Thomson ("Travels in Tibet," p. 426) as common in Tibet, as far north as the Karakoram, at an elevation between 16,000 and 18,000 feet. In Sikkim it is found at the same level. Specimens of it are exhibited in the Kew Museum. As one instance ill.u.s.trative of the chaotic state of Indian botany, I may here mention that this little plant, a denizen of such remote and inaccessible parts of the globe, and which has only been known to science a dozen years, bears the burthen of no less than six names in botanical works. This is the _Bryomorpha rupifraga_ of Karelin and Kireloff (enumeration of Soongarian plants), who first described it from specimens gathered in 1841, on the Alatau mountains (east of Lake Aral). In Ledebour"s "Flora Rossica" (i. p. 780) it appears as _Arenaria_ (sub-genus _Dicranilla_) _rupifraga,_ Fenzl, MS. In Decaisne and Cambessede"s Plants of Jacquemont"s "Voyage aus Indes Orientales," it is described as _Flourensia caespitosa,_ and in the plates of that work it appears as _Periandra caespitosa_; and lastly, in Endlicher"s "Genera Plantarum," Fenzl proposes the long new generic name of _Thylacospermum_ for it. I have carefully compared the Himalayan and Alatau plants, and find no difference between them, except that the flower of the Himalayan one has 4 petals and sepals, 8 stamens, and 2 styles, and that of the Alatau 5 petals and sepals, 10 stamens, and 2-3 styles, characters which are very variable in allied plants.
The flowers appear polygamous, as in the Scotch alpine _Cherleria,_ which it much resembles in habit, and to which it is very nearly related in botanical characters.]
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,* [De Saussure"s glaciers of the second order: see "Forbes" Travels in the Alps," p. 79.] and into which were precipitated avalanches of snow and ice. I found it impossible to distinguish the glacial ice from perpetual snow; the larger beds of snow where presenting a flat surface, being generally drifts collected in hollows, or acc.u.mulations that have fallen from above: when these acc.u.mulations rest on slopes they become converted into ice, and obeying the laws of fluidity, flow downwards as glaciers.
I boiled water at the most advantageous position I could select, and obtained an elevation of 16,522 feet.* [Temperature of boiling water, 183 degrees, air 35 degrees.] It was snowing heavily at this time, and we crouched under a gigantic boulder, benumbed with cold. I had fortunately brought a small phial of brandy, which, with hot water from the boiling-apparatus kettle, refreshed us wonderfully.
The spur that divides these plains from the Lachen river, rises close to Kinchinjhow, as a lofty cliff of quartzy gneiss, dipping north-east 30 degrees: this I had noticed from the Kongra Lama side.
On this side the dip was also to the northward, and the whole cliff was crossed by cleavage planes, dipping south, and apparently cutting those of the foliation at an angle of about 60 degrees: it is the only decided instance of the kind I met with in Sikkim. I regretted not being able to examine it carefully, but I was prevented by the avalanches of stones and snow which were continually being detached from its surface.* [I extremely regret not having been at this time acquainted with Mr. D. Sharpe"s able essays on the foliation, cleavage, etc., of slaty rocks, gneiss, etc., in the Geological Society"s Journal (ii. p. 74, and v. p. 111), and still more so with his subsequent papers in the Philosophical Transactions: as I cannot doubt that many of his observations, and in particular those which refer to the great arches in which the folia (commonly called strata) are disposed, would receive ample ill.u.s.tration from a study of the Himalaya. At vol. i. chapter xiii, I have distantly alluded to such an arrangement of the gneiss, etc., into arches, in Sikkim, to which my attention was naturally drawn by the writings of Professor Sedgwick ("Geolog. Soc. Trans.") and Mr. Darwin ("Geological Observations in South America") on these obscure subjects. I may add that wherever I met with the gneiss, mica, schists, and slates, in Sikkim, very near one another, I invariably found that their cleavage and foliation were conformable. This, for example, may be seen in the bed of the great Rungeet, below Dorjiling, where the slates overlie mica schists, and where the latter contain beds of conglomerate. In these volumes I have often used the more familiar term of stratification, for foliation. This arises from my own ideas of the subject not having been clear when the notes were taken.]
The plants found close to the snow were minute primroses, _Parna.s.sia, Draba,_ tufted wormwoods (_Artemisia_), saxifrages, gentian, small _Compositae,_ gra.s.ses, and sedges. Our ponies unconcernedly sc.r.a.ped away the snow with their hoofs, and nibbled the scanty herbage.
When I mounted mine, he took the bit between his teeth, and scampered back to Palung, over rocks and hills, through bogs and streams; and though the snow was so blinding that no object could be distinguished, he brought me to the tents with unerring instinct, as straight as an arrow.
Wild animals are few in kind and rare in 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 bearing a great a.n.a.logy to the Himalaya, in lacking certain natural orders of plants. Thus, New Zealand and Fuegia possess, the former no land animal but a rat, and the latter very few indeed, and none of any size. Such is also the case in Scotland and Norway. Again, on the damp west coast of Tasmania, quadrupeds are rare; whilst the dry eastern half of the island once swarmed with opossums and kangaroos.
A few miles north of Tungu, the sterile and more lofty provinces of Tibet abound in wild horses, antelopes, hares, foxes, marmots, and numerous other quadrupeds; although their alt.i.tude, 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 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*
[The _Lagopus Tibeta.n.u.s_ of Hodgson. I procured one that displayed an extraordinary tenacity of life: part of the skull was shot away, and the brain protruded; still it showed the utmost terror at my dog.]
("Kardiepieu" of the Tibetans) sometimes migrates in swarms (like the Lapland "Lemming") from Tibet as far as Tungu. There are few birds but red-legged crows and common ravens. Most of the insects belonged to arctic types, and they were numerous in individuals.* [As _Meloe,_ and some flower-feeding lamellicorns. Of b.u.t.terflies I saw blues (_Polyommatus_), marbled whites, _Pontia, Colias_ and _Argynnis._ A small _Curculio_ was frequent, and I found _Scolopendra,_ ants and earthworms, on sunny exposures as high as 15,500 feet.]
Ill.u.s.tration--TIBET MARMOT.
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. Pa.s.sing one day by the temple, I found him catechising two young aspirants for holy orders. He is one of the Dukpa sect, wore his mitre, and was seated cross-legged on the gra.s.s with his scriptures on his knees: he put questions to the boys, when he who answered best took the other some yards off, put him down on his hands and knees, threw a cloth over his back, and mounted; then kicking, spurring, and cuffing his steed, he was galloped back to the Lama and kicked off; when the catechising recommenced.
I spent a week at Tungu most pleasantly, ascending the 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-hair cloth upon its back (if no saddle were at hand), ride away whither I would. Next morning a boy would be sent for the steed, perhaps bringing an invitation to come and take it again. So I became fond of brick-tea boiled with b.u.t.ter, salt, and soda, and expert in the Tartar saddle; riding about perched on the shoulders of a rough pony, with my feet nearly on a level with my pockets, and my knees almost meeting in front.
On the 28th of July much snow fell on the hills around, as low as 14,000 feet, and half an inch of rain at Tungu;* [An inch and a half fell at Dorjiling during the same period.] the former soon melted, and I made an excursion to Chomiomo on the following day, hoping to reach the lower line of perpetual snow. Ascending the valley of the Chomiochoo, I struck north up a steep slope, that ended in a spur of vast tabular ma.s.ses of quartz and felspar, piled like slabs in a stone quarry, dipping south-west 5 degrees to 10 degrees, and striking north-west. These resulted from the decomposition of gneiss, from which the layers of mica bad been washed away, when the rain and frost splitting up the fragments, the dislocation is continued to a great depth into the substance of the rock.
Large silky cushions of a forget-me-not grew amongst the rocks, spangled with beautiful blue flowers, and looking like turquoises set in silver: the _Delphininin glaciale_* [This new species has been described for the "Flora Indica" of Dr. Thomson and myself: it is a remarkable plant, very closely resembling, and as it were representing, the _D. Brunonianum_ of the western Himalaya.
The latter plant smells powerfully of musk, but not so disagreeably as this does.] 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 water boil at 182.6 degrees (air 43 degrees), which gives an alt.i.tude of 16,754 feet.
A dense fog, with sleet, shut out all view; and I did not know in what direction to proceed higher, beyond the top of the sharp, stony ridge I had attained. Here there was no perpetual snow, which is to be accounted for by the nature of the surface facilitating its removal, the edges of the rocks which project through the snow, becoming heated, and draining off the water as it melts.
During my stay at Tungu, from the 23rd to the 30th of July, no day pa.s.sed without much deposition of moisture, but generally in so light a form that throughout the whole time but one inch was registered in the rain-gauge; during the same time four inches and a half of rain fell at Dorjiling, and three inches and a half at Calcutta. The mean temperature was 50 degrees (max. 65 degrees, min. 40.7 degrees); extremes, 65/38 degrees. The mean range (23.3 degrees) was thus much greater than at Dorjiling, where it was only 8.9 degrees.
A thermometer, sunk three feet, varied only a few tenths from 57.6 degrees. By twenty-five comparative observations with Calcutta, 1 degree Fahr. is the equivalent of every 362 feet of ascent; and twenty comparative observations with Dorjiling give 1 degree for every 340 feet. The barometer rose and fell at the same hours as at lower elevations; the tide amounting to 0.060 inch, between 9.50 a.m.
and 4 p.m.
I left Tungu on the 30th of July, and spent that night at Tallum; where a large party of men had just arrived, with loads of madder, rice, canes, bamboos, planks, etc., to be conveyed to Tibet on yaks and ponies.* [About 300 loads of timber, each of six planks, are said to be taken across the Kongra Lama pa.s.s 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 refer to both the Kongra Lama and Donkia pa.s.ses.] 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 garments and bedding. Yet the house was high, airy, and light; the walls composed of bamboo, lath, and plaster.
Tropical Cicadas ascend to the pine-woods above Lamteng in this month, and chirp shrilly in the heat of the day; and glow-worms fly about at night. The common Bengal and Java toad, _Bufo scabra,_ abounded in the marshes, a remarkable instance of wide geographical distribution, for a Batrachian which is common at the level of the sea under the tropics.
On the 3rd of August I descended to Choongtam, which I reached on the 5th. The lakes on the Chateng flat (alt. 8,750 feet) were very full, and contained many English water-plants;* [_Sparganium ramosum, Eleocharis pal.u.s.tris, Scirpus triqueter,_ and _Callitriche verna?_ Some very tropical genera ascend thus high; as _Paspalum_ amongst gra.s.ses, and _Scleria,_ a kind of sedge.] the temperature of the water was 92 degrees near the edges, where a water-insect (_Notonecta_) was swimming about.
Below this I pa.s.sed an extensive stalact.i.tic deposit of lime, and a second occurred lower down, on the opposite side of the valley. The apparently total absence of limestone rocks in any part of Sikkim (for which I made careful search), renders these deposits, which are far from unfrequent, very curious. Can the limestone, which appears in Tibet, underlie the gneiss of Sikkim? We cannot venture to a.s.sume that these lime-charged streams, which in Sikkim burst from the steep flanks of narrow mountain spurs, at elevations between 1000 and 7000 feet, have any very remote or deep origin. If the limestone be not below the gneiss, it must either occur intercalated with it, or be the remains of a formation now all but denuded in Sikkim.
Terrific landslips had taken place along the valley, carrying down acres of rock, soil, and pine-forests, into the stream. I saw one from Kampo Samdong, on the opposite flank of the valley, which swept over 100 yards in breadth of forest. I looked in vain for any signs of scratching or scoring, at all comparable to that produced by glacial action. The bridge at the Tuktoong, mentioned at chapter xix, being carried away, we had to ascend for 1000 feet (to a place where the river could be crossed) by a very precipitous path, and descend on the opposite side. In many places we had great difficulty in proceeding, the track being obliterated by the rains, torrents, and landslips. Along the flats, now covered with a dense rank vegetation, we waded ankle, and often knee, deep in mud, swarming with leeches; and instead of descending into the valley of the now too swollen Lachen, we made long detours, rounding spurs by canes and bamboos suspended from trees.
At Choongtam the rice-fields were flooded: and the whole flat was a marsh, covered with tropical gra.s.ses and weeds, and alive with insects, while the shrill cries of cicadas, frogs and birds, filled the air. Sand-flies, mosquitos, c.o.c.kroaches, and enormous c.o.c.kchafers,* [_Eucerris Griffithii,_ a magnificent species.
Three very splendid insects of the outer ranges of Sikkim never occurred in the interior: these are a gigantic Curculio (_Calandra_) a wood-borer; a species of Goliath-beetle, _Cheirotonus Macleaii,_ and a smaller species of the same rare family, _Trigonophorus nepalensis_; of these the former is very scarce, the latter extremely abundant, flying about at evenings; both are flower-feeders, eating honey and pollen. In the summer of 1848, the months at Dorjiling were well marked by the swarms of peculiar insects that appeared in inconceivable numbers; thus, April was marked by a great black _Pa.s.salus,_ a beetle one-and-a-half inch long, that flies in the face and entangles itself in the hair; May, by stag-beetles and longicorns; June, by _Coccinella_ (lady-birds), white moths, and flying-bugs; July, by a _Dryptis?_ a long-necked carabideous insect; August, by myriads of earwigs, c.o.c.kroaches, Goliath-beetles, and cicadas; September, by spiders.] _Mantis,_ great locusts, gra.s.shoppers, flying-bugs, crickets, ants, spiders, caterpillars, and leeches, were but a few of the pests that swarmed in my tent and made free with my bed. Great lazy b.u.t.terflies floated through the air; _Thecla_ and _Hesperides_ skipped about, and the great _Nymphalidae_ darted around like swallows. The venomous black cobra was common, and we left the path with great caution, as it is a lazy reptile, and lies basking in the sun; many beautiful and harmless green snakes, four feet long, glided amongst the bushes. My dogs caught a "Rageu,"*
["Ragoah," according to Hodgson: but it is not the _Procapra picticaudata_ of Tibet.] a very 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,* [Though 5 degrees further north, and 5,268 feet above the level of Calcutta, the mean temperature at Choongtam this month was only 12.5 degrees cooler than at Calcutta; forty observations giving 1 degree Fahr. as equal to 690 feet of elevation; whereas in May the mean of twenty-seven observations gave 1 degree Fahr. as equal to 260 feet, the mean difference of temperature being then 25 degrees. The mean maximum of the day was 80 degrees, and was attained at 11 a.m., after which clouds formed, and the thermometer fell to 66 degrees at sunset, and 56 degrees at night. In my blanket tent the heat rose to upwards of 100 degrees in calm weather. The afternoons were generally squally and rainy.] arranging my Lachen valley collections previous to starting for the Lachoong, whence I hoped to reach Tibet again by a different route, crossing the Donkia pa.s.s, and thence exploring the sources of the Teesta at the Cholamoo lakes.
Whilst here I ascertained the velocity of the currents of the Lachen and Lachoong rivers. Both were torrents, than which none could be more rapid, short of becoming cataracts: the rains were at their height, and the melting of the snows at its maximum. I first measured several hundred yards along the banks of each river above the bridges, repeating this several times, as the rocks and jungle rendered it very difficult to do it accurately: then, sitting on the bridge, I timed floating ma.s.ses of different materials and sizes that were thrown in at the upper point. I was surprised to find the velocity of the Lachen only nine miles per hour, for its waters seemed to shoot past with the speed of an arrow, but the floats showed the whole stream to be so troubled with local eddies and backwaters, that it took from forty-three to forty-eight seconds for each float to pa.s.s over 200 yards, as it was perpetually submerged by under-currents. The breadth of the river averaged sixty-eight feet, and the discharge was 4,420 cubic feet of water per second.
The temperature was 57 degrees.
At the Lachoong bridge the jungle was still denser, and the banks quite inaccessible in many places. The mean velocity was eight miles an hour, the breadth ninety-five feet, the depth about the same as that of the Lachen, giving a discharge of 5,700 cubic feet of water per second;* [Hence it appears that the Lachoong, being so much the more copious stream, should in one sense be regarded as the continuation of the Teesta, rather than the Lachen, which, however, has by far the most distant source. Their united streams discharge upwards of 10,000 cubic feet of water per second in the height of the rains! which is, however, a mere fraction of the discharge of the Teesta when that river leaves the Himalaya. The Ganges at Hurdwar discharges 8000 feet per second during the dry season.] its temperature was also 57 degrees. These streams retain an extraordinary velocity, for many miles upwards; the Lachen to its junction with the Zemu at 9000 feet, and the Zemu itself as far up as the Thlonok, at 10,000 feet, and the Lachoong to the village of that name, at 8000 feet: their united streams appear equally rapid till they become the Teesta at Singtam.* [The slope of the bed of the Lachen from below the confluence of the Zemu to the village of Singtam is 174 feet per mile, or 1 foot in 30; that of the Lachoong from the village of that name to Singtam is considerably less.]
On the 15th of August, having received supplies from Dorjiling, I started up the north bank of the Lachoong, following the Singtam Soubah, who accompanied me officially, and with a very bad grace; poor fellow, he expected me to have returned with him to Singtam, and thence gone back to 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.
The path was narrow, and ran through a jungle of mixed tropical and temperate plants,* [As _Paris, Dipsacus, Circaea, Thalictrum, Saxifraga ciliaris, Spiranthes, Malva, Hypoxis, Antheric.u.m, Pa.s.siflora, Drosera, Didymocarpus,_ poplar, _Calamagrostis,_ and _Eupatorium._] many of which are not found at this elevation on the damp outer ranges of Dorjiling. We crossed to the south bank by a fine cane-bridge forty yards long, the river being twenty-eight across and here I have to record the loss of my dog Kinchin; the companion of all my late journeyings, and to whom I had become really attached. He had a bad habit, of which I had vainly tried to cure him, of running for a few yards on the round bamboos by which the cane-bridges are crossed, and on which it was impossible for a dog to retain his footing: in this situation he used to get thoroughly frightened, and lie down on the bamboos with his legs hanging over the water, and having no hold whatever. I had several times rescued him from this perilous position, which was always rendered more imminent from the shaking of the bridge as I approached him. On the present occasion, I stopped at the foot of some rocks below the bridge, 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 cane, I strained my eyes till the bridge seemed to be swimming up the valley, and the swift waters to be standing still, but to no purpose; he had been carried under at once, and swept away miles below.
For many days I missed him by my side on the mountain, and by my feet in camp. He had become a very handsome dog, with glossy black hair, pendent triangular ears, short muzzle, high forehead, jet-black eyes, straight limbs, arched neck, and a most glorious tail curling over his back.* [The woodcut at vol. i. chapter ix, gives the character of the Tibet mastiff, to which breed his father belonged; but it is not a portrait of himself, having been sketched from a dog of the pure breed, in the Zoological Society"s Gardens, by C. Jenyns, Esq.]
A very bad road led to the village of Keadom, situated on a flat terrace several hundred feet above the river, and 6,609 feet above the sea, where I spent the night. Here are cultivated plantains and maize, although the elevation is equal to parts of Dorjiling, where these plants do not ripen.
The river above Keadom is again crossed, by a plank bridge, at a place where the contracted streams flow between banks forty feet high, composed of obscurely stratified gravel, sand, and water-worn boulders. Above this the path ascends lofty flat-topped spurs, which overhang the river, and command some of the most beautiful scenery in Sikkim. The south-east slopes are clothed with _Abies Brunoniana_ at 8000 feet elevation, and cleft by a deep ravine, from which projects what appears to be an old moraine, fully 1500 or perhaps 2000 feet high. Extensive landslips on its steep flank expose (through the telescope) a ma.s.s of gravel and angular blocks, while streams cut deep channels in it.
This valley is far more open and gra.s.sy than that of the Lachen, and the vegetation also differs much.* [_Umbelliferae_ and _Compositae_ abound, and were then flowering; and an orchis (_Satyrium Nepalense_), scented like our English _Gymnadenia,_ covered the ground in some places, with tall green _Habenariae_ and a yellow _Spathoglottis,_ a genus with pseudo-bulbs. Of shrubs, _Xanthoxylon, Rhus, Prinsepia, Cotoneaster, Pyrus,_ poplar and oak, formed thickets along the path; while there were as many as eight and nine kinds of balsams, some eight feet high.] In the afternoon we reached Lachoong, which is by far the most picturesque village in the temperate region of Sikkim. Gra.s.sy 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 gra.s.sy slopes. About five miles to the north the valley forks; two conspicuous domes of snow rising from the intermediate mountains. The eastern valley leads to lofty snowed regions, and is said to be impracticable; the Lachoong flows down the western, which appeared rugged, and covered with pine woods. On the east, Tunkra mountain* [This mountain is seen from Dorjiling; its elevation is about 18,700 feet.] rises in a superb unbroken sweep of dark pine-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 pa.s.s 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 the remarkable moraine-like spur which I pa.s.sed above Keadom.
Ill.u.s.tration--LACHOONG VALLEY AND VILLAGE, LOOKING SOUTH.
Stupendous moraines rise 1500 feet above the Lachoong in several concentric series, curving downwards and outwards, so as to form a bell-shaped mouth to the valley of the Tunkrachoo. Those on the upper flank are much the largest; and the loftiest of them terminates in a conical hill crowned with Boodhist flags, and its steep sides cut into horizontal roads or terraces, one of which is so broad and flat as to suggest the idea of its having been cleared by art.
Ill.u.s.tration--LOFTY ANCIENT MORAINES IN THE LACHOONG VALLEY, LOOKING SOUTH-EAST.
On the south side of the Tunkrachoo river the moraines are also more or less terraced, as is the, floor of the Lachoong valley, and its east slopes, 1000 feet up.* [I have since been greatly struck with the similarity between the features of this valley, and those of Chamouni (though the latter is on a smaller scale) above the Lavanchi moraine. The spectator standing in the expanded part below the village of Argentiere, and looking upwards, sees the valley closed above by the ancient moraine of the Argentiere glacier, and below by that of Lavanchi; and an all sides the slopes are cut into terraces, strewed with boulders. I found traces of stratified pebbles and sand on the north flank of the Lavanchi moraine however, which I failed to discover in those of Lachoong. The average slope of these pine-clad Sikkim valleys much approximates to that of Chamouni, and never approaches the precipitous character of the Bernese Alps" valleys, Kandersteg, Lauterbrunnen, and Grindelwald.]
The river is fourteen yards broad, and neither deep nor rapid: the village is on the east bank, and is large for Sikkim; it contains fully 100 good wooden houses, raised on posts, and cl.u.s.tered together without order. It was muddy and intolerably filthy, and intersected by some small streams, whose beds formed the roads, and, at the same time, the common sewers of the natives. There is some wretched cultivation in fields,* [Full of such English weeds as shepherd"s purse, nettles, _Solanum nigrum,_ and dock; besides many Himalayan ones, as balsams, thistles, a beautiful geranium, mallow, _Haloragis_ and Cucurbitaceous plants.] of wheat, barley, peas, radishes, and turnips. Rice was once cultivated at this elevation (8000 feet), but the crop was uncertain; some very tropical gra.s.ses grow wild here, as _Eragrostis_ and _Panic.u.m._ In gardens the hollyhock is seen: it is said to be introduced through Tibet from China; also _Pinus excelsa_ from Bhotan, peaches, walnuts, and weeping willows. A tall poplar was pointed out to me as a great wonder; it had two species of _Pyrus_ growing on its boughs, evidently from seed; one was a mountain ash, the other like _Pyrus Aria._
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 princ.i.p.al 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, etc. 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.
Ill.u.s.tration--HEAD AND FEET OF TIBET MARMOT.
CHAPTER XXII.
Leave Lachoong for Tunkra pa.s.s--Moraines and their vegetation-- Pines of great dimensions--Wild currants--Glaciers--Summit of pa.s.s--Elevation--Views--Plants--Winds--Choombi district-- Lacheepia rock--Extreme cold--Kinchinjunga--Himalayan grouse-- Meteorological observations--Return to Lachoong--Oaks--Ascent to Yeumtong--Flats and debacles--Buried pine-trunks--Perpetual snow--Hot springs--Behaviour of Singtam Soubah--Leave for Momay Samdong--Upper limit of trees--Distribution of plants--Glacial terraces, etc.--Forked Donkia--Moutonneed rocks--Ascent to Donkia pa.s.s--Vegetation--Scenery--Lakes--Tibet--Bhomtso-- Arun river--Kiang-lah mountains--Yaru-Tsampu river--Appearance of Tibet--Kambajong--Jigatzi--Kinchinjhow, and Kinchinjunga-- Chola range--Deceptive appearance of distant landscape--Perpetual snow--Granite--Temperatures--Pulses--Plants--Tripe de roche --Return to Momay--Dogs and yaks--Birds--Insects--Quadrupeds --Hot springs--Marmots--Kinchinjhow glacier.
The Singtam Soubah being again laid up here from the consequences of leech-bites, I took the opportunity of visiting the Tunkra-lah pa.s.s, 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,* [These ridges of the moraine, separated by gullies, indicate the progressive retirement of the ancient glacier, after periods of rest. The same phenomena may be seen, on a diminutive scale, in the Swiss Alps, by any one who carefully examines the lateral and often the terminal moraines of any retiring or diminishing glacier, at whose base or flanks are concentric ridges, which are successive deposits.] and composed of enormous blocks disintegrating into a deep layer of clay.
All are clothed with luxuriant herbage and flowering shrubs,*
[_Ranunculus, Clematis, Thalictrum, Anemone, Aconitum variegatum_ of Europe, a scandent species, Berberry, _Deutzia, Philadelphus,_ Rose, Honeysuckle, Thistles, Orchis, _Habenaria, Fritillaria, Aster, Calimeris, Verbasc.u.m thapsus, Pedicularis, Euphrasia, Senecio, Eupatorium, Dipsacus, Euphorbia,_ Balsam, _Hyperic.u.m, Gentiana, Halenia, Codonopsis, Polygonum._] besides small larches and pines, rhododendrons and maples; with _Enkianthus, Pyrus,_ cherry, _Pieris,_ laurel, and _Goughia._ The musk-deer inhabits these woods, and at this season I have never seen it higher. Large monkeys are also found on the skirts of the pine-forests, and the _Ailurus ochraceus_ (Hodgs.), a curious long-tailed animal peculiar to the Himalaya, something between a diminutive bear and a squirrel. In the dense and gigantic forest of _Abies Brunoniana_ and silver fir, I measured one of the former trees, and found it twenty-eight feet in girth, and above 120 feet in height. The _Abies Webbiana_ attains thirty-five feet in girth, with a trunk unbranched for forty feet.
The path was narrow and difficult in the wood, and especially along the bed of the stream, where grew ugly trees of larch, eighty feet high, and abundance of a new species of alpine strawberry with oblong fruit. At 11,560 feet elevation, I arrived at an immense rock of gneiss, buried in the forest. Here currant-bushes were plentiful, generally growing on the pine-trunks, in strange a.s.sociation 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 encircled by snowy mountains. Magnificent gentians grew here, also _Senecio, Corydalis,_ and the _Aconitum luridum_ (n. sp.), whose root is said to be as virulent as _A. ferox_ and _A. Napellus._* [The result of Dr.
Thomson"s and my examination of the Himplayan aconites (of which there are seven species) is that the one generally known as _A. ferox,_ and which supplies a great deal of the celebrated poison, is the common _A. Napellus_ of Europe.] The plants were all fully a month behind those of the Lachen valley at the same elevation.
Heavy rain fell in the afternoon, and we halted under some rocks: as I had brought no tent, my bed was placed beneath the shelter of one, near which the rest of the party burrowed. I supped off half a yak"s kidney, an enormous organ in this animal.
On the following morning we proceeded up the valley, towards a very steep rocky barrier, through which the river cut a narrow gorge, and beyond which rose lofty snowy mountains: the peak of Tunkra being to our left hand (north). Saxifrages grew here in profuse tufts of golden blossoms, and _Chrysosplenium,_ rushes, mountain-sorrel (_Oxyria_), and the bladder-headed _Saussurea,_ whose flowers are enclosed in inflated membranous bracts, and smell like putrid meat: there were also splendid primroses, the spikenard valerian, and golden Potentillas.