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

either bank of each

river, and one leading up the fork.

On one occasion I ascended the steep hill at the fork; it was dry and rocky, and crowned with stunted pines. Stacks of different sorts of pine-wood were stored on the flat at its base, for export to Tibet, all thatched with the bark of Abies Brunoniana. Of these the larch (Larix Griffithii, "Sah"), splits well, and is the most durable of any; but the planks are small, soft, and white.* [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.] The silver fir

(Abies Webbiana, "Dunshing") also splits well; it is white, soft, and highly prized for durability. The wood of Abies Brunoniana

("Semadoong") is like the others in appearance, but is not durable; its bark is however very useful. The spruce (Abies Smithiana,

"Seh") has also white wood, which is employed for posts and beams.*

[These woods are all soft and loose in grain, compared with their

European allies.] These are the only pines whose woods are considered very useful; and it is a curious circumstance that none produce any quantity of resin, turpentine, or pitch; which may perhaps be

accounted for by the humidity of the climate.

Pinus longifolia (called by the Lepchas "Gniet-koong," and by the Bhoteeas "Teadong") only grows in low valleys, where better timber is abundant. The weeping blue juniper (Juniperus recurva, "Deschoo"), and the arboreous black one (called "Tchokpo")* [This I have, vol. i.

Chapter XI, referred to the J. excelsa of the north-west Himalaya, a plant which under various names is found in many parts of Europe

and many parts of Europe and North America; but since then Dr.

Thomson and I have had occasion to compare my Sikkim conifers with

the north-west Himalayan ones and we have found that this Sikkim

species is probably new, and that J. excelsa is not found east of Nepal.] yield beautiful wood, like that of the pencil cedar,* [Also a juniper, from Bermuda (J. Bermudiana).] but are comparatively

scarce, as is the yew (Taxus baccata, "Tingschi"), whose timber is red. The "Tchenden," or funereal cypress, again, is valued only for the odour of its wood: Pinus excelsa, "Tongschi," though common in Bhotan, is, as I have elsewhere remarked, not found in east Nepal or Sikkim; the wood is admirable, being durable, close-grained, and so resinous as to be used for flambeaux and candles.

On the flat were flowering a beautiful magnolia with globular

sweet-scented flowers like snow-balls, several balsams, with species of _Convallaria, Cotoneaster, Gentian, Spiraea, Euphorbia,

Pedicularis,_ and honeysuckle. On the hill-side were creeping

brambles, lovely yellow, purple, pink, and white primroses,

white-flowered Thalictrum and Anemone, berberry, Podophyllum,

white rose, fritillary, Lloydia, etc. On the flanks of Tukcham, in the bed of a torrent, I gathered many very alpine plants, at the

comparatively low elevation of 10,000 feet, as dwarf willows,

Pinguicula, (a genus not previously found in the Himalaya),

Oxyria, Adrosace, Tofieldia, Arenaria, saxifrages, and two dwarf

heath-like Andromedas.* [Besides these, a month later, the

following flowered in profusion: scarlet Buddleia? gigantic lily, yellow jasmine, Aster, Potentilla, several kinds of orchids,

willow-herb (Epilobium), purple Roscoea, Neillia, Morina, many

grasses and Umbelliferae. These formed a rank and dense herbaceous, mostly annual vegetation, six feet high, bound together with

Cuscuta, climbing Leguminosae, and Ceropegia. The great summer heat and moisture here favour the ascent of various tropical genera, of which I found in August several Orchideae (_Calanthe,

Microstylis, and _Coelogyne), also _Begonia, Bryonia, Cynanchum,

Aristolochia, Eurya, Procris, Acanthaceae, and _Cyrtandraseae.]

The rocks were all of gneiss, with granite veins, tourmaline, and

occasionally pieces of pure plumbago.

Our guide had remained at Lamteng, on the plea of a sore on his leg from leech-bites: his real object, however, was to stop a party on

their way to Tibet with madder and canes, who, had they continued

their journey, would inevitably have pointed out the road to me.

The villagers themselves now wanted to proceed to the

pasturing-grounds on the frontier; so the Phipun sent me word that I might proceed as far as I liked up the east bank of the Zemu. I had explored the path, and finding it practicable, and likely to

intersect a less frequented route to the frontier (that crossing the Tekonglah pass from Bah, see chapter XVIII), 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 bad eight, behaved admirably, although our diet had for five days

chiefly consisted of Polygonum ("Pullop-bi"), wild leeks

("Lagook"), nettles and Procris (an allied, and more succulent

herb), eked out by eight pounds of Tibet meal ("Tsamba"), which I had bought for ten shillings by stealth from the villagers.

What concerned me most was the destruction of my plants by constant damp, and the want of sun to dry the papers; which reduced my

collections to a tithe of what they would otherwise have been.

From Zemu Samdong the valley runs north-west, for two marches, to the junction of the Zemu with the Thlonok, which rises on the north-east flank of Kinchinjunga: at this place I halted for several days, while building a bridge over the Thlonok. The path runs first through a

small forest of birch, alder, and maple, on the latter of which I

found Balanophora* [A curious leafless parasite, mentioned at vol.

i, chapter v.] growing abundantly: this species produces the great

knots on the maple roots, from which the Tibetans form the cups

mentioned by MM. Huc and Gabet. I was so fortunate as to find a small store of these knots, cleaned, and cut ready for the turner, and

hidden behind a stone by some poor Tibetan, who had never retained to the spot: they had evidently been there a very long time.

In the ravines there were enormous accumulations of ice, the result of avalanches; one of them crossed the river, forming a bridge thirty feet thick, at an elevation of only 9,800 feet above the sea.

This ice-bridge was 100 yards broad, and flanked by heaps of

boulders, the effects of combined land and snowslips. These stony

places were covered with a rich herbage of rhubarb, primroses,

Euphorbia, Sedum, Polygonum, Convallaria, and a purple Dentaria

("Kenroop-bi") a cruciferous plant much eaten as a pot-herb. In the pinewoods a large mushroom ("Onglau,"* [Cortinarius Emodensis of

the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, who has named and described it from my

specimens and drawings. It is also called "Yungla tchamo" by the

Tibetans, the latter word signifying a toadstool. Mr. Berkeley

informs me that the whole vast genus Cortinarius scarcely possesses a single other edible species; he adds that C. violaceus and

violaceo-cinereus are eaten in Austria and Italy, but not always

with safety.] Tibet.) was abundant, which also forms a favourite

article of food. Another pot-herb (to which I was afterwards more

indebted than any) was a beautiful Smilacina, which grows from two to five feet high, and has plaited leaves and crowded panicles of

white bell-shaped flowers, like those of its ally the lily of the

valley, which it also resembles in its mucilaginous properties. It is called "Chokli-bi,"* [It is also found on the top of Sinchul, near

Dorjiling.] 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 be obtained up to 12,000 feet in this valley. A species of Asarum

(Asarabacca) grows in the pine-woods; a genus not previously known to be Himalayan. The root, like its English medicinal congener, has a

strong and peculiar smell. At 10,000 feet Abies Webbiana commences, with a close undergrowth of a small twiggy holly. This, and the dense thicket of rhododendron* [Of which I had already gathered thirteen

kinds in this valley.] on the banks of the river and edges of the

wood, rendered the march very fatiguing, and swarms of midges kept up a tormenting irritation.

The Zemu continued an impetuous muddy torrent, whose hoarse voice,

mingled with the deep grumbling noise* [The dull rumbling noise thus produced is one of the most singular phenomena in these mountains,

and cannot fail to strike the observer. At night, especially, the

sound seems increased, the reason of which is not apparent, for in

these regions, so wanting in animal life, the night is no stiller

than the day, and the melting of snow being less, the volume of

waters must be somewhat, though not conspicuously, diminished.

The interference of sound by heated currents of different density is the most obvious cause of the diminished reverberation during the

day, to which Humboldt adds the increased tension of vapour, and

possibly an echo from its particles.] of the boulders rolling along its bed, was my lullaby for many nights. Its temperature at Zemu

Samdong was 45 degrees to 46 degrees in June. At its junction with

the Thlonok, it comes down a steep gulley 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 Kinchinjunga, which is seen up the valley, bearing

W.S.W., about twenty miles distant. All around are lofty and rocky

mountains, sparingly wooded with pines and larch, chiefly on their

south flanks, which receive the warm, moist, up-valley winds; the

faces exposed to the north being colder and more barren: exactly the reverse of what is the case at Choongtam, where the rocky and sunny south-exposed flanks are the driest.

My tent was pitched on a broad terrace, opposite the junction of the Zemu and Thlonok, and 10,850 feet above the sea. It was sheltered by some enormous transported blocks of gneiss, fifteen feet high, and

surrounded by a luxuriant vegetation of most beautiful rhododendrons in full flower, willow, white rose, white flowered cherry, thorn,

maple and birch. Some great tuberous-rooted Arums* [Two species of Arisaema, called "Tong" by the Tibetans, and "Sinkree" by the

Lepchas.] 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 miserable

inhabitants of the valley have recourse in spring, when their yaks

are calving. The roots are bruised with the pestles, and thrown into these holes with water. Acetous fermentation commences in seven or

eight days, which is a sign that the acrid poisonous principle is

dissipated: the pulpy, sour, and fibrous mass is then boiled and

eaten; its nutriment being the starch, which exists in small

quantities, and which they have not the skill to separate by grating and washing. This preparation only keeps a few days, and produces

bowel complaints, and loss of the skin and hair, especially when

insufficiently fermented. Besides this, the "chokli-bi," and many

other esculents, abounded here; and we had great need of them before leaving this wild uninhabited region.

I repeatedly ascended the north flank of Tukcham along a watercourse, by the side of which were immense slips of rocks and snow-beds; the mountain-side being excessively steep. Some of the masses of gneiss thus brought down were dangerously poised on slopes of soft shingle, and daily moved a little downwards. All the rocks were gneiss and

granite, with radiating crystals of tourmaline as thick as the thumb.

Below 12,000 to 13,000 feet the mountain-sides were covered with a

dense scrub of rhododendron