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

various species of Daphneae, and

especially of Edgeworthia Gardneri, and is imported from Nepal and Bhotan; but the Tibetans, as MM. Huc and Gabet correctly state,

manufacture a paper from the root of a small shrub: this I have seen, and it is of a much thicker texture and more durable than Daphne

paper. Dr. Thomson informs me that a species of Astragalus is used in western Tibet for this purpose, the whole shrub, which is dwarf, being reduced to pulp.] paper, whose ends were tied with floss silk, with a large red seal; this he pompously delivered, with whispered

orders, to an attendant, and sent him off. He admired our clothes

extremely,* [All Tibetans admire sad 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.] 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 made a large basin full of very weak grog for his party, who were all friendly and polite; and having made us the unexpected offer of allowing us to rest ourselves for the day at Yeumtso, he left us, and practised his men at firing at a mark, but they were very

indifferent shots.

I ascended with Campbell to the lake he had visited on the previous day, about 600 or 800 feet above Yeumtso, and 17,500 feet above the sea: it is a mile and a half long, and occupies a large depression

between two rounded spurs, being fed by glaciers from Kinchinjhow.

The rocks of these spurs were all of red quartz and slates, cut into broad terraces, covered with a thick glacial talus of gneiss and

granite in angular pebbles, and evidently spread over the surface

when the glacier, now occupying the upper end of the lake, extended over the valley.

The ice on the cliffs and summit of Kinchinjhow was much greener and clearer than that on the south face (opposite Palung); and rows of

immense icicles hung from the cliffs. A conferva grew in the waters of the lake, and short, hard tufts of sedge on the banks, but no

other plants were to be seen. Brahminee geese, teal, and widgeon,

were swimming in the waters, and a beetle (Elaphrus) was coursing over the wet banks; finches and other small birds were numerous,

eating the sedge-seeds, and picking up the insects. No view was

obtained to the north, owing to the height of the mountains on the

north flank of the Lachen.

At noon the temperature rose to 52.5 degrees, and the black-bulb to 104.5 degrees; whilst the north-west dusty wind was so dry, that the dew-point fell to 24.2 degrees.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Ascent of Bhomtso -- View of snowy mountains -- Chumulari -- Arun

river -- Kiang-lah mountains -- Jigatzi -- Lhama -- Dingcham province of Tibet -- Misapplication of term "Plain of Tibet" -- Sheep, flocks of -- Crops -- Probable elevation of Jigatzi -- Yarn -- Tsampu river -- Tame elephants -- Wild horses -- Dryness of air -- Sunset beams --

Rocks of Kinchinjhow -- Cholamoo lakes -- Limestone -- Dip and strike of rocks -- Effects of great elevation on party -- Ascent of Donkia -- Moving piles of debris -- Cross Donkia pass -- Second Visit to

Momay Samdong -- Hot springs -- Descent to Yeumtong -- Lachoong --

Retardation of vegetation again noticed -- Jerked meat -- Fish --

Lose a thermometer -- Lepcha lad sleeps in hot spring -- Keadom --

Bucklandia -- Arrive at Choongtam -- Mendicant -- Meepo --

Lachen-Lachoong river -- Wild grape -- View from Singtam of

Kinchinjunga -- Virulent nettle.

In the afternoon we crossed the valley, and ascended Bhomtso, fording the river, whose temperature was 48 degrees. Some stupendous boulders of gneiss from Kinchinjhow are deposited in a broad sandy track on

the north bank, by ancient glaciers, which once crossed this valley from Kinchinjhow.

The ascent was alternately over steep rocky slopes, and broad

shelf-like flats; many more plants grew here than I had expected, in inconspicuous scattered tufts.* [Besides those before mentioned,

there were Fescue-grass (Festuca ovina of Scotland), a

strong-scented silky wormwood (Artemisia), and round tufts of

Oxytropis chiliophylla, a kind of Astralagus that inhabits

eastern and western Tibet; this alone was green: it formed great

circles on the ground, the centre decaying, and the annual shoots

growing outwards, and thus constantly enlarging the circle. A woolly Leontopodium, Androsace, and some other plants assumed nearly the same mode of growth. The rest of the vegetation consisted of a

Sedum, Nardostachys Jatamansi, Meconopsis horridula, a slender

_Androsace, Gnaphalium, Stipa, Salvia, Draba, Pedicularis,

Potentilla_ or Sibbaldia, Gentiana and Erigeron alpinus of

Scotland. All these grow nearly up to 18,000 feet.] The rocks were

nearly vertical strata of quartz, hornstone, and conglomerate,

striking north-west, and dipping south-west 80 degrees. The broad top of the hill was also of quartz, but covered with angular pebbles of the rocks transported from Kinchinjhow. Some clay-stone fragments

were stained red with oxide of iron, and covered with _Parmelia

miniata_;* [This minute lichen, mentioned at chapter xxxii, is the

most Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine in the world; often occurring so abundantly as to colour the rocks of an orange red. This was the case at Bhomtso, and is so also in Cockburn Island in the Antarctic ocean, which it covers so profusely that the rocks look as if brightly

painted. See "Ross's Voyage," vol. ii. p. 339.] this, with Borrera,

another lichen, which forms stringy masses blown along by the wind, were the only plants, and they are among the most alpine in

the world.

Bhomtso is 18,590 feet above the sea by barometer, and 18,305 by

boiling-point: it presented an infinitely more extensive prospect

than I had ventured to anticipate, commanding all the most important Sikkim, North Bhotan, and Tibetan mountains, including Kinchinjunga thirty-seven miles to the south-west, and Chumulari thirty-nine miles south-east. Due south, across the sandy valley of the Lachen,

Kinchinjhow reared its long wall of glaciers and rugged precipices, 22,000 feet high, and under its cliffs lay the lake to which we had walked in the morning: beyond Kongra Lama were the Thlonok mountains, where I had spent the month of June, with Kinchinjunga in the

distance. Westward Chomiomo rose abruptly from the rounded hills we were on, to 22,000 feet elevation, ten miles distant. To the east of Kinchinjhow were the Cholamoo lakes, with the rugged mass of Donkia stretching in cliffs of ice and snow continuously southwards to

forked Donkia, which overhung Momay Samdong.

A long sloping spur sweeps from the north of Donkia first north, and then west to Bhomtso, rising to a height of more than 20,000 feet

without snow. Over this spur the celebrated Chumulari* [Some doubt

still hangs over the identity of this mountain, chiefly owing to

Turner's having neglected to observe his geographical positions.

I saw a much loftier mountain than this, bearing from Bhomtso north 87 degrees out, and it was called Chumulari by the Tibetan Sepoys;

but it does not answer to Turner's description of an isolated snowy peak, such as he approached within three miles; and though in the

latitude he assigned to it, is fully sixty miles to the east of his route. A peak, similar to the one he degcribes, is seen from Tonglo and Sinchul (see vol. i., chapters v and viii); this is the one

alluded to above, and it is identified by both Tibetans and Lepchas at Dorjiling as the true Chumulari, and was measured by Colonel

Waugh, who placed it in lat. 27 degrees 49 minutes north, long. 89

degrees 18 minutes east. The latter position, though fifteen miles

south of what Turner gives it, is probably correct; as Pemberton

found that Turner had put other places in Bhotan twenty miles too far north. Moreover, in saying that it is visible from Purnea in the

plains of Bengal, Turner refers to Kinchinjunga, whose elevation was then unknown. Dr. Campbell ("Bengal As. Soc. Jour.," 1848), describes Chumulari from oral information, as an isolated mountain encircled by twenty-one goompas, and perambulated by pilgrims in five days; the

Lachoong Phipun, on the other hand, who was a Lama, and well

acquainted with the country, affirmed that Chumulari has many tops, and cannot be perambulated; but that detached peaks near it may be, and that it is to a temple near one of these that pilgrims resort.

Again, the natives use these names very vaguely, and as that of

Kinchinjunga is often applied equally to all or any part of the group of snows between the Lachen and Tambur rivers, so may the term

Chumulari have been used vaguely to Captain Turner or to me. I have been told that an isolated, snow-topped, venerated mountain rises

about twenty miles south of the true Chumulari, and is called

"Sakya-khang" (Sakya's snowy mountain), which may be that seen from Dorjiling; but I incline to consider Campbell's and Waugh's mountain as the one alluded to by Turner, and it is to it that I here refer as bearing north 115 degrees 30 minutes east from Bhomtso.] peeps,

bearing south-east, and 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 meridional

ranges of very much loftier snowy mountains, which terminated the

view of the snowy Himalaya; the distance embraced being fully 150

miles, and perhaps much more. Of one of these eastern masses* [] I

afterwards took

" These are probably the Ghassa mountains of Turners narrative:

bearings which I took of one of the loftiest of them, from the Khasia mountains, together with those from Bhomtso, would appear to place it in latitude 28 degrees 10 minutes and longitude 90 degrees, and 200

miles from the former station, and 90 degrees east of the latter.

Its elevation from Bhomtso angles is 24,160 feet. I presume I also

saw Chumulari from the Khasia; the most western peak seen thence

being in the direction of that mountain. Captain R. Strachey has most kindly paid close attention to these bearings and distances, and

recalculated the distances and heights: no confidence is, however, to be placed in the results of such minute angles, taken from immense

distances. Owing in part no doubt to extraordinary refraction, the

angles of the Ghassa mountain taken from the Khasia give it an

elevation of 26,500 feet! which is very much over the truth; and make that of Chumulari still higher: the distance from my position in the Khasia being 210 miles from Chumulari! which is probably the utmost limit at which the human eye has ever discerned a terrestrial

object.] I afterwards took bearings and angular heights from the

Khasia mountains, in Bengal, upwards of 200 miles south-east of

its position.

Turning to the northward, a singular contrast in the view was

presented: the broad sandy valley of the Arun lay a few miles off,

and perhaps 1,500 feet below me; low brown and red ridges, 18,000 to 19,000 feet high, of stony sloping mountains with rocky tops, divided its feeders, which appeared to be dry, and to occupy flat sandy

valleys. For thirty miles north no mountain was above the level of

the theodolite, and not a particle of snow was to be seen beyond

that, rugged purple-flanked and snowy-topped mountains girdled

the horizon, appearing no nearer than they did from the Donkia pass, and their angular heights and bearings being almost the same as from that point of view. The nearer of these are said to form the

Kiang-lah chain,