Himalayan Journals, vol 2 by J. D. Hooker (great reads TXT) 📖

>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, Anthericum,

Passiflora, 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 mass of gravel and angular blocks, while streams cut

deep channels in it.

This valley is far more open and grassy 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. 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. 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 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 the remarkable moraine-like spur which I passed above Keadom.

Illustration--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.

Illustration--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 clustered together without order. It was muddy and intolerably filthy, and intersected by some small streams, whose beds formed the roads, and, at the same time, the common sewers of the natives. There is some wretched

cultivation in fields,* [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 grasses grow wild here, as Eragrostis and Panicum. In gardens the hollyhock is seen: it is said to be introduced through Tibet from China; also Pinus excelsa

from Bhotan, peaches, walnuts, and weeping willows. A tall poplar was pointed out to me as a great wonder; it had two species of Pyrus

growing on its boughs, evidently from seed; one was a mountain ash, the other like Pyrus Aria.

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, 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.

Illustration--HEAD AND FEET OF TIBET MARMOT.

CHAPTER XXII.

Leave Lachoong for Tunkra pass -- Moraines and their vegetation --

Pines of great dimensions -- Wild currants -- Glaciers -- Summit of pass -- Elevation -- Views -- Plants -- Winds -- Choombi district --

Lacheepia rock -- Extreme cold -- Kinchinjunga -- Himalayan grouse --

Meteorological observations -- Return to Lachoong -- Oaks -- Ascent to Yeumtong -- Flats and 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 pass -- 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 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,* [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, Verbascum thapsus, Pedicularis, Euphrasia, Senecio,

Eupatorium, Dipsacus, Euphorbia,_ Balsam, _Hypericum, 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