozen, and preserving vitality in the more fleshy roots,
such as those of the large rhubarbs and small orchids,
whose spongy cellular tissues would, no doubt, be
ruptured by severe frosts. To the burrowing rodents,
the hares, marmots, and rats, which abound at 15,000
to 17,000 feet in Tibet, this phenomenon is even more
conspicuously important ; for were the soil in winter to
acquire the mean temperature of the air, it would take
very long to heat after the melting of the snow, and
indeed the latter phenomenon would be greatly re-
tarded. The rapid development of vegetation after the
disappearance of the snow, is no doubt also proximately
due to the heat of the soil, quite as much as to the
increased strength of the sun’s direct rays in lofty

regions.

Oct. 1849.

SECOND ASCENT OF BHOMTSO.

181

This result, which at first sight appears anomalous,
is in accordance with what I have observed elsewhere,
namely that the mean temperature of the soil in India,
at two or three feet depth, is almost throughout the
year above that of the surrounding atmosphere.

Our fires wTere made of dry yak droppings, which
soon burn 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 Cliolamoo lake,
we re-ascended Bhomsto, to verify my observations.
As on the previous occasion, a violent dry north-west
wind blew, peeling the skin from our faces, loading the
air 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 ex-
tremely, and in crowding round me, they broke my
azimuth compass. They left us to ourselves when the

182

TIBET.

Chap. XXIV.

fire I made to boil the thermometers went out, the
wind being intensely cold. I had given my barometer
to one of Campbell’s men to carry, who not coming up,
the latter 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.

We descended in the afternoon, and 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 disappointed, and as it was freezing hard, we
began to be anxious, and shouted till the echos of our
voices against the opposite bank were heard by
Tcliebu 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.
A cold wind descended from Donkia ; yet, though
more elevated than Yeumtso, the climate of Cholamoo,
from being damper and misty, was milder.

The coolies of Dr. Campbell’s party were com-
pletely 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 Kinchin -
jliow for the recovery of a stout Lepclia lad 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

Oct. 1849.

ASCENT OF DONKIA.

183

calomel and jalap, which we poured down the sick
lad’s throat, contributed materially to the success of
these incantations.

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 inflam-
mations ; 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.

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 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 Cliolamoo
lake. A few rocks projected at the very summit, with
frozen snow amongst them, beyond which the ice and

184

TIBET.

Chap. XXIV.

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, over
upwards of a thousand feet of debris, the blocks
on which were so loosely poised on one another, that it
was necessary to proceed with the utmost circumspec-
tion, 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 debris (which was upwards of 2000
feet high), and may account for the otherwise unex-
plained phenomenon of continuous shoots of angular
rocks reposing on very gentle slopes in other places.

The north ascent to the Donkia pass is by a path
well selected amongst immense angular masses of
rock, and over vast piles of debris. I arrived at the
top at 3 p.m., thoroughly fatigued, and found two of
my faithful Lepcha lads nestling under a rock with my
theodolite and barometers, 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

Oct. 1849.

MOMAY. AUTUMNAL VEGETATION.

185

my bags 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 hi 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
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.

We descended to Yeumtong in a cold drizzle,
arriving by sunset and 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
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 to 15,000 feet),
at Yeumtong (12,000 feet) green and unripe ; and
2000 feet lower still, at Laclioong, the contrast was
even more marked. Thus the short backward spring
and summer of the Arctic zone are overtaken by an

186

YEUMTONG.

C^ap. XXIV.

early and forward seed-time : so far as regards the
effects of mean temperature, the warmer station is
in autumn more backward than the colder. This is
everywhere recognisable in all natural orders, some
of which I have on the same day gathered in ripe
fruit at 13,000 feet, and found still in flowTer at 9000
feet. The brighter skies and more powerful and fre-
quent solar radiation at the greater elevations, account
for this apparent inversion of the order of nature.

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 country. Viburnum and
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 are eatable
and agreeable ; as are those of a Gualtheria, which
are pale blue. Except these, and the cherry, 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 Laclioong 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 slaughtered it with arrows, and feasted
on the flesh and entrails, singed and fried the skin,

Oct. 1849. ABSENCE OF SALMON IN INDIAN RIVERS.

187

and made soup of tlie bones, leaving nothing but the
horns and hoofs. Having a fine day, they prepared
some as jerked meat, cutting it into thin strips, which
they dried on the rocks. This is a very common and
favourite food in Tibet, and 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.

Raw, dried, and 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 inhabit any of the rivers
that debouche into the Indian Ocean (the so-called
Himalayan trout is a species of carp). This widely
distributed natural order of fish (Salmonidce) is
however, found in the Oxus, and in all the rivers of
central Asia that flow north and west. 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 debouche,
is no doubt the proximate cause of the absence of
Salmonidce.

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

188

LACHOONG.

Chap. XXIY.

before ; the other had been 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.

I here found that I had lost a thermometer for high
temperatures, owing to a hole in the bag in which my
attendant 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
wras 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 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 instru-
ment : 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 returning 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
are generally 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 superstition, he was nevertheless a

Oct. 1849.

ARRIVE AT CHOONGTAM..

189

Lepcha, bom 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.

The villagers at Iveadom, where we slept on the
2Gth, were busy cutting the crops of millet, maize, and
Amaranthus. A girl who, on my way down the pre-
vious month, had observed my 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 Dorjiling produce. A magnificent
tree of Bucklandia, one of the most beautiful ever-
greens 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.*
Ferns and the beautiful air-plant Ccelogyne 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 fail to excite
lively and pleasing emotions ; it is the ignorant and
unfeeling 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

* 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 handsome, and so is the form of the crown.

190

CHOONGTAM.

Chap. XXIV.

noon, and took up our quarters in a good house near
the temple. The autumn and winter flowering plants
now prevailed here, such as Labiatae, 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 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 cowrie shells
for eyes, and danced uncouth figures with a kind of
heel and toe shuffle, in excellent time, to rude PTbetan
songs of his own ; for this he received ample alms,
which a little hoy collected in a wallet. These vagrants
live well upon charity ; they bless, curse, and transact
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 Tunkra, lead over
the Chola range to that part of Tibet which is inter-
posed betwen Sikkim and Bhotan. My road lay past
the Rajah’s residence, which we considered very
fortunate, as apparently affording Campbell an oppor-

Oct. 1849

START FOR EASTERN PASSES,

191

tunity of a conference with his highness, for which
both he and the Tchebu Lama were most anxious.

On our way down the Lachen-Lachoong, we found

TIBETAN PHUD.

the \ alley still flooded, 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

192

SINGTAM.

Chap. XXIV.

Sikkim, tropical forms beginning 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 Inclica.

We did not halt at Chakoong, but proceeded 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.

Bad weather, and Campbell’s correspondence with
the Sikkim officials, 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.

The great shrubby nettle ( TJrtica crenulata) is com-
mon here : this plant, called “ Mealum-ma,” has broad
glossy leaves, and though apparently without stings, is
held in so great dread,* that I had difficulty in getting
help to cut it down. I gathered many specimens with-
out allowing any part to touch my skin ; still the

* 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 gathered it with impunity on subsequent
occasions, and suspected some inaccuracy in my observations ; but in
Silhet both Dr. Thomson and I experienced the same effects in autumn.

Oct. 1849.

VIRULENT NETTLE.

193

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.

TIBETAN IMPLEMENTS.

TEA-POTS, CUP, AND BRICK OF TEA ; KNIFE, TOBACCO-PIPE (ACROSS CHOP-STICKS),

POUCH, AND FLINT-AND-STEEL.

VOL. II.

K

CHAPTER XXV.

Journey to the Rajah’s residence at Tumloong — Ryott valley — Rajah’s house
— Tupgain Lama — Lagong nunnery — Phadong Groompa — Phenzong
ditto — Lepcha Sepoys— Proceedings at Tumloong — Refused admit-
tance 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 — Cathcartia
— Phieung-goong — Rutto river — Barfonchen — Curling of rhododendron
leaf — Woodcock — Chola pass — 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 conlfuct
—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 Dorjiling.

We started on the 3rd of November for Tumloong
(or Sikkim Durbar), Dr. Campbell sending Tchebu
Lama forward with letters to announce bis approach.
A steep ascent through large Rhododendron trees led
over a sharp spur, 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 mountains, and its head girt by the beautiful
snowy range of Chola, from which silvery rills descend

Nov. 1849.

RAJAH'S RESIDENCE.

195

through black Fir-woods, dividing innumerable con-
verging cultivated spurs, and uniting about 2000 feet
below us, in a profound gorge. Houses were scattered
everywhere amidst purple crops of buck-wheat, green
fields of young wheat, yellow millet, broad green plan-
tains, and orange groves.

We crossed spur after spur, often under or over
precipices about fifteen hundred feet above the river,
proceeding eastwards till we caught sight of the Rajah’s
house. It was an irregular low stone building of
Tibetan architecture, 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 ; indeed the Rajah’s
canopy at Tumloong is probably 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 overlooking 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

196

RYOTT VALLEY.

Chap. XXV.

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 om.” On this side was a similar
spur, on which the gilded pinnacles and copper canopy
of the Phadong * 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 little bamboo wattle hats 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. Crowds came
to see us, and many brought presents, with which we
were overwhelmed; hut 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 pro-
cure for us an audience with his highness ; who was
surrounded by his councillors, or Amlah, all of whom
were adherents of the Dewan, who was in Tibet.
Meepo, and the Tchebu Lama, who were ordered to

* Phadong means Royal, and this temple answers to a chapel royal for
the Rajah.

Nov. 1849. VISITS AND PRESENTS AT TUMLOONG,

197

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

TCHEBU LAMA.

that of the late Dewan (Ilam Sing), who implored us to
send again to announce our presence, and not to
dismiss at once the moonshie and his office,* who

* It is usual in India for Government officers when about to transact
business, to travel with a staff (called office) of native interpreters, clerks,
&c., of whom the chief is commonly called moonshie.

198

TtJMLOONG.

Chap. XXV.

had accompanied us for the purpose of a conference
with the Rajah. Their wishes were complied with,
and we waited till noon before proceeding.

A gay and animated scene was produced by the
concourse of women dressed in their pretty striped
and crossed cloaks, who 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
were loaded : she wore on her head a red tiara bedizened
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 friendship, 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 of 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
teasing their hair with cylindrical 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

* The lumps of amber forming these were larger than the fist ; they are
procured in East Tibet, probably from Birmah.

Nov. 1549.

DECORATIONS OF ORATORY.

199

lighted with latticed windows, covered with brilliant
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 chirld (or wheel with three rays,
emblematic of the Boodliist Trinity), were introduced ;
“ Om Mani Padmi om” in gilt letters, adorned the
projecting end of each 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

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 building, fitted up like a square temple, and

CLASP OF A WOMAN’S CLOAK.

200

TUMLOONG.

Chap. XXV.

was a good library of books. More presents were
brought here, and tea served.

The route to Chola pass, which crosses the range of
that name south of the Chola peak, at the head of this
valley, is across the Ryott, and then eastwards along a
lofty ridge. Campbell 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 turned back.
We were followed by a messenger, apologising and
begging me to return ; but I had already descended
1000 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
officials ; this was of course declined, but, at the same
time, Campbell expressed his readiness to receive them
at our halting place.

The Ryott flows in a very tropical gorge 2000 feet
above the sea ; whence the ascent is very steep to
Tumloong, where we took up our quarters at a rest-
house called Rungpo (alt. 0008 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. Rungpo com-
mands a most beautiful view northwards, across the
valley, of the * royal residence, temples, goompas,
hamlets, and cultivation, scattered over spurs, which are

Nov. 1849.

CONDUCT OF THE OFFICIALS.

201

studded below with tree-ferns and plantains, and backed
by black fir-woods and snowy mountains. In the
evening the officers of the court 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,
but as we declined to move, except by the Rajah’s
order, they put up in houses close by.

On the following morning the}7- met us as we were
departing for the 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, that they were busy
preparing a suitable reception, &c. ; this was all false,
and contrary to etiquette, but there was no use in
telling them so, Campbell spoke firmly and kindly
to them, and pointed out their incivility and the un-
friendly 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 High-
ness) 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 on
a very narrow flat. I had abundance of occupation in

202

EYOTT VALLEY.

Chap. XXV.

gathering rhododendron-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, grew on the ridge at 7000 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, of which
two Himalayan kinds produce similar, but less agree-
able edible fruits. At Laghep, iris was abundant, and
a small bushy berberry with oval eatable berries. The
north wall of the house (which was in a very exposed
spot) was quite bare, wdiile the south was completely
clothed with moss and weeds.

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 Cath-
cartia*

We continued, on the following morning, in an
easterly direction, up the same narrow steep ridge, to
a lofty eminence called Phieung-goong, from being
covered with the Phieung, or small bamboo. Hence
we followed an oblique descent to the bed of the
Hutto river, through thick woods of silver-fir and
rhododendron, and halted at Barfonchen, a stone
hut in the forest. Some yaks were grazing in the
vicinity, and from their herdsman we learnt that the

* 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 draw-
ings of Dorjiling plants to he made by native artists during his residence
there. Mr. Cathcart, after the expiration of his Indian service, returned
to Europe, and died at Lausanne on his way to England.

Nov. 1849.

CHOLA PASS.

203

Dewan was at Choombi, on tlie 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 Sikkim officers,
consisting of his brothers and relatives, whom he left
at Tumloong.

The night was brilliant and starlight ; the minimum
thermometer fell to 27°, a strong north-east wind blew
down the valley, and there was a thick hoar-frost, with
which the black yaks were clrolly powdered. The
broad leaves of the rhododendrons were curled, from
the expansion of the frozen fluids in the layer of cells
on the upper surface of the leaf, which is exposed to
the greatest cold of radiation. The sun restores them
a little, but as winter advances they become irre-
coverably 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 the mountains became
bleak, bare, and stony. 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 a Chinese
guard was posted in the neighbourhood, he accom-

204

RYOTT VALLEY.

Chap. XXV.

panied one of the Tibetans to see the commandant,
whilst I remained taking observations.

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 remained at
Bungpo, endeavouring to put matters on a better foot-
ing with the Sikkim officers. Wishing to see the Tibet
guard, 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 understand their
conduct, and appealed to the Tibetan sepoys, who
caused them to desist. About 1000 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. They 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 simi-
larly dressed, but his buttons were those of the 44th
Bengal Infantry. The commandant having 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

Nov. 1849.

TIBET SEPOYS. SINGTAM SOUBAH.

205

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 baro-
meter 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 showed us
the great vermilion 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 wTas 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,
wrho 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 im-
possible ; so he followed us to Chumanako, where we
proposed to pass the night.

A great party of Sikkim Blioteas had assembled
here, all strangers to me : I certainly thought the con-
course unusually large, and the previous conduct to
Campbell strange, rude, and quite unintelligible,

206

CHOLA PASS.

Chap. XXV.

especially before tlie Tibetans. But the Bhoteas
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 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. I 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

Nov. 1849.

SEIZURE OF DR. CAMPBELL.

207

intentions had been murderous, an arrow would have
been the more sure and less troublesome weapon. It
was evident that the wdiole animus was directed against
Campbell, and though at first alarmed on my own ac-
count also, all the inferences which, with the rapidity of
lightning my mind involuntarily drew, were favourable.

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 prisoner; on which he went away, leaving me
still guarded. My owTn 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

208

CHUMANAKO.

Chap. XXY.

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 Tchehu 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. This opened my eyes a good deal, for
he was known to he a right-hand man of the Dewan’s,
and had a short time before been convicted of kid-
napping a Brahmin girl from Nepal,* and had vowed
vengeance against Campbell for the duty he had
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 he near him, hut allowed me
to hang up my instruments, and arrange my collec-
tions. 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 he
greatly ashamed of the whole affair, that Tchebu
Lama was equally a prisoner, and that the grievances

* This act, as I have mentioned, 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.

Nov. 1849.

MOTIVES FOR THE OUTRAGE.

209

against Campbell were of a political nature, but what
they were they did not know.

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 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 performed 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. Campbell answered,
that if they continued torturing him (which was done
by twisting the cords round his wrists by a bamboo -
wrench), he might say or do anything, but that his

* This was the other man sent with us to Mainom, by the Dewan, in the
previous December.

210

CHUMANAKO.

Chap. XXV.

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, enquiring why he had refused to receive the
Lassoo Kajee as Vakeel, &c. 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
Dorjiling, 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 Dingpun, who had exceeded their orders
in laying hands on me, both wished me away. My
course was, however, clear as to the propriety of

Nov. 1849.

VISIT OF TCHEBU LAMA.

211

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 officials by
a refusal to accede to their dictates, in which case his
life might be the forfeit. As to himself, the opposite
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 was looking
stout and confident.

I may here mention that seizing the representative
of a neighbouring 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 1837, by the Bhotanese, under the
instructions of the Paro Pilo, who waylaid the Sikkim

212

CHUMANAKO.

Chap. XXV.

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 had 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 November,
were, I suspect, originally sent for the purpose ; and I
think that the officials who followed us to Rungpo
had the same 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. Meanwhile, the Dewan being in Tibet,
and knowing that we were about to visit the frontier,
for which I had full permission and an 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

* 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 govern-
ment, 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

Nov. 1849.

TREATMENT OF DR. CAMPBELL.

213

endeavouring to extort a 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 before 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 remonstrated
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 indignity, and obliged

unable to transact all bis affairs ; that the mischief had arisen out of the
acts and ignorance of others ; and finally he 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 vehemently
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 he taken with a rope I’ound your neck
to Pekin, there to undergo the just punishment of your offence under the
sentence of the mighty Emperor.”

214

TUMLOONG.

Chap. XXY.

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
prisoner was confined in another at some distance to
the eastward, a stone’s throw below the Raj all’s ; and
thrust into a little cage -like room. I was soon visited
by an old Lama, who assured me that we were both
perfectly safe, but that there wrere 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 detention. 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 Dorjiling. He returned in the
evening to tell me that Campbell’s men (with the
exception only of those who were natives of Nepal*)

* These people stood in far greater fear of the Nepalese than of the
English, and the reason is obvious : the former allow no infraction of their
treaties to pass unnoticed, whereas we had permitted every article of our
treaty to be contravened.

Nov. 1849. SINGrTAM SOUBAH’S FA11EWELL VISIT.

215

had been seized because they were runaway slaves
from Sikkim ; but that I need not alarm myself, for
mine should be untouched.

The but 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
Dorjiling.

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 be
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 bad staked bis last,
and lost it, when be undertook to seize the agent of
the most powerful government in the east, and to
reduce him to the condition of a tool of the Dewan.
Despite the many obstructions be bad placed in my
way, we had not fallen out since July ; we had been
constant companions, and though at issue, never at
enmity. I bad 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

216

TUMLOONGf.

Chap. XXV.

grudge for that, knowing the Rajah’s impotence as
compared with the power of the Dewan whom he
served; and, in common with all his party, presuming
on the unwillingness 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 Chinese 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, amongst an immense crowd of Lamas, men,
women, and children.

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 attendant,
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,

Nov. 1849.

INTERVIEW WITH THE AMLAH.

217

upon which I declined entering ; hut 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 treaty between the Rajah and
the Indian government. They told me they had sent
these proposals to the government through Dorjiling, t
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 preferring to accompany my friend, they had
allowed me to do so, and that I might now either join

* They were prompted to demand this by an unfortunate oversight that
had occurred at Calcutta some years before. Representatives of the Sikkim
court repaired to that capital, and though unaccredited by the Governor -
General’s agent at Dorjiling, were (in the absence of the Governor-General)
received by the president of the council in open court. The effect was of
course to reduce the Governor-General’s agent at Dorjiling to a cipher.

f These letters had arrived at Dorjiling; 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 at Tumloong till
answers were received, and the facts of our capture and imprisonment
consequently remained unknown for several weeks.

VOL. II.

L

218

TUMLOONG-.

Chap. XXY.

him, or continue to live in my tent : of course I joyfully
accepted the former proposal. After being refused
permission to send a letter to Dorjiling, 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 conference 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 cliaits 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 dark room with a small
window, and a fire in the middle on a stone ; we slept
in a 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 Dorjiling. On the
contrary they were all registered as British subjects,
and had during my travels been recognised as such by
the Rajah and all the authorities. Three times the

Nov. 1849.

PANIC AT DORJILINGr.

219

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 Dorjiling, and possibly a feeling of
irritation 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. Camp-
bell greatly feared that they would threaten Dorjiling
with a night attack,* as we heard that theLassoo Kajee
was stationed at Namtchi with a party for that purpose,
and all communication cut off, except through him.

* Threats of sacking Dorjiling had on several previous occasions been
made by the Dewan, to the too great alarm of tbe 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 re-
peatedly 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 for a week, there or in Sikkim.
Such reports unfortunately spread a panic in Dorjiling : the guards were
called in from all the outposts, and the ladies huddled into one house,
whilst the men stood on the defensive ; to the great amusement of the
officials at Tumloong, whose insolence to us increased proportionally.

CHAPTER XXYI.

Dr. Campbell is ordered to appear at Durbar — Lamas called to council —
Threats— Scarcity of food — Arrival of Dewan — Our jailor, Thoba-sing
— Temperature, &c., at Tumloong — Services of Groompas — Lepcha girl
— Jews’-harp — Terror of servants — Ilam-sing’s family — Interview
with Dewan — Remonstrances — Dewan feigns sickness — Lord Dalhou-
sie’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
Dorjiling — Leave Tumloong — Cordial farewell — Dewan’ s merchandise
— Grangtok Kajee — Dewan’s pomp — Grovernor-Greneral’s letter —
Dikkeeling — Suspicion of poison — Dinner and pills — Tobacco — Bho-
tanese colony — Katong-ghat on Teesta — Wild lemons — Sepoy’s inso-
lence— Dewan alarmed — View of Dorjiling — Threats of a rescue—
Fears of our escape — Tibet flutes — Negotiate our release — Arrival at
Dorjiling — Dr. Thomson joins me — Movement of troops at Dorjiling —
Seizure of Rajah’s Terai property.

Since liis confinement, Dr. Campbell bad been
desired to attend the Durbar for the purpose of trans-
acting 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 useless, but he might be exposed to further
insult, or possibly violence.

On the 15th of November we were informed that the

Nov. 1849.

LAMAS CALLED TO COUNCIL.

221

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 sum-
moned 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 Dorjiling,
and sent spies of all kinds to offer us facilities for
secret correspondence. The simplicity and clumsiness
with which these artifices were attempted would have
been ludicrous under other circumstances ; while the
threat of murdering Campbell only alarmed us mas-
much as it came from people too stupid to be trusted.
We made out that all Sikkim people were excluded
from Dorjiling, and the officials consequently could not
conceal their anxiety to know what had befallen their
letters to government.

Meanwhile we were but scantily fed, and our im-
prisoned 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,* and
were daily reduced in number. The supplies of rice

* The Rajah has no standing army ; not even a body-gnard, 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 barely enough for its own wants ; 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.

222 TUMLOONG. Chap. XXYI.

from the Terai, beyond Dorjiling, were cut off by the
interruption of communication, and the authorities
evidently could not bold us long at this rate : we sent
up complaints, but of course received no answer.

The Dewan arrived one afternoon in great state,

rajah’s residence, and the hut assigned to us. arrival of the dewan.

carried in an English chair, given him by Campbell
some years before, habited in a blue silk cloak bned
with lambskin, and wearing an enormous straw bat
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

Nov. 1849.

ARRIVAL OF THE DEWAN.

223

boots, and sat astride on ponies; many Lamas were
also with him, one of whom wore a broad Chinese
hat covered with polished copper foil. Half a dozen
Sepoys with matchlocks preceded him, and on ap-
proaching Tumloong bawled out his titles, dignities,
&c., as was formerly the custom in England.

At Dorjiling 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 exception of Tchebu Lama, was
the only Bhotea about the Durbar who could speak
Hindostanee, and who did it very imperfectly : he was
our attendant and spy, the most bare-faced 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 he was
selected for that reason, but solely from his possessing
a few words of Hindostanee, and his presumed capa-
bility of therefore playing the spy.

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 meteoro-
logical register, and by reducing many of my previous

224

TUMLOONG.

Chap. XXVI.

observations. Each morning we were awakened at
daybreak by the prolonged echos 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,

T1 BET-PIPE, AND TINDER-POUCH WITH STEEL ATTACHED.

which I smoked out of a Tibetan brass pipe, I wiled
away the long evenings, whilst my cheerful companion

* This instrument (which is common in Tibet) is identical with the
European, except that the tongue is produced behind the how, in a strong
steel spike, by which the instrument is held firmer to the mouth.

Nov. 1849.

TERROR OF OUR SERVANTS.

225

amused, himself with an old harmonicon, to the en-
chantment of Dolly and our guards and neighbours.

The messengers from Dorjiling were kept in utter
ignorance of our confinement till their arrival at Tum-
loong, 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 upon our minds ; especially
as Thoba-sing had coolly suggested to the Amlah the
despatching of Campbell, as the shortest way of getting
out of the scrape ! We were also ignorant whether
any steps were being taken at Dorjiling 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.

* 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 constantly 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, i.e ., 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.

226

TUMLOONG.

Chap. XXYI.

So long as onr 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 by night, espe-
cially 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 hy 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 Dorjiling, and
the British subjects billetted off amongst the villagers,
and variously employed by the Dewan : one lad was
set to collect the long leaves of a plant which yield
a sweet juice, and were chopped up and mixed with
tobacco for the Dewan’s hookah.

November 2 Oth. — The Dewan, we heard this day,
ignored all the late proceedings, professing to be en-
raged with his brother and the officials, and refusing to
meddle in the matter. This was no doubt a pretence :
we had sent repeatedly for an explanation with himself
or the Bajah, from which he excused himself on the
plea of ill health, till this day, when he apprized 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

Nov. 1849.

CONFERENCE WITH THE DEW AN.

227

been present at my previous examination. Tcliebu
Lama’s brother was also there, as a member of the
court, lately taken into favour ; while Tchebu him-
self 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 Campbell to state his reasons for having
desired these interviews. Neither he nor the Sikkim
officers 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 Govern-
ment. 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. He, however, con-
fined 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 conse-
quences of a war, for which they had no preparation
of any kind. 4. The impossibility of the supreme

228

TUMLOONG.

Chap. XXVI.

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 imprison-
ment, and that the original violence being all a
mistake, it should be overlooked by both parties. We
parted on good terms, and heard shortly after the
second conference that our release was promised and
arranged : when a communication * from Dorjiling
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 the Governor- General, 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- civilized Indo-
Chinese, who measure power by the firmness of tone
adopted towards them ; and who, whether in Sikkim,

* I need scarcely say that every step was taken at Dorjiling for our
release that the most anxious solicitude for our safety could suggest ; hut
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 Dorjiling, or a very different line of policy would have been pursued.

Nov. 1849.

CONTINUED SUSPENSE.

229

Birmah, Siam, Bhotan, or China, have too long been
accustomed to see every article of our treaties con-
travened, with no worse consequences than a protest or
threat, which is never carried into execution till some
fatal step calls forth the dormant power of the British
Government.*

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 hath, 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 for 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 Banee sent
me some tobacco, and to Campbell brown sugar and
Murwa beer. The blacksmiths, who had been osten-
tatiously making long knives at the forge hard by,
were dismissed ; troops were said to be arriving at

* 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 he 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 demanding respect, and the punctilious enforce-
ment of even the most trifling terms in the treaties it makes with Indo-
Chinese.

230

TUMLOONGr.

Chap. XXVI.

Dorjiling, and a letter sternly demanding our release
was received.

The Lamas of Pemiongchi, Changachelling, Tassi-
ding, &c., and the Dewan’s enemies, and Tchebu
Lama’s friends, began to flock from all quarters to
Tumloong, demanding audience of the Eajah, 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, contri-
buted 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 Dorji-
ling ! Many similar trifles showed that these people
had not a conception of the nature of their position,
nor of that of an officer of the British Government.

The Tchebu Lama visited us only once, and then
under surveillance ; he renewed his professions of
good faith, and we had every reason to know that he
had suffered severely for his adherence to us, and con-
sistent repudiation of the Amlah’s conduct : he was in
great favour with his brother Lamas, but was not
allowed to see the Kajah, who was said to trust to him
alone of all his counsellors. He told us that peremp-
tory 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 Dorjiling in small parties, charged
to say that we were free, and following them.

Dec. 1849. INTERCESSION OF PEMIONGCHI LAMA.

231

The weather continued rainy and bad, with occasion-
ally 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 disagreeably
watched. Campbell was very unwell, and we had no
medicine ; and as the Dewan, accustomed to such
duplicity himself, naturally took this for a ruse , and
refused to allow us to send to Dorjiling for any, we
were more than ever convinced that his own sickness
was simulated.

On the 2nd and 3rd December we had further con-
ferences with the Dewan, who said that we were to be
taken to Dorjiling in six days, with two Vakeels from
the Kajah. The Pemiongchi Lama, as the oldest and
most venerated in Sikkim, attended, and addressed
Campbell in a speech of great feeling and truth.
Having heard, he said, of these unfortunate circum-
stances 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 Bajah, which he hoped would be followed. Since
Sikkim had been connected with the British rule, they
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

232

TUMLOONG.

Chap. XXYI.

an opposite course in future ; but that lie 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 un-
dignified 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 cany on Campbell’s
duties, which had alarmed him exceedingly. The
Bajah, 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 heen 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 (emblems of
peace and friendship) were thrown over our shoulders,
and we went away, still doubtful, after so many dis-
appointments, whether we should really be set at
liberty at the stated period.

Although there was so much talk about our leaving,
our confinement 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

Dec. 1849.

REMOVAL FROM TUMLOONG.

233

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 Be wan was inveterate : * he, however, managed soon
afterwards to break 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 Dorjiling 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 similar 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 what-
ever he wished ! ” These friendly messages were
probably evoked by the information that an English
regiment, with three guns, was on its way to Dor-
jiling, and that 300 Sepoys had already arrived
there. The government of Bengal sending another
agent was also a contingency they had not anti-

* The Sikkim people are always at issue with the Bhotanese. Nimbo
was a runaway slave of the latter country, who had been received into
Sikkim, and retained there until he took up his quarters at Dorjiling.

234

TUMLOONG.

Chap. XXVI.

cipated, 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 Dorjiling; 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 chale and some gloves, accompanying
them with a present of white silk, &c., for Mrs. Campbell,
to whom the commission was intrusted : a singular in-
stance 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 had during our captivity.
We left at noon, descending the hill through an enor-
mous crowd of people, who brought farewell 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 Dorjiling
and the Titalya fair ! His impudence or stupidity was
thus quite inexplicable ; treating us as prisoners, ignoring
every demand of the authorities at Dorjiling, of the
Supreme Council of Calcutta, and of the Governor-
General himself ; and at the same time acting as if he
were to enter the British territories on the most
friendly and advantageous footing for himself 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, hut we were not

Dec. 1849.

BEHAVIOUR OF THE DEW AN.

235

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 onwards he gave us mules or
ponies to ride. On the following day we crossed a high
ridge from the Ryott valley to that of the Rungmi ; where
wre camped at Tikbotang, and on the 11th at Gangtok
Sampoo, a few miles lower down the same valley.

We wrere 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
Tcliebu Lama, an amber robe in polite Tibetan society
being sacred to royalty and the Lamas. We every-
where 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 w^ere 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, at the bottom of a hot
valley full of irrigated rice-crops and plantain and
orange -groves. Here the Gangtok Kajee waited on us

236

DIKKEELING.

Chap. XXYI.

with a handsome present, and informed ns privately of
his cordial hatred of the “ upstart Dewan,” and hopes
for his overthrow ; a demonstration of which we took
no notice. The De wan’s brother (one of the Amlah)
also sent a large present, but was ashamed to appear.
Another letter reached the Dewan here, directed to the
Rajah ; it was from the Governor- General 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 incessantly urging the Dewan to
hasten us onwards as free men to Dorjiling, but the
latter took all remonstrances with assumed coolness,
exercised his ponies, played at bow and arrow, intruded
on us at meal-times to be invited to partake, and
loitered on the road, changing garments and hats,
which he pestered us to buy. Nevertheless, he was
evidently becoming daily more nervous and agitated.

From the Rungmi valley we crossed on the 14th
southward to that of Rimniok, and descended to
Dikkeeling, a large village of Bhotanese, which is
much the most populous, industrious, and at the same
tune turbulent in Sikkim. This district once belonged
to Bhotan, and was ceded to the Sikkim Rajah by the
Paro Pilo,* in consideration of some military services,
rendered by the former in driving off the Tibetans,
who had usurped it for the authorities of Lliassa.
Since then the Sikkim and Bhotan people have

* The temporal sovereign, in contra-distinction to the Dhurcna Eajah,
or spiritual sovereign of Bhotan.

Dec. 1849.

DINNER WITH THE DEWAN.

237

repeatedly fallen out, and Dikkeeling has become a
refuge for runaway Bhotanese, and kidnapping is
constantly practised on this frontier.

The Bhotanese are more industrious than the Lep-
chas, 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, treddle, or shuttle.

The Dewan halted us here for three days, for no
assigned cause. On the 16th, letters arrived, including
a most kind and encouraging one from Mr. Lusliington,
who had taken charge of Campbell’s office at Dorjiling.
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 have felt a malicious
pleasure in the opportunity 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

238

TEESTA RIVER.

Chap. XXVI.

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 beche-cle-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
depositing it before us. Sometimes he undertook to
praise its contents, always adding, that in Tibet none
but very great men indeed partook of such 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 discomforts 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 Rimbochay 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

Dec. 1849.

ARRIVE AT KATONGr GHAT.

239

tlie best grace I could. But in truth, it was not
poison I dreaded in its contents, so much as being
compounded of some very questionable materials, such
as the Kimbochay Lama blesses and dispenses far and
wide. To swallow such is a sanctifying work, accord-
ing to Boodhist superstition, and I believe there was
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, made from Nieotiana
rustica, which is cultivated in East Tibet, and in West
China. 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 is
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.
Bice at Lhassa, when cheap, sells at 2s. for 5 lbs. ; it
is all bought up for rations for the Chinese soldiery.

On the 18th we were marched three miles only, and
on the following day five miles farther, to Katong Ghat
on the Teesta river, which we crossed with rafts, and
camped on the opposite bank, a few miles above its
junction with the Great Bungeet. The water, which
is sea-green in colour, had a temperature of 53g°; its
current was very powerful. The climate was hot, and
the vegetation on the banks tropical; on the hills
around, lemon - bushes were abundant, apparently
growing wild.

The Dewan was now getting into a very nervous and

240

TENDONG.

Chap. XXVI.

depressed state : he was determined to keep np
appearances before his followers, hut was almost
servile to us ; he caused his men to make a parade of
their arms, as if to intimidate us, and in descending
narrow gulleys 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, where we halted
two days. The Dingpun Tinli lived near, and waited
on us with a present, which, with all others that had
been brought, Campbell received officially, and trans*
ferred to the authorities at Dorjiling.

The Dewan was thoroughly alarmed at the news
here brought in, that the Rajah’s present of yaks,
ponies, &c., which had been sent forward, had been
refused at Dorjiling ; and equally so at the clamorous
messages which reached him from all quarters, de-
manding our liberation ; and at the desertion of some
of his followers, on hearing that large bodies of troops
were assembling at Dorjiling. 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,

Dec. 1849.

ALARM OF THE DEWAN.

241

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.

On the 22nd of December he marched us eight
miles further, to Cheadam, on a bold spur, overlooking
the Great Rungeet, and facing Dorjiling, from which it
is 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
Dorjiling, 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,
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, though the
Dewan still clung to his merchandise and the feeble
hope of traffic. The confusion increased daily, but

* 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, in the illustration
on the next page. A somewhat similar hat is worn by some classes of
Nepal soldiery.

VOL. II.

M

242

GREAT RUNGEET VALLEY

Chap. XXVI

though Tchebu Lama looked brisk and confident, we
were extremely anxious ; scouts were hourly arriving
from the road to the Great Kungeet, and if our troops

LEPCHA SEPOYS. TIBETAN SEPOYS IN THE BACK-GKOUND.

had advanced, the Dewan might have made away with
us from pure fear.

One morning 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 believe he intended
for Campbell, but his avarice got the better, and
he commuted his gift into the offer of a tune, and

Dec. 1849. FEAR OF THE DEWAN. REMONSTRANCE.

243

pitching it in a high key, he went through a Tibetan
air that almost deafened us by its screech. He tried
bravely to maintain his equanimity, hut as we preserved
a frigid civility, and only spoke wrhen addressed, the
tears would start from his eyes in the pauses of con-
versation. In the evening he came again; he was
excessively agitated and covered with perspiration, and
thrust himself unceremoniously between us on the
bench we occupied. As his familiarity increased, he
put his arm round my neck, and since he was armed
with a small dagger, I felt rather uneasy about his in-
tentions, 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 Tchebu Lama, his own younger
brother (who was his pony-driver), and the Lassoo
Kajee ; who had for two months placed himself in an
attitude of hostility opposite Dorjiling, with a ragged
company of followers, but now sought peace and
friendship 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. Camp-
bell 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
Poojali (religious festival) of Christmas, when we all

244

DORJILING.

Chap. XXVI.

met ; whereas he and his countrymen 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 Dorjiling, which was
swarming with English soldiers, all in a state of ex-
asperation, and if he did not let us depart before
Christmas, he would find Dorjiling 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.

We arrived at the cane bridge over the Great Kun-
geet at 4 p.m., and to our chagrin found it in the
possession of a posse of ragged Bhoteas, though there
were thirty armed Sepoys of our own at the guard-house
on the opposite bank. 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 at once to Dorjiling,
and I arrived at 8 p.m. at Hodgson’s house, where I was
taken for a ghost, and received with shouts of welcome

Deo. 1849.

KELEASE. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS.

245

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 expectations, though my
collections had been in a great measure destroyed by
so many untoward events. It 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 Government should all
along have possessed, as the protector of tire 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 Chea-
dam to Namtchi, immediately opposite Dorjiling, 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 Dorjiling, on pain of an army march-
ing to Tumloong to enforce the demand ; a step which
would have been easy, as there were neither troops,
arms, ammunition, nor other means of resistance, 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 them ruler.

246

DORJILINGr.

Chap. XXVI.

The Bajah expressed his willingness, hut pleaded
his inability to fulfil the demand, whereupon the threat
was repeated, and additional reinforcements were moved
to Dorjiling. The general officer in command at
Dinapore was ordered to Dorjiling to conduct opera-
tions : 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 Dorjiling,
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 Bajah’s aid, and the Nepalese *
taking the opportunity to attack us. With the latter
we were in profound peace, and we had a resident at
their court ; and I have elsewhere shown the impossi-
bility of a Tibet invasion, even if the Chinese or
Lhassan authorities were inclined to interfere in the
affairs of Sikkim, which they long ago formally de-
clined doing in the case of aggressions of the Nepalese
and Bhotanese ; the Sikkim Bajah being under British
protection.

There were not wanting offers of leading a company
of soldiers to Tumloong, rather than that the threat
should have twice been made, and then withdrawn ;
but they were not accepted. A large body of troops
was however marched from Dorjiling, and encamped on

* 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 want Sikkim and Bhotan too, and we had undertaken the
protection of the former country, mainly to keep the Nepalese out of it.

Jan. 1850.

•PUNISHMENT OF OFFENDERS.

247

the north bank of the Great Rungeet for some weeks ;
but after that period they were recalled without any
further demonstration ; the Dewan remaining en-
camped 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 continued to do so had they proceeded to Turn-
loong, 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
policemen 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 an-
nexed to 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 annual grant of T300 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

248

DORJILING.

Chap. XXYI.

Bhotan, if not in Sikkim itself : especially if, at the
Bajah’s death, the British government should refuse
to take the country under their protection. The
Singtam Soubah and the other culprits live disgraced
at their homes. Tchehu Lama has received a hand-
some reward, and a grant of land at Dorjiling, where
he resides, and whence he sends me his salaams by
every opportunity.

dewan’s ear-king.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Leave Dorjiling for Calcutta — Jung Bahadoor — Dr. Falconer — Improve-
ments in Botanic Gardens — Palmetum — Victoria — Amherstia —
Orchids spread by seed — -Banyan — Importation of American plants in
ice — Return to Dorjiling — Leave with Dr. Thomson for the Khasia
mountains — Mahanuddee river — Vegetation of banks — Maldah —
Alligators — Rampore-Beauleah — Climate of Ganges — Pubna — J ummul
river — Altered course of Burrampooter and Megna — Dacca — Conch-
shells — Saws — Cotton muslins — Fruit — Vegetation — Rose of Bengal —
Burrampooter — Delta of Soormah river — Jheels — Soil — Vegetation —
Navigation — Mosquitos — Effects of geological changes— Imbedding of
plants — Teelas or islets — Chattuc — Salubrious climate — Rains —
Canoes — Pundua — Terrya Ghat — Ascent to Churra — Scenery and
vegetation at foot of mountains — Cascades.

I was chiefly occupied during January and February
of 1850, in arranging and transmitting my collections
to Calcutta, and in completing 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 inac-
cessible to Europeans ; and we therefore turned our
thoughts to Nepal, and, failing that, to the Khasia
mountains.

The better to expedite our arrangements I made a

250

CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDENS. Chap. XXVII.

trip to Calcutta in March, where I expected to meet
both Lord Dalhousie, 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
Dorjiling 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 he answerable for my
personal safety when travelling diuing his absence ;
and he referred to the permission he had formerly
given me (and such was never before accorded to any
European) in earnest of his disposition, which was
unaltered. I therefore made up my mind to spend the
season of 1850 in the Kliasia 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, had
necessitated the replanting of the greater part of the
grounds, the obliteration of old wralks, and the con-
struction 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

BOTANIC GARDENS,

252

CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDENS. Chap. XXVII.

attended with great expense, crippled the resources of
the garden library, and other valuable adjuncts ; for
the trees which were planted for the purpose having
been felled and sold, it became necessary to buy timber
at an exorbitant price.

The avenue of Sago-palms, once the admiration 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 1847, when I first visited the establish-
ment, nothing was to be seen of its former 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, however, 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 re-
placed the narrow winding paths that ran in distorted
lines over the ground, and a large Palmetum, or col-
lection 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

March, 1850.

AMHERSTIA TREE. BANYAN.

253

study to the botanist, painter, and landscape-gardener.
This consists of groups of all kinds of bamboos,
tufted growing palms, rattan-canes, plantains, screw-
pines, and similar genera of tropical monocotyle-
donous plants. All are evergreens of the 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 their stems, every branch of
which is crowned with an enormous plume of grass -
like leaves.*

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. Some fine Orchids were in flower in
the gardens, hut few of them fruit ; some appear to he
spread by birds amongst the trees ; but the different
species of Vanda are increasing so fast, that there
seems no doubt that this tribe of air-plants grows
freely from seed in a wild state, though we generally
fail to rear them thus in England.

The great Banyan tree is still the pride and orna-

* Since I left India, these improvements have been still further carried
out, and I have since heard 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 Phoenix paludosa.

254

CALCUTTA BOTANIC CARDENS. Chap. XXYII.

ment of the garden .* Dr. Falconer has ascertained
satisfactorily 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 wild Date-palm, out of whose crown the Banyan
sprouted, and beneath which a Fakir sat. It is a
remarkable fact that the banyan seed rarely 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
on Dr. Falconer’s arrival there were 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

* 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 un-
covered : its increase was proceeding so rapidly, that by this time it could
probably cover the whole. Large banyans are common in Bengal; but
few are so symmetrical as this 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.

April, 1850.

PLANTS IMPORTED IN ICE.

255

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.

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. 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.

I returned to Dorjiling on the 17th of April, and
Dr. Thomson and I commenced our arrangements for
proceeding to the Kliasia mountains. We started on

* The ice from these ships is sold in the Calcutta market for a penny a
pound, to great profit ; it has always proved an invaluable remedy in cases
of inflammation and fever, and has diminished mortality to a very appre-
ciable extent.

256

DORJILINGf.

Chap. XXYII.

the 1st of May, and I bade adieu to Dorjiling 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 Dorjiling
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
spe edify. I saw both its native population and its
European houses doubled in two years ; and its salu-
brious climate, its scenery, and accessibility, insure
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 seek pleasure only, together with a
groundless fear of the natives, have hitherto retarded
its progress ; hut its natural advantages will outweigh
these and all other obstacles.

From Sikkim to the Khasia mountains our course
yTas by boat down the Mahanuddee 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 Kishen-
gunj, on the fMhhanuddee, 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. *

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

May, 1850.

KISHENGUNJ. MAHANUDDEE.

257

around Kishengunj is flat and very barren ; it is com-
posed 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
fortv-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,
wdiere we arrived on the 11th : the temperature both
of the water and of the air increased rapidly; and
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,
Acacia, a few fan -palms, bamboos, and Jack-trees.
I only saw one shell in the river, which harboured
few water-plants or birds, and neither alligators nor
porpoises ascend so high.

About eighty miles in a straight line from the foot of
the Himalaya the stream contracted, and the features
of its banks were materially improved by a jungle
of tamarisk, wormwood, and white rose-bushes ; whilst
mango trees became common, with tamarinds, banyan,
and figs. Date and Caryota palms, and rattan-canes,

258

MALDAH. RAMPORE-BAULEAH. Chap. XXVII.

grew in the woods, and parasitic Orchids on the
trees, which were covered with a climbing fern, 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 disappearing, 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’ dropping, like coprolites,
were very common, buried in the hanks, which become
twenty feet high at the junction with the Ganges,
where we arrived on the 14th. The waters of this
great river were nearly two degrees cooler than those
of the Mahanuddee.

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 very slow current ; its banks

May, 1850.

SHIFTING OF RIVER-BEDS.

259

are thirty feet above the water. We 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 detained here from the 16th to the 19th.
The elevation of the station is 130 feet above the
sea, that of Kishengunj 131 : so that the Gangetic
valley is nearly a dead level for fully a hundred miles
north, beyond which it rises. As Rampore is 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 the abundance of two kinds of palm, which do not
ascend the Ganges beyond Monghyr.

From Rampore 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, causing them to 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
this river 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 had
shifted its course thus far to the westward. This

260

DACCA.

Chap. XXYII.

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.

Ascending the Jummul, 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. We botanised in the neigh-
bourhood of the town, which was once very extensive,
and is still large, though not flourishing. The
population is mostly Mahometan ; the site, though
beautiful and varied, being unhealthy for Europeans.
Bums 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 ancles,
from conch -shells imported from the Malayan Archi-
pelago, 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 advan-

May, 1850.

VEGETATION OF DACCA.

261

tages. Tlie 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 employed (which
is very short in the staple), 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.

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
3000 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 hut this inhabits a damp

* An Indian water-lily with a small red flower, covered everywhere
with prickles, and closely allied to Victoria regia.

262

BUKRAMPOOTEB,.

Chap. XXYII.

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 a
wild rose would least of all he looked for.

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 Jlieels of east Bengal, receiving
the waters of the Cachar, Jyntea, Khasia, and Garrow
mountains. The immense area thus drained by the
Soormah is hardly raised above the level of the sea, and
covers 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 irrigation.
At this season the general surface of the Jlieels 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

Mat, 1850.

JHEELS. BURRAMPOOTER RIYER.

263

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, ten feet high, form
the bulk of the vegetation, with occasionally low bushes
along the firmer banks of the natural canals that
everywhere intersect the country ; amongst these the
rattan-cane, rose, a laurel, 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 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 larger 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

264

JHEELS OF BENGAL.

Chap. XXVII.

obliquely ; its banks were on tlie average five miles
apart, and formed of sand, without clay, and with 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. Some-
times we sailed up broader streams of cliesnut-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 through-
out 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.

June, 1850.

GEOLOGICAL SPECULATIONS.

265

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 submerge an immense tract,
which the Ganges, Burrampooter, and Soormah would
soon cover with beds of silt and sand. There 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 palaeontologist ; with the bones of the long-snouted
alligator, 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 the bones
of the tiger, deer, and buffalo, would have none of the
Indian cow, rhinoceros, or elephant; there would be
different species of porpoise, alligator, and deer, and
none of the above-mentioned plants, which would be
replaced by numerous others, all distinct from those of
the Jheels, and many of them indicative of the influ-
ence 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

YOL. II.

VIEW IN THE J HEELS.

June, 1850.

CHATTUC.

267

ancl 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.
Man}r 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, wiiich 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
4000 to 5000 feet high, with steep faces towards the
Jlieels, 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. 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, potatos, 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 wre had met with

268

JHEELS OF BENGAL.

Chap. XXYII.

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 large 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 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.

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 he attributed 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 rains generally commence in May : they were
unusually late this year, though the almost daily gales
and thunderstorms we experienced, foretold their
speedy arrival. From May till October they are
unremitting, and the country is then under water,
the Soormah rising about fifty feet.

June, 1850. BASE OF KHASIA MOUNTAINS. PUNDUA.

269

China roses and tropical plants 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
some European vegetables thrive well if planted in
October or November. We wrere 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 arched roof. We
started at night, and early the next morning arrived at
Pundua, where there is a dilapidated bungalow : the
inhabitants are employed in the debarkation of lime,
coal, and potatos. 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
entertained us till the end of June, and procured us
servants and collectors.

270

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXYII.

We spent two days at Pundua, waiting for our
great boats (which drew several feet of water), and
botanizing 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, and large wasps swarmed, also rats
and sandflies. A more pestilential 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 wre again
slept here in November,* always exposed in the heat
of the day to wet and fatigue, and never having
even a soupgon 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, at the very foot of the first rise of the
mountains.

The sub -tropical scenery of the lower and outer
Sikkim Himalaya, though on a much more gigantic

* At the north foot of the Khasia, in the heavily-timbered dry Terai
stretching for sixty miles to the Burrampooter, it is almost inevitable
death for a European to sleep, any time between the end of April and of
November. Many have crossed that tract, 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 upwards of two years, after having been brought to
death’s door by the first attack, which came on within three weeks of his
arrival p-t Churra, and by several relapses.

June, 1850.

FOREST-TREES, PALMS, &c.

271

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. At the Himalaj^a forests of gigantic trees,
many of them deciduous, appear from a distance as
masses of dark grey foliage, clothing mountains
10,000 feet high : here the individual trees are smaller,
more varied in kind, of a brilliant green, and contrast
with grey limestone and red sandstone rocks and silvery
cataracts. Palms are more numerous here, upwards
of twenty kinds being indigenous ; the cultivated betel-
nut especially, raises 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. Figs abound in the
hot gulleys, where the property 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.*
Oaks, oranges, gamboge, Diospyros, figs, Jacks, plan-
tains, and screw-pines are more frequent here, together
with vines and peppers, and above all, palms, both
climbing ones with pinnated shining leaves, and erect
ones with similar foliage (as cultivated cocoa-nut, and
Areca), the broader-leaved wild betel-nut, and beautiful
Caryota or wine -palm, whose immense leaves are twelve
feet long. Laurels and wild nutmegs are frequent in

* See Frontispiece.

272

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXYII.

the forest, with the usual prevalence of parasites,
mistleto, epiphytical Orchids, ferns, mosses, and Lyco-
podiums ; and on the ground grow ferns, beautiful
balsams, and herbaceous and shrubby nettles. Bam-
boos of many kinds are very abundant, and these hills
further differ remarkably from those of Sikkim in the
great number of species of grasses.

The ascent was at first gradual, along the sides of a
sandstone spur, but at 2000 feet it suddenly became
steep and rocky, and at 3000 feet above the sea tree-
vegetation disappeared, and we commanded a magnifi-
cent prospect of the upper scarped flank of the valley
of Moosmai, 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, 2000 feet
below. The views of the many cataracts thus pre-
cipitated 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 Bio de
Janeiro : nor do I know any spot in the world more
calculated to fascinate the naturalist who, while appre-
ciating the elements of which a landscape is composed,
is also keenly alive to the beauty and grandeur of
tropical scenery.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Cburra, English station of — Khasia people — Garrow people — Houses —
Habits — Dress — Arms — Dialects — Marriages — Food — Funerals —
Superstitions — -Flat ot Churra — Scenery — Lime and coal — Mamloo —
Cliffs — Cascades — Flora of Churra — Orchids — Rhododendrons — Pine
— Climate — Extraordinary rain-fall — Its effects —Gardens of Lieuts.
Raban and Cave — Leave Churra to cross the mountain range — Kala-
panee river — Lailangkot — Boga-panee river — View of Himalaya — Age
of Pine-cones — Moflong plants — Coix — Chillong mountain — Extensive
view — Road to Syong — Broad valleys — Myrung — Kollong rock — Pine-
woods — Features of country — Orchids— Iron forges.

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 Silliet to Gowahatty, on the
Burrampooter, the capital of Assam, which is otherwise
only accessible by ascending that river, against both its
current and the perennial east wind. A rapid postal
communication is hereby secured : but the extreme
unhealthiness of the northern foot of the mountains
effectually precludes all other intercourse for nine
months in the year.

On the first opening up of the country, the Europeans

274

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXYIII.

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 con-
tinued 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 depredations on the Assam
and Kliasia frontier : their country is very unhealthy,
but 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 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.

June, 1850. MANNERS OF THE KHASIAS. *275

Tlie Kliasia people are of tlie Inclo-Cliinese race ;
they are short, very stout, and muscular, with enormous
calves and knees, rather narrow eyes and little heard,
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 fore-
head and temples. A loose cotton shirt, often striped
blue and red, without sleeves, and bordered with long
thread fringes, is their principal garment ; people of
rank wear it gathered into a girdle of silver chains. 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, peacocks’ feathers, and gold and silver ornaments
of great value, procured from Assam, many of which
are said to be extremely curious, but 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 manufac-
ture, being a rude sword or knife with a wooden
handle and a long, narrow, straight blade of iron ; and
the baskets with headstraps, 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

276

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXVIII.

looks like blood on tlie 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 Kliasias to be sulky intractable
fellows, contrasting unpleasantly with the Lepchas ;
wanting in quickness, frankness, 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 disagreeably nasal and guttural,
and there are several dialects and accents in con-
tiguous villages. All inflections are made by prefixing
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
therefore often forgets his father’s name and person
before he grows up, but becomes strongly attached to
his mother. The sister’s son inherits both property
and rank, and the proprietors’ or Baj alls' offspring are
consequently often reared in poverty and neglect. The

June, 1850.

CUSTOMS OF THE KHASIAS.

277

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 pasturage. 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 quan-
tities 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 yokes 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 pro-
portions ar eerected as monuments, singly or in rows,
circles, or supporting one another, like those of Stone-
henge, which they rival in dimensions and appearance.
The corpse is burned, though seldom during the rains,
from the difficulty of obtaining a fire ; it is therefore
preserved in honey (which is abundant and good) till

278

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXVIII.

the dry season : a practice said to prevail among some
tribes in the Malay peninsula. Spirits are drunk on
these occasions ; hut the hill Khasias are 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 un-
accustomed to such situations.

The Khasias are superstitious, hut 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 the Pleiades are called
“ the Hen-man ” (as in Italy “the chickens”): they
have names for the twelve months ; they do not divide
their time by weeks, but hold a market every fourth
day. These people are industrious, and good culti-
vators of rice, millet, and legumes of many kinds.
Potatos were introduced 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,

June, 1850.

SCENERY. CHURRA TABLE-LAND.

279

is three miles long and two broad, dipping abruptly in
front and on both sides, and rising behind towards the
mam 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 inundates it. The western part is undu-
lated 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 ; and there is not a tree, and
scarcely a shrub to be seen, except occasional clumps
of screw-pine. 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 : 4000 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 Tippera. To the right and
left are the scarped red rocks and roaring waterfalls,
shooting far over the cliffs, and then arching their
necks as they expand in feathery foam, over which

280

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXVIII.

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. Con-
siderable caverns penetrate the limestone, the broken
surface of which presents many picturesque and beau-
tiful spots, like the same rock 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 sandstone. 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, burst suddenly into view.
Mamloo is a large village, on the top of a spur to the
westward : it 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 pre-
cipitously, so that the place is almost impregnable if
properly defended. A sanguinary conflict took place
here between the British and the Kliasias, which ter-
minated in the latter being driven over the precipices,
beneath which many of them were shot. The fan-
palm grows on the cliffs near Mamloo : it may be seen
on looking over the edge of the plateau, its long curved

MAMLOO CASCADES,

2S2

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXYIII.

trunk rising out of the naked rocks, but its site is
generally inaccessible ; while near it grows the Saxi-
fraga ciliaris of our English gardens, a common plant
in the north-west Himalaya, but extremely scarce in
Sikkim and the Khasia mountains.

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
2000 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, &e. ; hut to the variety of ex-
posures; namely, 1. the Jlieels, 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 moorlike uplands, naked and exposed, where
many species and genera appear at 5000 to 6000 feet,
which are not found on the outer ranges of Sikkim
under 10,000. In fact, strange as it may appear, owing
to this last cause, the temperate flora descends fully
4000 feet lower in the latitude of Khasia than in that
of Sikkim, though the former is two degrees nearer
the equator.

Orchidese 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

June, 1850.

VEGETATION OF C HURRA.

283

any other part of the globe the species of orchids
outnumber those of any other natural order, or form
so large a proportion of the flora. Balsams are next
in relative abundance (about twenty-five), both tropical
and temperate kinds, of great beauty and variety in
colour, form, and size of blossom. Palms amount to
twenty, of which the Chamcerops and Arenga are the
only genera not found in Sikkim. Of bamboos there
are 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.

No rhododendron grows at Churra, but several
species occur a little further north : there is but one
pine besides the yew, and that is only found in the
drier interior regions. Singular to say, it is a Chinese
species not a native of the Himalaya, but very nearly
allied to the long-leaved pine, though more closely
resembling the Scotch fir than that tree does.

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

284

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXYIII.

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.

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 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 complete, 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, how-
ever, to the hardness of the sandstone, the streams do
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 worn away.

The mean temperature of Churra (alt. 4000 feet) is
about 66°, or 16° below that of Calcutta. In summer
the thermometer often rises to 90° ; and in the winter,
owing to the intense radiation, hoar-frost is frequent.

June, 1850. GARDENS OF LIEUTS. RABAN AND CAYE.

285

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 kindness and hospitality.
These gentlemen were indefatigable horticulturists,
and took a zealous interest in our pursuits, accom-
panying 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, rhododen-
drons, &c., introduced. Many orchids grew well on the
branches of the stunted trees which they had planted,
and some superb kinds of Hedychium in the ground ;
but 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 exposure. Still many
wild shrubs of great interest and beauty flourished,
and some European ones succeeded with skill and
management; as geraniums, Salvia, Petunia, nasturtium,
chrysanthemum, Kennedya, Maurandya, and Fuchsia.
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 greenhouses, and sunlight is the only deside-
ratum.

At the end of June, we started for the northern or

2S6

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXYIII.

Assam face of the mountains. 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.

We passed Lailang-kot, a 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 hollows in the horizontally stratified sandstone.
I could only account for these by supposing them to
he caused by 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 hushes sometimes attain.

At about 5000 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 pre-
cipitous edges are reached ; and the eye wanders far to
the east and wTest over a desolate level grassy country,
unbroken, save by the curious flat-topped hills I have
before described. These features continue for eight
miles, when a sudden descent of 600 or 700 feet, leads
into the valley of the Kala-panee (Black water) river,
where there is a very dark and damp bungalow, which
proved a great accommodation to us.

Beyond the Kala-panee, a high ridge is gained above
the valley of the Boga-panee, the largest river in the
Khasia ; and 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

June, 1850.

MOFLONG BUNGALOW.

287

fir-trees clothing the north side of the valley, which
rises very steeply 1000 feet above the river : quite
unaccountably, however, 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.

After descending a very steep slope, the road follows
a clear affluent of the Boga-panee, and winds along
the margin of that river, which is a rapid turbulent
stream, very muddy, and hence contrasting remarkably
with the Kala-panee. It derives its mud from the de-
composition of granite, which is washed by the natives
for iron, and in which rock it rises to the eastward.
An elegant iron suspension-bridge is thrown across the
stream, from a rock matted with tufts of little parasitic
orchids. 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 pre-
vious year. 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 liill-top, near the axis of
the range (alt. 0,002 feet). Here there is a village,
and some cultivation, surrounded by hedges of
Erythrina, Pieris, Viburnum, and Pyrus, amongst
which grew an autumn-flowering larkspur, with most
foetid flowers.

We passed the end of June here, and experienced

288

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXYIII.

the same violent weather, thunder, lightning, gales,
and rain, which prevailed 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 he
broken by the teeth. 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 to
the northward of the Bhotan Himalaya, their snowy
peaks stretching in a broken series from north-east to
north-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 Kliasia mountains, and perhaps
a more extensive one than has ever before been
described, is that from Chillong 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 being parklike, and as little like
that of India at so low an elevation as it is possible
to be.

I visited Chillong in October with Lieutenant Cave ;
starting from Churra, and reaching the bungalow,
two miles from its top, the same night, with relays of
ponies, which he had kindly provided. We were
unfortunate in not obtaining a brilliant view of the

July, 1850.

VIEW FROM CHILLONGf.

289

snowy mountains, their tops being partially clouded ;
but tlie coup cVoeil was superb. Northward, beyond
the rolling Khasia bills, lay tlie Assam valley, seventy
miles broad, with the Burrampooter winding through it,
fifty miles distant, reduced to a thread. Beyond this,
banks of 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
Cliillong. 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 tlie
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 Cliillong the most distant Garrow
bills visible are about forty miles off ; and eastward
those of Cacbar, which are loftier, are about seventy
miles. To the south the view is limited by the
Tippera bills, which, where nearest, are 100 miles
distant; while to the south-west lies the sea-like
Gangetic delta, whose horizon, lifted by refraction,
must he fully 120. The extent of this view is there-
fore upwards of 340 miles in one direction, and the
visible horizon of the observer encircles an area of
fully thirty thousand square miles, which is greater
than that of Ireland !

Continuing northward from Moflong, after five miles,
a sudden descent of 400 feet leads to a broad flat
grassy valley, called Syong, beyond which the road
passes over low rocky hills, wooded on their north or
sheltered flanks only, dividing flat-floored valleys.

VOL. II.

0

290

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXYIII.

Extensive moors succeed, covered with stunted pines,
brake, and tufts of harsh grasses.

We descended to the valley of Myrung, one of the
most beautiful spots in the Khasia, and a favourite
resort, having a superb view of the Himalaya : it
is two miles broad, and full of rice cultivation. 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.

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 features
are the same throughout, of broad flat-floored, steep -
sided valleys, divided by bleak, grassy, tolerably level-
topped hills.

We twice visited a very remarkable hill, called
Kollong, which rises as a dome of granite, 5,400 feet
high, ten or twelve miles north-west of Myrung, and
conspicuous from all directions. The path to it strikes
westerly along the shallow valley of Monai, in which is
a village, and much cultivation. Near this there
is a large square stockade, formed of tall bamboos
placed close together, very like a New Zealand “Pa; ”
indeed, the whole country much recals 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 notliing but young

July, 1850.

KOLLONG ROCK.

291

trees, resembling plantations, but which, I was assured,
are not planted ; on the other hand, however, it is
stated 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 ; rock is hardly anywhere seen, except in
the immediate vicinity of Kollong, where are many
scattered boulders of 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 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 per-
pendicular to the southward. The elevation is 400
feet above the mean level of the surrounding ridges,
and 700 above the bottom of the valleys. The south
or steepest side is encumbered with enormous detached
blocks, wThile the north is clothed with a dense forest,
containing scarlet tree-rhododendrons and oaks ; on
its skirts grew a white bushy rhododendron, which
we found nowhere else. The top was covered with
matted mosses, lichens, Lycopodiums, and ferns,

292

KHASIA MOUNTAINS,

Chap. XXVIII.

amongst which were many curious and beautiful air-
plants

The view from the top is very extensive to the
northward, commanding the Assam valley and the

KOLLONG ROCK.

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

* Eria, Cccloyyne, Cymbidium , Dendrobium, and 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.

July, 1850.

MUSICAL SOUNDS.

293

and pleasing ; they fell on the ear like “ hells 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.

HORNS OF THE SHOWA STAG ( CerVUS WallichU), A NATIVE OF CHOOMBI IN TIBET.

Length of antler, 4 feet 6 inches.

CHAPTER XXIX.

View of Himalaya from the Khasia — Great masses of snow — Ohumulari —
Donkia — Grasses — Nunklow — Burrampooter — Tropical forest — Bor-
panee — Rhododendrons — Wild elephants — Blocks of Syenite — Return
to Churra — August temperature — Leave for Chela — Birds — 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 — N onkreem — Granite
boulders — Iron washing — Forges — Tanks — Siberian Nymphcea — Pom-
rang — Patchouli plant — Mooshye — Pitcher-plant — Joowye cultivation
and vegetation — Sulky hostess — Nurtiung — Sacred grove and gigantic
stone structures — Altars — Pyramids, &c. — Origin of names — Collec-
tions— November vegetation.

The snowy Himalaya was not visible during our
first stay at Myrung, from the 5th to the 10th of
July; hut on three subsequent occasions, Hz., 27th
and 28th of July, 13th to 17tli October, and 22nd to
25tli October, we saw these magnificent mountains,
and repeatedly took angular heights and bearings
of the 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
between the great rivers which rise far beyond them
and flow through Bhotan.

The most conspicuous group of snows seen from the

July, 1850.

VIEW OF HIMALAYA.

295

Kliasia 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.

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 westward, 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,
which we have every reason to believe is the Tibetan
Yaru or Burrampooter.

Far to the westward again, and distant 200 miles
from Myrung, is a very lofty peaked mountain bearing
N.N.W., apparently 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. Donkia, if seen, would be distant 230 miles
from the same spot in the Kliasia, and Kinchinjunga
260 ; possibly they are visible (by refraction) from
Chillong, 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 sedges : four were cultivated, namely sugar-

296

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXIX.

cane, rice, Coix, and maize. Most of the others were
not so well suited to pasturage as those of higher
localities. Dwarf Date palm occurs by the roadside at
5000 feet elevation.

Nunklow is placed at the northern extremity* of
a broad spur that overhangs the valley of the Burram-
pooter river, thirty miles distant. The elevation of
the bungalow is 4,688 feet, and the climate being hot,
it swarms with mosquitos, fleas, and rats. It com-
mands a superb view to the north, of the Himalayan
snows, of the Burrampooter, and the intervening mala-
rious Terai; and to the south, of the undulating
Khasia, with Kollong rock hearing south-west.

A thousand feet below the bungalow, a tropical
forest begins, containing figs, birches, horse -chesnuts,
oaks, and nutmegs, in the gulleys, and tall pines on the
dry slopes. The pines grow down to the very bottom
of the valley in which flows the Bor-panee ; many of
them are eighty feet high, and three or four in
diameter, hut 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 a broad and rapid river that de-
scends from Cliillong, and winds round the base of
the Nunklow spur ; it is about forty yards wide, and is
spanned by an elegant iron suspension-bridge, clamped
to the rocks on either hank ; beneath the bridge 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 along
the river with great success : many curious plants grow

NUNKLOW.

297

July, 1850.

on its rocky banks, and amongst them Rhododendron
formosum at the low elevation of 2000 feet. A most
splendid fern, Dipteris Wallichii , is abundant, with the
dwarf Date palm and Cycas pectinata.

Wild animals are very abundant here, though ex-
tremely rare on the higher part of the Khasia range ;
tigers, however, and bears, ascend to Nunklow. We
saw troops of wild dogs, 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 ; and an experienced judge
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 dispositions are
equally various.

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,
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

298

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXIX.

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.

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 thither 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 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 our conviction
that the part played by these great agents in sculp-
turing the surface of our planet, is as yet but half
recognised.

We returned on the 7th of August to Churra, where
we employed ourselves during the rest of the month in
collecting and studying the plants of the neighbour-
hood. 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 employed,

Sept. 1850.

CHELA. BIRDS.

299

some in changing, and some in collecting, from morn-
ing 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.

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 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 embou-
chure of the Boga-panee on the Jheels. The path
runs through very tropical vegetation, with pepper,
ginger, maize, and Betel palm, cultivated around small
cottages, which are only distinguishable in the forest
by their yellow thatch of dry Battan leaves.

Hot gusts of wind blow up the valleys, alternating
with clouds and mists, and it was curious to watch the
effects of the latter in stilling the voices of insects 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 occasionally seen,
also sparrows and kingfishers, and I once heard a
cuckoo ; pheasants are sometimes shot, but we never

300

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXIX.

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 suitable
country for hares and rabbits could not be found.
Reptiles, and especially snakes, are very common in
the Khasia mountains, 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 re-
markable fact that whereas none of these are poisonous,
four out of the eleven species which I found in Sikkim
are so. One of the Khasia blind-worms belongs to a
truly American genus, a fact as important as is that of
the Sikkim skink and Agama being also American
forms.

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 pro-
vision against its being discovered by its enemies, than
an aid in deceiving its prey.

We descended rapidly for many miles through
beautiful 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

CHELA VILLAGE.

302

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXIX.

gorge. The view was a very striking one : owing to
the steepness of the valley, the roofs alone of the
cottages were visible, from which ascended the sounds
and smells of a dense native population, and to which
there appeared to be no way of descending. The
opposite side rose precipitously in lofty table-topped
mountains, and the river was studded with canoes.

The descent was fully 800 feet. The cottages were
placed close together, each within a little bamboo
enclosure, eight to ten yards deep ; each was built
against a perpendicular wall which supported a cutting
in the bank behind ; and a similar wall 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 hollows 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 alternately along the gravelled flat of
each enclosure, and perpendicularly down steps 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 3000 or 4000 ; 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

Sept. 1850.

DRIED FISH. CINNAMON.

303

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.

After staying three days at Chela, we descended the
stream in canoes, shooting over pebbly rapids, and
amongst rocks of limestone, water -worn into fantastic
shapes, till we at last found ourselves 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
tire level of the sea, their fall is very trifling. We pro-
ceeded across the Jheels to Chattuc, and then north
again to Pundua, and so to Churra.

Having pretty well exhausted the botany of Churra,
Dr. Thomson and I started on the 13th of September
for the eastern part of the Khasia and Jyntea moun-
tains. On the Ivala-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 potatos. Of these, the bird-
cherries (like damsons) are made into an excellent
preserve by the English residents, who also make

304

KHASIA MOUNTAINS.

Chap. XXIX.

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 cinnamon is the peeled bark of
a small species, allied to that of Ceylon, and though
inferior in flavour, and mucilaginous (like cassia), finds
a ready market at 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 the genuine,
to England. The smell of the cinnamon loads was as
fragrant as that of the fish was offensive.

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 holding himself
independent of the British Government.

Atmospheric denudation and weathering have pro-
duced remarkable effects on the lower part of the
Nonkreem valley, which is blocked up by a pine -crested
hill, 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 very soft, de-
composing into a coarse reddish sand, that colours the
Boga-panee. To procure the iron sand, which is dis-
seminated through it, the natives conduct water over the
beds, 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-

Sept. 1850

IRON SMELTING-.

305

action bellows, worked by two persons, who stand on
the machine, raising the flaps with them hands, and
expanding them with their feet, as shown in the cut on
the next page. There is neither furnace nor flux used
in the reduction. The fire is kindled on one side of an

NONKREEM VILLAGE.

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, meet in a larger one, by
which the draft is directed under the hole in the stone

306

KHASIA MOUNTAINS

Chap. XXIX

to the fire. 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.

BELLOWS.

The scenery about Nonkreem village is extremely
picturesque, and we procured many good plants on the
rocks. The country is everywhere intersected with

Seft. 1850.

MOOSHYE.

307

trenches for iron -washing, and some large marshes
were dammed up for the same purpose : in these we
found a diminutive water-lily, the flower of which is no
larger than a half-crown ; it proves to be the Nymphcea
pygwuea of China and Siberia — a remarkable fact in
the geographical distribution of plants.

From Nonkreem we proceeded easterly to Pomrang,
where we took up our quarters in an excellent bun-
galow, built by Mr. Stainforth (Judge of Silhet). It
occupied the eastern extremity of a lofty spur that
overhangs the deep fir-clad valley of the Oongkot,
dividing Khasia from Jyntea.

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 Chillong.
We staid here till the 23rd September, and then pro-
ceeded south-eastwards to Mooshye. The path descends
into the valley of the Oongkot, passing the village of
Pomrang, and then through woods of pine 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 scarecrows of lines
stretched across the fields, bearing tassels and tufts of
fern, shaken by boys.

We crossed the river twice, proceeding south-west to
Mooshye, a village placed on an isolated, flat-topped,
and very steep-sided hill, 4,863 feet above the sea. A
very steep path led up to the top, where there is a
stockaded guard -house, once occupied by British

308

JYNTEA HILLS

Chap. XXIX

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 patchouli plant 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 peninsula, whence the leaves are
imported into Bengal, and so to Europe.

On the 25th we left Mooshye for Amwee in Jyntea,
which lies to the south-east. We descended by steps

OLD BRIDGE AT AMWEE.

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 4000 feet. Marshy
flats intersect the hills, to which wild elephants some-

Sept. 1850.

JOOWYE.

809

times ascend, doing much damage to the rice crops.
The pitcher -plant (Nepenthes) grows on stony and
grassy hills about Amwee, and crawls along the
ground; its pitchers seldom contain insects in the
wild state, nor can any special function be suggested
for the wonderful organ it possesses.

About eight miles south of the village is 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
occupied by fields of rice in which were placed gigantic
images of men, dressed in rags, and armed with bows
and arrows, to scare away the wild elephants !

The situation of Joowye is extremely beautiful : it
occupies the broken wooded slope of a large open flat
valley, dotted with pines ; and consists of an immense
number of low thatched cottages, scattered amongst
groves of bamboo, and fields of plantain, tobacco,
yams, sugar-cane, maize, and rice, surrounded by
hedges of bamboo, Colquhounia and Erytlirina.
Narrow steep lanes lead amongst these, shaded with
oak, birch, and Camellia, the larger trees being covered
with orchids, climbing palms, pepper, and Gnetum ;

310

JYNTEA HILLS.

Chap. XXIX.

while masses of beautiful red and violet balsams grew
under every hedge and rock.

We procured a good bouse after many delays, for
the people were far from friendly to Europeans ; it was
a clean, very long cottage, with low thatched eaves
almost touching the ground, and was surrounded by a
high bamboo paling that enclosed out-houses built on
a well-swept floor of beaten earth. Within, the wood-
work was carved in curious patterns, and was particu-
larly 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
proceeding which was received with shouts of laughter,
at his expense, 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 scarcely raised above the
mean level of the hills ; it is about 4,500 feet elevation.
To the north the descent is rather abrupt to a
considerable stream, beyond which is the village of
Nurtiung.

The ascent to the village from the river is by steps
cut in a narrow cleft of the rocks, to a flat, elevated
4,178 feet above the sea : we here procured a cottage,

Sl:pt. 1850.

NURTIUNGf MONUMENTS.

311

and found the people remarkably civil. The general
appearance is the same as at Joow}re, 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 ; hut the quantity of species of
perennial woody plants contributing to form the jungles
is quite extraordinary : we enumerated 140, of which
60 were trees or large shrubs above twenty feet high.

Nurtiung contains a most remarkable collection of
those sepulchral and other monuments, which form so
curious a feature in the scenery of these mountains,
and in the habits of their native population. They
are all placed in a fine grove of trees, occupying 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. They are erected by dint of sheer
brute strength, the lever being the only aid.

Splendid trees of Bombax, fig and banyan, over-
shadowed 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 ccerulea (the rarest and most

Oct. 1850.

MONUMENTAL STONES.

313

beautiful of Indian orchids) flourished on one of its
limbs. A 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 whose
ashes are not necessarily, though frequently, buried or
deposited in hollow stone sarcophagi near them, and
sometimes in a clay 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 way-
side. Mr. Yule, who first drew attention to these
monuments, mentions one thirty-two feet by fifteen,
and two in thickness ; and states that the sarcophagi
(which, hovrever, 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 informant 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

VOL. II. P

314

JYNTEA HILLS.

Chap. XXIX.

Jacob set up for a pillar, and other passages in the
Old Testament. “Mamloo” is “ the stone of salt,”
eating salt from a sword’s point being the Kliasia 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 granite with large crystals of
felspar.

We left Nurtiung on the 4th of October, and walked
to Pomrang, a very long and fatiguing day’s wrork.
Near the village of Lernai oak woods are passed, in
which Vanda ccerulea 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 grassy hills which it inhabits are elevated
3000 to 4000 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

* We collected seven men’s loads of this superb plant for the Royal
Gardens at Kew ; hut 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 on commission, and though it arrived in a very poor state,
it sold for 300L, the individual plants fetching prices varying from 3 1. to
10L Had all arrived alive, they would have cleared 1000 1. An active
collector, with the facilities I possessed, might easily clear from 2000Z. to
3000L, in one season, by the sale of Khasia orchids.

Oct. 1850.

RETURN TO CHURRA.

315

so during the rains ; but there is no damp heat, nor
stagnation of the air, and at the flowering season the
temperature ranges between 60° and 80°, there is much
sunshine, 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, however, that all the finer
Indian Orchidece grow.

On the following day we turned out our Vanda to
dress the specimens for travelling, and to 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 fete !

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 Syong ;
whence we again crossed the range to Nunklow and
the Bor-panee, returning to Churra towards the end of
the month.

In November the vegetation above 4000 feet turns
wintry and brown, the weather becomes chilly, and
though the cold is never great, hoar-frost forms at

316

JYNTEA HILLS.

Chap. XXIX.

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 he 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
collectors, giving orders for them to meet us at Chattuc
on our way down the Soormah in December, with their
collections, which amounted to 200 men’s loads.

CHAPTER XXX.

Boat voyage to Silhet — River — Palms — Fish weirs — Forests of Cachar —
Sandal-wood, &c. — Porpoises — Alligators — Silchar — Tigers — Rice-
crops — Cookies — Munniporees — Hockey — Dance — Nagas — Excursion
to Munniporee frontier — Elephant bogged — Climate, &c. of Cachar —
Mosquitos — Fall of bank — Silhet — Tree-ferns — Chattuc — Megna —
Noacolly — Salt-smuggling — Delta of Ganges and Megna— Westward
progress of Megna — Tide — Waves — Dangerous navigation — Moonlight
scenes — Mud island — Chittagong — Y ie ws — Trees — Coffee — Pepper —
Excursions from Chittagong — Gurjun trees — Earthquake — Birds —
Papaw — Poppy and sun fields — Seetakoond bungalow and hill —
Perpetual flame — Climate — Leave for Calcutta — Hattiah island —
— Plants — Sunderbunds — Steamer — Tides — Nip a fruticans — Croco-
diles— Phcenix paluclosa — Fishing — Otters — Departure from India.

We left Churra on the 17 th of November, and taking
boats at Punclua, 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 or three miles an hour, between hanks six to
twelve feet high. As we glided up its stream, villages
became rarer, and eminences more frequent in the

318

CACHAR.

Chap. XXX.

Jheels. The people are a tall, bold, athletic Maho-
metan race, who live much on the water, and cultivate
rice, sesamum, and radishes, with betel -pepper in
thatched enclosures, as in Sikkim : maize and sugar
are rarer, bamboos abound, and a few palms are
planted, but no date-pahns.

A very long sedge 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 J}rntea, rise 4000 feet high
in forest-clad ranges like those of Sikkim. Swamps
extend from the river to their base, and penetrate
their valleys, which are extremely malarious : their
forests are frequented by timber-cutters, who fell jarool,
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 ; also Nageesa, Mesua ferrea, which is highly
valued for its weight, strength, and durability : the
eagle-wood, a tree yielding uggur oil, is also much
sought for its fragrant wood, which is carried to Silliet,
where it is broken up and distilled.

Nov. 1850.

SILCHAR, TIGERS.

319

Porpoises, ancl 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 ; it is a small station about forty feet above the
river, which however rises half that height in the rains.
Long low spurs stretch from the Tippera 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 of the Soormah is called. All
these mountains swarm with tigers, wild buffalos, and
boars, which also infest the long grass of the Jheels.

During the first Birmese war, a force was sent 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 the 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 cultiva-
tion 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,

320

CACHAR.

Chap. XXX.

Munniporees, 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 separate it from Silchar, to the south-
east of which 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. A few years
ago they invaded and ravaged Cachar, carrying many of
the inhabitants into slavery, and so frightening the
people, that land previously worth six rupees a biggah,
is now reduced to one and a half. A strong party was
sent to rescue the captives, and marched for many days
through their country without 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 de-
serted 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

Nov. 1850.

MUNNIPORE DANCES.

321

hide (imported from Assam), and play at hockey on
horseback like the Western Tibetans.

One fine moonlight night we went to see a Munni-
pore dance. A large circular area was thatched with
plantain leaves, growing on their trunks, which were
stuck in the ground ; and round the enclosure was a
border neatly cut from the white leaf-sheatlis of the
same tree. A double enclosure of bamboo, similarly
ornamented, 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 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

322

CACHAR.

Chap. XXX.

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 balloon 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 vuld,
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 ; and they
also wear brass armlets, and necklaces of cowries, coral,
amber, ivory, and boars’ 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 eyebrowTs.

The Naga dances are very different from those of
the Munniporees ; 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 performance, the
women extend their arms only when turning partners,
and then their hands are not given, but the palms are

Nov. 1850. ELEPHANT BOGGED. MUNNIPORE FRONTIER. 323

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.

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. On the east side of the range, the road
descends to a broad valley covered with gigantic
scattered timber-trees rearing their enormous trunks
above the bamboo jungle : immense rattan-canes wound
through the forest, and in the gulleys were groves of
two kinds of tree-fern, with palms, screw-pines, &c.

324

CACHAR.

Chap. XXX.

The climate of Cachar partakes of that of the Jheels
in its damp equable character ; the temperature seldom
rising above 90° in summer, nor sinking below 45° in
January : during our stay the weather was fine, and
dense fogs formed in the morning.

There are few mosquitos, which is one of the most
curious facts in the geographical 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, and 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, hut
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,
instruments, and clothes, was swamped. Happily our
dried collections were not embarked, and the hot sun
repaired much of the damage.

On the 2nd of December we proceeded to Silhet, the

Dec. 1850.

SILHET.

325

capital of tlie district of the same name, occupying a
slightly raised part of the Jheels, where many of the
Teelas seemed joined together by beds of gravel and
sand. In the rains it is surrounded by water; in
winter Jynteapore and Pundua may be reached by land,
crossing innumerable creeks on the way.

The most interesting botanical ramble about Silhet
is to the tree-fern groves on the path to Jynteapore,
following the bottoms of shallow valleys, and along
clear streams, up whose beds we waded for some
miles, under an arching canopy of tropical shrubs, trees,
and climbers. In the narrower parts of the valleys
tree-ferns are numerous on the slopes, rearing their
slender brown trunks forty feet high, with feathery
crowns of foliage, through which the sunbeams trembled
on the broad shining foliage of the tropical herbage
below.

Silhet, though hot and damp, is remarkably healthy,
and does not materially differ in temperature from
Silchar, though the climate is more equable and humid.
We thence took large boats to navigate the Burram-
pooter 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 arrived at
Chattuc on the 9th of December, where our Khasia
collectors met us with large loads of plants, and we
paid them off. The river was now low, and presented
a busy scene, from the numerous trading boats being
confined to its deeper channels.

On the 13th we entered the broad stream of the

326

SILHET.

Chap. X5X.

Megna. Rice is cultivated along the mud flats left by
the annual floods, and the banks are lower and less
defined than those of the Soormali, and support no
long grasses or bushes. Enormous islets of living
water-grasses 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, 69f°, but the atmosphere was more humid.

On the following day we passed the Dacca river ;
below which the vegetation of the Sunderbunds com-
mences : there is a narrow beach, and behind it a mud
bank several feet high, supporting a luxuriant green
jungle of palms, immense fig-trees, and tall betel-
palms.

Towards the embouchure, the banks rise, the river
expands into a muddy sea, and a long swell rolls in, to
the 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, flickered as if seen through smoke. We
landed in a canal-like creek on the 17th, and walked to
Noacolly,* over a flat of hard mud, covered with turf.
Noacolly is a station for collecting the revenue and
preventing the manufacture of salt, which, and opium,
are the only monopolies 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 elsevdiere. The
ground being impregnated with salt, the illicit manufac-

* “Colly” signifies a muddy creek, sucli as intersect the delta.

Dec. 1850,

FEATURES OF DELTA.

827

ture by evaporation is not easily checked ; but whereas
the average number of cases brought to justice used to
be twenty or 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 there-
fore to repeated inundations and surface evaporations
that the salt is due. Fresh water is everywhere found
at the depth of a very few feet, but it is not good.

The total breadth of the delta is 260 miles, from
Chittagong to the mouth of the Hoogly, and is divided
longitudinally by the Megna : 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
such as are planted. On the west coast the tide rises
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, 50 inches
is the Cuttack annual rain-fall ; 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 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 Orders,
from those that the Fenny and Chittagong rivers
bring down from the jungles.

At Noacolly we were glad to find that our observa-
tions on the progression westwards of the Burram-

328

NOACOLLY.

Chap. XXX.

pooter were confirmed by the fact that the Megna also
is gradually moving in that direction, leaving much
dry land on the Noacolly side, and forming islands
opposite that coast ; whilst it encroaches on the
Sunderbunds, and is cutting away the islands in that
direction. The advance of the fresh water amongst the
Sunderbunds is destructive to the vegetation of the
latter, which requires salt ; and if the Megna continues
its slow course westwards, the obliteration of a very
peculiar flora over thousands of square miles, and the
extinction 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 germination of seeds.

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 land
is caused by the overwhelming tides and south-west
hurricanes in May and October ; these extend for
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.

We left Noacolly on the 19th for Chittagong, the

Dec. 1850.

NAVIGATION OF SUNDERBUNDS.

329

distance to which place is only 100 miles ; hnt the
passage being considered dangerous at this season
(during the spring tides), we were provided with a large
vessel and an experienced crew. The great object in
this navigation is 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 a.m., 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 no water was 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 shining surface of the mud,
and made the dismal landscape more ghastly still.
Silence followed the ebb, occasionally broken by the

330

CHITTAGONG.

Chap. XXX.

wild whistle of a bird like the curlew ; 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.

On the 21st we were ashore at daylight on the
Chittagong coast far north of the station, and were
greeted by the sight of hills on the horizon : we were
lying fully 20 feet below high water mark, and the tide
was out for several miles to the westward.

We were three daj^s and nights on this short voyage,
without losing sight of mud or land ; and arrived at
Chittagong on the 23rd of December.

Chittagong stands on the north shore of an extensive
delta, formed by rivers from the lofty mountains
separating this district from Birmah. It is large and
beautifully situated, interspersed with trees and tanks :
in the hollows around are native huts amidst vegetation
of every hue, glossy green figs, broad plantains,
feathery Acacias, dark Nageesa, red-purple Terminalia,
leafless scarlet -flowered Bombax, and grey Casuarina.
The hills about the station are not more than 150
or 200 feet high, and are surmounted by good European
houses, surrounded by trees of Acacia and Csesalpinia.

Seaward the tide leaves immense flats, which stretch
for many miles on either side the offing. Inland the
views are beautiful, of the many-armed river, covered
with sails, winding amongst groves of cocoa-nuts,
palms, and yellow rice fields : while on the horizon, at
the distance of 40 or 50 miles, rise mountains, 4,000

Jan. 1851.

VEGETATION OF CHITTAGONG.

331

to 8,000 feet high ; they are clothed with woods,
abounding with the splendid timber trees of the Cachar
forests, though, like these, they are said to want teak,
Sal, and Sissoo : they have, besides many others,
magnificent Gurjun trees, the monarchs of the forests
of these coasts. They are inhabited by turbulent
races, who are coterminous with the Cookies of the
Cachar and Tippera forests, if indeed they he not the
same people. The natives of Chittagong are Maho-
metans and Mugs, a Birmese tribe who inhabit many
parts of the Malay peninsula, and the coast to the
northward of it ; they are excellent shipbuilders and
active traders, and export much rice and timber to
Madras and Calcutta.

To the south, undulating dunes stretch along the
coast, covered with low bushes, of which a red-flowered
Melastoma is the most prevalent, and is called a rhodo-
dendron by many of the residents.

Coffee has been cultivated at Chittagong with great
success : it is said to have been introduced by Sir W.
Jones. Both Assam and Chinese teas flourish, hut
Chinamen are wanted to cure the leaves. Black pepper
succeeds admirably, as do cinnamon, arrow-root, and
ginger.

Early in January we started on an excursion to the
north, following a valley separated from the coast by a
range of wooded hills 1000 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 side project into the middle : they are

332

CHITTAGONG.

Chap. XXX.

200 to 300 feet high, formed of red clay, and covered
with brushwood.

At Kajikehath, the most northern point we reached,
we were quite amongst these hills, and in an extremely
picturesque country, intersected by long winding flat
valleys ; some full of copse-wood, others presenting
the most beautiful park-like scenery, and a third
class expanding 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). This is the most
superb tree we met with in the Indian forests ;
it is conspicuous for its gigantic size, and for the
straightness and graceful form of its tall unbranclied
pale grey trunk, and small symmetrical 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., besides being a useful
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.

On the 8th of January we experienced a sharp earth-
quake 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 place.

Jan. 1851.

SEETAKOOND.

333

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

GURJUN TREE.

swarmed with large red ants that proved very irritating:
they build immense pendulous nests of dead and living

334

SEETAKOOND.

Chap. XXX.

leaves at the ends of the branches of trees, and mat
them with a white web. Tigers, leopards, wild dogs,
and hoars, are numerous ; as are snipes, pheasants,
peacocks, and jungle-fowl; the latter waking the morn
with their shrill crows ; and in strange association with
these is the common English woodcock, which is occa-
sionally found.

The trees are of little value, except the Gurjun, and
“ Kistooma,” a species of Bradleia, which was stacked
extensively, and used for building purposes. The
papaw * is abundantly cultivated, and its great gourd-
like fruit eaten ; the flavour is that of a had melon, and
a white juice exudes from the rind. The Hodg sonia
heteroclita, a magnificent climber, grows in these
forests ; with a climbing Apocyneous plant, the milk of
which flows in a continuous stream, resembling caout-
chouc (it is probably the Urceola elastica, which yields
Indian -rubber).

The ascent of the hills, which are densely wooded,
was along spurs, and over knolls of clay ; the road was
good, hut 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, and
altogether the forest was smaller and poorer in plants
than we had expected.

From the summit we obtained a very extensive and
singular view. At our feet was a broad, low, grassy,

* 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.

Jan. 1850.

VEGETATION. PERPETUAL FLAME.

335

alluvial plain, intersected by creeks, bounding a black
expanse of mud which (the tide being out) appeared to
stretch almost continuously to Sun deep Island, 30
miles distant ; while beyond, the blue hills of Tippera
rose on the north-west horizon.

Descending, we rode several miles along an excellent
road, to the bungalow of Seetakoond, twenty-five miles
north of Chittagong. The west flank of the range we
had crossed is much steeper than the east, often pre-
cipitous, 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 ex-
plore it : we 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 else-
where 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 which there are 560.
The mountain is very sacred, and there is a large
Brahmin temple on its flank; and near the base a
perpetual 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 was daily

336

SEETAKOOND.

Chap. XXX.

supplied by pious pilgrims and Brahmins with such
enormous quantities of ghee (liquid butter), that it was
to all intents and purposes an artificial lamp ; no trace
of natural phenomena being discoverable.

On the dry but wooded west face of the mountain,
grew many beautiful palms, with dwarf date-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 oil, seven palms, tree-ferns, and
many other kinds of ferns, several kinds of oak,
Dracaena, 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°.

We embarked again at Chittagong for Calcutta, on
the 16tli of January, at 10 p.m., in a very large vessel,
rowed by twelve men : we made wretchedly slow
progress, being for four days within sight of Chitta-
gong ! 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

Jan. 1851. LEAVE CHITTAGONG. 337

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. Two kinds of tamarisk, and some thorny
shrubs, are the only bushes on the eastern islands ; on
the central ones a few dwarf mangroves appear, with
the holly-leaved Dilivaria, dwarf screw-pine, and a
curious fern, a variety of Acrostickum aureum. To-
wards the northern end of Hattiah, Talipot, cocoa-nut
and date-palms appear.

On the 22nd we entered the Sunderbunds, rowing
amongst narrow channels where the tide rises hut 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 detour of three hundred.

From the masts of the steamer we obtained an
excellent coup-cVoeil 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,

VOL. II.

Q

338

GANGETIC DELTA.

Chap. XXX.

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 intricate 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 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 floating
on the waters, and vegetating in the mud. Marks
of tigers were very frequent, and the footprints of deer,
wild boars, and enormous 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 Phoenix 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
foliage, that when viewed from above, the stems are
wholly hidden.

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

Jan. 1851.

AEEIYAL IN ENGLAND.

339

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 Har-
bour, and landed at the Botanic Garden Ghat, where
we received a hearty welcome from Dr. Falconer.
Ten days later we bade farewell to India, reaching
England on the 25th of March, 1851.

INDEX.

Acacia, i. 8 ; Catechu , i. 45.
Acorns, ii. 2.

Alligator, i. 44, 47.

Alpine vegetation, ii. 99, 106, 123,
137, 151.

Amlali, conference with, ii. 216.
Andromeda fastigiata, i. 321.
Aralia as fodder, i. 336.

Ararat, Mount, ii. 30.

Arums, food from, ii. 69, 83.

Arun river, ii. 148.

Atmosphere, pressure of, ii. 149.
Aurora borealis, i. 31.

Balanophora, ii. 68.

Bamboos, i. 146, 149, 295.

Banyan, ii. 253.

Beejaghur, i. 49.

Bees’ -nests, i. 190 ; ii. 41.

Behar, hills of, i. 28.

Benares, ii. 65 ; observatory at, ii.
67.

Betel pepper, i. 90.

Bhagulpore, i. 81 ; Horticultural
gardens of, i. 82.

Bhomsong, i. 280 ; ii. 35.

Bhomtso, ii. 132, 171 ; ascent of,
ii. 179.

Bhotan coolies, i. 171, 174, 263.
Bhoteas, i. 127, 205.

Birds, ii. 22, 168.

Boodhist monuments, i. 134, 137.
Boswellia thurifera , i. 25.
Boulders, i. 191.

Brick tea, i. 202.

Buckwheat, wild, ii. 54.

Burdwan, i. 5 ; coal-fields of, i. 7 ;
palace of Rajah, i. 5.

Burrampooter, alteration of bed, ii.
259 ; course of, ii. 177.

Butea frondosa, i. 8.

Cachak, ii. 319.

Ccesalpinia paniculata, i. 22.

Calcutta Botanic gardens, i. 2, 3 ;
ii. 250.

Calotropis, i. 26.

Camels, i. 10, 54.

Campbell, Dr., at Bhomsong, i.
280 ; at Tumloong, ii. 196 ; bad
treatment of, ii. 209 ; interview
with Rajah, i. 285 ; join him in
prison, ii. 218 ; leaves Dorjiling,
i. 266 ; ii. 152 ; released, ii. 244 ;
removed from Tumloong, ii. 234 ;
superintendent of Dorjiling, i.
107 ; taken prisoner, ii. 206 ;
visits Sikkim, ii. 154.

Cane bridge, i. 140 ; ii. 38.

Catechu, i. 45.

Cathcartia, ii. 202.

Catsuperri lake, i. 339 ; temples,
i. 341.

Chait, i. 338.

Chakoong, vegetation of, ii. 43.

Changachelling temples, i. 344.

Charcoal for gunpowder, i. 8.

Chattuc, ii. 267.

Chela village, ii. 300.

Children’s toys, i. 317.

Chillong hill, view from, ii. 288.

Chittagong, ii. 330.

Cholamoo lake, ii. 132, 164.

Chola pass, ii. 203.

Cholera tree, i. 25.

Choonjerma pass, i. 250.

Q, 2

342

INDEX.

Chutnulari, ii. 172.

Chunar, i. 65.

Churra, ii. 269, 273, 278, 298 ;

rain-fall of, 284.

Cinnamon, ii. 304.

Coal-fields of Burdwan, i. 7.
Cochlospermum , i. 46.

Coles, i. 48.

Golgong, i. 85.

Cooches, ii. 10.

Cosi river, i. 86.

Co wage plant, i. 11.
Cryptogramma crisp a, i. 250.
Currant, Sikkim, ii. 156.

Cypress, funereal, i. 297, 314.

Dacca, ii. 260.

Dakoit, i. 59.

Damooda valley, i. 6.

Date palm, i. 30, 33.

Deodar, i. 245.

Dewan, Sikkim, i. 107, 281, 288 ;
alarm of, ii. 240 ; arrival from
Tibet, ii. 222 ; dinner with, ii.
238 ; disgraced, ii. 247 ; inter-
view with, ii. 227.

Dhak, i. 45.

Digarclii, ii. 176.

Dinapore, ii. 75.

Dingpun, Tibetan, ii. 167.

Do-Mani stone, i. 278.

Donkia, ii. 129 ; pass, ii. 132, 184.
Doobdi convent, i. 316.

Dorjiling, i. 103, 104 ; climate of,
i. 109 ; prospects of, ii. 256.
Dunwab pass, i. 26.

Dust storm, i. 44, 74.

Earthquake, ii. 4, 332.

East Nepal, scenery of, i. 196.
Edgeworthia Gardneri, i. 195, 312.
Elephants, ii. 8, 297 ; bogged, ii.

323 ; docility of, i. 9.

Eranoboas, i. 31.

Euryale ferox, ii. 261.

Fair, i. 55.

False sunrise and sunset, i. 56, 179.
Ferns, edible, i. 277.

Fir-wood, ii. 66.

Flutes from Lhassa, ii. 242.

Ganges, features of, i. 72.

Gangetic delta, ii. 327 ; valley, ii. 6.
Gangtok Kajee, ii. 235.

Ghazeepore, i. 71.

Glaciers, ii. 76.

Goats, shawl -wool, ii. 105.

Grasses, gigantic, ii. 11.

Great It ungeet, excursion to, i. 133 ;

valley of, i. 139.

Grouse, Himalayan, ii. 124.

Gum arabic, i. 54.

Gurjun trees, ii. 332.

Himalaya, view of snowy, i.
86, 112, 175 ; ii. 70, 286,
295 ; vegetation of outer, i. 88,
99.

Hodgsonia, ii. 33.

Hooli festival, ii. 12.

Horn-bills, i. 177.

Hornet, ii. 49.

Hot baths, i. 289 ; ii. 126.

Hot springs, ii. 126, 140 ; Lepcha
lad sleeps in, 188.

Ilam, i. 172.

Insects, i. 74, 143, 148, 264 ; ii.

42, 50, 84.

Iron smelting, ii. 304.

Islumbo pass, i. 264 ; vegetation of,
i. 265.

Jain sect, i. 15.

Jeelpigoree, ii. 10; Rajah of, ii. 12,
15.

Jews’ harp, ii. 224.

Jheels, ii. 262 ; Flora and Fauna
of, ii. 265.

Jigatzi, ii. 176.

Jongri, i. 331.

Jung Bahadoor, ii. 250.

Junnoo mountain, i. 251.

Ivambachen village, i. 246.
Kangaroos, i. 6.

Kiang, ii. 178.

Kinchin -j how glacier, ii. 140.
Kinchin-junga, i. 322 ; circuit of,
i. 327 ; glaciers, ii. 71.

INDEX.

343

Khasia, excessive rain-fall of, ii.
283; Flora, ii. 271, 282 ; moun-
tains, ii. 267 ; mountains, expe-
dition to, ii. 255; people, ii. 275;
people, monuments of, ii. 311.
Kishengunj, ii. 256.

Kollong hill, ii. 290.

Kongra Lama, ii. 98.

Kulhait river, i. 265.

Kunker, i. 11.

Kus-kus, i. 36.

Kymore hills, i. 33, 46.

Lac, i. 8.

Lachen, ii. 39, 53 ; valley, vege-
tation of, ii. 60.

Lachen-Lachoong, ii. 39.

Lachoong, ii. 39.

Lake beds, ancient, i. 234, 249,
337.

Lamas, dance of, i. 218 ; worship,
i. 104, 294.

Land-slips, ii. 41, 45, 112, 125,
153.

Larch, Himalayan, i. 245.

Leaf-insect, ii. 300.

Leehong, i. 134.

Leeches, i. 98, 157 ; ii. 42.

Lepchas, i. 117, 165 ; cups of, i.
123 ; dress of, i. 121 ; food of,
i. 123 ; marriages of, i. 125 ;
religion of, i. 126.

Leucas, ii. 10.

Lhassa, i. 283.

Lichens, i. 329 ; ii. 179, 184.

Limboos, i. 128 ; customs of, i. 129.

Lizard, i. 31.

Maddaobund, i. 14.

Magras, i. 130.

Mahanuddee river, i. 89, 92 ; ii.
257.

Mahowa, i. 13.

Mainom mountain, i. 291.

Maize, hermaphrodite, i. 148.
Maldah, ii. 258.

Mango, i. 55.

Manis, i. 201.

Mantis , ii. 300.

Mechis, i. 92 ; fisherman, ii. 26.
Meepo, L 189 ; ii. 37.

Megna river, ii. 326.

Mendongs, i. 201, 270.

Mesua ferrea, ii. 318.

Mirzapore, i. 57.

Moflong, ii. 287.

Momay Samdong, ii. 128, 185.
Monghyr, i. 79.

Monkeys, ii. 59, 121.

Mon Lepcha, i. 320.

Monuments in Khasia, ii. 311.
Moormis, i. 130.

Moraines, ancient, i. 221, 236, 246,
248 ; ii. 7, 85, 92, 118, 128,
140, 142.

Morung, ii. 5, 8.

Mosquitos, ii. 324.

Moxa, ii. 39.

Mudar, i. 26.

Mungeesa peak, i. 47.

Munnipore dance, ii. 321.

Murwa beer, i. 124, 164, 275.
Musk deer, i. 256 ; ii. 59.

Muslin manufacture, ii. 261.

Myong valley, scenery of, i. 173.
Mywa Gfuola, i. 186.

Nagas, ii. 322.

Nageesa, ii. 318.

Nango mountain, i. 227, 241 ; pass,
i. 242 ; vegetation at, i. 243.
Neongong, lake of, i. 290 ; temple
of, i. 293.

Nepal, expedition to, i. 168.
Nettles, i. 173; ii. 192 ; uses of, i.
27 6.

Nicotiana rustica , ii. 239.
Nightingales, i. 310 ; ii. 153.

Nipa fruticans, i. 1 ; ii. 338.
Nitrate of lime, i. 37.

Nymphcza pygmcea, ii. 307.

Olibanum, i. 25.

Opium, manufacture of, i. 75,
Orchid ece, ii. 282.

Ortolan, i. 89.

Ovis Ammon , i. 234.

Pj^kee travelling, i. 4.

Palung plains, ii. 101, 146.

Paper from Daphne, i. 181, 195.

344

INDEX.

Parasnath, i. 11 ; ascent of, i.
13, 17 ; summit of, i. 19 ; temple
on, i. 20 ; vegetation of, i. 21.
Patna, i. 75.

Pawn, i. 90.

Pemiongchi, speech of lama, ii.

231 ; temple, i. 309.

Perpetual snow, ii. 107, 136.
Pheasants, i. 244.

Phoenix paludosa, ii. 338.
Phosphorescence, ii. 158.

Phud, ii. 190.

Picrorhiza, i. 259.

Pitcher plant, ii. 309.

Plain of Tibet, ii. 175.

Plants transported in ice, ii. 255.
Poisoners, i. 59.

Polygonum, ii. 54.

Praying cylinder, i. 161, 195 ; ii.
196.

Pundim, i. 323.

Punkabaree, vegetation of, i. 96.

Rageu, ii. 112.

Rajah, Sikkim, i. 285, 287 ; house,
ii. 195 ; seizure of Terai lands,
ii. 247.

Rampore Bauleah, ii. 258.

Rangamally, ii. 17.

Ratong valley, i. 324, 335.

Rhododendrons, i. 116, 239 ; ii.
77 ; honey poisoned by, i. 190.
Rhododendron leaves, curling of,
ii. 203 ; poisoning of sheep by,
ii. 158.

Rhubarb, gigantic, ii. 77.

Rice paper, i. 336.

Rivers, temperature of, i. 278 ; velo-
city of, ii. 113.

Rotasghur, i. 34.

Rose in plains of Bengal, ii. 261.

Roses, attar of, i. 71.

Ryott valley, ii. 194.

Sakkiazung, ridge of, i. 181.

Sakkya Sing, i. 305.

Salmon, ii. 187.

Salt- smuggling, i. 319, 327; ii. 326.

Sand waves, i. 32. p

Saussurea gossypina, i. 215.

Scandent trees, i. 154.

Scorpions, i. 46.

Screw pine, i. 284.

Seetakoond, ii. 335 ; hot springs of,

i. 80.

Sheep, wild, i. 233.

Shigatzi-jong, ii. 176.

Sidingbah, i. 261.

Sikkim, i. 105 ; fruits of, i. 150 ;
history of, i. 310 ; inhabitants
of, i. 117 ; temples of, i. 301,
341 ; valleys of, i. 267.

Siligoree, i. 91.

Silhet, ii. 325.

Simonbong temple, i. 161.

Sinchul, i. 103, 115.

Singtam Soubah, ii. 40, 87, 155,
205 ; disgraced, ii. 215.

Snakes, 49, 112, 300.

Soane river, i. 30 ; cross, i. 41, 46 ;

valley, vegetation of, i. 42.
Songboom, i. 338.

Soorujkoond, hot springs of, i. 23.
Sunderbunds, i. 1 ; ii. 337 ; Flora
and Fauna of, ii. 265.

Sunrise and sunset, false, i. 56, 179.

TalluM, vegetation of, ii. 86.
Tamarisk, ii. 17.

Tambur river, i. 183, 190, 262.
Tassiding, convent of, i. 299.

Tchebu Lama, i. 286 ; ii. 32.

Tea plant, i. 134.

Teesta river, i. 145 ; exit from
mountains, ii. 20.

Teeta, i. 259.

Tendong mountain, ii. 30.

Terai, i. 91 ; ii. 3, 5 ; vegetation
of, i. 92.

Terraces, ancient, i. 231.

Thomson, Dr., arrival at Dorjiling,

ii. 245.

Thuggee, i. 58, 60.

Tibet, i. 283 ; ii. 132, 135, 172 ;
animals of, ii. 108, 164, 179 ;
frontier, ii. 64, 82, 98, 136.
Tibetans, i. 250 ; ii. 103 ; churns,
ii. 95 ; Dingpun, ii. 204 ; dress
of, i. 191 ; food of, i. 201 ;
guard, ii. 204 ; guitar, i. 288 ;
household, i. 201 ; mastiff, i.
193, 273 ; ponies, ii. 94 ; saddle,
i. 279 ; salute, i. 192 ; ii. 47 ;

INDEX.

345

sepoys, ii. 162, 167; tents, i.
206.

Tide wave, ii. 329.

Tiger hunt, i. 50.

Titalya, i. 91 ; ii. 4.

Tobacco, Chinese, ii. 239.

Toddy, i. 30, 33.

Tonglo, camp on, i. 159, 174 ; ex-
cursion to, i. 146 ; height of, i.
160 ; vegetation of, i. 152, 157 ;
view from summit, i. 175.

Tree frog, i. 156.

Tumloong, ii. 195 ; gathering of
Lamas at, ii. 230.

Tungu, ii. 92.

Tunkra pass, ii. 122.

Tupgain Lama, i. 273.

Vanda candea , ii. 314.

Vanda reared from seed, ii. 253.
Vegetation of temperate zone, i.
158 ; retardation of, ii. 185.

Wallanchoon, i. 189, 196, 206 ;
convents, i. 218 ; temperature of,
209.

pass, height of, i. 215 ;

vegetation of, i. 210 ; visit to, i.
213.

Walnut, i. 313.

White ants’ hills, i. 18.

Wormwood, ii. 44.

Yaks, i. 202.

Yalloong river, i. 257.

Yangma Guola, i. 219 ; lake, i.
226 ; valley, i. 221, 238 ; con-
vents of, i. 225 ; village, 228 ;
village, cultivation at, 228, 230.
Yaru river, ii. 177.

Yeumtso, ii. 169.

Yoksun, i. 314 ; lake, i. 337.

Zehu Samdong, ii. 65, 81, 156.

THE END.

BEAD BURY AND EVAN'S, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIAR3.

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